Business Development

Legal Futurist: ‘The Party is Now Over’

A futurist argues that the legal profession is about to undergo a “fundamental transformation” in which conventional legal advisers will be much less prominent and legal services will be “commoditized” and delivered more cheaply. The man making the predictions is Richard Susskind, the author of The End of Lawyers? He…

Nov 11, 2008 3:20 PM CST

Another US Law Firm Opens in Dubai: Kilpatrick Stockton

Joining an eclectic group of U.S.-based international law firms, Atlanta’s Kilpatrick Stockton is opening a small office in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. “The two-lawyer office is starting with several U.S. clients that also are newcomers to the region, with the goal of also representing local participants in the…

Nov 7, 2008 5:18 PM CST

Taxpayers May Have to Pay Legal Bills of Fannie, Freddie Execs

Taxpayers would likely have to pay the legal bills of former executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if they are sued by dissatisfied shareholders or the federal government decides to prosecute. The two mortgage companies that were taken over by the federal government had contracts with their executives that…

Nov 6, 2008 12:35 PM CST

Free Monitoring for Buyers, $6.5M for Lawyers in Massive TJX Data Breach Case

A federal judge in Boston has approved $6.5 million in attorneys fees to the lawyers who brought a class action over a massive data breach at TJX Cos. that is estimated to have involved as many as 100 million accounts compromised by computer hackers. The cost of resolving the breach…

Nov 5, 2008 6:07 PM CST

Some Lawyers are Reducing Fees as Corporations Seek Discounts

When attorney Mark Peroff moved to the Manhattan office of Hiscock & Barclay, a 200-lawyer firm headquartered in upstate New York, he persuaded clients to follow him by offering a 20 percent fee discount from what they had been paying for his work at his former partnership. Competing for corporate…

Nov 4, 2008 5:57 PM CST

Trouble Ahead for East Coast Law Firms; One Expert Expects Dissolutions

Experts interviewed by two different publications foresee troubles ahead for East Coast law firms. Ward Bower of legal consulting firm Altman Weil predicts the worst for some law firms. “I would anticipate that we would see more dissolutions, and I think they will be East Coast firms,” he told the…

Nov 3, 2008 1:05 PM CST

Top Fla. Court Ups Lawyer Pay From $8 to $200/Hour in Worker’s Comp Case

Overruling an appeals court decision that a 2003 Florida law limiting the amount of attorney fees in worker’s compensation cases is constitutional, the state supreme court said the appellate court was looking at the issue the wrong way. Without reaching the constitutionality question, the top court read several statutory provisions…

Oct 31, 2008 6:34 PM CDT

Legal Bill Battle Heats Up Over $1.7M Texas Arrest Settlement

Two brothers who contend the Texas lawyer who won them a $1.7 million settlement in a wrongful arrest case is overcharging them have taken the bill battle to the next level. After suing their former attorney, Lloyd Kelley, earlier this month, Erik and Sean Ibarra have complained to the state…

Oct 31, 2008 3:44 PM CDT

Law Firms Advised to Try Discounted and Alternative Fees

Law firms that survive the troubled economic times will be willing to discount fees and try alternative billing arrangements such as success fees. That was the message of a panel discussion held last week by the defense bar group DRI, the National Law Journal reports. The story recounts comments by…

Oct 28, 2008 1:43 PM CDT

Judge Orders Ungaretti & Harris to Give Up Bankruptcy Fee

A federal judge in Chicago has ordered Ungaretti & Harris to disgorge more than $376,000 in bankruptcy fees because it failed to get periodic approval for the interim payments. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said Ungaretti should have filed interim fee applications with the bankruptcy court every 120 days, but…

Oct 24, 2008 2:31 PM CDT

Lehman Owed Milbank $2.8M in Legal Bills

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy says Lehman Brothers owes it $2.8 million in legal fees, but it won’t try to collect. Milbank made the disclosure in a document seeking to represent the official committee of unsecured creditors in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Am Law Daily reports. The document also…

Oct 24, 2008 12:02 PM CDT

After Freezing Fees, Wal-Mart GC Considers Cutting Associate Billing Rates

Wal-Mart general counsel Tom Mars says he is considering initiatives to lower associate billing rates at the company’s outside law firms “to some point where they reflect value.” In an interview with the Daily Journal (sub. req.), Mars said he is not the only general counsel concerned that billing rates…

Oct 24, 2008 11:44 AM CDT

Two Top Law Firms Disclose Billing Rates in Lehman Filings

Billing rates for top lawyers at two law firms involved in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy are $950 an hour, according to disclosure papers filed with the court. The two firms making the disclosure are Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, the Am Law Daily…

Oct 23, 2008 4:08 PM CDT

Judge Cuts Attorney Fees by $1M in NY BAR/BRI Settlement

Lawyers who sued BAR/BRI for alleged antitrust violations in New York saw their requested attorney fees slashed by about $1 million in a settlement of the case. U.S. District Judge William Pauley denied a request for a 24 percent contingent fee, which would have amounted to $3.1 million, the New…

Oct 23, 2008 12:41 PM CDT

Divorcing Lawyer Denied Interim Attorney Fees Because of $200K Salary

A New York judge has cited a New York lawyer’s $200,000 salary as a reason to deny him interim attorney fees during divorce proceedings. The lawyer is a tax associate at a major New York law firm identified as C.K., the New York Law Journal reports. His wife is a…

Oct 21, 2008 12:14 PM CDT