Georgia

Home Depot GC to Work as Store Clerk

The new general counsel of Home Depot will soon be working as store clerk for several weeks, in a standard initial assignment for executives at the home improvement retail chain. So Jack VanWoerkom, who is responsible for all company legal functions worldwide, will soon be helping customers in Boston find…

Sep 17, 2007 8:27 PM CDT

Another Atlanta Firm to Pay $145K

Another Atlanta-based law firm has jumped aboard the associate-salary-increase bandwagon. Kilpatrick Stockton has agreed to raise first-year pay to $145,000 as of Jan. 1, 2008, in accord with the latest wave of salary increases announced by other big Atlanta firms beginning last month, according to the Fulton County Daily Report.…

Sep 14, 2007 9:56 PM CDT

Big-Firm Alumni Have Van, Will Practice

Three former big-firm attorneys in Atlanta have made a name for themselves in a way that would have been hard to predict years ago. Jamie Hernan, Christopher Taylor and Jerome Lee have not only left King & Spalding and formed their own firm but bought a van in which they…

Sep 11, 2007 11:47 PM CDT

Alston & Bird Plans: TX, Maybe CA, London

A major Atlanta-based law firm has announced plans to open an office in Dallas and is thinking about expanding into California and London as well. Alston & Bird will start small in Dallas, with an eight-lawyer office, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Dallas office will be staffed by five attorneys…

Sep 1, 2007 12:27 AM CDT

Jewell’s Libel Suit May Survive

Libel plaintiff Richard Jewell and a defendant who identified him as a suspect in the bombing of Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park have both died, but the lawsuit may continue. Jewell’s 10-year-old libel and defamation suit against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution alleges the newspaper had a duty to investigate whether the information…

Aug 30, 2007 12:16 PM CDT

Lawyers Learn $28 Million Lesson

HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. bounced as much as $28 million in checks before filing for bankruptcy, causing headaches for Atlanta-area lawyers who went through with closings assuming the money would be there. The Georgia Real Estate Closing Attorneys Association put the figure at $28 million, while HomeBanc says it bounced 134…

Aug 23, 2007 11:36 AM CDT

Relief for Lawyers in $20 M Lender Bounced-Checks Case

There is relief in sight for lawyers in Georgia and elsewhere who covered perhaps $20 million in bounced checks issued by a mortgage lender. After hearing from Edwin R. Neel, a veteran Atlanta real estate attorney who said he put up his own home to pay for HomeBanc Mortgage Corp.’s…

Aug 21, 2007 6:46 PM CDT

Bye-Bye, Billables

One Atlanta law firm has decided to chuck billable hour requirements for first-year associates. New hires at Ford & Harrison, a 190-lawyer labor and employment firm, will devote much of their time to learning. They will observe depositions, attend hearings, and watch litigation strategy meetings, the National Law Journal reports.…

Aug 20, 2007 11:11 AM CDT

Lender’s Bounced Checks Create Lawyer Havoc

A mortgage company that went belly-up has left Atlanta-area lawyers digging into their own pockets to cover escrow losses. HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. may have issued as much as $20 million in bounced checks on July 30 and 31 before it filed for bankruptcy, according to the Fulton County Daily Report.…

Aug 16, 2007 12:31 PM CDT

Classic Exam Question in Benoit Case: Who Died When?

Most lawyers probably remember a case or two from law school that dealt with the issue of short-term survivors. Estate attorneys often address it by drafting wills that require a brief period of survivorship (perhaps as little as 48 hours or as much as a month) before a beneficiary can…

Aug 15, 2007 9:08 PM CDT

King & Spalding Delays Pay Controversy

Atlanta’s King & Spalding matched Alston & Bird when it announced it will pay salaries of $145,000 to new associates, a $15,000 increase. But it sidestepped controversy when it left a decision on pay hikes for more senior associates for another day. More senior associates at Alston & Bird have…

Aug 8, 2007 11:12 AM CDT

No Address Means Life Sentence

A homeless man who is unable to register his address as a sex offender faces a life sentence under a Georgia law. The lawyer for Larry Moore Jr. of Augusta says an appeal will assert the sentence is cruel and unusual punishment, the New York Times reports. Moore was convicted…

Aug 3, 2007 6:02 PM CDT

Backup Saved Bar Exam Answers

A backup system preserved the essays of those who ran into software glitches when they tried to upload answers to the New York bar exam. Douglas M. Winneg, president of the company that made the exam software, told the New York Law Journal that he believes all the essays have…

Aug 3, 2007 12:00 PM CDT

Unlicensed Gen’l Counsels are Unusual

Does a general counsel of a corporation have to be a licensed lawyer? To many, the answer to that question would seem to be a no-brainer: Yes. But a small number of general counsels have chosen not to maintain active law licenses, and are now fielding questions in the wake…

Aug 2, 2007 6:41 PM CDT

Mistaken IDs Spur Most Bad Convictions

A study of 200 wrongful convictions has found that most were the result of mistaken eyewitness identifications. Bad witness IDs occurred in 79 percent of the cases studied, Adam Liptak reports in his Sidebar column for the New York Times (sub. req.). The next leading cause of wrongful convictions was…

Jul 23, 2007 3:52 PM CDT