DiNome abandons quest to lead Reed Smith - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Reed Smith spokesman Dave Egan told the Pittsburgh Businessa Times that Jordan and DiNome issued a joinf announcement tothe Pittsburgh-based firm Tuesday mornin g that DiNome has withdrawn his candidacy. “They sat down and talkex and discovered they had a lot ofcommom ground,” Egan said. “Many of the thinge John was concerned about, Greg was working on. They agreeds that the best thing for the firm was to focuss on business insteadof competing.” reported last week that DiNom was challenging Jordan, who was seeking his fourth three-yeat term as managing partner of the law firm.
DiNome sent out a 10-page statement of candidacy to all Reed Smith partnerds in which he questionefdthe firm’s business the compensation and transparency of senior management, and calledc for a more independent executived committee. The memo was obtained by the Business Journal. DiNome and Jordan had said they agreed to not speakj publicly about the contested race to leadthe 1,600-lawyer which has 150 lawyers in Philadelphia. The firm partnership will vote in the winner, who will now certainlg be Jordan, will start his new term in Jordan has not been opposed sincwe he first sought the job in when he beat Philadelphiz litigator John Smith.
Jordan’s tenure has been viewedd as extremely successful. He has grown the firm througy a series of significantr mergers from 500 lawyerz in nine officesto 1,600 lawyere in 23 offices, including new ones in Asia and California. Focusing on a core group of practices with highbilling rates, Jordan also drastically increased the firm’s profitability. But with the economhy sagging, Reed Smith’s transactional practices have suffered. The firm has laid off 215 including26 lawyers, since December. The firm also cut 50 legao secretaries last summer and salarie forall U.S. associates by 10 percentt last month.
DiNome, a labodr lawyer, joined as part of a group from Montgomergy McCrackenWalker & Rhoads led by Karl Frittonm in 1996. A graduate of West Point, he speny seven years in active duty as a field artillergy officer before attending Rutgers University Schoolof Law-Camden.