Partners

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

Meet Michael Smyth, ‘Social Conscience of the City Law Firms’

Michael Smyth’s practice focus isn’t what most lawyers would expect of a partner at a London-based mega-firm. But the 51-year-old Clifford Chance litigator is described by the London Times as “the social conscience of the city law firms” in a lengthy profile of Smyth and his entrepreneurial views about melding…

Jun 19, 2008 3:35 PM CDT

Counsel Explains Why Milberg Settled: Law Firm Survival

In the aftermath of the official announcement of a $75 million settlement in the never-before-seen criminal indictment of a major U.S. law firm, a lawyer representing Milberg explains why the firm entered into the plea agreement. The answer to that question, attorney William Taylor III tells American Lawyer, is simple:…

Jun 18, 2008 7:07 PM CDT

Convicted Milberg Partners Accused in Lawsuit of Draining Firm’s Assets

Two former partners at Milberg contend in a lawsuit that partners who pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to lead plaintiffs harmed the law firm and drained its assets. The suit could be just the beginning of litigation against founder Melvyn Weiss and former partners William Lerach, Douglas Bershad and Steven…

Jun 18, 2008 11:31 AM CDT

Mass Defection Shutters Buckingham’s Columbus Office, for Now

After 27 of 28 lawyers in its Columbus office jumped ship for a competing Ohio law firm, Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs has temporarily shuttered its shop there. But the president of the 140-attorney firm says it “probably” will reopen its Columbus office, reports the National Law Journal. It appears that…

Jun 17, 2008 4:11 PM CDT

Bear Stearns Ace Joins K&L Gates

The former managing director of the Bear Stearns legal arm in New York has joined Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis as a partner. Phillip Cedar, who was in private practice with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom before he joined the now-struggling investment bank, is expected to focus his…

Jun 16, 2008 9:34 PM CDT

Major UK Law Firms Plan to Help Partners Launch Post-Retirement Careers

At least two major London-based law firms are pursuing programs to help partners launch new careers after they retire from legal practice. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has already started a pilot program, in which partners nearing retirement sit down with consultants to discuss ” their strengths and possible career paths,” reports…

Jun 12, 2008 5:30 PM CDT

Law Firm Sues Over Yellow Pages Ad

The partners of a prominent Charleston, W.Va., law firm have sued the company that produces Verizon phone directories, saying that a mistake in its Yellow Pages ad is costing Neely & Callaghan legal business. Idearc Media Corp. allegedly ran the wrong copy for the firm’s ad in the Charleston edition…

Jun 12, 2008 4:31 PM CDT

Bankruptcy Expert Skips From Nixon Peabody to Dechert

After spending just two months at Nixon Peabody, bankruptcy expert Shmuel Vasser has joined Dechert. Vasser told the New York Law Journal he left so soon because he has always wanted to work with his old friend H. Jeffrey Schwartz, co-chair of the bankruptcy practice at Dechert. Schwartz gave him…

Jun 12, 2008 2:07 PM CDT

$75M Milberg Plea Deal Could Conclude This Week

A plea deal reportedly in the works between Milberg and federal prosecutors in Los Angeles over an alleged scheme by the law firm to pay some $11.3 million in secret kickbacks to lead plaintiffs in securities class actions could be concluded this week. The firm is to pay a $75…

Jun 11, 2008 8:57 PM CDT

More than 30 Thacher Lawyers Quit in Last 6 Months

Ten U.S. partners and about 24 associates of Thacher Proffitt & Wood have voluntarily left the New York-based firm during the past six months, in advance of an expected drop in 2008 profits. Meanwhile, 60 associates have been laid off by the 220-attorney financial services boutique, whose structured finance practice…

Jun 11, 2008 8:25 PM CDT

Akin Gump Will Close at Least One Office Due to Loss of IP Rainmaker

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has closed its Taiwan office and is re-evaluating its Silicon Valley office after the loss of rainmaker Yitai Hu. Akin Gump chairman R. Bruce McLean told the Recorder that Hu kept both offices busy with patent work since he opened them in 2005. Among…

Jun 11, 2008 2:51 PM CDT

Heller Ehrman Sends Chairman to New York, in Something of a Trend

The last big San Francisco law firm to have its chairman full-time in the city has decided to send its leader packing to New York. Matthew Larrabee, chairman of Heller Ehrman, will move to the firm’s New York office this month, the Recorder reports. Larrabee told the publication the change…

Jun 11, 2008 2:12 PM CDT