Partners

40% of Firms Cut Starting Associate Pay, While 44% Consider 2010 Cut

Leaders of American’s top 200 law firms are more optimistic than they were a year ago. But associates may not be sharing that enthusiasm. An American Lawyer survey of law firm leaders found that 40 percent of the firms had reduced starting pay for their associates, and 44 percent are…

Dec 1, 2009 8:02 PM CST

Seyfarth Partner Sues Over Demotion, Claims Core Values Just a Marketing Tool

A Seyfarth Shaw partner who was demoted after a $30 million malpractice verdict that targeted his advice has sued his law firm in a complaint that derides its emphasis on profits. Lawyer William Lancaster claims in the lawsuit (PDF) that he was forced to accept a demotion and an unfair…

Dec 1, 2009 2:23 PM CST

Clean & Sober for 6 Years, Lawyer Starts New Solo Practice

Although he pleaded guilty in 1992 to misdemeanor cocaine use two years earlier, Terry Nolan didn’t realize he had a substance abuse problem. He stopped drinking, for good, in 1998, the Michigan defense attorney tells the Muskegon Chronicle. But, fueled with the funds brought in by his successful law practice,…

Nov 30, 2009 7:16 PM CST

BigLaw Partner Promotions Plummet, Even at Highly Profitable Wachtell

Last year, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz promoted six attorneys to partner. This year, despite being the most profitable firm in the country, it named only two new partners this month. And it’s far from alone in reducing its ownership ranks. Many BigLaw firms are promoting fewer associates to partner…

Nov 30, 2009 4:28 PM CST

Indicted Defense Lawyer Makes Unusual Filing in Civil SEC Case

A 56-year-old Georgia securities law practitioner and another man have been criminally charged in federal court in North Carolina concerning an alleged interstate investment fraud. But that shouldn’t prevent defense lawyer Gregory Bartko from continuing to represent a client in a claimed $53 million civil fraud case in federal court…

Nov 24, 2009 11:17 PM CST

Trial Lawyer Speeding Up to 79 mph in 40 mph Zone Before Deadly Crash

A celebrated Houston plaintiffs attorney was speeding at almost twice the legal limit on rain-slick pavement when he lost control of his SUV late last month, striking a tree and killing himself and a passenger who worked for him. Police say neither John O’Quinn nor his employee, Johnny Cutliff, was…

Nov 24, 2009 7:58 PM CST

Meet William Marler, a Food Safety Lawyer Hungry for Change

Young and “extremely overconfident,” William Marler took a leading role in his first food-borne illness case when he was only five years out of law school. But news coverage about his severely injured 9-year-old client helped persuade another 200 alleged victims of a fast food restaurant in Washington state to…

Nov 24, 2009 7:08 PM CST

Chair and Vice Chair of Howard Rice’s Business Practice Jump to Other Firms

The chair and vice chair of the business department of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin left last week to join to other law firms. Deborah Marshall, who chairs the department, went to Sidley Austin, where she will be joined by Howard Rice partners Hank Barry and Stephen Fronk,…

Nov 24, 2009 12:24 PM CST

Too Embarrassed to Make Layoffs, Lawyer Stole $9.3M, Gets 7 Years

Too embarrassed to admit that he’d suffered financial reverses and make layoffs, a well-known Arkansas plaintiffs attorney instead admittedly stole $9.3 million from client trust funds he controlled to keep his law firm going. “I built several businesses. I went through a cash-flow crisis,” Steven Eugene Cauley told U.S. District…

Nov 23, 2009 9:52 PM CST

Revenge Is Tweet, Finds Lobbyist Miffed By New York Times Story

Corrected: Aggravated by a critical New York Times article this week about a major client, the vice chairman of Washington, D.C.’s Cassidy & Associates lobbying firm struck back via social media. Turning to his personal Twitter feed, Gregg Hartley blasted the Times reporter who wrote the article for having an…

Nov 20, 2009 10:25 PM CST

After BigLaw Deferral, 2008 Grad Finds New Job as a Judge

Having his start date deferred from a BigLaw job in Chicago turned out to be a positive career development for a 2008 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. Forced to look for other work, Michael Edwards found a U.S. Navy job in Indiana that made use of his law degree…

Nov 18, 2009 11:40 PM CST

Testimony: Fed’l Judge Owed $150K on Credit Cards, Got $20K from 2 Lawyers

A federal judge in Louisiana racked up $150,000 in credit card debt, largely to cover his gambling, as he routinely solicited cash and gifts from lawyers appearing before him, witnesses told a House Judiciary Committee task force today in an initial step toward possible impeachment of the jurist. But one…

Nov 17, 2009 9:51 PM CST

‘Sonic Boom’: Rothstein Churned $250M in Trust Funds Last Month, Lawyer Says

Attorney Scott Rothstein allegedly wired $18 million to Morocco last month and churned some $250 million that flowed through his trust accounts in October, as he apparently prepared for a possible relocation to the African country, according to news reports. “Those are enormous figures,” attorney Bill Scherer, who represents investors…

Nov 17, 2009 8:55 PM CST

Partners of Mintz Levin and Choate Form New Law Firm

Two Boston partners at well-known law firms are striking out on their own. Lawrence Gennari and Neil Aronson are forming their own firm in Needham, Mass. It will apparently focus on corporate law, including start-up companies, according to the Journal of New England Technology. “We really want to try something…

Nov 17, 2009 6:12 PM CST

Misconduct By 3 Sekhon Firm Lawyers Puts Up to 700 Clients in Peril

Sekhon & Sekhon claimed a 95 percent success rate concerning more than 1,000 immigrants that the law firm helped to win political asylum in the United States. But now up to 700 could be deported because they lied to immigration judges and asylum officers after the law firm and interpreters…

Nov 16, 2009 6:10 PM CST