A significant group of partners has left Perkins Coie to help establish new Seattle offices for Morrison Foerster and McGuireWoods, The moves land just as Perkins Coie prepares for a transformational merger with Ashurst.
Reuters reports the departures involve senior partners with deep client relationships in technology and corporate work. Seattle is not a satellite market anymore. It is one of the few US cities where tech money still translates directly into legal fees.
Seattle-based Perkins Coie has expanded across the United States and is set to merge with large London-headquartered firm Ashurst later this year, subject to a partnership vote. The merger would create a combined firm of 3,000 lawyers with $2.7 billion in revenue.
Why partners are leaving now
Mergers create scale and headlines as we know from mergers like A&O Shearman, and their ‘great partner exodus’, but they also create anxiety. Compensation structures change. Power centres shift. Longstanding rainmakers do the math early and act before the new order locks in.
For rivals, this is opportunistic expansion at its cleanest. Instead of building from scratch, firms buy credibility by importing known partners with existing client books as another example of what happens in the ongoing competitive legal arena as big firms merger to become even bigger.
What Can Lawyers Read into This?
Lateral movement is no longer something to think about as theoretical. The fact is that large combinations increasingly trigger defections before integration even begins.
Firms announcing global tie ups need to assume immediate counter moves by competitors and plan accordingly.
In hot markets, senior partners are discovering that loyalty is optional and timing is everything.
Departures at the top often precede practice reshuffles, client transfers and internal uncertainty. Watch who follows whom as this continues to develop and the fluid legal market becomes even more watery.
LawFuel perspective
This is not about Seattle alone. It is about how fragile BigLaw alignment becomes during mergers. The firms that manage this best will be the ones that communicate early, compensate transparently and lock down key people before rivals start circling.
This story will repeat. Frequently, we think.
