Sometimes, in the famous phrase, "a cigar is just a cigar,"
but other times I think you can read the tea leaves to
suss out evidence of larger trends.
Such, in any event, was my reaction to this seemingly
low-visibility story that a three-member "tax controversy"
team is moving, in San Francisco, from Preston-Gates to
Reed Smith. What grabbed my attention is the reason:
“We needed a firm that does have stronger relationships with Fortune 100 and 500 companies based outside this area,” Kleier said. “Preston is very strong in the Northwest, but for East Coast clients … this is a better place to expand our practice.”
Preston-Gates, at #100 in the AmLaw standings, is scarcely
a marginal player. And that’s precisely the point. If firm
#100 doesn’t have enough of a geographic or Fortune 500 footprint,
the bell is tolling.
At a conference where we were
both speakers, I recently sat next to Louis
Craco, who throughout his illustrious career heading the litigation
department at Willkie-Farr also found time to hold every position known
to man at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and I asked him what he
thought the future of the AmLaw 200 is: "They’ll become the AmLaw 20,"
he replied.
