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pushed by Washington but had been met with resistance before being very reluctantly accepted in Atlanta. The New York acquisition contin- ued to be on trial, as evidenced by the interminable pace of lease negotiations. Thus, while the looming expiration of the Rock Center lease might not have been the cause for what followed, it was a catalyst, an accelerant. And because the firm did not bite the bullet on the lease, my sense was that there was a real problem waiting to happen.
I was right. In early 1996, I was invited to Atlanta, and, while I was there, I was asked to attend a dinner meeting that took place at an unusual venue: the home of one of the Sutherland managing partners. I was told, over steak, that the firm was very happy with what I had contributed but that I should know that, unfortunately for me, the firm had come to the reluctant decision to end the Sutherland presence in New York and close its New York office! This would undo what was termed an unfortunate merger with Burt and Roger’s firm and, as the Sutherland firm understood, would likely leave the Goldstein group without a home, except in the unlikely event that Burt and Roger’s group (and the Goldstein group) would feel differently and keep the New York office together. Sutherland understood the spot that this placed us in, but they assured me that I would be treated well by them when they terminated their New York presence. (They were true to their word: the following week, I met with one of their partners in New York, where they made, and I accepted, a very generous financial offer to ease my departure. The meeting took place in the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, the Portman hotel that you’ll remember from Chap- ter Twenty-Five.)
The decision had not been communicated to Burt and Roger, who would be told at the next management meeting; Charles would be told the next day. It was a good thing that he was. When I got back to the City, he and I spoke, and, within just a few days, he told me that, thanks to Jerry Jacobs, he had a lead for us and the rest of the group. Jacobs, a resident of Arizona, had recently become “of counsel” in the Phoenix office of a large law firm that was based in Cleveland: Squire Sanders &
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