Reed Smith forced to wait for half its Pinsents partner team

Peter Cassidy and Keith Hartley joined Reed Smith earlier this month. No clear date has been set, however, for the arrival of Gordon Bell and Vincent Rowan, although they are expected to move over at some point in the autumn.

It is understood that Pinsents implements a “waiting room” style arrangement for exiting partners. Any partner wishing to leave the firm has to wait until those that have already resigned move on. This is believed to be behind the staggered departure dates for the four laterals.

Pinsents senior partner Chris Mullen would not comment on the specific circumstances of the partners in question but confirmed: “Like many firms we have not only long notice periods but restrictions on the number of partners that can leave at one time.”

The four partners will join Reed Smith’s energy, trade and commodities group. Kyri Evagora, partner and head of that group said that his firm had been, “happy to work with them on the establishment of an orderly exit date”.

The Lawyer revealed earlier this year (23 April 2010) that the four partners were set to move over to Reed Smith.

Following the appointment of Siân Fellows from Shell and John Varholy from Troutman Sanders, this will bring the total number of partners in the ETC group to 13.