22 partners are leaving this BigLaw firm, including 2 former leaders
Twenty-two partners, including 14 equity partners, are leaving Schiff Hardin to form their own law firm.
Among those leaving are former firm chairman Robert Riley and former managing partner Ronald Safer, report the Am Law Daily, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Bloomberg Big Law Business and Crain’s Chicago Business. Bloomberg was first with the news.
Others who are leaving include leaders of Schiff Hardin’s practices in intellectual property, product liability and general litigation. The lawyers are from Schiff Hardin’s Chicago, San Francisco and New York offices.
A statement by Schiff Hardin managing partner Marci Eisenstein said “a large concentration of those departing focus on asbestos litigation” and “the vast majority of our business and practices are not affected by these departures.” The statement thanked the lawyers for their service and wished them luck.
Safer told the publications that some asbestos lawyers are among those joining the new firm, but 70 percent of the departing lawyers practice in other areas. “We have leading general litigation practitioners, four former U.S. assistant attorneys, vibrant white collar practices, an elite class action defense group, intellectual property lawyers, mass tort and product liability lawyers,” he told Bloomberg Big Law Business.
The new firm will be called Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila. The new firm will “provide the market with something different, which we are delighted to discuss in detail when we are able and not constrained now while we are at this law firm,” he told Bloomberg Big Law Business.
