[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

K&L Gates LLP chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis is in the business of strategy.  So last week, when Crain's Chicago Business and the legal blog Above The Law reported that a mass exodus from the firm and morale problems, Mr. Kalis issued a 9/21 memo to set the record straight.

The memo:

• addressed the decrease in lawyers: when the two firms merged 3 years ago, Bell Boyd by itself had 218 lawyers; K&L Gates’s Chicago office now has only 128 lawyers, according to Crain’s
• refuted a Wells Fargo survey that said profits decreased during the first 2 quarters of 2011": our profits increased during that time period by approximately 20% as compared to the same time period in 2011
• pointed out that the firm doesn’t have the same practices that led to Dewey & LeBouef LLP’s closing earlier this year

Further, he framed the departures in Chicago in a positive light, creating a more efficient office.  "Although most of the departures occurred early in the year, its billings are up over 10% through August 31.  And the corrosive effect of the disaffected has been externalized from the firm -- a group that, incidentally, left behind $2.3 Million in bad accounts when they departed.  Chicago is doing quite well, thank you."

For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 9/24/12].