Partners

Chadbourne Announces 4th High-Profile In-House IP Counsel Hire

Confirming earlier news that former Yahoo Inc. vice president and associate general counsel of global patents Duane Valz would be joining Chadbourne & Parke, the law firm today announced his move to the firm as counsel in its Los Angeles and Silicon Valley offices. The 39-year-old Valz is the fourth…

Sep 10, 2009 9:18 PM CDT

Income Gap Shrinks as Lawyers and Other Top Earners Take a Pay Hit

Law firm partners, CEOs, investment bankers and other highly paid individuals are earning less, helping shrink the income gap between top wage earners and those with more modest paychecks. In 2007, the top 1 percent of U.S. families—those making more than around $400,000 a year—accounted for 23.5 percent of all…

Sep 10, 2009 11:59 AM CDT

Katten Raids Hunton & Williams to Form New White-Collar Practice Group

A four-lawyer team has been lured from the Washington, D.C., office of Hunton & Williams to form a new white-collar litigation practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman. Partners Steven Solow and Whitney Ellerman now co-chair the new practice group, and Solow is also at the helm of Katten’s environmental litigation practice,…

Sep 9, 2009 9:54 PM CDT

Client Sues Bryan Cave for $10M, Says Prenup Silent on Capital Gains Tax

A prominent Missouri businessman has sued Bryan Cave for malpractice in St. Louis County Circuit Court, contending that the firm and partner Lawrence Brody botched his prenuptial agreement by failing to address the issue of capital gains tax. Since a substantial portion of Donald Bryant’s assets were in a high-profile…

Sep 9, 2009 9:14 PM CDT

‘Rip Van Winkle’ Rejoins Aviation Firm After 7 Years as a High School Teacher

A founding partner of a San Mateo, Calif., law firm who took a seven-year detour from his legal career to teach algebra at a public high school is now back in practice there again. Jim Collins, 57, has rejoined the O’Reilly Law Firm, which is now known as O’Reilly ||…

Sep 9, 2009 7:26 PM CDT

Ex-SG Goes to Latham, Replacing Maureen Mahoney as Appellate Chair

Former Solicitor General Gregory Garre has landed at Latham & Watkins, where he will replace Maureen Mahoney as chair of the appellate practice group. The National Law Journal calls the move “a significant catch for the firm.” Garre told the publication that Mahoney, who chaired the appellate group for two…

Sep 9, 2009 11:50 AM CDT

N.Y. AG Calls Bank’s Privilege Claims ‘Indiscriminate,’ Seeks Waiver

Stymied in his efforts to determine whether the Bank of America and executives complied with disclosure requirements concerning its merger with Merrill Lynch by what he terms an “indiscriminate” use of attorney-client privilege, the New York attorney general is calling for the bank to make its inside and outside counsel…

Sep 8, 2009 9:45 PM CDT

Client’s Sons Sue Hogan & Hartson for $120M, Say Lawyer Fought Too Hard

When Robert Cave agreed to help Colleen Boland negotiate a settlement agreement to resolve alimony and child support issues with her ex-husband, the Hogan & Hartson partner thought of the matter as a quick favor. But nearly 12 years later, the matter—which survived his client’s death several years ago—has damaged…

Sep 8, 2009 8:33 PM CDT

Partner Promotions at Top UK Firms Fell 33% Over Past Year

A number of British law firms have recently added up the numbers for fiscal years that run from 2008 to 2009 and, after a year of economic turmoil that has hit the legal industry particularly hard, the picture isn’t pretty. Partner promotions plunged among the United Kingdom’s 50 largest firms…

Sep 3, 2009 5:06 PM CDT

White-Collar Defense Titans Bennett and Rauh Jump from Skadden to Hogan

Robert Bennett, one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers, is jumping to Hogan & Hartson along with another white-collar titan, Carl Rauh. Above the Law calls Bennett an “uber-attorney” in its post breaking the news. “His client list reads like [a] CNN promo: Enron, Bill Clinton, Judith Miller, Caspar…

Sep 3, 2009 4:41 PM CDT

First Women Elected to Simpson Thacher’s Executive Committee

Women partners at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are celebrating the election of two women to the firm’s executive committee. Sarah Cogan and Laura Palma are the first women to join the 12-member committee in the firm’s 125 years of existence, the Am Law Daily reports. “It was a gaping hole…

Sep 3, 2009 11:55 AM CDT

Pfizer Whistle-Blower’s $51.5M Payday Could Spark More Qui Tam Suits

Five whistle-blowers will share $102 million as part of a record-breaking $2.3 billion settlement by Pfizer Inc. of a federal criminal probe and civil qui tam litigation over the company’s drug-marketing practices. Among those expecting a hefty payday under the False Claims Act is a former Texas sales representative for…

Sep 3, 2009 12:09 AM CDT

Stanford Receiver Defends $27M Bill Against SEC’s ‘Shrill Objections’

In an unusual public battle over a court-appointed receiver’s $27 million bill, attorney Ralph Janvey is telling the feds that cleaning up an alleged $7 billion bank Ponzi scheme of which Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford is the accused mastermind costs money. In a filing last night in federal district…

Sep 2, 2009 6:22 PM CDT

Laterals Who Jumped to Dewey Lead Firm’s Work on eBay Skype Deal

Dewey & LeBoeuf is representing eBay in the $1.9 billion sale of Skype, thanks to the law firm’s acquisition of three laterals from Cooley Godward Kronish. The three mergers and acquisitions lawyers are on Dewey’s team handling the eBay sale, and two of them—Richard Climan and Keith Flaum—are leading the…

Sep 2, 2009 4:22 PM CDT

Patton Boggs Hires Search Firm to Replace COO; Nonlawyers May Apply

Patton Boggs has hired a search firm to look for a new chief operating officer after COO Ira Fishman left to become managing director of the NFL Players Association. Fishman is one of several Patton Boggs lawyers who left to join the association, the Am Law Daily reports, summarizing a…

Sep 2, 2009 1:30 PM CDT