Apparently Shrugging Off Departures, Dickstein Shapiro Tightens Ship

Dickstein Shapiro has shrunk by 40 percent in five years, but new leaders for the Washington firm say key changes they’ve made will help the practice thrive. For the first time, Dickstein hired a chief operating officer – Kristan Morrell – and has freed some practices up to experiment with alternative fee structures. Other changes include allowing individual practice group leaders to determine how many summer associates they want to hire, focusing on key practice strengths rather than attempting to be a one-stop behemoth and creating several “hybrid” attorney-staff positions across its U.S. offices to allow the firm to charge lower rates for some services. The firm hopes these strategic pivots will help it avoid the same fate as Howrey, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011, or Patton Boggs, which earlier this year merged with Squire Sanders because of its financial insecurity.