After a long period when partners weren’t leaving or joining law firms because of the dang recession, lateraling, like moustaches, has come back into fashion.
Last week, partners were shuttling in and out of Cooley Godward Kronish as fast as we could type.
Today comes news that Silicon Valley corporate partner Laura Bushnell is leaving Latham & Watkins for the Redwood Shores office of King & Spalding, a firm that “dominates the southeast,” according to the new hire.
Bushnell, who has been featured for working on big deals in The Recorder, like this one for Terayon Communication Systems, does work for life sciences companies. She said she has her own clients, but couldn’t say whether they’d be coming to King & Spalding.
So why’d she leave Latham, that gold-standard of California-based law firms (well, except for last year’s disastrous financial results and this year’s elephantine round of layoffs)?
“It is an opportunity to be at a firm that’s very similar to Latham in terms of the legal practice I was doing, but it was a chance to be part of something growing and new,” Bushnell said. King & Spalding opened its Valley office last year and now lists about 20 lawyers.
So what’s going on with Latham? The firm just lost comp and benefits partner Joseph Yaffe to Skadden Arps.
— Zusha Elinson
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