Senior partners at Debevoise & Plimpton confirmed recently what has been a rumbling rumour in the sector for at least the last month. The New York Times reported yesterday that ‘presiding partner’ Michael Blair issued a statement saying the firm’s eight-lawyer-strong trusts and estates group was currently in the process of looking for another practice to pick it up.
London trend
The newspaper quoted Mr Blair as saying: ‘Debevoise supports the group in this process and will work to ensure that in this transition the needs of the firm’s clients continue to be served.’ The report goes on to point out that the firm is the latest big player to jettison this area of work, with Weil Gotshal jacking in the sector two years ago and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher leading the way a decade ago.
Debevoise’s decision – and that of several of its US counterparts – follows a trend across the Atlantic, where several years ago the major London firms almost en masse bailed out of private client work. Now it appears that changing business models are impacting on the top American practices.
By-product of economics
However, the trend is not welcomed in all quarters. The New York Times quotes William Zabel, a named partner at fellow Manhattan firm Schulte Roth & Zable, which it describes as one of the country’s top trusts and estates practices.
‘It saddens me to see a great law firm terminate its estates department,’ Mr Zabel told the newspaper. ‘Although I don’t know the reasons for this decision, it would seem to be a by-product of the economics of our society, making the law into more of a business than a profession. That saddens me even more.’
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