On Wednesday afternoon, lawyers huddled together in Weil Gotshal & Manges’ Manhattan headquarters to join a video call. They were greeted by Barry Wolf, executive partner of the 95-year-old corporate law firm.
He did not have good news.
On that short call, the 2,000 employees of one of Wall Street’s most storied corporate law firms learned their employer would be shutting down, leaving them out of a job. Some huddled together and cried. Others, in shock, wandered to a previously scheduled office pizza party.
The leaders of Weil — one of the world’s most powerful law firms, best known for ushering iconic firms like Lehman Brothers and Enron through their own liquidations — recommended Wednesday that the firm dissolve, marking the most stunning collapse of a corporate law firm in modern history.
The firm’s swift downfall appeared more like a bank run than a traditional corporate wind-down: perception of the firm’s growing instability led to even more instability. A handful of senior personnel exits rapidly developed into a steady drumbeat of defections in recent weeks. When a last-ditch attempt at a merger with another firm fell apart and Weil’s hand-picked future leader decided she no longer wanted the job,...
