Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison

Infobox Law Firm
firm_name = Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison
firm_
headquarters = San Francisco, California
num_offices =
num_attorneys = 520 (Jan. 2003) [ [http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1045793301225 Brobeck's Final Days] ]
num_employees = 1,100 (2003)
practice_areas = General practice
key_people =
revenue =
date_founded = 1926
founder =
company_type = Limited liability partnership
homepage = [http://www.brobeck.com www.brobeck.com (defunct)]
dissolved = 2003 (bankruptcy)

Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP was a large law firm based in San Francisco, California. In 2003, the firm was liquidated under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, after it had lost a substantial amount of money in the dot-com bubble and merger talks with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius had fallen through. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/01/31/MN239063.DTL Top S.F. dot-com law firm to close] ]

History

Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison was formed in 1926 when three lawyers split from the predecessor firm to Morrison & Foerster. The firm cultivated an A list of bluechip San Francisco clients including Wells Fargo. In the 1990s, as the technology boom began to roar, Brobeck attorneys began accepting equity in lieu of payment from emerging companies. The firm re-oriented itself to service many tech companies that were growing, going public by completing initial public offerings (IPOs) and then engaging in extensive merger and market consolidation (mergers & acquisitions). Revenue jumped from $214 million in 1998 to $314 million in 2000. By the summer of 2000, the firm counted 754 attorneys, up 40 percent from the year before. [ [http://www.slate.com/id/2077953/ The Dot-Firm's Dot-Bomb: How a leading West Coast law firm killed itself.] ] Brobeck's profits-per-partner soared to more than $1 million a year. [ [http://www.slate.com/id/2077953/ The Dot-Firm's Dot-Bomb: How a leading West Coast law firm killed itself.] ]

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 onward, [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E7DF1738F932A05752C0A9659C8B63 The New York Times: West Coast Law Firm Closing After Dot-Com Collapse] ] the firm's strategy of betting on technology clients took a turn for the worse as equity shares became worthless, work dried up and partners with portable business darted to other firms. The Austin, Texas office opened an outpost for New York firm Dewey Ballantine, now known as Dewey & LeBoeuf. The Austin Business Journal reported that office housing a group of arrivals from Brobeck, was shutting down in 2009. The former chairman, Tower Snow decamped with some 50 attorneys to begin the West Coast offices of Anglo-American giant Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells, now called Clifford Chance. The work did not materialize however and by 2007 Clifford Chance had closed its Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Diego and San Francisco offices.

References

External links

* [http://www.brobeck.com/ Bankruptcy notice at the firm's former website]
* [http://www.brobeckinfo.com/index.htm Brobeckinfo.com site, run by former senior counsel Jayne Loughry] has a number of articles about the firm's history and ultimate liquidation
* [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/01/31/MN239063.DTL Article from San Francisco Chronicle about the firm's dissolution]