White & Case's final Middle East head jumps ship to Latham
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The last remaining head of White & Case’s Middle East office has resigned and is understood to be moving over to Latham & Watkins, The Lawyer can reveal.
Doha head Andrew Macklin is expected to join eight of his partners who work on Middle East matters in moving over to the rival firm (1 February 2010). This leaves White & Case with no partners in the Gulf.
A statement from White & Case read: “We can confirm that Andrew Macklin has decided to leave White & Case. Andrew joined the firm in 2005 and moved to our Doha office in October last year, having been promoted to partner in January 2009.
“We remain committed to Qatar and we’ll shortly identify the partner who’ll take over the leadership of that office and we’ll continue with our existing plans, in place since we launched the Doha office last year, to transfer associates to the office during 2010 to provide it with additional strength.”
The statement continued: “Although our office only opened in Qatar last autumn, we’ve advised clients in Qatar for nearly two decades, with our roles advising on Qatargas 1, 2, 3 and 4 and our deep relationships with both Qatar Petroleum and other state owned entities in Qatar.”
Doha was the third White & Case office to open in the Gulf following the launch of an associate office in Riyadh in 1991 and an office in Abu Dhabi in 2007.
Latham was unavailable for comment.
Latham recently poached an additional four London-based White & Case bank finance partners (29 January 2010).
For further analysis on White & Case’s Middle East practice see The Lawyer on Monday.
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Readers' comments (12)
Hamish | 5-Feb-2010 12:53 pm
This is pretty much unprecedented in the Gulf. What on earth is causing all this? W&C can't be a happy place right now.
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Phew Merrier | 5-Feb-2010 1:00 pm
Oooh I would love to be fly on the wall in Hugh Verrier's office when his blackberry buzzed with news announcing Macklin's departure. What goes around comes around!
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 1:25 pm
Bummer
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 1:59 pm
Andrew Macklin is a nice guy so for him to leave so quickly this says a lot. Mr Brettle watch out, things are starting to draw in........
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 4:28 pm
the ship is clearly in trouble - to lose decent finance lawyers in this market is a great mistake and one no well managed firm should fall at risk of doing - as the upturn continues to strengthen those firms that fail to look after (and respect) their good people will be the losers .... losers !
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 4:55 pm
These events distinctly put W&C at a disadvantage in recruiting. Not even a headhunter could, with a straight face, recommend them. What could Ewe possibly have had in mind when he set out on this mad dash of destruction? Oliver, where is your army?
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 5:08 pm
"Mr Kurtz - he dead." Eat what you kill. Origination hogs dominate unchecked. Everyone else scared of the chop.
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 5:20 pm
its not a happy place.
it hasn't been for a while has it Mr Brettle?
Oliver needs to start thinking about his staff. Taking into account all those that have been made redundant, took voluntary and have since jumped ship it doesn't say much for him!
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 5:21 pm
A post on one of the other W&C articles reported that HV received standing room applause at the partners' meeting in Paris. If so, that is applause in the context of all of the pain that the firm has caused - applause over all of the dead bodies. That applause is tacky, and to report it even tackier.
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2010 8:02 pm
Oliver, Oliver Oliver......... clearly there is a lot more to managment that you thought.
And you're an employment lawyer too - you couldn't make it up!
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