Field Fisher Waterhouse has been left with a much-reduced privacy team after another partner and four associates jumped ship.
The team hit problems back in October when Eduardo Ustaran, the head of FFW's privacy department, announced that he was leaving for Hogan Lovells. However FFW had a cunning plan and decided to hold Ustaran to his mammoth 18 month notice period. That's because making tech partner Mark Abell hang around before he finally went to Bird & Bird had worked so well for all concerned.
However five of Ustaran's colleagues have now also handed in their notice, leaving him to manage a rather depleted office. Stewart Room, one of FFW's top privacy partners, is off to PwC and the four associates have left for pastures unknown.
It's been a turbulent few years for FFW. The firm was unable to pull off mergers with either LG or Osborne Clarke and had to endure the unedifying spectacle of its partners publicly bickering with each other. Its turnover fell too, but things seemed to be turning the corner somewhat: the internecine fighting has stopped, equity partners are still making more than £400,000 and Michael Chissick, the firm's new Managing Partner, is hailed by hismarketing department acolytes as a "visionary". Still, he'll probably need a bigger vision than just moving office and rebranding to "Field Fisher".
A spokesman for the firm said that "four additional associates have been recruited to and four associates have resigned from the Privacy and Information team...Our Privacy & Information team still remains the largest in the UK".
Tip Off ROF
The team hit problems back in October when Eduardo Ustaran, the head of FFW's privacy department, announced that he was leaving for Hogan Lovells. However FFW had a cunning plan and decided to hold Ustaran to his mammoth 18 month notice period. That's because making tech partner Mark Abell hang around before he finally went to Bird & Bird had worked so well for all concerned.
However five of Ustaran's colleagues have now also handed in their notice, leaving him to manage a rather depleted office. Stewart Room, one of FFW's top privacy partners, is off to PwC and the four associates have left for pastures unknown.
FFW yesterday |
It's been a turbulent few years for FFW. The firm was unable to pull off mergers with either LG or Osborne Clarke and had to endure the unedifying spectacle of its partners publicly bickering with each other. Its turnover fell too, but things seemed to be turning the corner somewhat: the internecine fighting has stopped, equity partners are still making more than £400,000 and Michael Chissick, the firm's new Managing Partner, is hailed by his
A spokesman for the firm said that "four additional associates have been recruited to and four associates have resigned from the Privacy and Information team...Our Privacy & Information team still remains the largest in the UK".
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