Large Firm

Outside Lawyer Censured for ‘Intimate Contact’ with Detroit Mayor While Monitoring City Police

A Washington, D.C., lawyer has been censured for having “intimate contact” one night with Detroit’s then-mayor while she was serving as independent police monitor for the city. Sheryl Robinson Wood said during a disciplinary hearing that she considered the incident a moral and personal lapse and later realized it also…

Oct 22, 2011 1:11 AM CDT

Disbarred After $1.48M Alleged BigLaw Billing Fraud, Ex-Attorney Faces Uphill Reinstatement Battle

Gary and Maureen Fairchild made headlines in the 1990s when the high-profile BigLaw couple were accused of bilking their respective law partners of more than $2 million through collusive law firm billing fraud at the same time that the two Chicago lawyers were legally taking home hundreds of thousands of…

Oct 21, 2011 10:31 PM CDT

After Losing at Least 38 Partners This Year, McDermott Focuses on Strategic Growth

The co-chairs of McDermott Will & Emery are upbeat about the firm’s position, despite the loss of at least 38 partners this year, some of them practice group leaders. The firm is still expanding, they say, and is committed to strategic growth. The Am Law Daily interviewed 11 former partners…

Oct 20, 2011 11:45 AM CDT

Lawyer Who Left BigLaw Partnership for Motherhood Returns as Pro Bono Director

A lawyer who left a BigLaw partnership to stay home with her two young daughters returned to the same law firm and helped create her new position there. Jennifer Kroman left Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in 2006, and says she was “crazy happy” to stay home, the Careerist reports.…

Oct 20, 2011 10:30 AM CDT

Peter Mullen, Skadden Partner Who Built Megafirm With Joseph Flom, Is Dead of Heart Attack at 83

Peter Mullen, a New York lawyer who worked with Joseph H. Flom for many years to build Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom into a powerhouse megafirm, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 83 years old. When Mullen joined Skadden in 1961, after being refused a partnership at…

Oct 20, 2011 12:30 AM CDT

Law Grads Rita and Gustave Hauser Give $40M to Harvard; Floyd Abrams Donates $3M to Yale

A former BigLaw partner and a cable television pioneer are donating $40 million to Harvard University, one of two institutions where the two spouses earned law degrees. The money from Rita and Gustave Hauser will be used to provide teaching grants to faculty, adminstrators and students and to improve teaching…

Oct 18, 2011 8:06 PM CDT

Pillsbury Winthrop to Centralize Back-Office Functions; New Tenn. Facility Could Employ 150

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman plans to centralize the administrative services for its 14 offices in a new facility in Nashville, Tenn., that will house up to 150 employees after it opens next year. The chief financial officer and chief information officer of the New York City-based law firm will move…

Oct 18, 2011 5:10 PM CDT

New Del. Chancery Chief Awards $1.26B in Stock Suit, Raps Wachtell Ex-Partner re ‘Unfair’ Valuation

Saying that a special committee used “a series of economic contortions” to justify a Delaware corporation’s plan to pay a premium $3.1 billion price to purchase a company owned by a majority shareholder, the new chief judge of the state’s chancery court has awarded $1.26 billion to the purchaser, Southern…

Oct 17, 2011 10:55 PM CDT

Was BigLaw Firm’s Contingency Agreement a Conflict? Judge Rejects Disqualification Bid Citing Deal

Time is on King & Spalding’s side in a $100 million suit against a construction management company on behalf of a Georgia school district. Judge Clarence Seeliger refused to disqualify the law firm, saying the cost of replacing King & Spalding five years into the litigation would be “prohibitive,” the…

Oct 14, 2011 3:17 PM CDT

BlackBerry Outage Spurs DLA Piper to Consider the Alternatives; Has Your Firm Already Made a Switch?

A BlackBerry outage that began on Monday and spread to North America has spurred DLA Piper to consider a switch sooner rather than later. Don Jaycox, chief information officer for DLA Piper, tells Reuters the law firm was already considering a move to iPhones and Android devices. Now the discussions…

Oct 13, 2011 12:46 PM CDT

Billboard Company Client Sues Akin Gump Over Its Advice on ‘Supergraphic’ Signs

World Wide Rush, a former client of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, has filed a legal malpractice lawsuit against the firm for dispensing advice that WWR says led to the company’s demise. WWR retained Akin Gump in 2008 to represent it in the so-called Battle over the Blanketing of…

Oct 11, 2011 6:44 PM CDT

Land Use Group Exits Davis Wright’s Office in Portland, Ore., to Form New Boutique

The entire land use practice group in the Portland, Ore., office of Davis Wright Tremaine has reportedly exited the Seattle-based law firm to form a new boutique. Former DWT partners Greg Hathaway, Chris Koback and Mike Connors are now practicing as Hathaway Koback Connors, reports the Portland Business Journal. The…

Oct 7, 2011 9:12 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Allegedly Kicked In Boyfriend’s Door and Had Knife in Bra Is Suspended

The Indiana Supreme Court yesterday ordered the interim suspension of a lawyer accused last year of kicking in a door, committing a battery on her boyfriend and carrying a knife in her bra. It was allegedly was discovered by a jail corrections officer. Olubunmi Okanlami was found guilty of battery…

Oct 7, 2011 6:17 PM CDT

Proskauer Partner Publishes Novel About ‘Death, Guilt and Regrets’

A labor and employment partner at Proskauer Rose has published a novel, and it’s not a typical legal thriller. The Careerist reports that the book, written by lawyer Neil Abramson, is about “death, guilt and regrets.” The Novel, Unsaid, tells the story through the eyes of Helena, a veterinarian who…

Oct 7, 2011 10:29 AM CDT

$18B Enviro Case a ‘Donnybrook’ for Parties’ Law Firms; ‘Both Sides Hate Each Other,’ Law Prof Says

It’s not unusual to see opposing attorneys become friends again the moment a hard-fought case or courtroom argument is over. But unlike many counsel for whom the war of words is something of an act, corporate attorneys at two prominent United States law firms engaged in pitched battle over an…

Oct 7, 2011 12:15 AM CDT