Bob Lewis steps down as chairman of Lewis Brisbois

At a meeting Wednesday following the departure of as many 140 attorneys, Robert F. Lewis agreed to step down as chairman of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, the sprawling firm he founded in Los Angeles 45 years ago.

"Bob Lewis is a titan of the legal profession. He has built a top global AmLaw firm and has been an industry leader for decades. We can't thank him enough for his many contributions and are confident that in his new role as chairman emeritus he will continue to offer his wisdom and guidance," firm Co-Chairman Bob Smith said in a statement.

While Lewis, 86, will no longer be chairman of the firm, he will remain on the management committee. The firm also made structural changes in the way the 1,700-lawyer firm is run so that power will be diffused.

"Effective immediately the firm will disband its executive committee. Moving forward the firm will be managed by an expanded Management Committee comprised of 13 members. Elections will be held on May 9th and at that time five new members will be seated on the Management Committee. The newly elected Management Committee will then elect a managing partner and other top managing or administrative partners as deemed necessary. This process is already underway," Smith said.

Turmoil began late last week when John L. Barber, who was national chair of the labor and employment practice, and Jeffrey S. Ranen, who was vice chair, resigned to start their own firm and said as many as 140 other attorneys agreed to follow them. They said they were establishing a presence in 12 cities across the nation.

The firm said that while the departure of Barber and Ranen contributed to the timing of the changes, the transition had been planned for some time. Barber and Ranen were both on a nine-member management committee and discussions about their replacements created the dynamic for Lewis to relinquish the chairmanship.

"For some time now, we have held discussions about altering our management structure," Smith said. "Rarely does there seem to be a good time to introduce meaningful change. Recent events, however, have created new opportunities for Lewis Brisbois to expand, grow, strengthen and change our management team."

An insurance defense specialist, Lewis founded Lewis Brisbois in 1979 and grew it into a full-service firm with 55 offices in the United States and relationship agreements with several firms overseas. He was able to do this in part by offering extremely competitive rates to clients and often paying under the market rate for attorneys. He eschewed expensive office space, reveling in the fact that the firm's headquarters were located in a class B building across the freeway from where most large firms in downtown Los Angeles were located. Only after an arson fire destroyed that building in 2014 did he move the headquarters into a class A tower in the heart of downtown.

Soft-spoken and tough, he brooked little dissent, telling the Daily Journal in 2019: "We don't tolerate internal bickering."

Even as the firm's growth outpaced its rivals, and younger, ambitious lawyers joined the partnership, Lewis held on to power. The management committee officially ran the firm but it was structured in a way that just four members, including co-chairman Smith, made key decisions.

After Barber and Ranen walked out this week, the firm quickly named regional leaders for the labor and employment practice to move some of the decision making away from Los Angeles. But that move did not appear to staunch the departures. More attorneys continued to sign on to join Barber and Ranen throughout the week.

In his statement, Smith stressed that he did not believe the departures would devastate the firm.

"For context, while the departure of what may turn out to be 125 employment lawyers in California seems dramatic, it is less than 8% of the firm in one practice area," he wrote. "Our current employment practice in California and across the country has more than 100 lawyers, which is more lawyers than in many BigLaw employment practices. We will miss our colleagues who have left, but we know we will continue to share clients with them, while we rebuild our employment capabilities in California."

And he concluded with a hopeful note:

"Change is a positive. What won't change is our steadfast focus on delivering outstanding counsel and results to our clients," he wrote.