Timothy Pohl will leave Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to become a managing director in the restructuring group at financial services firm Lazard. Pohl was one of three co-heads of Skadden’s corporate restructuring group.
Last spring Skadden promoted the 42-year-old Pohl to become one of three co-heads of Skadden’s 100-lawyer corporate restructuring group, along with John “Jack” Butler, Jr., and J. Gregory Milmoe.
The firm ranked first in the Am Law 100 with gross revenues of $2.17 billion and profits per equity partner of $2.28 million.
Pohl’s departure is a blow to the firm, as it comes at a time when bankruptcy and restructuring work is at a premium.
“Tim is a spectacular lawyer and a wonderful human being and while we wish him well, we will miss him enormously,” Milmoe says. “We’re not losing a partner but gaining a client.”
Milmoe says Skadden isn’t immune to losing top talent to the business side, noting that former restructuring partner David Kurtz left for a managing director position at Lazard in 2002. Pohl will now join Kurtz, who coheads Lazard’s restructuring group, with both working out of Chicago.
Lazard is the parent company of Lazard Group LLC, a global, independent investment bank with approximately 2,400 employees in 41 cities across 24 countries throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, Central and South America.
Via The AmLaw Daily.