The American Lawyer has been piecing together the evidence, and finds that Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has lost more partners than any other firm the site tracks.
From Above the Law:
Akin lost 17 percent of its partners to competitors, small firms, in-house positions, and government jobs. Some of those defections were anticipated–fallout from strategic shifts in the firm’s practice groups and management structure. But others were a surprise…
While losing 59 partners hasn’t been easy, [Bruce] McLean, who has been Akin’s chairman for the past 16 years, expects that the slimmed-down practice areas will pay off. In 2007 the firm saw profits per partner fall nearly 7 percent to slightly more than $1.2 million, putting it sixtieth on The Am Law 200 partner profit charts.
But in early January he predicted that profits per partner grew as much as 10 percent in 2008 as a result of the shake-up, “What we are seeing is a slimmed-down firm generating more profits,” says McLean. At least, that’s the plan.