Ogletree leader says he quit over lawyer issue and will take group and $10M business book elsewhere
A now-former vice president of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Steward has made an unusual announcement.
Don Prophete, 45, says he has resigned from the South Carolina-based national labor and employment boutique over a dispute about its treatment of a lawyer he recruited. Although he apparently has no firm plans right now concerning his next job, he said he is talking with multiple national and international competitors and expects in short order to finalize plans to take his $10 million book of business and a group of Ogletree attorneys elsewhere, according to Reuters.
“We worked very long and hard on our part to resolve … disagreements but, in the end, we felt it was best for Don and for the firm to go their separate ways,” said Kim Ebert, who serves as managing shareholder of Ogletree Deakins, in a written statement provided to the news agency.
Ebert said he has seen no indication that other Ogletree lawyers plan to leave with Prophete.
Prophete, who was a founding member of Ogletree’s office in Kansas City, had been with the firm for eight years.
