In Wake of Bingham, Lawyers Contemplate Services Centers

In early 2014, as Bingham McCutchen reported abysmal financial results, its chairman Jay Zimmerman pointed to a hefty expense dragging down the firm’s bottom line: Its recently launched “Global Services Center” in Lexington, Kentucky, where two floors had been leased and many of the firm’s administrative personnel had been relocated at an estimated cost of $22.5 million.

Later that year, Bingham collapsed amid a crippling partner exodus as most of its lawyers were taken over by a larger competitor, putting the wisdom of opening the Kentucky service center into sharp review: The center had cost every equity partner around $100,000, ...