Partners

$50K Payment Ends Indy Law Firm’s $18M Nightmare

After worrying for two years about an $18 million jury verdict, partners of Fillenwarth Dennerline Groth & Towe were presumably delighted to ante up $50,000 to the Indiana Department of Insurance in order to win release from the judgment against the law firm. In return, the Indianapolis-based law firm has…

Jul 8, 2008 9:56 PM CDT

Making Partner Costs More Money

With prices generally on the rise, law firms are no exception. And, in a struggling economy, many are seeking to reduce their borrowing. The answer, a number have decided, is to ask their partners to pay more. As an alternative to borrowing from banks, such firms require partners to make…

Jul 8, 2008 7:03 PM CDT

6 Schwartz Cooper Refugees Pass Up Dykema, Choose Ungaretti

Not everyone at the soon-to-be shuttered Schwartz Cooper believes that bigger is better. Indeed, a group of six from the firm’s intellectual property law group have decided to shift to Chicago’s venerable Ungaretti & Harris rather than join their colleagues going to Detroit-based Dykema. “A merger was not what we…

Jul 8, 2008 4:52 PM CDT

Ex-Partner Sexually Harassed 12, Kasowitz Law Firm Says in Lawsuit

Striking back at a former partner who last month filed a defamation claim over a law firm press release that he had been fired for “extremely inappropriate personal conduct,” Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman filed a lawsuit of its own today in Manhattan Supreme Court. In it, the law firm…

Jul 7, 2008 9:13 PM CDT

Lawyer, Paralegal Blame Each Other for $200,000 in Missing Client Money

Recent testimony by an ex-attorney in Florida and her former paralegal, office manager and best friend sheds considerable light on why their law firm had trouble managing its money and lost track, at least, of some $200,000 in missing client funds. The ex-attorney, Jessica Miller, who is currently being held…

Jul 7, 2008 3:35 PM CDT

Schulte Roth Opens in D.C. with Hires from Dickstein, Morgan Lewis

A New York law firm known for representing hedge fund clients is opening an office in Washington, D.C., that will be staffed partly with lawyers from Dickstein Shapiro and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Schulte Roth & Zabel decided to expand to D.C. to help its clients on matters involving Securities…

Jul 2, 2008 1:14 PM CDT

New Law Firm Marketing Technique: 99-Cent Gas

There’s no word on whether Kentucky personal injury attorney Kevin Renfro and the Becker Law Office, picked up any new clients. But his law firm-sponsored 99-cent gas sale at a local station in Louisville certainly garnered a lot of free publicity and a captive audience. Motorists lined up as early…

Jul 1, 2008 10:50 PM CDT

Eight Akin Gump Lawyers Move to Hunton & Williams

Eight labor lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld are moving to Hunton & Williams to staff offices in California and Texas. Among those making the move is Laura Franze, a co-chair of Akin Gump’s labor and employment group who will hold the same position at Hunton, the Recorder…

Jul 1, 2008 11:59 AM CDT

Amicable Divorce for Partners of Dissolving Coffman Coleman in Fla.

A Jacksonville, Fla., employment boutique is dissolving, but the parting is a friendly one. Coffman Coleman Andrews & Grogan had been approached a number of times about merging with other firms, and when that didn’t happen, other firms “started cherry-picking” its attorneys a few years ago, partner Bill Andrews tells…

Jun 30, 2008 4:00 PM CDT

N.Y. PI Firm in Evidence Scandal Can Sue Its Own Counsel for Malpractice

A 1986 lawsuit by New York City alleging falsification of evidence by attorneys at what was once a top personal injury law firm there isn’t yet completely resolved. The accused law firm can sue its defense counsel in the city’s tort claim for malpractice, a state appeals court has decided,…

Jun 27, 2008 7:29 PM CDT

Ex-Client Says Kaye Scholer Discovery Errors Cost Millions

Updated: A former client of Kaye Scholer has sued the New York law firm for legal malpractice, contending that discovery errors forced it to enter into a $107 million antitrust settlement last month. It is seeking as damages the difference between $107 million and the nuisance settlement it says it…

Jun 26, 2008 8:13 PM CDT

Madonna Consults Top UK Lawyer re Possible Divorce

The seven-year itch has apparently struck pop singer Madonna, who is reportedly consulting with a top United Kingdom matrimonial lawyer for legal advice about a possible divorce from her husband of seven years, Guy Ritchie, 39. Attorney Fiona Shackleton, 52, who successfully represented ex-Beatle Paul McCartney in his divorce from…

Jun 26, 2008 4:31 PM CDT

Would-Be Partner’s $12M Suit Says Law Firm Discriminates Against Women

A would-be partner’s suit against one of Canada’s top-tier law firms doesn’t just claim that McCarthy Tetrault discriminated against her because of her gender. It contends that the firm systemically discriminates against other women lawyers, too. But the Ontario-based firm, which has already paid Diane LaCalamita about $200,000 in severance,…

Jun 25, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

Three-Partner IP Team Jumps From Sonnenschein to MoFo

Morrison & Foerster has hired a team of three intellectual property lawyers from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, including a Sonnenschein practice group chair. “Alexander Hadjis and Kristen Yohannan join as partners in Washington while Rudy Kim joins as partner in Palo Alto,” reports the Lawyer. All three were also partners…

Jun 24, 2008 7:17 PM CDT

Lawyers in Love Celebrate Anniversaries at Home—and at Work

Grant and Sandy Liser are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary this month. But the two Texas lawyers are achieving a memorable milestone as partners at the office this year, too: a decade together at the same law firm, practicing together as trial attorneys in a 21-lawyer defense firm. Although their…

Jun 23, 2008 5:52 PM CDT