Partners

Law Firm Bankruptcy Bill for Coudert Bros.: Partners Asked to Pay $11.8M

A bankruptcy examiner has proposed in a report issued late last month that the former partners of Coudert Brothers pay $11.8 million to liquidate the failed New York City-based law firm. The former international law leader is facing some $14 million in actual claims, but the examiner, Harrison Goldin, discounted…

Apr 7, 2008 7:42 PM CDT

New Pacific Law Center is Dealing With Old Problems

A lawsuit filed by an attorney earlier this year claims Pacific Law Center participated in unethical practices. Another onetime firm lawyer reportedly admitted in court that his client was guilty in a gang-related shooting case, allegedly forcing the client into a plea deal. Meanwhile, another former firm lawyer reportedly denies…

Apr 7, 2008 3:12 PM CDT

Jenner’s New Managing Partner to Pave a Path for Other Women

Jenner & Block had 12 female partners when Susan Levy joined the Chicago law firm in 1982, a number that was considered high at the time. Now Levy will become the managing partner, one of only 8 percent of females in such posts at the nation’s top law firms. Levy…

Apr 7, 2008 1:52 PM CDT

Proskauer to Open Office in Chicago With Three Mayer Brown Partners

Proskauer Rose is opening a Chicago office despite the economic downturn that is battering some law firms. Staffing the office will be three partners from Mayer Brown who specialize in representing corporate policyholders in coverage disputes with their insurance companies, the Chicago Tribune reports. Mayer Brown is now planning to…

Apr 4, 2008 10:53 AM CDT

Ex-Jenkens Lawyers Land on their Feet at Hunton

One year ago, Jenkens & Gilchrist disbanded after a probe into the law firm’s work on aggressive tax shelters. But many lawyers and staffers go to the same office and even sit at the same desks at Fountain Place in Dallas. They’re working at Hunton & Williams, thanks to a…

Mar 31, 2008 3:35 PM CDT

Jurors Laud Sonnenschein Defense, Give Ex-Partner a Mixed Verdict

A former partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal had sought $8.2 million in his lawsuit against the firm, but he’s getting far less than that. Two jurors said they found ex-partner Douglas Rosenthal was underpaid by more than $500,000 even though Sonnenschein had better lawyers in the case, Legal Times…

Mar 31, 2008 11:25 AM CDT

Ex-Latham Partner Admits to Stealing $200K With Fake Expense Reports

A former corporate partner at Latham & Watkins in New York pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to stealing $200,000 from his firm and clients by filing false expense reports. Samuel A. Fishman admitted that between 2002 and 2005 he illegally charged personal expenses as business expenses, Reuters reports.…

Mar 28, 2008 9:49 PM CDT

Associates Get Cut of New Biz at this Flex-Schedule Friendly Firm

Chicago lawyer Deane B. Brown set her sights on looking for a new firm, with more realistic expectations, after she gave birth in 1996. Nights, weekends away from home left her feeling cheated. So in 2002, she joined a smaller shop, Beermann Swerdlove, where she told Business Week recently, “We…

Mar 28, 2008 7:42 PM CDT

Rep. Wynn Resigns Early to Join D.C.‘s Dickstein Shapiro

Veteran U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn, D-Md., announced this week he’s resigning from Congress early to become a partner at Dickstein Shapiro, which is known in part for a strong lobbying practice. Wynn will join the firm’s public policy practice, a release notes. “I have known Congressman Wynn since our…

Mar 28, 2008 6:45 PM CDT

Who’s Paying Dan Webb’s BigLaw Bill in Detroit Mayor Case?

Hiring the chairman of Chicago’s Winston & Strawn as one’s criminal defense lawyer in a municipal corruption case obviously doesn’t come cheap. So observers are wondering who is paying Dan Webb to defend Detroit’s embattled mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. The answer to that question isn’t entirely clear, but Webb says it’s…

Mar 26, 2008 12:17 AM CDT

Move Over AmLaw 100, Here’s the Lawyer’s Spin on the Top 50

In a reinvention of the AmLaw 100, a United Kingdom legal publication has compiled a list of the top 50 U.S. law firms based on revenue. Atop the list is DLA Piper, followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Latham & Watkins; Baker & McKenzie; and Sidley Austin. Together,…

Mar 25, 2008 7:45 PM CDT

Chastened Milberg Firm in Plea Negotiations

After a plea agreement and an apology last week by Milberg Weiss founding partner Melvyn Weiss over a scheme to pay millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to lead plaintiffs in securities class actions, the once-defiant tone of the defendant New York law firm has changed dramatically in the still-ongoing…

Mar 25, 2008 3:34 PM CDT

Fast-Growing Parker Poe Ponders Possible Expansion Outside Carolinas

Over the past five years, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein has grown from 150 attorneys to 227. Now the 120-year-old Charlotte-based Carolinas powerhouse is pondering possible expansion elsewhere, according to an interview of managing partner Bill Farthing by the Charlotte Observer. At the firm’s helm since 2002, he considers successful…

Mar 24, 2008 4:06 PM CDT

From Solo Practice to Tort King: Meet Jere Beasley

Almost broke and looking for work as an Alabama lawyer 30 years ago, Jere Beasley wasn’t having any luck. “I couldn’t get a job, so I opened a one-person law firm,” he tells the Associated Press. Now recognized as one of the nation’s tort kings, the 72-year-old attorney reigns at…

Mar 22, 2008 12:34 AM CDT

6 Partners Leave Frisco’s Howard,Rice But Profits Reportedly are Strong

After staff layoffs last year, six longtime partners have quietly left Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. However, the San Francisco firm has been hiring a significant number of associates, even though its attorney roster has dropped from a high of about 140 in 2002 to 113 today, and…

Mar 21, 2008 10:03 PM CDT