Is BSF finished? Forum

[Anonymous User]

The hiring partner just left the firm.

[Scallion]

With many jumping ship to K&S, PW, and other firms, it looks like it. An ATL editor argued that this has been a reorientation strategy on BSF's part. https://abovethelaw.com/2020/07/boies-s ... look-firm/

Business Insider does a better job explaining it: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside- ... ler-2020-5.

[Anonymous User]

Speaking with a bit of insider info so posting anon: They still have a few heavy hitters and rainmakers. The real question is what they will do in December to keep folks who have been loyal to them happy. You can only keep the lights on if you've got people billing. Once it becomes clear that other firms and lit boutiques are picking up work and not slow because of Covid, BSF will need to keep up or it really will be finished. If enough additional partners and associates keep leaving before they have a chance to do that, of course, they will have to throw in the towel. I believe they're already considering merging with another firm.

To their credit, they've said they want to become a smaller, more plaintiff-side firm, like Susman Godfrey. So they can afford to lose more people, especially as recent departures were not like that (the hiring partner who just left had clients such as Goldman and WeWork, which are big but don't fit the profile of their new direction). But plaintiff-side work is only profitable in the long run, and what BSF needs to do is convince its current employees (as well as clients) that it can survive in the short run.

The "reorientation" strategy is something BSF management has been claiming since literally March. It's now half a year later, and they are in the same place. So that's clearly just management-talk.

[nealric]

The hiring partner just left the firm.

Law students looking to work at firms understandably hold hiring partners on a pedestal. However, within law firms, it's typically a thankless task that nobody wants. It's pretty rare that a hiring partner is a major rainmaker or person of significant power within the firm. More commonly, they are chosen primarily for their willingness to take the job, and secondarily because they tend to have agreeable personalities.

BSF may or may not be troubled, but the fact that the hiring partner left isn't much of an indication.

[Anonymous User]

The hiring partner just left the firm.

Law students looking to work at firms understandably hold hiring partners on a pedestal. However, within law firms, it's typically a thankless task that nobody wants. It's pretty rare that a hiring partner is a major rainmaker or person of significant power within the firm. More commonly, they are chosen primarily for their willingness to take the job, and secondarily because they tend to have agreeable personalities.

BSF may or may not be troubled, but the fact that the hiring partner left isn't much of an indication.

Based on my information (staying anon), the BSF hiring partner that left to GDC had big, name-brand clients (in addition to Goldman and WeWork, PWP and individual professional athletes in L&E disputes), and so to the extent what you say above is the norm, it's not applicable here. It's also not just law students who hold hiring partners to an elevated degree if that person is closely in touch with the firm's current associates and is heavily involved in the day-to-day logistics and well-being of the firm, which has a significant impact on its QOL and ability to retain associates, especially at a smaller firm like BSF. Maybe different at larger firms.

[moxcoal]

I also want to push back on the notion that hiring partners/committee members aren't "rainmakers." I'm familiar with several in the V15 who pull more than their weight in clients and billables. I admittedly haven't surveyed all of biglaw, but especially on the subject of BSF, the hiring partner was clearly generating a lot of revenue.

[Anonymous User]

Maybe BSF isn't finished after all:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blue-healt ... 1600967231

Although my understanding is that the firm also sunk a LOT of money and time into that case, so what the net-net outcome is maybe be a different story.

[12YrsAnAssociate]

I think the final nail in the BSF coffin was when they sent me a rejection letter 5 or 6 years ago. It's been downhill since then.