Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!
This 55-year-old Washington powerhouse — a titan of antitrust and patent litigation — made a bold wager in the late 2000s, shifting much of its work onto contingency and other “alternative” fee deals instead of the billable hour. When those big-case paydays didn’t arrive on schedule, cash ran short, its lenders grew nervous, and partners fled en masse (most of them to a single rival). It voted to dissolve in March 2011 and tumbled into bankruptcy — and its own chairman pinned the blame on the very fee experiment the firm had championed. Name the firm.
Hint: Its chairman, Robert Ruyak, blamed the firm’s embrace of alternative fee arrangements for its downfall — then, months later, landed at Winston & Strawn, the very firm that had scooped up most of his former partners. Its name lent itself to an unforgettable run of ATL headline puns.
See the answer on the next page.
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