Partners

Ex-Client Sues Law Firm, Says Sex Trial Statements Cost Him $21.5M

Once a high-flying real estate mogul in South Dakota, Doug Hamilton says he lost his entire net worth of over $21.5 million as a result of adverse testimony and arguments by a former employee and her counsel at his sexual harassment trial. Now he is trying to regain at least…

Jan 21, 2010 6:08 PM CST

Prominent Lawyers Charged with Failing to File Personal Income Tax Returns

Two New York attorneys who reportedly have been practicing as partners of well-known law firms and a Long Island personal injury lawyer have been charged in state court with failing to file personal income tax returns. The cases were brought, officials say, as part of a stepped-up effort to enforce…

Jan 20, 2010 7:56 PM CST

Uncomfortable About Blowing Own Horn, Lawyer Talks About Electric Car in TV Ad

Uncomfortable about directly seeking clients for his auto accident practice, a South Carolina attorney and admitted car buff urges viewers to promote electric-powered vehicles on a television ad. “I think it’s awful when lawyers go on there begging for someone to have a crash,” Gary Ling tells the Post and…

Jan 20, 2010 12:41 AM CST

Seyfarth Axes About 40 Attorneys and Staff in Latest Round of Layoffs

In a new cost-cutting move, Seyfarth Shaw announced in an internal memo yesterday that the law firm is laying off approximately 20 attorneys and 20 staff members nationwide. Describing 2009 as “one of the most challenging years in generations for our clients, our peers in the legal profession and for…

Jan 15, 2010 8:10 PM CST

Orrick Lawyer Demands Takedown of $100K Blog Bounty Offer for Info on Apple Computer

An attorney for Apple reportedly sent a takedown demand to a tech industry gossip site, contending that Valleywag’s offer of up to $100,000 in bounty for information about his client’s much-anticipated tablet computer amounts to illegal encouragement to steal trade secrets. In a contest announced earlier this week, the Gawker…

Jan 15, 2010 7:43 PM CST

BigLaw News Isn’t All Bad: More Work and Steady Partner Profits Reported

Updated: Revenue at the nation’s largest law firms dipped an average of 4 percent last year, but the news isn’t all bad. Some law firm leaders tell the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) that they are seeing an increase in litigation, public offerings and regulatory work. They are also seeing…

Jan 15, 2010 3:08 PM CST

Posner Blasts ‘Out of Control’ Class-Action Lawyer in Fee Fight

A federal appeals court has blasted an Illinois class action lawyer as “out of control” and ordered sanctions for bringing a groundless suit for fees against his former law firm partners. The lawyer, Rex Carr, “is locked in mortal combat with his former law partners,” but the litigation is groundless,…

Jan 14, 2010 2:20 PM CST

Boat Commute & Luck Led to Lawyer’s 2nd Gig as Author of Legal Thrillers

David Hosp never intended to write a book. But, after getting married and moving to a new home in suburban Boston, the Goodwin Procter lawyer started commuting to work by boat through the Boston Harbor islands. And remembering how he used to enjoy writing, he decided to spend the hour…

Jan 14, 2010 4:09 AM CST

Jones Day Practice Head Joins Winston; Other Lawyers Likely to Follow

The head of the employee benefits and executive compensation practice group at Jones Day has moved to the San Francisco office of Winston & Strawn, where he expects other lawyers from his former firm to follow him. Although Jones Day has a bigger global footprint, James Baker points out that…

Jan 13, 2010 10:13 PM CST

Ethics Ruling Finds $2M Attorney Fee Excessive in Class Action Aiding 7 People

The founding partner of a Florida law firm violated legal ethics rules by arranging a $7 million class action settlement on behalf of seven individuals rather than all Miami taxpayers, a referee in a Florida Bar attorney disciplinary case has determined. And Henry Adorno of Adorno & Yoss also breached…

Jan 13, 2010 12:45 AM CST

Unrepentant Ex-Lawyer Bill Lerach’s Planned Trip to Europe Irks DOJ

Now disbarred and on probation, former securities class-action king Bill Lerach is planning a European vacation. But prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice, apparently galled not only by the trip itself but by an interview the unrepentant ex-attorney gave to California Lawyer, are urging Lerach’s probation officer and a…

Jan 12, 2010 11:46 PM CST

Law Firm and Ex-Associate Battle in Court and on Net Over Badmouth Blog

A federal judge says she plans to order unspecified “limited” restrictions of an ex-associate’s badmouth blog criticizing the New Jersey law firm that formerly employed him. But it appears that some of the most telling blows in the battle between Levinson Axelrod and attorney Edward Heyburn over his Levinson Axelrod…

Jan 12, 2010 6:31 PM CST

Office Bargains in Bad Economy Allow Law Firms to Create Exciting Spaces

When Florida bankruptcy attorney Rick Perry logged onto a real estate auction site last summer, he was looking for some art. An appointment had canceled, so he had a few minutes to spare. But then he noticed the meager bids on a pair of historic Queen Anne homes in downtown…

Jan 11, 2010 10:46 PM CST

New Milbank Partner Quits After Former Firm Alleges ‘Personal Misconduct’

Less than a week ago, a German lawyer’s leap from Hengeler Mueller to the local offices of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy was being portrayed as a coup for his new United States-based law firm. Now, however, less than two weeks after he started work as a partner of the…

Jan 11, 2010 9:03 PM CST

Will Others Be Charged in Alleged $1.2B Scheme By Founder of Fla. Law Firm?

After news of a planned guilty plea in an alleged $1.2 billion fraud by the founder and former managing partner of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, observers are wondering whether others are going to be charged in the case. In a filing yesterday concerning a conflict-of-interest argument being made over now-disbarred defendant…

Jan 8, 2010 6:39 PM CST