Law Firms

Sonnenschein Acknowledges Layoffs of 37 Lawyers, 87 Staffers

Updated: Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal is laying off 37 lawyers and 87 staff members, spread across practice groups and offices. Twenty-seven of the lawyers are associates, six are partners and four are of counsel. The staffers asked to leave include 41 secretaries, 34 other support staffers, and 12 “timekeepers” such…

May 28, 2008 10:29 AM CDT

How ‘Positive Psychology’ Can Help Lawyers Succeed in Practice

Many of the same qualities that help lawyers succeed in practice, such as aggression, critical thinking and a willingness to take on a challenging workload, can be negatives in personal relationships. While that wasn’t a big problem for many, back when client development wasn’t as critical a skill as it…

May 27, 2008 9:48 PM CDT

Ex-Partner of Baker & McKenzie Indicted in $1.3M Client Theft Case

A former corporate partner in Baker & McKenzie’s New York office has been indicted for allegedly stealing $1.3 million from a client trust account. The money reportedly represents interest earned from a $30 million escrow account. However, an attorney for Martin Weisberg says the money was a loan and has…

May 27, 2008 8:53 PM CDT

Want More Women Partners? Then Name Them, Blogger Tells Firms

As he listened recently to yet another panel of managing partners lament the lack of women in the pipeline to promote to partner in their law firms, a blogger had an epiphany. If they want more women partners, they should make more women partners, writes Aric Press, the editorial director…

May 27, 2008 6:33 PM CDT

Money Matters, But So Does the Work, New Law Grads Say

Money matters. But some new associates are prepared to make a bit less in exchange for a better lifestyle. “I’m not going to lie,” Sebastian Kurian, who starts this fall at Miles & Stockbridge, tells the Daily Record. “It definitely played a big role, but at the same time, Miles…

May 27, 2008 4:30 PM CDT

UK Wealth Mgmt. Co. Wants to Buy British Law Firm

Right now, the Formation Group looks to two outside law firms, Halliwells and DLA Piper, to handle the legal needs of its well-heeled clients. But, thanks to new legislation, the U.K. wealth management company for entertainers and professional sports figures is now looking to buy a law firm to service…

May 27, 2008 4:10 PM CDT

Partner’s Wife Stole $160K to Fund Slots Addiction

The 63-year-old spouse of a former senior partner at a British law firm has been jailed, and her husband has lost his job over the nearly $160,000 she reportedly stole from clients to fund a gambling addiction. Although solicitor Kim Orton repaid all the money stolen by his wife, Susanne,…

May 27, 2008 3:47 PM CDT

Our Client: Osama bin Laden’s Ex-Driver—and the Rule of Law

A 2004 telephone call from a law professor and a military lawyer in 2004 led to a startling shift in practice for two Seattle business litigators at Perkins Coie. Soon Harry Schneider, 54, and Joe McMillan, 48, were representing a terrorism suspect in an extremely high-profile case that has already…

May 27, 2008 3:01 PM CDT

Gay BigLaw Partner: Coming Out Helped My Career

Coming out of the closet about his sexual orientation has helped his career, says a London partner at one of the world’s biggest and best-known law firms. Stephen Shea, a tax partner at Clifford Chance, says he is more relaxed with colleagues and clients and willing to take on new…

May 27, 2008 2:43 PM CDT

Partner Promotions Slow at Top London Firms

The number of lawyers promoted to partner at the top 10 law firms in London dropped 10 percent in the most recent financial year. The firms promoted 207 lawyers to partner, compared to 231 in fiscal 2007, Legal Week reports. The publication says the figures suggest that law firms are…

May 27, 2008 11:37 AM CDT

NYC Lawyer Charged With Groping 2 Female Attorneys at Office

Updated: A former name partner in a New York plaintiffs firm has been criminally charged for allegedly groping two female attorneys while working at his own small-firm law office. Richard Dienst, 67, is charged with forcible touching, third-degree sex abuse and harassment after incidents concerning two female lawyers in March…

May 23, 2008 4:07 PM CDT

Humor Columnist Takes Aim at Stealth Layoffs

A humor columnist notes that law firms are reluctant to admit they are suffering from the economic downturn. As a result, they use a number of strategies to lay off unlucky associates in a surreptitious manner. One strategy is the stealth layoff, the columnist known as “The Snark” writes for…

May 23, 2008 11:29 AM CDT

UK Survey Finds Male Lawyers Earn $38K More than Females

Male lawyers in the United Kingdom make about $38,000 more a year on average than female lawyers. The median annual pay for male solicitors in private practice is 60,000 pounds (about $119,000) while median pay for females is 41,000 pounds (about $81,000), a 32 percent difference, Bloomberg reports. When hours,…

May 23, 2008 11:11 AM CDT

‘Manimony’ Less Rare Than Formerly

Only four percent of divorced women pay alimony to their ex-husbands, in part because men, as a group, make more. But men, when they are the lower-paid spouses, are entitled to such post-divorce support while they get back on their feet again, just the same as women. And, although some…

May 22, 2008 11:20 PM CDT

Partner’s Sudden Departure Shutters Atlanta Boutique

When Lowell Fine departed March 31 from the Atlanta litigation boutique he helped found 26 years earlier, he handed in his resignation and left the same day, a former colleague at the firm says. The move reportedly shuttered Alembik, Fine & Callner seven weeks later, as other attorneys at the…

May 22, 2008 5:20 PM CDT