Another Partner Leaves the Howrey Firm

Howrey LLP, a global law firm, is set to lose another partner in its Washington, DC office soon. The Blog of Legal Times, an affiliate of sibling publication The National Law Journal, revealed that Michael Cowie, an antitrust partner, will be leaving the firm and will join the growing number of lawyers who retreated and abandoned the firm. The recent defection of the firm’s partners has been attributed to poor performance of the firm this year, which has seen declining productivity, dissatisfaction over the firm’s handling of conflicts and various management issues of client billing arrangements. As of today, the firm has lost at least 67 partners since last winter.

Cowie was an antitrust partner of the firm. He served as a team leader for an antitrust counsel helping Medco Health Solutions on its $730 million acquisition of medical research company United BioSource in August. Before he joined the firm, he was the former director of Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition where he supervised about 25 lawyers who were responsible for probing prospective mergers in the health care, retail, and food and beverage industries. He also worked as the senior litigation counsel of the FTC’s antitrust litigation area.

Howrey LLP has more than 700 attorneys in 17 locations worldwide. The firm’s areas of practices are antitrust, global litigation and intellectual property law.