Career & Practice

High Firm Rates Lead 5 Neal Gerber Partners to Launch Boutique Practice

The chance to cut hefty overhead costs, and pass those savings onto clients, were some of the driving factors that prompted five Neal Gerber & Eisenberg partners to launch their own law firm counseling trade associations, charitable groups and other non-profits. The group, led by Jed R. Mandel, announced the…

Jun 3, 2010 11:26 AM CDT

25% of In-House Lawyers Report Less Work for Outside Firms, Survey Says

Outside firms will face less work and increased competition from corporate legal departments in 2010. In a poll of 150 in-house lawyers at major U.S. and Canadian companies, nearly one-quarter said they planned to decrease their reliance on outside counsel, according to a survey by legal staffing agency Robert Half…

Jun 3, 2010 10:28 AM CDT

Blind Law Grads Sue Over Denied Use of Screen-Access Software on Multistate Bar Exam

All through law school, three new graduates seeking to become members of the Maryland bar used specialized software to help them read text on their computer screens. But now they are being told that they can’t use the software when they take the Multistate Bar Examination in Maryland next month,…

Jun 3, 2010 1:06 AM CDT

Perkins Coie Opens New San Diego Office With 4 IP Lawyers, Plans 50 Lawyers There in 3 Years

Perkins Coie has opened a new office in San Diego with four lawyers, in the first step of a planned expansion of both its California presence and its intellectual property practice. The firm hopes to have 20 lawyers in San Diego by the end of the year and 50 attorneys…

Jun 2, 2010 7:35 PM CDT

Ex-Employee Gets Time for Stealing Nearly $557K from 2 Law Firms, Must Repay $46K

Tearful and apologetic, Paulette Reed was sentenced today to one to three years in prison for stealing a total of $556,756 from two upstate New York law firms and taken from court directly to jail in handcuffs. She must pay restitution of $46,000, in monthly installments of $400, after she…

Jun 2, 2010 5:38 PM CDT

FBI Warns Law Firms: Beware of E-Mail Clients (and Counterfeit ‘Settlement’ Checks)

After earlier reports that law firms had been scammed out of millions of dollars in counterfeit check schemes often involving e-mail clients, the FBI has issued a warning that those in the Dallas area, at least, are being targeted by several new versions of the fraud. In one, an individual…

Jun 2, 2010 5:15 PM CDT

A Few Bright Spots As Revenue Declines at Am Law 200

Although the Am Law 200 appeared to weather the 2008 economic recession storm better than their higher-ranked counterparts, the second hundred firms have stumbled with greater losses in profits per partner and revenues in 2009. Decreased transactional work and increased client sensitivity to litigation costs led to a 0.3 percent…

Jun 2, 2010 3:22 PM CDT

African-American Law Firm Elects Unusual CEO

Detroit-based firm Lewis & Munday, which was founded in 1972 by David Baker Lewis and two African-American partners, named partner Blair Person as its new president and CEO this month. While the firm, which is majority-owned by black lawyers, says race never came up in discussions to replace Lewis, some…

Jun 2, 2010 11:33 AM CDT

Lawyer Licensed in DC, Telecommuting from Mass. Can Keep Md. Federal Court Bar Membership

A lawyer can keep her membership with the bar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in spite of a local rule that would seemingly disqualify her because she’s been telecommuting from Massachusetts since August 2007 but isn’t licensed in that state. When Cedar P. Carlton, who…

Jun 1, 2010 7:03 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Won $2M for Libeled Jurist Is Now ‘Junkyard Dog for Aggrieved Judges’

A $2.1 million libel verdict that attorney Howard Cooper won for a Massachusetts judge has made him a go-to-guy for irked jurists in a multi-state region. Judges usually can’t directly reply to inaccurate media accounts without risking a legal ethics charge. But they can ask–and have asked–Cooper to pursue defamation…

Jun 1, 2010 3:01 PM CDT

Ex-Kirkland Partner Buys 4,500 Patents, Forms New Firm to Sue Infringers

A former patent litigation partner of Kirkland & Ellis has purchased 4,500 patents and is establishing a new law firm that will sue to enforce both his own patents and those of other clients. John Desmarais, 46, is opening his new firm, Desmarais, today in New York City, Bloomberg reports.…

Jun 1, 2010 1:20 PM CDT

Longtime Obermayer Partner Is Fired Over Phila. Family Court Development Deal

Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel has fired a longtime real estate partner after questions were raised about his dual role, as an attorney and as a developer, concerning a planned new Philadelphia family court building. Jeffrey Rotwitt’s partnership was terminated Thursday by the firm’s management committee, effective immediately, reports the…

Jun 1, 2010 10:24 AM CDT

FTC Postpones Red Flags Rule After Lawmakers Seek Delay

At the request of several members of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission has agreed to postpone until the end of the year enforcement of the controversial new Red Flags Rule that had been scheduled to take effect today. The rule implements a new federal law that the FTC had interpreted…

Jun 1, 2010 10:00 AM CDT

Solving the Work-Life Equation

Workplace flexibility + exercise and leisure + family involvement = greater satisfaction

Jun 1, 2010 9:00 AM CDT

A Scam by Any Name

While in Florida on a family trip to the New York Mets’ spring training facility in March, Todd Higgins suddenly found himself con-sumed by a series of e-mails on his BlackBerry.

Jun 1, 2010 8:10 AM CDT