Large Firm

Which firms hired the most lateral partners? And is it ‘doing a lick of good’?

BigLaw firms continue to snap up lateral partners, but all that hiring may dilute the partner profit pool, according to an analysis by two professors. Baker & McKenzie hired 68 lateral partners last year, making it the top firm for lateral acquisitions, according to an American Lawyer (sub. req.) survey.…

Feb 5, 2014 1:05 PM CST

DLA Piper announces new top management team for 2015

International megafirm DLA Piper expects to be making some changes in its top management structure as of 2015. Two new global co-chairs will take the helm, assuming that the change is approved by foreign partners of the 4,200-attorney firm, which is set up as a Swiss verein, the Wall Street…

Feb 5, 2014 12:15 AM CST

McCarter & English acquires energy and environmental boutique, now has office in DC

One of New Jersey’s biggest and best-known law firms has planted its flag in the nation’s capital with the acquisition of a Washington, D.C., energy and environmental law boutique. McCarter & English finalized the merger with Miller Balis & O’Neil on Feb. 1, adding another 14 lawyers to the roster…

Feb 3, 2014 8:15 PM CST

Trio of labor and employment partners exits Paul Hastings for Proskauer

The co-chair of the employment discrimination practice group at Paul Hastings is leaving the firm, along with two colleagues, for Proskauer Rose. Joining Zach Fasman at Proskauer are Allan Bloom and Erika Collins, reports the Wall Street Journal Law Blog (sub. req.). “We felt as though we had a triple…

Feb 3, 2014 7:30 PM CST

Judge sanctions Samsung and counsel over release of confidential info in big-bucks Apple patent suit

Saying that a major law firm handled proprietary information covered by a confidentiality order in big-bucks patent litigation over smartphone technology as if it were “a trapeze artist flying high without a net,” a federal magistrate judge in California has imposed sanctions on Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and its…

Jan 31, 2014 5:30 PM CST

Steptoe opens office in Silicon Valley

Two intellectual property partners from King & Spalding will staff a new Palo Alto, Calif., office of Steptoe & Johnson, and patent litigator William F. Abrams will serve as its managing partner, the San Francisco Business Times reports. Sanjeet Dutta is the other new partner. A King & Spalding press…

Jan 30, 2014 4:35 PM CST

K&L Gates OKs settlement of $23.7M in LeNature’s legal malpractice case

A major Pittsburgh-based international law firm and one of its top attorneys have agreed to pay $23.7 million to settle a malpractice lawsuit brought by a bankruptcy trustee winding up the affairs of a former client. The agreement by K&L Gates and Sanford Ferguson did not involve any admission of…

Jan 29, 2014 10:35 PM CST

Orrick litigator joins Ropes & Gray

Commercial and securities litigator Richard Gallagher has departed Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in order to join Ropes & Gray. According to a statement from Ropes & Gray, Gallagher has joined the San Francisco office as a partner in the litigation practice group. The Recorder reported in 2009 that Gallagher started…

Jan 24, 2014 6:39 PM CST

Arnold & Porter opens in Houston, former chief of Hogan Lovells office is at the helm

Arnold & Porter is the latest BigLaw firm to open an office in the hot Houston legal market. At the helm is Thad Demaris, who formerly served as managing partner of the Hogan Lovells office in Houston, the Houston Business Journal reports. Two ex-Hogan Lovells lawyers have joined him at…

Jan 23, 2014 9:14 PM CST

Husch Blackwell lays off 25 staff members

Husch Blackwell has laid off 25 staff members, the law firm confirmed Wednesday. No lawyers are being let go by the more than 600-attorney firm, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. “Our firm, like many of our clients, is being challenged to do more with less,” the firm explained in…

Jan 23, 2014 12:20 AM CST

Judge says BigLaw firm sought fees for research on ‘basic and banal’ legal principles

Mayer Brown took a thrashing last week from a Manhattan judge who denied the firm’s $126,000 fee request for helping two tenants recover a $6,400 security deposit and treble damages from their landlord. Judge Frank Nervo said a junior associate spent “a grossly unnecessary amount of time” on simple matters,…

Jan 21, 2014 12:15 PM CST

Lawyer leaves Winston & Strawn to defend Utah ban on same-sex marriage

Updated: Winston & Strawn partner Gene Schaerr is leaving the law firm to defend Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes announced on Thursday that Schaerr will be lead outside counsel for the state’s defense of the ban in a case pending before the Denver-based 10th U.S.…

Jan 17, 2014 2:30 PM CST

Gibson Dunn to represent NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s office amidst ongoing probe of traffic jam scandal

A former federal prosecutor who co-chairs the litigation practice group at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher will be representing the office of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie amidst ongoing investigation of its role in the so-called Bridgegate traffic jam scandal. At issue is to what extent the office was involved in…

Jan 16, 2014 6:05 PM CST

Federal judge rebukes Apple for its conduct to court-appointed monitor, defends his $1K hourly rate

Weighing in for the first time on a long-simmering dispute between Apple Inc. and a court-appointed monitor, a federal judge in New York on Monday rebuked the company for its treatment of the monitor and defended his $1,100 billable hourly rate. The computer Goliath had sought an order removing Goodwin…

Jan 14, 2014 5:10 PM CST

Despite years of slow demand for legal services, survey says BigLaw profits will rise 5% in 2014

Few expect a blockbuster year for BigLaw in 2014. But considering both that law firms and their clients are still recovering from the downward dive the economy took in 2008 and a lack of “seismic shocks to the legal industry” last year, the prospect of 5 percent growth in profits…

Jan 13, 2014 10:14 PM CST