Brobeck, Phleger & amp; Harrison LLP is a large law firm based in San Francisco, California. In 2003, the company was liquidated under Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code, having lost huge sums of money in dot-com bubbles and merger talks with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius had fallen.
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History
Brobeck, Phleger & amp; Harrison was formed in 1926 when three lawyers split from Morrison & amp; Foerster (later called Morrison, Dunne & Brobeck). Between the two World Wars, the firm cultivated a A-list of San Francisco bluechip clients, including Wells Fargo, and managing partner Herman Phleger served as Bernard Baruch's adviser during the formation of the United Nations. In 1980, the company set up an office in Palo Alto to serve a growing technology company in Santa Clara County. By the mid-1990s, Brobeck had become one of the two largest companies representing technology startups in Silicon Valley, with marquee clients such as Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Nokia and Nike.
In the 1990s, as technological explosions began to roar, Brobeck's lawyers began to receive equity from emerging companies in lieu of compensation for traditional law firms. The company is re-oriented to serve many of the new technology companies that will become public through an initial public offering (IPO) and then engage in broad mergers and market consolidations (mergers & acquisitions).
Brobeck's income jumped from $ 214 million in 1998 to $ 314 million in 2000. In the summer of 2000, the company counted eight national offices and 754 lawyers, up 40 percent from a year earlier. Brobeck's profit per partner jumped to more than $ 1 million per year. Just three years later, it has reached 1,100 lawyers and support staff in 14 cities, and offers first year associate salaries starting at $ 135,000 per year.
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Demise and dissolution
When the dot-com bubble broke out in 2001 and beyond, the company's strategy bet on technology clients to compensate for a corporate lawyer that exploded as lawyers' equity shares became worthless, the job became dry and partnered with traditional clients or portable businesses bolted to other companies. Tower Snow chairman was ousted in 2002, and disbanded with about 50 Brobeck lawyers to start London-based West Coast offices, the Clifford giant Chance Rogers & Wells, now called Clifford Chance.
Brobeck was involved in talks to join Philadelphia-based law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius, but after four months, the merger talks stalled on January 29, 2003. Filled with partner defections, bank debt, and lots of empty office space, Brobeck announced that it was disbanded two days later. The Company became subject to Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings through an application filed by several creditors in September 2003.
After its dissolution, Morgan Lewis & amp; Bockius inaugurated nearly 60 Brobeck's lawyers into his partnership.
Brorupt's bankruptcy trustee then filed a lawsuit against Morgan Lewis and Clifford Chance companies for undisclosed reasons, and reached a substantial settlement of both companies in 2004.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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