Firm Watch
Aug. 6, 2002
Pillsbury Winthrop Severs Ties With Corporate Shop
San Francisco's Pillsbury Winthrop has parted ways with its Tysons Corner, Va., corporate practice. Two partners and two associates intend to leave the office in the next few weeks, after failing to come eye to eye with firm management.
San Francisco's Pillsbury Winthrop has parted ways with its Tysons Corner, Va., corporate practice.
Two partners and two associates intend to leave the office in the next few weeks, after failing to come eye to eye with firm management.
Fred Spindel, who became head of the office's corporate group in December, is one of the departing attorneys. Spindel took the helm of the group following the December departure of Jonathan Aberman, who left the firm for Fenwick & West's Washington, D.C., office. Reportedly, Aberman's departure was a serious blow to the practice group - taking several clients with him to the Palo Alto-based firm.
Marina Park, firmwide managing partner, would not disclose the names of the other attorneys in the corporate practice group. Park did say that an additional corporate associate would be relocated to the firm's San Francisco office.
Park says that all corporate practice groups around the country have been struggling, and the firm needed to make changes to the corporate group to reflect that.
"The partners didn't want to undertake a restructuring of the group or lay off associates in their group," Park says, "and we weren't comfortable continuing to carry the group. So we mutually agreed to a parting of ways."
The firm is committed to having a corporate practice in the Tysons Corner office, according to Park. In the meantime, the firm is confident that its other offices can handle corporate work stemming from the area.
There are 65 attorneys remaining in the 3-year-old office, with a good portion of those practicing in the intellectual property department.
The firm has 16 offices worldwide and 727 attorneys. The firm has six offices in California with outposts in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Century City, Costa Mesa and two in San Diego.
Liz Valsamis
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