Coudert Brothers LLP, one of the oldest big U.S. law firms, elected to disband yesterday in a vote of its partners. The firm will remain in business as its lawyers move on to new jobs.
The firm was established in New York in 1853 and has long had international offices and clients. It was one of the first U.S. law firms to open offices in Paris, London, Hong Kong and other foreign locales, and it still has 17 offices in Europe and Asia. Nevertheless, in recent years, Coudert had seen many of its top partners cherry-picked by competitors, and merger negotiations with several firms over the past two years had been difficult because of Coudert’s inferior profitability compared with the prospective merger partners. Thus, the partners apparently concluded that a liquidation held more value for owners than a bad merger.
Now, if only this process could occur with regard to a few legacy airlines . . .