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

WilmerHale Could Save $214M Due to a Deadline Provision in the Patent Bill

Critics are labeling a patent reform bill “The Dog Ate My Homework Act” for the protection it gives WilmerHale and its client the Medicines Company. The bill would award patents to inventors who are “first to file” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, rather than those who are “first…

Sep 8, 2011 12:08 PM CDT

Joseph Dilg to Step Down as Managing Partner of V&E; Two Lawyers Will Replace Him

Two Vinson & Elkins partners who have collectively worked at the firm for 59 years will replace managing partner Joseph Dilg, who will resign from his leadership post at the end of the year. Dilg, 60, has served as managing partner for 10 years, according to the Am Law Daily…

Sep 7, 2011 4:29 PM CDT

Career Conversations: Michael Subak, Pepper Hamilton

The interactive sessions of Pepper Hamilton’s summer associate interviews are exactly what they sound like, says hiring committee chairman Michael P. Subak. Done during callbacks, the discussions are not meant to be a test or come off as argumentative. But the sessions are also more than the usual elevator-speech chatter…

Sep 7, 2011 1:56 PM CDT

2.0 Toolbox: Nithya Das, Goodwin Procter

Gumption (and an innate sense of business development) has propelled Goodwin Procter associate Nithya Das into the spotlight among clients and colleagues and within the venture capital community. Das melds a variety of social media campaigns into new legal marketing models that engage clients and boost her practice. And through…

Sep 6, 2011 1:52 PM CDT

Legal Rebels 2011: Big Change in BigLaw

BigLaw and innovation? This year’s crop of Legal Rebels demonstrates that those are not necessarily contradictory terms. Certainly the major-firm environment has its soothing perks in salary, specialization and star power. And as the legal profession struggles under the pressures of technology, rising competition, client demands and a still-strained economy,…

Sep 1, 2011 10:19 AM CDT

Messin’  with Texas: Major Firms Move in on the Ol’ Boy Network

Sep 1, 2011 7:20 AM CDT

Working Wiki: Paula Nascimento, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

After a typical training session for new recruits, corporate paralegal manager Paula Nascimento braces herself for the barrage of phone calls, emails and pop-in visits that always follow. But on this particular afternoon in 2009, the phone was silent, her office empty. Nascimento, 41, wasn’t insulted; she was excited. Glancing…

Aug 31, 2011 2:11 PM CDT