Law of gravity pulls down Brobeck

May 10, 2002

As profits slip, partners bail and associates are shown the door, the new shape of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP -- the Bay Area's third-largest law firm -- is taking form with or without its former chairman.
Yet Tower Snow, who pushed the San Francisco-based firm onto the coattails of the dot-com boom and jumped off when profits tumbled last year, remains publicly coy about his future.
"If one believed all the rumors, I resigned over a month ago and I'm working at eight different firms simultaneously," said Snow, now a partner in Brobeck's securities litigation practice. "It's kind of like Mark Twain's death: The rumors have been greatly exaggerated."
Yet this much is certain: Brobeck sheared more than 200 associates and 74 staff through three rounds of layoffs in the past six months, cut as much as $50 million in annual costs and pared its once-hefty technology focus.
And Snow is ready to leave the firm.