What's going on with Thompson Knight in Dallas? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Every month I hear about a group associates and partners lateraling away from the Dallas office. Is something going on with their financial health or outlook?

[Anonymous User]

Every month I hear about a group associates and partners lateraling away from the Dallas office. Is something going on with their financial health or outlook?

Things are not going well, to say the least. It is really unfortunate.

[Anonymous User]

Every month I hear about a group associates and partners lateraling away from the Dallas office. Is something going on with their financial health or outlook?

Things are not going well, to say the least. It is really unfortunate.

Is this just the Dallas office, or the entire firm?

[Anonymous User]

Every month I hear about a group associates and partners lateraling away from the Dallas office. Is something going on with their financial health or outlook?

Things are not going well, to say the least. It is really unfortunate.

Without outing yourself, could you be more specific? I could see how things that have made TK more profitable than most Dallas firms (O&G work, leverage, etc.) could be working against it now. But it was only two years ago that most of the stars in that office told Kirkland no and turned down a nice chunk of $$$. Obviously this was an unforeseen downturn, but it's still surprising to hear that things are so bad, especially when you consider that firms that are ostensibly TK's peers like Jackson Walker, Winstead, and, to a lesser extent, Munsch Hard, are all doing reasonably well.

[law9898]

Not sure about the financials but I know that the partners that turned down Kirkland are still there. I wouldn't put too much stock in the moves for now since poaching lateral partners is the norm for the Texas market. Firms like TK will usually just respond by poaching partners away from other firms and life goes on.

[Anonymous User]

That’s correct that the partners that turned down Kirkland are still there. The problem is that there have been numerous other departures in multiple practice groups in multiple offices, and in the process TK has lost numerous institutional corporate clients. And firms like TK (along with HB, LL, Bracewell, etc) simply cant compete with the national firms for lateral partners. I suspect a merger is in its future. The hope has to be to try and do a merger before the handful of remaining rainmakers jump.