According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times, the large international “white shoe” law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton is jettisoning their estate planning practice, adding to the list of large firms doing so, including Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
I’m not surprised.
These gigantic international law firms have gigantic international clients – like GE and Microsoft and Apple. Their partners charge these clients tens of millions of dollars a year. Estate planning is more of a family oriented practice. Sure, there can be some very rich families, but they aren’t going to be generating the same revenue as the partner who represents ATT.
That’s why estate planning practices thrive in smaller law firms or solo practitioners.