Hong Kong-based restructuring partner Mark Fucci and funds partner Anne-Marie Godfrey have joined 26 other partners in leaving Bingham McCutchen for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld amid merger talks between the Boston-headquartered firm and Philadelphia’s Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
The 28 partners, who were from the firm’s marquee restructuring practice and other practice groups, left partly because they did not agree with the plans to merge with Morgan Lewis, Reuters reported.
In addition to Fucci and Godfrey, restructuring partner Naomi Moore and corporate partners Charles Rogers and Matthew Puhar who will join Akin Gump’s office in Hong Kong.
Twenty-one of the 28 outgoing partners will join Akin Gump’s London office. One partner will join the firm’s office in Frankfurt, while another partner will be based in both London and Frankfurt.
The departing group includes London-based James Roome, the co-chair of Bingham’s global financial restructuring group, a member of the firm’s executive board and managing partner of the firm’s London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong offices.
Leading up to the exodus, Bingham leaders had maintained the departures were factored into the proposed combination with Morgan Lewis, according to people familiar with the matter. For the past several months, Bingham, with approximately 750 lawyers, has been in search of a merger partner after revenue fell in 2013 and partners defected. Talks with Morgan Lewis have been going on at least since July.
On Sep. 22, Reuters reported that leaders of Bingham McCutchen and Morgan Lewis had agreed to merge, citing three people familiar with the matter.
