After a rough-and-tumble few years, the head of Mayer Brown’s Los Angeles office is stepping down and leaving town.
Jim Tancula resigned from the partner-in-charge role in L.A. last week. An announcement went to the whole firm this past Tuesday, he told Legal Pad this morning.
“It’s been a difficult three years,” he said. “It’s taken a lot of time and diverted me from the practice of law.”
Jim gets back to where he once belonged, after the jump ...
The litigator is in the process of relocating his family to Chicago, his hometown, where he will continue to work with Mayer Brown, he said. His tenure as managing partner is over at the end of March. He moved to Los Angeles three years ago from the firm’s Houston office, which he also headed.
The L.A. office has not been spared the tumult that appears to be rocking its other offices nationwide. Earlier this month, three partners decamped to Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton to help build a white-collar criminal defense practice there. Firmwide, Mayer Brown has lost at least 15 partners since August, including the co-head of its global restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency group, according to our sister publication. Significant partners have been leaving the Chicago firm since 2007, when new management took the helm. The firm is expected to report a double-digit percentage drop in 2008 profits.
The firm is putting together a new executive committee to help with the L.A. office recruiting and business development, Tancula said.
— Petra Pasternak
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