The unedifying spat between Dentons and The American Lawyer has finally run its course, with the magazine accepting that the firm's profits aren't nearly as crap as it had suggested.
Dentons had refused to publish its global financial figures, claiming that it made no sense given that the firm operates across a wide variety of markets. AM Lawyer pointed out that other firms that operate in global markets were happy to provide their figures, and had a crack at coming up with them themselves. And then all hell broke loose. Dentons accused the editor of being unable to count, took out excoriating adverts in the press and even launched a website with the sole purpose of demonstrating that AM Lawyer couldn't tell its arse from a hole in the ground. But it still refused to provide the figures. So the magazine wouldn't budge.
Finally Dentons folded and handed over financial information that had been validated by its auditor. And it transpires that AM Lawyer really couldn't tell its arse from a hole in the ground - it has had to revise the figures up by a whopping 37%, and Dentons' profit per partner now stands at $680,000 rather than $495,000.
Elliott Portnoy, Dentons CEO, complained that the correction was "not as prominent as we believe it should be" but he was happy that AM Lawyer "admitted it was wrong". Although he was presumably rather less happy at climbing down and providing his firm's figures after taking such a massive public stand against it...
A spokeswoman for Dentons said that "contrary to AmLaw's inaccurate reporting of negative year-over-year financial performance, the firm recorded significant gains across every region. While we remain proud of the positive financial results we have enjoyed in each of our regions, the firm maintains its position that it will not be releasing data in response to surveys seeking average global profit per equity partner numbers."
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Dentons had refused to publish its global financial figures, claiming that it made no sense given that the firm operates across a wide variety of markets. AM Lawyer pointed out that other firms that operate in global markets were happy to provide their figures, and had a crack at coming up with them themselves. And then all hell broke loose. Dentons accused the editor of being unable to count, took out excoriating adverts in the press and even launched a website with the sole purpose of demonstrating that AM Lawyer couldn't tell its arse from a hole in the ground. But it still refused to provide the figures. So the magazine wouldn't budge.
Finally Dentons folded and handed over financial information that had been validated by its auditor. And it transpires that AM Lawyer really couldn't tell its arse from a hole in the ground - it has had to revise the figures up by a whopping 37%, and Dentons' profit per partner now stands at $680,000 rather than $495,000.
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Guide for AM Lawyer |
Elliott Portnoy, Dentons CEO, complained that the correction was "not as prominent as we believe it should be" but he was happy that AM Lawyer "admitted it was wrong". Although he was presumably rather less happy at climbing down and providing his firm's figures after taking such a massive public stand against it...
A spokeswoman for Dentons said that "contrary to AmLaw's inaccurate reporting of negative year-over-year financial performance, the firm recorded significant gains across every region. While we remain proud of the positive financial results we have enjoyed in each of our regions, the firm maintains its position that it will not be releasing data in response to surveys seeking average global profit per equity partner numbers."
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In years to come PR flacks will be taught this as a lesson in how to not handle public relations.
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How did this come to pass? Oh, wait, that's right, there's a MASSIVE DENTONS LOGO on the top corner of every other RoF page. Assume you got your extra pound of flesh for this fluff, right Rof?
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