Large Firm

8-Lawyer Real Estate Team Leaps from Holland & Knight to Lerch Early

Five real estate and land use partners from the Bethesda, Md., office of Holland & Knight have led an eight-lawyer group to Lerch Early & Brewer, The group had gotten to know Lerch Early, which is based in Bethesda and has about 65 attorneys, including the new arrivals, by working…

Sep 19, 2011 7:36 PM CDT

2 High-Level SEC Veterans Move to BigLaw Jobs, Where They Will Help Clients Comply with Dodd-Frank

After decades with the Securities and Exchange Commission, two high-level veterans are leaving to take BigLaw posts in which they will help clients comply with the Dodd-Frank Act. After 25 years with the SEC, James Brigagliano is leaving his job as deputy director of the trading and markets division for…

Sep 19, 2011 5:14 PM CDT

The Deal Maker: Paul Sweeney, Foley Hoag

Paul Sweeney didn’t intend to make any money off a $250 startup incorporation package that Foley Hoag offered on the deal site LevelUp. But the marketing aspect of the email, sent to thousands in the Boston area, was priceless. “In terms of business development, the old rules of communication still…

Sep 19, 2011 1:51 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Wife Can Sue Nixon Peabody Attorney re Claimed Injuries Due to Her Own Husband’s Fraud

Once a prominent New Hampshire attorney, Thomas J. Tessier was disbarred in 2008. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence after allegedly funneling some $2.3 million from an estate for his own personal use while working at Christy & Tessier in Manchester, according to an Associated Press article published…

Sep 15, 2011 8:27 PM CDT

Fulbright & Jaworski Is Pondering Possible Merger Discussions with Norton Rose, Legal Week Says

As part of an ongoing international strategy review, Fulbright & Jaworski is reportedly pondering whether it should consider discussing a possible merger with United Kingdom-based megafirm Norton Rose. Legal Week quotes an unidentified Fulbright partner as saying that entering into merger discussions with Norton Rose is one of several strategic…

Sep 15, 2011 6:11 PM CDT

Atlanta Thrashers Ownership Group Settles $195M Malpractice Suit Against King & Spalding

A group that recently sold the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team has settled a malpractice suit against King & Spalding. Terms of the settlement were confidential, according to the Associated Press, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Am Law Daily. The $195 million suit, filed in January by the Atlanta Spirit group,…

Sep 14, 2011 6:07 PM CDT

Back-to-School Boss: Mel Immergut, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy

When Mel M. Immergut first heard the proposal from his Munich-based colleague Norbert Rieger, the methodical chairman of white-shoe law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy did something unusual. “I immediately told him it was a great idea,” Immergut says. “Then I more characteristically asked for the two-page memo on…

Sep 14, 2011 2:00 PM CDT

Former Greenberg Traurig Partner Gets 6 Years for Overbilling Client Suburb

Updated: A former Chicago partner of Greenberg Traurig pleaded guilty to theft today in Cook County Circuit Court and was sentenced to six years for overbilling a client municipality in the city’s suburbs. Mark McCombs pleaded guilty to a theft of over $100,000 and was taken into custody to begin…

Sep 13, 2011 2:11 AM CDT

Dechert Hires Bank Counsel to Run New Outsourcing Practice; It’s Vivian Maese’s 1st Law Firm Job

A New York lawyer who has until now worked in high-level managerial roles at well-known financial institutions has accepted her first law firm job: as head of a new practice group at Dechert. Vivian Maese will oversee the firm’s new global outsourcing and offshoring practice group. It is intended to…

Sep 12, 2011 5:13 PM CDT

Former Howrey Chairman Will Join Winston’s DC Office

Former Howrey chairman and CEO Robert Ruyak will join Winston & Strawn’s Washington, D.C., office. Ruyak will be a partner in the firm’s global litigation practice, report the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg News, the Am Law Daily and a press release. He led Howrey beginning in 2000 until its dissolution in…

Sep 12, 2011 4:17 PM CDT

The Disrupter: David Perla, Pangea3

India, with its booming economy and wealth of young, educated lawyers eager for work, was at the forefront of David Perla’s mind the day he met with his good friend Sanjay Kamlani to hatch a plan that would turn the traditional law firm model inside out. “We wanted to effect…

Sep 12, 2011 1:37 PM CDT

Some Major Firms Based in Pa. are Raising 1st-Year Associate Salaries

In another sign of a strengthening legal market, associates at some well-known Pennsylvania-based law firms are getting pay raises. Starting salaries for Pennsylvania first-years at Reed Smith; Blank Rome; Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young; and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis have all gone up, the Legal Intelligencer reports in an…

Sep 9, 2011 8:37 PM CDT

Dodd-Frank Is Lucrative for BigLaw; Debevoise Earns $100K for a 17-Page Letter

The Dodd-Frank financial reform law is bedeviling banks and benefiting BigLaw. Lawyers are competing for a cut of the action, along with accountants, financial consultants, technology vendors and others, the New York Times reports. “Call it Dodd-Frank Inc.,” the newspaper says. “A year after Congress passed the broadest financial overhaul…

Sep 9, 2011 12:41 PM CDT

Patent Overhaul Sent to Obama; WilmerHale Gets $214M Clarification

The U.S. Senate has approved patent legislation that adopts a “first to file” system and gives WilmerHale protection from $214 million in malpractice damages. The legislation, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, is the most sweeping patent overhaul in decades, the National Law Journal reports. Small business groups had criticized the…

Sep 9, 2011 11:31 AM CDT

Dennis Block to Leap from Cadwalader to Greenberg Traurig, Where He Will Chair Global M&A Practice

A leading mergers and acquisitions lawyer is leaving Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft after 13 years for Greenberg Traurig, where he will chair the global M&A practice group, reports the DealBook blog of the New York Times. Dennis Block, 69, “will help move our team into the ranks of the foremost…

Sep 8, 2011 11:19 PM CDT