Lord Bissell wins last of the Arter lawyers

The last vestiges of collapsed Cleveland firm Arter & Hadden have found new homes at the Los Angeles office of Lord Bissell & Brook.
The team of seven lawyers, including two partners, has made the leap to Lord Bissell as two new firms have formed out of the remnants of the 160-year old Arter & Hadden, which finally closed its doors on 15 July.
Around 70 Cleveland-based lawyers reformed straight after the shutdown as part of new firm Tucker Ellis & West, with 20 lawyers stationed in Los Angeles and San Francisco. And 45 lawyers and 34 support staff are now part of new practice Bailey Cavalieri.
Arter & Hadden is one of three US law firms to collapse this year, including Brobeck Phleger & Harrison and Altheimer & Gray.
Arter & Hadden owes its sudden demise to a period of over-expansion in the late 1990s, which saw the firm, at its peak in 2000, with 471 lawyers. Just three years later, this number had more than halved following a spate of departures, especially within its Dallas and Washington DC offices.
A couple of weeks before Arter & Hadden announced the decision to close on 24 June, Houston-based Andrews & Kurth took on 15 Dallas lawyers, including national managing partner Mark Solomon.
With the steep drop in lawyer numbers, property costs, which spanned 10 offices across the US, became crippling and unsustainable. However, from making the announcement in June, when it gave notice of employment, Arter & Hadden has worked quickly to reform and give people a chance to find new positions.