Top UK lawyer leaves New York litigator to launch ‘modern’ firm – taking 27 of 33 lawyers with her
A top British lawyer at Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s London office has said she is leaving the much talked about firm to set up a rival litigator, and that she will be taking more than 80 per cent of her former employer’s London-based staff with her.
Natasha Harrison, a managing partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner told The Sunday Telegraph that she is leaving the high-profile New York firm to set up a rival law firm in London, which is set to employ 27 of Boies Shiller’s 33 London lawyers.
Harrison, who joined Boies Schiller in 2013, is set to launch her new litigation firm, Pallas Partners, this week.
In launching her new firm, the 48-year-old hopes to shake up the legal profession. In an effort to boost diversity, Harrison says her new firm will blank out the schools listed on its applicants’ CVs, in an effort to limit bias.
The top lawyer said she also plans to allow her staff greater flexibility in their work schedules, in a bid to lay the blueprints for a “modern law firm.”
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph Harrison also said that eventually plans to phase out billable hours, as she argued that the payment structure incentivises people to drag out work “for as long as possible.”
Harrison’s defection comes after a number of Boies Shiller’s lawyers jumped ship, after the firm faced criticism for representing disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and fraudulent biotech company Theranos.