A Case of the Laterals at Bracewell (& not Giuliani) LLP?

When former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani joined Greenberg Traurig in January, it was unclear what the move meant for the firm he departed.

Once called Bracewell & Giuliani, the firm immediately announced that going forward, it would go by Bracewell LLP, and was sure to note that the single-name was “a brand by which the firm is already internationally known.”

Since that time, the firm has undergone some changes, including a handful of partner departures.

Of course, lawyer movement can happen for any number of reasons, including client conflicts, disagreements over pay and performance, and there is little transparency into whether a departure is a business loss or gain. Sometimes, it could even be a win-win.

That said, we’ve tallied the most recent departures at Bracewell, in a timeline below:

• On Feb. 1,Zeisler PLLC, a nine-lawyer New York boutique announced that Bracewell intellectual property partner Mark Mutterperl would join. Zeisler said he has litigated trademark and anti-counterfeiting matters for companies including Apple, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson. Mutterperl told Big Law Business at the time, “I am not leaving because the mayor left,” and pointed to his desire to work at a smaller firm, saying his practice consisted of both litigation and non-litigation over trademark infringement and counterfeiting claims.

• The next day, Feb. 2, Alston & Bird announced that it had hired five Bracewell attorneys in Dallas to expand its financial services and products group. Included in that group was Sanford “Sandy” Brown, former head of Bracewell’s Dallas financial service practice and Michael Tankersley. David Brown, co-chair of Alston & Bird’s corporate practice, told the Dallas Business Journal that the hire ended a back-and-forth between the two Browns (Sandy and David): “At various times over the last 30 years, Sandy and I would try to recruit each other to join our respective firms.”

•On Feb. 22,BakerHostetler announced that it had hired Curt Roy Hineline as a litigation partner in its Seattle office. Most recently, Hineline worked as the chair of Bracewell’s Seattle litigation practice, according to an announcement of the move. He represents public and private companies, officers, directors, issuers, underwriters and bond trustees on class actions and commercial litigation proceedings.

During that time, on Feb. 17, the firm also announced some of its own changes: Two litigators — New York managing partner Daniel S. Connolly and Houston partner Phillip Sampson — were each elected to serve a three-year term on Bracewell’s management committee.

Through a spokeswoman, we reached out to Bracewell managing partner Mark Evans. Luckily, firm spokeswoman Michelle McCormick was able to track him down right before he jumped on a plane Wednesday morning and extracted a statement.

Per McCormick, via Evans:

“At this time of the year, lateral recruiting is prevalent in the legal industry. Many of our recent departures were expected and relate, in part, to our ongoing assessment of our strategic focus. As part of that strategic focus, we are pursuing a number of lateral growth initiatives and are active in the marketplace.”

Interesting, and surely a confirmation that changes are afoot.

Let us know what you think of what’s shaping up to be a new and (possibly improved? possibly smaller? bigger?) Bracewell. The firm does seem to be doing things differently under its newly abbreviated name. It turned out well forFacebook after Sean Parker put in his two cents ... How will it turn out for Bracewell?

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