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Tombstone for Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault
2005-01-15
We might have taken it as an omen last year, when the reception they hosted at Harvard B School's 20th Annual Entrepreneurship Conference featured a cash bar. Things were changing at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault .Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, the Boston law firm that advised Red Hat on its 1999 initial public offering and represented Ximian prior to its acquisition by Novell, has announced it will close its doors at 125 High Street. With the deep pockets of venture capital firms such as Greylock, Charles River Ventures, Battery Ventures and universities like MIT feeding Boston area start-ups, the firm found no shortage of of deals, particularly in the boom days of the stock market. As in the tech sector, however, law firms of late have been going through their own mergers. Bigger firms mean fiercer competition.
Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault was unable to survive the loss of its founder Richard Testa, who passed away suddenly in 2002. Testa was known for deals that created companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation and Teradyne. He had worked with his mentor General Georges Doriot, the man who started the first venture capital firm, American Research and Development (ARD.)
Apparently, no one at THT could fill Testa's shoes and provide the inspiration and leadership essential to retaining the human capital that made the firm what it was. Lawyers started to leave for other firms. Tom Beaudoin jumped ship to become Chair of the Fund Formation Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr. William Schnoor Jr. left and is expected to join Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston; litigation chair Roger Lane is moving to Greenberg Traurig LLP. Other THT partners have left for Bingham McCutchen and Proskauer Rose.