Two partners jump ship from Gray Cary

Litigation partner and white collar crime expert Walt Brown has joined Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe after just two years at Gray Cary, while insurance coverage partner Martin Myers moved to Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. Both equity partners left on 13 June.

Gray Cary combated some of the impact of the departures by taking on Sang Kim, a tax specialist from KPMG. However, the firm has been attempting to boost income after seeing a sharp decline in profits for 2002. A strong focus on the technology sector inevitably contributed to profits per partner falling to $460,000 (£475,000) in 2002 from $515,000 (£308,000) in 2001 and $525,000 (£313,500) the year before that.

Last year, Gray Cary introduced two rounds of job cuts, affecting 68 associates and 101 staff, and delayed the start date for a number of its new recruits.