Is it worth the risk to hire lawyers from a failing firm?

Is your firm at risk if you hire laterals from a dissolving law firm?

As two New York federal district court rulings have disagreed on the “unfinished business” doctrine, which determines who can claim profits from a defunct law firm’s unfinished cases, the matter appears destined for the Second Circuit. However, 2012’s public implosion of Dewey & LeBoeuf showed that law firms who hire laterals from a dissolving firm shouldn’t wait for the courts to decide on issues that could end up in a lawsuit over fee ownership.

ABA Journal business of law reporter Rachel M. Zahorsky discusses with Beazley’s Brant Weidner and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Kevin S. Rosen the ways firms can address and mitigate the risks of hiring laterals from a dissolving firm.

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In This Podcast:

Rachel M. Zahorsky
Kevin S. Rosen is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles. Rosen chairs the firm’s legal malpractice defense practice group and has successfully defended more than 70 legal malpractice lawsuits with aggregate claims exceeding $5 billion, as well as more than a dozen malicious prosecution actions and disqualification motions.

Brant Weidner is a claims manager for the lawyers’ professional liability business at Beazley. He is also responsible for developing Beazley’s risk management program for the large lawyers’ line. Prior to joining Beazley in 2007, Weidner spent 16 years as a lawyer in private practice at a large Chicago firm. He also has almost five years experience in managing lawyers’ professional liability claims for an industry mutual that catered to large law firms.