Globe Life Field, home to baseball's Texas Rangers, is named for the insurer that recently dumped Balch & Bingham.
Birmingham's scandal-plagued Balch & Bingham law firm has seen another client bid them farewell, according to a report at banbalch.com. Globe Life, a large insurance firm that has been operating since 1900, is based in McKinney, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. It is the latest company to dump Balch & Bingham like a bag of garbage along the Highway to Legal Purgatory.
K.B. Forbes, publisher of the Ban Balch blog and CEO of its parent organization -- the CDLU public charity and advocacy group -- reports that Balch lost 18 clients in a recent three-year period. Of the most recent exit, Forbes writes:
On Friday, Politico.com reported that Globe Life has terminated the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham as their lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
Balch saw 18 of 18 major clients terminate the firm between 2017 and 2020 due in part to our educational and advocacy efforts.
According to Open Secrets, Balch appears to have garnered five newer, monthly paying lobbying clients: two utilities out of Texas, O’Neal Industries, Scatr LLC, and McWane, their highest paying client.
Currently, two former Balch attorneys are sitting in federal prison; one for bribery and money laundering, the other for possession of kiddie porn.
Have such circumstances caused some clients to distance themselves and put a strain on the Balch bottom line? The answer appears to be yes, Forbes writes:
The criminal convictions appear to have hindered the development of clients and provoked the exodus of top money-making partners and attorneys.
Balch’s Houston office was gutted this summer when four Balch lawyers jumped ship.
Balch was forced to bring a former partner out of retirement apparently because the brightest legal minds reportedly do not want to be associated with, or work for, Balch.
Balch Behind Bars: Former partner Joel I. Gilbert is serving a five-year sentence for
bribery, while former senior associate Chase T. Espy (right) is serving more than an eight-year sentence for possession of kiddie porn.