Large Firm

6 Dorsey Patent Lawyers Including Local Chief Head to Winthrop Weinstine to Start New Practice Group

A Minneapolis law firm has made a big splash by jumping into the patent arena with a six-lawyer team from Dorsey & Whitney, including the local chief of that firm’s patent practice group. Devan Padmanabhan will now head the new patent practice group at Winthrop & Weinstine, reports the Star…

Jan 31, 2012 6:08 PM CST

Skadden Tops Research Co.‘s List of Strongest Law Firm Brands, Survey Says

What are some of the best-known BigLaw brands in the United States? Survey results released this week by the Acritas brand research company show that Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom tops the list, the Am Law Daily reports. Rounding up the top five are Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis,…

Jan 31, 2012 12:28 AM CST

Australia’s Slater & Gordon Snaps Up UK Personal Injury Firm, Russell Jones & Walker, for $84M

Slater & Gordon, the world’s first publicly traded law firm is poised to grow again after agreeing to pay 53.8 million pounds (about $84 million in U.S. dollars) for a United Kingdom law firm that also specializes in personal injury work. The acquisition of Russell Jones & Walker is authorized…

Jan 30, 2012 11:55 PM CST

After Bryan Cave Merger, a Significant Number of Holme Roberts Partners Are Now Counsel

After its merger with St. Louis-based Bryan Cave, about 18 of the partners from Denver’s revered Holme Roberts & Owen are now listed as counsel on the firm’s attorney roster, the Denver Business Journal reports. But only a “handful” of these changes among the more than 80 partners who came…

Jan 30, 2012 10:40 PM CST

Onetime Foreclosure King Facing Multiple Suits Now Turns to New Venture: Five Guys Burgers and Fries

At the top of his game as Florida’s unchallenged foreclosure king, David J. Stern had perhaps 100,000 cases and a back-office legal processing support operation that he sold for $60 million in 2010. Then came allegations of slipshod work and the firm’s sudden collapse last year, after Fannie Mae pulled…

Jan 27, 2012 9:45 PM CST

Ex-Client Sues Orrick for $95M, Says Law Firm Didn’t Explain Cancellation Provision in Loan Contract

A Dallas-based former client sued Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe yesterday in state court in Texas, claiming that it suffered $95 million in damages from a collapsed loan deal because of the law firm’s negligence. Investment company Highland Financial Partners says in the Dallas County suit that it wouldn’t have paid…

Jan 26, 2012 11:31 PM CST

Practice Group Leaders: Masters of the Legal Renaissance?

Before I left my job as general counsel at a software company, I was offered the chance to become general manager of a product group. Unlike my previous role, the GM job didn’t report to the CEO, but in corporate terms it was still viewed as more important than a…

Jan 25, 2012 10:33 PM CST

Law Firm Known as ‘Slavies’ Uses the Nickname in On-Campus Ad, Then Apologizes

A Canadian law firm informally known as “Slavies” to law students, due to its reputation of working them hard, decided to have a little fun with the moniker. Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg crossed out the D on its Davies logo in an on-campus recruiting ad in the student magazine…

Jan 25, 2012 7:59 PM CST

Ex-BigLaw Partner Accused of Faking Kidnap to Avoid DUI Case Gets 12 Months, Loses Driver’s License

A former partner of Allen & Overy and Macfarlanes has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for claiming to police he had been kidnapped in an apparent effort to avoid a possible driving-under-the-influence case after driving his Range Rover off the road. “I doubt a drink-drive conviction would have…

Jan 24, 2012 10:14 PM CST

Ex-Crowell Lawyer Held Without Bail in $2.5M Client Theft is Investigated re $21M More, Gov’t Says

A former Crowell & Moring lawyer accused of embezzling $2.5 million in escrowed client funds was arraigned on Friday in criminal court in Manhattan and ordered held without bail as a flight risk. Douglas Arntsen, 34, faces charges of grand larceny and scheming to defraud. He is also under investigation,…

Jan 23, 2012 5:52 PM CST

Ex-Prez of Ohio State Bar Inflated Law Firm Biz Expenses, Gets 1 Year in Federal Tax Case

A former president of the Ohio State Bar Association has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to falsifying federal tax returns. Under the sentence he received from a federal judge in Youngstown, Leslie W. “Les” Jacobs, 67, must also serve just under…

Jan 18, 2012 9:02 PM CST

Supreme Court Rules for Death-Row Inmate Whose BigLaw Lawyers Missed the Appeal Deadline

Alabama death-row inmate Cory Maples isn’t barred from appealing his conviction because of a blown appeals deadline caused by the departure of his BigLaw pro bono lawyers. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 for Maples, finding there is cause to excuse the procedural default. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote…

Jan 18, 2012 4:05 PM CST

Fed’l Judge OKs Suit Over Alleged Cut-and-Paste Patent Work by Ropes & Gray Ex-Partner

A federal judge in Massachusetts has given a former client of Ropes & Gray the green light to proceed with a malpractice suit over claimed cut-and-paste work done on patent applications by a former partner whose company billed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory about $10,000 for its work. Cold Spring contends…

Jan 18, 2012 12:16 AM CST

Ex-Partners’ Suit Says Law Firm Leader’s Affair with Another Practice Group Lawyer Forced Them Out

Two attorneys have sued a well-known Boston law firm and its managing partner, contending that his alleged affair with one plaintiff’s wife, who is also a lawyer there, cost both their jobs. Now partners at Nixon Peabody, estate planning attorneys Lawrence Cohen and Jay Rosenbaum say they were forced out…

Jan 14, 2012 12:07 AM CST

Tiger Mom Law Prof Didn’t ‘Click with the Law,’ But She Didn’t Stop Trying

The Yale law professor who wrote a book about “Tiger Mom” parenting says she didn’t like BigLaw and she didn’t like law school. Now, in an interview with the Careerist, Professor Amy Chua credits her own parents for teaching her the value of hard work, helping her succeed even when…

Jan 13, 2012 11:30 AM CST