Critical meeting for Wolf Block

Against a backdrop of failed mergers, layoffs and rising costs, partners at the law firm Wolf Block have been summoned to a meeting today to discuss the possible dissolution of the storied law firm, according to senior partners.

The future of the 300-lawyer firm, which dates to 1903, transfixed the legal community over the weekend.

Former City Solicitor Mark Aronchick, who spent nearly a decade at the firm, said that "if there's any truth to the reports that Wolf Block partners are meeting to discuss dissolution, it's a very sad and difficult day."

Wolf Block chairman Mark Alderman declined in an e-mail last night to confirm the meeting, and one worried insider said he could not talk about it.

"We won't know anything more until we meet," the insider said last night.

Firm members were told in an e-mail from the firm's executive committee last week that the meeting concerned compensation and would include an update on Wolf Block's line of credit, according to a second source.

Aronchick, now with Hangley Aronchick, Segal and Pudlin, spent his formative years at Wolf Block, from 1974 through 1979, then returned to the firm from 1983 through 1986, after a stint as city solicitor.

"I really hope that the meeting ends in a commitment that the firm will stay together and that we always have a Wolf Block on the scene. Wolf Block is so much a part of the fabric of Philadelphia," he said.

Aronchick said he "learned a great deal of what I know about the practice of law, leadership, community values and professionalism from some of the greatest lawyers who ever graced the city."

"When I was there, it was the place to be for so many bright young idealistic, principled, big visionary-type lawyers," he said.

But now, Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen L.L.P.'s real estate and bond practices are down, the second source said, and there has been grumbling among some of the "equity partners," those who own shares of the firm, that they are not earning enough.

Some equity partners have threatened to leave, according to the source.

According to the Legal Intelligencer, Wolf Block bankruptcy lawyers have been in talks with the Philadelphia firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath about a possible move to that firm's Wilmington office.

Last year, M. Norman Goldberger, the head of Wolf Block's litigation department, and 11 additional lawyers left to join Aronchick's firm.

Last year, Wolf Block called off a proposed merger with Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson P.A., a major Florida law firm. At the time, stagnant revenue and a brutal economy made the risk of such a merger too great, participants in the negotiations said.

"The backstory is the bad economy; that is the context in which we tried to get this done," Alderman said in September.

A proposed merger with Philadelphia's Cozen O'Connor fell apart in 2007.

Many firms have taken the position that only bigger practices will be able to survive in a few years, as clients pursue global business opportunities and require law firms with services in multiple markets.

After years of significant growth, Wolf Block's revenue was flat last year, about $170 million. Costs rose, however.

In December, 15 staff and lawyers - both associates and partners - were laid off, mostly from Wolf Block's real estate group.

Recently, Alderman has expressed interest in working in Washington. He was an early supporter of President Obama's and raised money for him throughout the campaign.

The firm was established as Stern & Wolf by Horace Stern and Morris Wolf. Gordon Block joined the firm in 1918.

Wolf Block flourished as the city's Jewish business community grew in power and influence. It was able to attract some of the top Jewish graduates from the country's best law schools. Increasingly, as hiring practices changed, the firm faced competition from other major firms.

Wolf Block and its lawyers played a prominent role in city politics through the 1970s and 1980s, and by 1976, it had more than 100 lawyers. Howard Gittis, a partner for more than 20 years, was Frank L. Rizzo's attorney in 1976 during a failed attempt by a citizens' committee to recall the mayor. After Rizzo left office, Gittis swiftly made a transition to became a major campaign contributor and an adviser to the new mayor, William J. Green 3d.

Though Rizzo and Green were both Democrats, their political philosophies were markedly different.

Alan Davis defended several high-profile cases for the firm, an then left Wolf Block in 1980 when he was named city solicitor under then-Mayor Green.

By the mid 1980s, Gittis had departed to become a financier - Temple Unniversity's student center is named for him - and Davis and other prominent partners also left.