Large Firm

More law firms join ‘best for women’ lists, but statistics are stalled

More firms than ever before vied for a spot on the 11th annual Working Mother Best Law Firms for Women 2018 list. Yet women still face career challenges in large law firms.

Oct 1, 2018 12:15 AM CDT

Cadwalader settles $22M malpractice suit days before trial

Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft this week settled a $22 million malpractice suit that claimed the law firm gave its client bad advice on a potential investment-bank fee that it would have to pay in its bid to acquire Six Flags through a proxy fight. The law firm settled before Friday’s…

Sep 27, 2018 2:24 PM CDT

Widow of BigLaw partner loses en banc petition in wrongful-death lawsuit

The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied a petition to rehear a wrongful-death finding involving GlaxoSmithKline and a former Reed Smith partner who died by suicide while taking a generic version of the prescribed antidepressant Paxil. Wendy Dolin, who was Stewart Dolin’s wife, alleged that GSK…

Sep 21, 2018 3:01 PM CDT

Former Skadden partner may face charges related to Manafort-linked Ukraine report

Attorneys for former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Greg Craig say he did not circulate a report put together by the law firm and involving former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. Law360, Bloomberg and CNN have reports. The report was written by Skadden attorneys about the 2011 trial…

Sep 19, 2018 2:48 PM CDT

Female partner who sued Proskauer regarding compensation joins Polsinelli

Connie Bertram, the Proskauer Rose partner who agreed to dismiss her gender discrimination lawsuit against the firm last month, is now a shareholder with Polsinelli Law.com and Above the Law have reports. An action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleged that Bertram was paid millions…

Sep 17, 2018 2:15 PM CDT

Suit: Blank Rome tried to ‘play cute’ in de facto merger to defraud Dickstein partners

Sixteen former partners at Dickstein Shapiro allege in a lawsuit that Blank Rome structured a merger of the two law firms as an “asset sale” to avoid repaying money in their capital accounts. The former partners say the combination is a de facto merger and they are owed $4 million,…

Sep 13, 2018 1:22 PM CDT

2 firms each sanctioned $500 after defendant complains of ‘egregious discovery gamesmanship’

A federal judge in Seattle has ordered the law firms of Baker Donelson and Corr Cronin to pay $500 each for trying to use an apparent misunderstanding as a litigation “weapon.”

Sep 12, 2018 6:05 AM CDT

Proskauer Rose agrees to pay $63M to resolve investor claims in Stanford’s Ponzi scheme

Proskauer Rose has agreed to pay $63 million to resolve the claims of investors who lost money as a result of a Ponzi scheme by R. Allen Stanford, whose companies were represented by a former partner at the firm. Proskauer would not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still…

Sep 10, 2018 11:36 AM CDT

Former Dewey chairman reaches agreement with SEC to pay six-figure civil penalty

Former Dewey & LeBoeuf chairman Steven Davis has reached an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pay a $130,000 civil penalty, the New York Law Journal reports. Dewey & LeBoeuf went out of business in 2012. Law firm leaders were accused of misleading lenders and bond buyers…

Sep 5, 2018 11:11 AM CDT

Firms provide pro bono assistance to Kansas City communities

Adopt-a-Neighborhood was conceived as a way to use pro bono work to support economic development in Kansas City’s eastside neighborhoods, where homes sit vacant and most residents qualify for Legal Aid’s help.

Sep 1, 2018 2:55 AM CDT

Dan Linna: Taking the measure of legal innovation

When his law firm enlisted then-litigator Daniel W. Linna Jr. for a presentation on evaluating potential trial outcomes, he presented his Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn peers with a hypothetical case—a teaching approach he used later as an adjunct at the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law.

Sep 1, 2018 2:25 AM CDT

BigLaw firms’ competition from the Big Four accounting firms

The Big Four accounting firms have added legal services, moving beyond tax law and integrating their legal services into a multidisciplinary approach.

Sep 1, 2018 1:00 AM CDT

Patent partner at Perkins Coie writes novel that is a ‘wild success’

Inspired by his own extensive work travel, a Perkins Coie patent partner in San Diego has published a debut novel about an air marshal who is ambushed while protecting a teen pop star. The novel, Takeoff, by lawyer Joseph Reid is a “wild success” that has attracted a worldwide fan…

Aug 27, 2018 4:07 PM CDT

Venable’s acquisition of IP firm boosts headcount by 104 lawyers

Venable is acquiring the intellectual property firm Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto. The combination will add 104 Fitzpatrick lawyers to Venable, expanding its IP practice to about 175 lawyers and its total headcount to nearly 800 lawyers, report Bloomberg News, the American Lawyer and a press release. The merger is…

Aug 22, 2018 1:02 PM CDT

Former BigLaw partner gets prison sentence for work on behalf of Martin Shkreli

A former income partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday for conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud in connection with his representation of jailed drug company CEO Martin Shkreli. U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto also required Evan Greebel to pay nearly $10.5…

Aug 20, 2018 11:20 AM CDT