Foley’s Public Affairs Director in a Snit After Partner-Poaching Objections Raised
Foley & Lardner’s public affairs director may have been too quick with an email response to GrayRobinson’s president Byrd “Biff” Marshall.
The Daily Business Review characterizes missives dispatched by the two men as “an email war” and says it began with “a dose of sarcastic humor” in a Marshall email.
Marshall was unhappy when he learned that Foley & Lardner had tried to poach 20 partners from his firm, so he sent an email to Foley’s managing partner and copied all of Foley’s Florida partners.
“We are pleased that Foley thinks so highly of our partners that your firm decided to contact a number of them about joining Foley as partners,” Marshall wrote, naming the four cities where Foley contacted its partners. “We are also hiring in all these cities, and rather than asking headhunters and others to contact each of your Florida partners individually, I decided to copy them with this note and let them know things are going well at GrayRobinson.”
That spurred a response from Foley & Lardner’s public affairs director Michael Harrell, according to the story. “Biff: we’ve never met but you seem to be an ass who is extremely fond of himself,” he wrote in an email also copied to Foley partners. “All the best, Mike Harrell.”
Foley’s Orlando managing partner Michael Gay told the Daily Business Review that he didn’t authorize Harrell’s email. “I sent an email to Biff saying I didn’t think it was an appropriate response,” he said. “I considered Biff’s email amusing.”
