Partners

Pay Cuts Accelerate at Law Firms Across the Country

News today that Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis is cutting associate—and partner—pay is the latest in a series of announcements that seem to signal a seismic shift in the way well-known law firms are managing corporate law practice. Even though the firm is on budget for the year, Schnader Harrison…

Jun 30, 2009 10:18 PM CDT

Schnader Cuts Partner Pay By 5%, Chops $10K Off Associate Salaries

Adding to a growing law firm economy trend intended to add value to corporate clients’ legal spending, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis is implementing an across-the-board pay cut for associates and partners. Schnader is chopping $10,000 off of all associate salaries, and partners have also decided to cut their own…

Jun 30, 2009 7:34 PM CDT

Clifford Chance Expands in Singapore, But Plans to Close Hungarian Office

As Clifford Chance expands its practice in Asia, it is also eliminating one of its offices in Europe. Arbitration specialist Nish Shetty of the Wong Partnership will be establishing a southeast Asian disputes practice in Singapore for the London-based megafirm, reports the Law Central blog of the London Times. At…

Jun 30, 2009 3:37 PM CDT

Fire Destroys Law Office of Indicted Kansas Attorney

A fire early yesterday destroyed the Kansas City, Kan., law office of Rosie Quinn and Associates. The office, which is located at Fifth Street and Troup Avenue, was already filed with smoke when firefighters arrived at about 2 a.m., and bars on the building’s windows and doors made it difficult…

Jun 30, 2009 9:42 AM CDT

Fearless Media Lawyer Mellows in HBO Documentary Filmed by Daughter

A documentary that highlights milestones in First Amendment history during the past century premieres tonight on HBO. Directed and produced by Liz Garbus, the movie, Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech, also offers an unusually intimate view of her father, attorney Martin Garbus of Eaton & Van…

Jun 29, 2009 10:09 PM CDT

Goodwin Leader Is Latest Lateral Lured to Growing Linklaters Office in NYC

Partner Robin Maxwell of Goodwin Procter is the latest lateral lured to the rapidly growing New York City office of London-based Linklaters. The firm today announced the acquisition of Maxwell, who headed Goodwin Procter’s financial services team, saying that her banking regulatory experience would be a much-needed skill as financial…

Jun 29, 2009 8:25 PM CDT

Ex-Latham Practice Head Gets 15 Months in Client Expense Fraud Case

In a sad day for a former partner at Latham & Watkins and his family, he has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison after expressing contrition for bilking the firm and clients in a six-figure expense fraud in which he mischaracterized personal bills and nonreimbursable work-related costs. Samuel…

Jun 26, 2009 10:55 PM CDT

Despite ‘Relatively Good Start to 2009,’ Venable Cuts Associate Pay By 8-9%

In an increasingly common BigLaw scenario, Venable has announced an across-the-board associate pay cut. But in a unique twist, the firm is slicing 8 percent off most associate salaries, rather than implementing the 10 percent haircut that many major firms that have taken this approach have required, according to an…

Jun 26, 2009 8:01 PM CDT

3 Lawyers Guilty in ‘Assembly-Line Fraud Factory’ Calif. Asylum Scam

Although they were acquitted on some counts, three California lawyers were convicted yesterday after a three-month federal trial in Sacramento, Calif., in what prosecutors describe as an audacious asylum scam. Partners and brothers Jagprit Singh Sekhon, 39, and Jagdip Singh Sekhon, 42, with the help of two interpreters and a…

Jun 26, 2009 5:39 PM CDT

Megafirm DLA Piper Poised to Overhaul ‘Lockstep’ Model

The nation’s largest firm, DLA Piper, is planning to continue scaling back the size of its associate classes and rethink its associate program. DLA has already cut associate salaries and delayed start dates for its ‘09 first-year associate class, which is down to 85 lawyers from 100 the year before.…

Jun 25, 2009 10:35 AM CDT

As Law Practice Paradigm Shifts, Proactive Lawyers Consider Career Changes

After joining the Atlanta office of Hunton & Williams in 1989, soon after it opened, L. Traywick Duffie was still practicing there 20 years later. But not any more. The labor and employment specialist, who until March was co-head of his former firm’s practice group, is now a partner at…

Jun 24, 2009 11:32 PM CDT

Dykema; Miller Canfield; Honigman Miller Lay Off +70

Three large firms in Detroit have announced they are laying off a combined 41 lawyers and 30 support staff throughout their offices. At Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone, the loss amounts to 13 attorneys, though where and which practice areas were not revealed in the Crain’s Detroit Business article noting…

Jun 24, 2009 2:23 PM CDT

Economy Better, But More Partner Layoffs to Come, Survey Says

Corrected: Some two-thirds of 133 managing partners or chairmen of large law firms report that they’re feeling better about the economy and they expect it to continue to get better over the next six months. But in a survey by Citi Private Bank Law Watch, many of those law firm…

Jun 24, 2009 10:20 AM CDT

Norton Rose to Wed Major Australian Firm

A major international firm that is considered one of the top legal shops in London is acquiring a 146-partner Australian counterpart, setting the stage for greater dominance by Norton Rose Group in the Asia-Pacific region. The merger with Deacons was approved by a partnership vote last night and will take…

Jun 24, 2009 12:18 AM CDT

26 Former Foster Pepper Lawyers Form New Oregon Firm

Breaking away from Seattle-based Foster Pepper after more than two decades of affiliated practice, 26 lawyers in Portland, Ore., have hung out their own shingle this month and begun honing their own brand. Now the city’s 19th-largest law firm, Roberts Kaplan has created a new website that features photos of…

Jun 23, 2009 5:07 PM CDT