John W. Weiss and Henry J. Jaffe Quoted in Law360 on Mid-Size Law Firms’ More Flexible Rate Structure
John W. Weiss and Henry J. Jaffe were quoted in a recent Law360 article, “Why Rates Are Top of Mind for Some Lateral Partners.” Both Weiss, who joined Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. in 2022 as chair of the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditor’s Rights practice, and Jaffe, who joined Pashman Stein in July 2023 as a partner in the practice, cite Pashman Stein’s more cost-effective rate structure as one of the major factors in deciding to leave their respective AmLaw 100 firms to join Pashman Stein.
The article discusses Jaffe’s move to Pashman Stein:
Bankruptcy specialist Henry Jaffe made the jump from 1,200-lawyer giant Troutman Pepper to 89-attorney Pashman Stein Walder Hayden PC in July. According to Jaffe, the ability to charge clients "fair" rates was one major factor among several that contributed to his decision to join a smaller law firm.
Jaffe said he watched rates among large law firms "explode" over the last three to four years to the point where he began to feel uncomfortable with the bills he was seeing.
"Far be it from me to say what others should charge, but it felt like the rates were escalating too quickly," he said.
"I wanted to give value to my clients and I wanted them to feel great about the value I was giving them," Jaffe said of his move to Pashman Stein.
The article further discusses Weiss’ move to Pashman Stein:
John Weiss, another recent transplant to Pashman Stein alongside Jaffe, brought his bankruptcy expertise to the 89-lawyer firm from 880-lawyer Alston & Bird LLP a little over a year ago, launching the firm's bankruptcy practice. That practice has since grown to five full-time partners and one partner who takes on bankruptcy work a portion of the time, and many of the group members have moved over from BigLaw.
According to Weiss, the pandemic helped him to see that the expenses of the massive infrastructure of BigLaw, including large offices in New York City, weren't necessary to offer clients high-quality legal services.
"COVID, at least for me, opened my eyes to the fact that you could practice without as significant of an overhead footprint and effectively use that structure to provide a more meaningful partnership with your clients on rates," Weiss said.
At the new firm he's able to take on cases that he'd never have been able to take on at his previous law firms, he said.
"We are working on the largest cases out there and at the same time a number of matters that are far smaller," he said. "We can do both."
To read the full article, click here.
