Practice Management

Chicago Coup Lures 8-Lawyer Group

In a hot-practice-area coup in Chicago, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd has lured eight bankruptcy lawyers, including a new practice group head, from rival Freeborn & Peters. The lateral group will help Bell, Boyd rev up its bankruptcy practice, which suffered a raid earlier this year by Baker & McKenzie, reports…

Sep 11, 2007 10:18 PM CDT

MBA Manages 250-Lawyer Practice Group

Until recently, Carolyn Summers would have been an odd duck at a major law firm. But her Ivy League MBA degree puts her at the forefront of a growing law firm trend—hiring business experts to manage a law practice, rather than putting a law firm partner in charge of administration.…

Sep 11, 2007 8:49 PM CDT

Shackled Fen-Phen Lawyers Seek Release, Judge Says No

Shackled and attired in faded gray-and-white-striped jail uniforms, three personal injury attorneys involved in mega-bucks fen-phen litigation attended a federal court hearing in Kentucky today to seek their release. Accused of bilking clients out of $64 million from a $200 million litigation settlement in 2001 concerning the diet drug combination,…

Sep 11, 2007 8:10 PM CDT

Iraq Dealmeister’s Thoughts on Law, Life

After helping to put together a $1.25 billion deal for a national mobile telecommunications license in Iraq earlier this year, attorney Abdullah Mutawi, who heads the international telecommunications group at Trowers & Hamlins, took a few minutes to reflect on his life and practice. One of his best experiences, he…

Sep 10, 2007 11:39 PM CDT

NJ Firms Raise Associate Salaries

While they’re not at the absolute top of the associate salary scale, a number of law firms in New Jersey are nonetheless raising starting pay for first-years significantly. Although some firms are holding the line, others say they are upping the associate ante by as much as 10 to 15…

Sep 10, 2007 10:52 PM CDT

‘TB Lawyer’ Fights to Regain Practice

Less than six months ago, life seemed good for Andrew H. Speaker, even though he’d been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The young personal injury lawyer was getting married, and about to start his own practice in Atlanta. Then he became the subject of international disapprobation for allegedly endangering others by taking…

Sep 10, 2007 10:17 PM CDT

Client’s YouTube Lawyer Video Banned

A disgruntled client can’t post video clips on YouTube complaining about his lawyer’s allegedly bad work and big bills, a Canadian judge has ruled. Superior Court Justice William Jenkins also said that client Stan Hall can’t post any further videos about lawyer Paul Ledroit without court permission, reports the London…

Sep 10, 2007 9:45 PM CDT

35 La. Deaths: Nursing Home Owners Not Guilty

In a case that has focused criticism on the prosecution, two 60-something owners of St. Rita’s nursing home in Louisiana have been acquitted of 35 charges of negligent homicide. Their 35 patients died after Sal and Mabel Mangano decided not to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina. They two were found not…

Sep 10, 2007 3:21 PM CDT

Lawsuit! is a Game to NY Lawyer

Tina Eskreis Nelson’s job as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law is now history. That’s because the mother of three came up with a unique way in 2003 of explaining to her then 6-year-old son what his parents, both lawyers, are trained to do. She stopped…

Sep 7, 2007 10:29 PM CDT

Coalition Seeks to Change Big Law Firms

Although they haven’t yet graduated from law school, some students are already disillusioned about practicing law at the nation’s major law firms. Worried about tales of long days, unrewarding work and a lack of diversity that prompts many to seek work elsewhere after a few years, they have formed a…

Sep 7, 2007 9:52 PM CDT

Nursing Homes Sue Over PI Firm’s Ad

A personal injury law firm has been sued by the owners of a nursing home chain prominently mentioned in the law firm’s Web site advertising. Genesis Healthcare Corp. contends McHugh Fuller Law Group misappropriated its trademark and logo by including these brands on a Web page seeking plaintiffs interested in…

Sep 7, 2007 5:27 PM CDT

New Practice Area: Data Security

An epidemic of computer laptop thefts has helped launch a new area of legal practice: data security. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million laptops are stolen annually, and an increasing number of lawsuits are being filed over the loss of large amounts of sensitive data that often results. Meanwhile, as new…

Sep 7, 2007 3:50 PM CDT

Weil to Add 2 Asia Offices; Tokyo Next?

Corrected: Two New York City-based corporate partners of Weil Gotshal & Manges are moving to Hong Kong to open a new firm office there, and the firm also plans a Beijing presence. Partners Akiko Mikumo and Peter Feist, along with Shanghai partner David Meredith and two associates, will establish the…

Sep 6, 2007 8:06 PM CDT

Big Firms Join Attorney Retention Project

At least 23 well-known law firms are opting into a new membership program offered by the Project for Attorney Retention. An initiative of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, the project promotes work-life balance and the advancement of women in the…

Sep 6, 2007 6:51 PM CDT

Mortgage Foreclosures at Record High; Lenders Urged to Forbear

The number of mortgages entering foreclosure in the U.S. is setting new records. One in every seven subprime borrowers is now making mortgage payments late, according to a report released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Meanwhile, the percentage of all mortgages entering the foreclosure process was at an all-time…

Sep 6, 2007 3:38 PM CDT