Partners

Once High-Rolling Vegas Law Firms Now Watch Their Wallets

Dealing with the worst legal economy they have seen in nearly four decades of practice, senior partners at law firms in Las Vegas are cutting costs wherever they can. At Jones Vargas, that has meant partner pay cuts, rescinded job offers to a couple of incoming associates and one attorney…

Oct 27, 2009 5:58 PM CDT

Lesson Learned from Astor Trial: Document Client’s Mental Capacity

Once upon a time, New York estate practitioners only had to worry about potential civil litigation if there was a problem with a will they drafted. But after the high-profile criminal conviction earlier this month of a lawyer who represented heiress Brooke Astor before her death at age 105, attorneys…

Oct 26, 2009 4:42 PM CDT

Ohio-Based Buckingham Firm Axes 16, Appoints New Management Team

A nearly 100-year-old Ohio based law firm has let 16 attorneys and staff members go and appointed a new executive committee and managing partner, as part of a restructuring effort to cope with its overly rapid expansion in recent years. The move by Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs implements strategy recommended…

Oct 23, 2009 9:15 PM CDT

Shearman to Open 2nd Italy Office to Service Expanding Transactional Market

Shearman & Sterling will be opening a second office in Italy in January to service its expanding business in the country. The new Milan outpost will be staffed by partners and associates from the firm’s existing Rome office, the firm announces in a press release. “We believe the market for…

Oct 23, 2009 6:58 PM CDT

3 Partners Depart Otten to Form New Denver Litigation Firm

Three partners and an associate are leaving Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti to form their own four-lawyer litigation boutique. It will focus on commercial litigation, eminent domain and construction law. Although sorry to see the group, which includes partners Darrell Waas, Patricia Campbell and Mikaela Rivera, depart, the Otten…

Oct 22, 2009 10:45 PM CDT

Davis Wright Settles Malpractice Suit for $30M Despite ‘Strong’ Position

A major Pacific Northwest-based law firm has agreed to settle for $30 million securities fraud and legal malpractice claims brought by investors in a failed company that oversaw dozens of senior housing complexes. Their Oregon state-court case contends Davis Wright & Tremaine and two other law firms prepared documents for…

Oct 22, 2009 9:46 PM CDT

Ropes & Gray to Launch in London With 2 Former Freshfields Finance Partners

Ropes & Gray plans to launch a new office in London early next year, headed by two former finance partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. This will be the fourth new international office that Ropes & Gray has opened in the past two years, as the more than 1,000-attorney Boston-based law…

Oct 22, 2009 5:24 PM CDT

DLA Piper and Several Major UK Firms Cut Partner Payouts

An American law firm—DLA Piper—is among several law firms identified in a British publication that are holding back or reducing partner profit distributions. DLA Piper continues to pay monthly distributions, but held back its quarterly distribution in August, Legal Week reports. The law firm pays quarterly distributions to partners only…

Oct 22, 2009 4:18 PM CDT

Baker Hostetler in an Expansive Mood

Baker Hostetler has added three new lateral partners and a counsel to its New York office and is planning further growth both there and in other offices. The new attorneys in New York are all litigators and are expected to help court-appointed trustee Irving Picard handle the liquidation of Bernard…

Oct 21, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

4 Adorno & Yoss Lawyers Form New Litigation Boutique

Partner Cary Ichter and three other Adorno & Yoss attorneys have left to form their own Atlanta litigation boutique, which will be known as Ichter Thomas. After practicing at three big firms in a lttle more than six years, Ichter says he decided that he was just more comfortable running…

Oct 21, 2009 8:43 PM CDT

King of Torts Joe Jamail Featured on Slate’s ‘80 Over 80’ List

Billionaire attorney Joe Jamail is featured in a Slate list of the 80 most powerful octagenarians in America. Relying on a profile of Jamail in an ABA Journal article about seven 70-plus lions of the trial bar, Slate notes that the 84-year-old is still pursuing bet-the-farm litigation. To date, the…

Oct 21, 2009 8:31 PM CDT

This Week on LegalRebels.com

Profiled on LegalRebels.com this week were: Charles Nesson: Post-It-All Prof If he doesn’t have the right answers, that’s OK with Charles Nesson. In fact, many say the legendary eccentric—a proud pot smoker who loves poker, almost always records everything and has taught at Harvard Law School for more than 30…

Oct 21, 2009 4:50 PM CDT

4-Partner McDermott Benefits Team Joins Proskauer

Four employment benefits partners from McDermott Will & Emery have moved to the Washington, D.C., office of Proskauer Rose, where they started work today. Although the move required three of the four to join Proskauer as senior counsel rather than partners, his team still was willing to make the move…

Oct 21, 2009 4:46 PM CDT

Pipeline and Lateral Recruiting Blamed for Stagnating Diversity Stats

The proportion of minority lawyers at the nation’s largest and most profitable law firms has increased from 10.4 percent in 2005 to 13.9 percent in 2009, but not every law firm is reporting increased diversity. The Minority Law Journal’s Diversity Scorecard found that more than 12 percent of the law…

Oct 20, 2009 12:58 PM CDT

Bank Battles Law Firm Over Ex-Lawyer’s Right to Millions in Contingent Fees

Can a former lawyer collect contingency fees for work he did while he was still a member of the bar? That is the central question in an Arkansas case that pits a bank that loaned ex-attorney Gene Cauley $13.9 million against his now-former law partners in a battle over millions…

Oct 19, 2009 11:07 PM CDT