Culvahouse Likely to Keep Job as O’Melveny Chairman

Law Practice Management

Culvahouse Likely to Keep Job as O’Melveny Chairman

Posted Sep 4, 2008, 11:31 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

It's been a difficult few weeks for the chairman of O'Melveny & Myers, Arthur “A.B.” Culvahouse.

He's facing a five-way race to retain his job as law firm chairman, and he's taken some hits for work outside the law firm vetting John McCain’s vice presidential candidates.

Now comes word that Culvahouse will likely retain his job as O’Melveny chairman.

A former partner and recruiter told the Recorder that the law firm’s policy committee is likely to recommend Culvahouse after he led the field in an informal partnership vote that had none of the candidates receiving a majority. The partnership typically ratifies the policy committee’s recommendations.

Culvahouse, former White House counsel to President Reagan, has served as O’Melveny chairman for almost eight years. He pushed the firm’s international expansion and emphasized new practice areas such as private equity and white-collar criminal defense. The changes led to discontent among some lawyers practicing at the firm’s Los Angeles base and in de-emphasized practice areas, the Daily Journal reported in a previous article.

Tepid growth in profits per partner in recent years also resulted in criticism.

On the national stage, Culvahouse came in for some criticism after revelations about McCain's vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. Palin is facing an investigation into whether she fired the state's public safety commissioner for failing to oust a state trooper who had been married to her sister.

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