Legal Pad

Thelen Construction Stars Moving to Howrey

Last night produced a long-awaited outcome for most of Thelen’s high-profile construction practice: Howrey has announced to its partnership that it's sealed a deal to take on about 40 construction litigators, the lion’s share in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with smaller groups in Los Angeles and New York. The group includes Thelen Chairman Steve O’Neal, plus partner John Heisse, who chairs the construction and government contracts group, and D.C. office managing partner Andrew Ness, according to the information sent to Howrey's partnership.

San Francisco partner David Buoncristiani, who counts Bechtel among his clients, also is expected to make the move.

Mini update: The firm now has a press release up on its Web site.

Other updates will be forthcoming on Cal Law by tonight.

—  Petra Pasternak

Nixon Votes to Admit Thelen Group

Nixon Peabody is closer to clinching deals with a group of about 60 Thelen lawyers that we flagged last week.

Partners at Nixon Peabody voted today to admit Thelen San Francisco partner and co-chairwoman of the commercial litigation practice Jennifer Kuenster, San Jose office managing partner Greg O’Hara and New York partner David Graybeal, who is on Thelen's dissolution committee and was co-chairman of the business and finance group there.

Thelen Vet Takes Partners, Associates to OMM

Ken Nissly, a 30-year veteran of recently-collapsed Thelen, is making his new home at O’Melveny & Myers in Menlo Park

“It’s sad to see [Thelen] going away, but I’m thrilled for the opportunity to go to O’Melveny,” Nissly told Legal Pad today.

Nissly, a well-known IP litigator who does tons of work for Hynix, a huge South Korean memory chip company, will be joined at O’Melveny by two other Thelen partners, Susan Van Keulen and Geoffrey Yost, as well as four associates to be named later.

Career tracks and why Thelen failed, after the jump …

Thelen Dissolution Vote is Official

The votes are in and it's official. Thelen is dissolving, a spokesman for the firm said. (While it was a foregone conclusion, the vote technically was still ongoing when the news was announced last week.)

At least one Thelen partner has found a new home, while the Heller stream continues.

Thelen intellectual property litigator Keith Slenkovich joined Wilmer Hale in Palo Alto.

Lawrence Zweifach, a former Heller partner, joined Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in New York, while Daniel Appelman, founding chairman of Heller's intellectual property transactions practice, has become a partner at Montgomery & Hansen in Silicon Valley.

Joy Arnold and Bhavana Joneja both joined Sheppard Mullin, Arnold as a partner* and Joneja as special counsel in the firm's I.P. practice in New York. Arnold was a partner in Heller's New York office, while Joneja was an associate.

In non-lawyer moves, Heller’s former chief marketing officer, Lynn Kirk, will take the same role at Cooley Godward Kronish.

— Niraj Chokshi

*Corrected: Original wrongly stated that both are special counsel.

Thelen Wind-Down Team: Hill, Graybeal, Davidson

Update: The firm confirms these names. We've been on the phone with one of the committee members and will have a story tonight on Cal Law, and in tomorrow's Recorder.

Well, we found out who the partners on Thelen’s three-member wind-down committee are. Probably. We haven’t heard back from the lawyers in question, or the firm’s spokesman — the firm has generally been politely tight-lipped about developments around the dissolution, which was announced on Wednesday.

But a reliable source tells us they’re David Graybeal, Douglas Davidson and Thomas Hill, and some further poking around leaves us pretty sure they're the team. None of the trio responded to e-mails yesterday, and we're waiting to hear back from the firm. (We'll update here as needed.)

So who are these guys?  Follow the jump ...

'Survivors' Board Offers Help to Heller, Thelen

We still haven’t seen any web resources spring up to help out worried and displaced Thelen associates and staff, but a Heller message board popped up yesterday, and the creator apparently has opened it up to Thelen staffers as well. Check out the Heller Survivors board.

Other key blogs resulting from Heller's collapse: Heller Diaspora is tracking where staff and attorneys end up. Heller Highwater continues to look out for staff needs, and Heller No More bills itself as "A Support Group for Formerly Incoming Heller Ehrman Associates."

Anyone know of further resources, or new Thelen-related sites, post a link in the comments. Heller folks have really used the Internet to rally together as best they can.  Will Thelenites do the same?

Related: Thelen's Wind-Down Committee Named, and What's Up With S.F. Firms, Anyway?

— Niraj Chokshi

L.A. Steady While S.F. Legal Market Tanks

San Francisco's legal market has been taking some big hits in the last five-plus years: Thelen and Heller Ehrman are dissolving. Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison went under in 2003. McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen; Crosby, Heafy, Roach & May and Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft all merged into other firms.

But hey, times are tough all over right? Surely big firms in Southern California have been similarly rocked, right? Um, well, no actually.

We looked at California's 40 largest law firms by revenue in 2002 (see list below). All of the 15 biggest L.A. firms by revenue in 2002 remain standing.

Thelen Perspective: Ex-Chairman on Collapse

In the wake of Thelen’s decision on Tuesday to start the process of dissolution, Legal Pad called Richard Gary, a legal consultant and chairman Thelen from 1992-2003. He said the announcement made for “a very sad day.”

Richard Gary

“I feel very badly about it,” Gary told us. “No one’s going to come out a winner.”

In its press release today, the firm cited a handful of factors that led to the firm’s failure. One that seemed particularly significant to Gary was the 2006 merger with Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner, which by all accounts has gone poorly.

“As an outside observer, it appears that the firm entered into a merger with Brown Raysman that was ill-timed and ill-considered,” Gary said. “Whether it made sense at some time I don’t know; what’s very clear is that the firm began to go off the rails after that merger was consummated.”

Thelen Launches Dissolution Vote

Updates:

• Nixon Peabody wants about 60 Thelen lawyers. See the Cal Law story.
• Thelen has issued a press release about the dissolution vote. Details woven into the story below, or read it in full here.
• Former Thelen Chairman Richard Gary points to the failed merger and discusses current leadership here.
• The latest: We name the members of the wind-down committee here.
  

San Francisco law firm Thelen is holding a dissolution vote, and management expects the firm to be gone by December.

Thelen's Partnership Council recommended today that the firm’s partnership vote to dissolve the firm, the firm's spokesman confirmed.

Management asked the partnership to vote for dissolution during a partner meeting that began at 10:00 a.m. PST and lasted over two hours. The vote will remain open for seven days and the firm hopes to shut down by Dec. 1.

According to a press release issued by the firm this afternoon:

Out-of-Towners Vie for Prize Thelen Team ? !

Update: We're reposting this item from Thursday a little higher, because we've advanced the story a little further. The rumor below has crystalized pretty nicely, with some well-placed sources telling us Thelen Chairman Steve O'Neal himself is in serious talks to leave his troubled firm. Add an announcement along those lines to the many interesting topics that might be on the secret agenda (which many people are assuming is topped with "dissolution vote") for Tuesday's all-hands meeting. Zusha Elinson has the story over at Cal Law.

Thursday's item, in full:

Thelen's construction crew, which includes Chairman Steve O'Neal, is keeping a pretty tight lid on talks with other firms, but word on the street points to momentum building with two out-of-state firms interested in attorneys in the group.