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US firm's partnership votes for orderly dissolution after Baker & McKenzie talks collapse; 90-day deadline to sell assets
Coudert Brothers, the world's first truly international law firm, has hit the self-destruct button to bring an end to its 152-year history.
As first revealed on www.thelawyer.com (18 August), Coudert finally threw in the towel last Tuesday when the firm held a conference call for all of its partners, who agreed that they could all seek alternative employment.
Coudert is now set to become the fourth high-profile US firm to collapse in the last two years, following in the footsteps of Altheimer & Gray, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison and Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault.
The conference call lasted three and a half hours. During what one Coudert partner described as a "sad and gloomy discussion", the partnership formed what it called the 'Special Situations Committee' to arrange for the orderly disposal of the various offices in an attempt to gain some money to pay off the...