Large Firm

TARP Watchdog Questions Vague Billings by Venable, Other BigLaw Firms

An audit report by the acting inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program has questioned billings by Venable and other law firms, saying that they are often vague and inadequate. “Venable submitted” and the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Stability “paid without questioning, fee bills that contained block billing,…

Apr 14, 2011 12:40 PM CDT

5 Ex-Yoss Lawyers Join Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan’s New Boston Office

Five attorneys from the now-defunct Yoss law firm have joined Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan’s new Boston office. The New England office of what is now the country’s largest certified minority-owned law firm opened today, according to a news release. Gonzalez Saggio has 18 offices nationwide. “These outstanding lawyers extend our…

Apr 13, 2011 9:52 PM CDT

Ex-Bronco Romanowski Sues Greenberg Traurig, Says He Got Hit Hard By Tax Shelter OK’d By Firm

A former linebacker for the Denver Broncos has sued Greenberg Traurig, alleging that the law firm was getting a secret 7 percent commission for steering investors to a thoroughbred breeding-rights leasing program at the same time that it advised him and his wife about the appropriateness of the tax shelter.…

Apr 13, 2011 10:10 AM CDT

Suit Says NY Gov’t Lawyer Earned $1M from Nixon Peabody, Seeks to Force Restitution to State

A government attorney in New York was paid nearly $1 million by Nixon Peabody over more than a decade as the law firm defended his county in land-claim litigation brought by the Oneida Indian Nation, giving him a disincentive to settle, a new lawsuit contends. Filed by George Carpinello of…

Apr 12, 2011 6:01 PM CDT

Would-Be Facebook Co-Owner Cites Email Evidence in Court Filing; Social Site Lawyer Calls It Fake

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg prevailed yesterday in one challenge to his ownership of the world’s biggest social networking site. But another is heating up. In the latest development in litigation that a lawyer for Facebook calls “ridiculous,” Paul Ceglia contends in a revised complaint filed yesterday in federal court in…

Apr 12, 2011 2:16 PM CDT

Scathing Complaint Blames Baker & McKenzie, Ex-Partner for Collapse of Corporate Client

Baker & McKenzie and a former partner have been sued in what the Am Law Daily describes as a scathing complaint (PDF) over their alleged roles in a corporate stock scheme that played a role in the collapse of Industrial Enterprises of America. The Pittsburgh-based IEAM is now in bankruptcy…

Apr 12, 2011 12:38 PM CDT

Top Fla. Court to Address High-Profile Foreclosure Case Based on Inaccurate Loan Documents

Can a bank that files a mortgage foreclosure case based on inaccurate documents simply withdraw it when the lack of an appropriate foundation for the litigation becomes clear? That is a central issue in a high-profile case being taken up by the Florida Supreme Court, reports the Heard Along the…

Apr 12, 2011 12:06 PM CDT

Middleman Pleads Guilty in $34M Insider-Trading Case, Says Lawyer Stole Info from 4th BigLaw Firm

A man accused of being a middleman in an alleged insider-trading operation that prosecutors say reaped some $34 million in illegal profits over a 17-year period pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Newark, N.J., to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud.…

Apr 12, 2011 10:33 AM CDT

Nixed for Urination-Monitor Job Over Birth Gender, Worker Files Unusual Discrimination Suit

Born physically female, 39-year-old El’Jai Devoureau is now male according to his birth certificate, driver’s license and social security card, following a course of male hormones and sex-change surgery. But after he was hired by Urban Treatment Associates in Camden to watch men provide urine samples at a drug-treatment center—to…

Apr 11, 2011 5:24 PM CDT

Husch Blackwell to Move in with UK Firm, in London, Without Benefit of Wedlock

Although no merger is apparently contemplated right now, Husch Blackwell and a United Kingdom law firm are planning to set up housekeeping together in London. As part of a “principal partner” relationship, the 600-lawyer Husch firm will move to the London offices of McGrigors, reports Legal Week. The two firms…

Apr 11, 2011 12:13 PM CDT

Accused Middleman ID’d, Expected to Plead in Alleged Insider Info Theft By BigLaw Attorney

A middleman who allegedly passed confidential merger and acquisition information from a BigLaw attorney to a trader involved in a $109 million insider-trading scheme is expected to plead guilty as early as today to charges of conspiracy and securities fraud, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), relying on unidentified…

Apr 11, 2011 10:02 AM CDT

BigLaw Email Bans Short Skirts and Stiletto Heels, Asks Women to Please Brush Their Hair

Reportedly horrified by the sight of a number of female trainees showing too much leg and looking like they were ready for a night of “clubbing” rather than a day at the office as the weather warmed up, one of the United Kingdom’s renowned magic-circle legal partnerships has laid down…

Apr 11, 2011 10:01 AM CDT

Associate Accused of Insider Trading at 3 Big Firms Also Worked for a Fourth—and Sued for Gay Bias

The associate accused of insider trading based on information obtained from three BigLaw firms may also have made some additional money after working for a fourth. Matthew Kluger, 50, is accused of working with two other conspirators to make $32 million in insider trading profits from information gleaned while working…

Apr 8, 2011 11:28 AM CDT

Law Firm Mergers Are Up; Bloggers Debate How Firm Business Models Should Evolve

There were 16 law firm mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. in the year’s first quarter, and the biggest one saw the 3,500-lawyer megafirm DLA Piper bring in Australian affiliate DLA Phillips Fox and its 600 lawyers. “Although we expect 2011 to be a rebound year for law firm mergers,…

Apr 7, 2011 9:43 PM CDT

Eight Orrick Litigators Jump to Two Firms; Weil Practice Group Head Moves On

Groups of lawyers from Weil and Orrick have moved to new law firms. Edwin Woodsome Jr., formerly national chair of the litigation group at Orrick, is moving to Dechert, along with three other Orrick partners. They will establish a new Los Angeles office for Dechert, according to a press release.…

Apr 7, 2011 4:52 PM CDT