Business Notes Law Firms

The feud at the blue-chip New York City law firm of Lord, Day & Lord had been simmering for the past year. Gordon Spivack, a senior partner and head of the firm's profitable antitrust group, was fighting to double the number of partners in his division from seven to 14, to reward his associates, or junior lawyers, with a share of the firm's profits. But the leaders of the 125-lawyer firm jibbed at his demands. Last week Spivack stalked out of L.D.&L., taking the entire 20-lawyer antitrust division, including nine partners, with him to Coudert Brothers, a rival New York firm.

Abrupt switches in loyalty are becoming more common in the staid legal business, but even so, the L.D.&.L. mass defection came as a surprise. Said Timothy Robinson, editor of the National Law Journal: "Law is taking on a businesslike atmosphere."