One year after Morgan, Lewis & Bockius gambled on explosive growth with the addition of 750 lawyers from failing Bingham McCutchen, the firm’s finances are stable and it is once again debt-free, according to chair Jami Wintz McKeon.
On the anniversary of the Bingham deal, we caught up with the frequent-flying, Blackberry-toting McKeon for a detailed update on the firm’s progress. In McKeon’s 13 months as chair, Morgan Lewis’ head count has increased by a third, from 1,338 lawyers to 1,900, making it one of the largest non-verein firms based in the U.S. McKeon, 58, described how the 140-year-old firm has handled its unprecedented expansion—including its merger with an 80-lawyer Singaporean firm—and explained her plans to grow further.
