[3] It ceased operations in late 2015, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Philadelphia-based Morgan Lewis.

In 2001, Bingham Dana bulked up in New York City through a merger with Richards & O'Neil, a boutique law firm of 55 attorneys known for its litigation and corporate groups.

2006 saw a merger between Bingham McCutchen and Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, a Washington, D.C.–based firm which brought greater capabilities in the nation's capital as well as a regulatory group.

Unlike most foreign firms in Japan which have minimal domestic practices, Bingham's Tokyo office was predominantly staffed by Japanese attorneys and handled domestic matters such as the restructuring of Olympus Corporation, though it hired a number of foreign attorneys since 2012 in an attempt to strengthen its outbound and cross-border practice and to expand in other legal fields such as intellectual property and investment funds.

[14] Despite a deep recession which hurt law firms nationwide, the Boston Globe reported that Bingham performed very well financially.

Two major cases—the Deepwater Horizon litigation and an IP dispute involving Oracle Corporation—ended abruptly, reducing the firm's revenue.

[22] 50 of Bingham's 60 lawyers in Tokyo moved to the Japanese law firm of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, with the remainder joining Morgan Lewis.