Midsize Firm

Shakeup marks top 10 family-friendly law firms for 2017

Updated: Yale Law Women has announced its list of the top 10 family-friendly law firms for 2017, and it looks a lot different than last year’s list. Only three firms appear on both lists, Above the Law reports. The three returning firms are Arnold & Porter (now Arnold & Porter…

Jun 29, 2017 11:47 AM CDT

How prepared are law firms for cyber breaches? And how often are firms being attacked?

On the same day that a massive ransomware attack hit DLA Piper, cybersecurity startup firm LogicForce released a chilling report that found that law firms are still woefully unprepared for all sorts of cyber threats.

Jun 29, 2017 8:41 AM CDT

Marc Kasowitz’s law firm gets a ‘Trump bump’ in prestige rankings

The law firm founded by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, has broken into the top 100 in Vault’s prestige rankings. Kasowitz Benson Torres got a “Trump bump” with its No. 99 ranking, the New York Times DealBook blog reports. The rankings are based on a survey of 18,000…

Jun 23, 2017 12:10 PM CDT

Median pay for new associates doesn’t budge from 2015

Median pay for first-year associates is the same as it was two years ago—$135,000—according to a salary survey by the National Association for Law Placement.

Jun 2, 2017 8:00 AM CDT

Law firm leaders report lawyer oversupply and ‘chronically underperforming lawyers’

The continuing erosion of demand for legal services continues to be a threat to traditional law firms, according to a survey of law firm leaders in which 61 percent said overcapacity is diluting profitability. Fifty-two percent of law firm leaders responding to Altman Weil’s Law Firms in Transition Survey (PDF)…

May 24, 2017 4:26 PM CDT

‘Second hundred’ law firms trail top 100 in revenue growth; the middle underperforms

Law firms in the Am Law 200—those numbering 101 to 200 in terms of gross revenue—saw small gains in that metric last year after a decline in 2015. But their average increases in gross revenue and other metrics still trail law firms in the top 100. The American Lawyer (sub.…

May 24, 2017 12:20 PM CDT

Saul Ewing and Arnstein & Lehr confirm merger talks; must smaller firms ‘grow or die’?

Philadelphia-based Saul Ewing and Chicago-based Arnstein & Lehr have confirmed they are in merger talks. The combination would create a law firm with more than 400 lawyers, the Legal Intelligencer (sub req.) reports. Saul Ewing would gain offices in Chicago and Florida through the merger with Arnstein & Lehr, which…

May 24, 2017 8:00 AM CDT

6th Circuit nominee wrote more than 400 blog posts under pseudonym; should they sink his nomination?

The blogger who identified himself as “G. Morris” on the blog Elephants in the Bluegrass was actually John K. Bush, a partner and co-chair of the litigation department at Bingham Greenebaum Doll in Louisville, Kentucky. Bush disclosed his blogging in a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire after he was nominated to…

May 23, 2017 8:00 AM CDT

International insurance law firm Kennedys to merge with New Jersey-based CMK

International insurance law firm Kennedys is gaining five U.S. offices through its merger with 100-lawyer Carroll, McNulty & Kull. Kennedys already has an office in Miami. The merger is scheduled to go in effect June 1 with New Jersey-based Carroll McNulty, and will give Kennedys offices in that state as…

May 5, 2017 10:56 AM CDT

Crowell and Herrick Feinstein call off merger talks

Crowell & Moring and New York-based Herrick Feinstein have ended their merger talks. The law firms announced the decision in a joint statement, report Bloomberg Big Law Business and the Am Law Daily (sub. req.), which says the New York Post was first with the news. The statement reads: “Over…

Apr 4, 2017 10:32 AM CDT

Heads of over 150 law firms warn Trump administration against defunding Legal Services Corp.

The heads of more than 150 U.S. law firms, including several of the largest firms in the world, have written a letter to the Trump administration expressing concern regarding a reported proposal to eliminate funding for the Legal Services Corp. The Am Law Daily reported yesterday that the law firm…

Mar 10, 2017 5:30 PM CST

Some law firm leaders question associate pay hikes amid tepid year

Two new reports on the economic health of law firms have found tepid demand for legal services in 2016, even as lawyer head count grew. Those two forces led to a slump in productivity, according to Citi Private Bank and the Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor Economic Index. “Firms were squeezed…

Feb 15, 2017 8:00 AM CST

2016 was a busy year for law firm mergers and acquisitions

2016 marked another busy year in law firm mergers and acquisitions. According to a Thursday press release from Altman Weil, there were 85 such combinations announced in 2016. In fact, Altman Weil MergerLine found that 2016 marked the fourth consecutive year that there were more than 80 law firm mergers…

Jan 9, 2017 8:45 AM CST

The top legal stories of 2016

Updated: As the ABA Journal staff looked back over the past year, these were the 10 legal stories that seemed the most important and prominent. A summary of each is below. 1. Trump wins. If someone had told you one year ago that the 45th president of the United States…

Dec 23, 2016 8:30 AM CST

Working Mother is surveying law firms to find the best ones for family flexibility

Think your law firm offers the best environment for women with children? Now is the time to enter it in an annual competition sponsored by Working Mother magazine. The publication surveys law firms with 50 or more lawyers, with a goal of publicizing information about family-friendly workplaces. Survey questions address…

Dec 19, 2016 3:15 PM CST