Merger with 700-Lawyer Affiliate Gives DLA Piper World’s Biggest Attorney Roster, About 4,200 Strong

It’s now official, at least as far as the Am Law Daily is concerned: After a merger with a 700-lawyer affiliate in Australia, DLA Piper is now the world’s largest law firm, based on headcount. The firm now has about 4,200 attorneys on its roster, the legal publication reports. Its…

May 2, 2011 8:24 PM CDT

Ex-Winston Partner Pleads in $19M Scheme; Gov’t Says He Sought Law Firm Status, Not Personal Gain

A former partner at Winston & Strawn pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy concerning a scheme to launder nearly $19 million through attorney escrow accounts under his control. Jonathan Bristol, 55, said he knew celebrity money manager Kenneth Starr had stolen the money from wealthy clients, the New…

May 2, 2011 7:06 PM CDT

King & Spalding Loses a Second Client—NRA—over Dropped DOMA Defense

King & Spalding’s decision to drop its defense of the federal law banning recognition of gay marriages has cost it a second client. The National Rifle Association has dropped the law firm as outside counsel, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. NRA general counsel David Lehman informed…

May 2, 2011 1:57 PM CDT

Are Am Law Rankings Distorted by Swiss Vereins? Two of Top Five Operate This Way

The American Lawyer’s rankings of the world’s biggest firms are distorted, according to a BigLaw managing partner. In an American Lawyer article, K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis says the magazine is improperly grouping financial numbers from law firms associated with each other through a Swiss verein.…

May 2, 2011 1:32 PM CDT

Battle of Atlanta: Fight over a Downtown Homeless Shelter Strains Some Down-Home Ties

May 1, 2011 9:50 AM CDT

Old Firm Ties: Alumni Networks Are Social Media with Benefits

May 1, 2011 7:00 AM CDT

Simpson Thacher Poaches China Leaders from UK Magic Circle Firms for New Hong Kong Practice

New York-based Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has had an office in Hong Kong since 1993. But, until now, it only practiced United States law there. That will soon change, following the firm’s raid on two top United Kingdom-based firms to poach practice leaders for a new Hong Kong practice, reports…

Apr 29, 2011 9:12 PM CDT

Va. AG Severs Ties to King & Spalding for ‘Obsequious Act of Weakness’ on DOMA

The fallout continues over King & Spalding’s decision to take on, and then drop, the defense of the federal law banning recognition of gay marriages. The latest news: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has ended his office’s relationship with King & Spalding, citing the law firm’s “obsequious act of weakness”…

Apr 29, 2011 3:55 PM CDT

DLA Piper Acquires Lawyers from California Boutique Law Firm

DLA Piper has acquired the 10 lawyers who worked for the California boutique law firm Stevens, O’Connell & Jacobs, including two former U.S. attorneys. The Sacramento boutique firm is closing and all of its lawyers are joining DLA Piper, according to the Sacramento Bee. A press release has details on…

Apr 29, 2011 3:19 PM CDT

Top 10 Family Friendly Law Firms Named; Survey Finds More On and Off Ramp Programs

Yale Law Women has released its annual list of the top 10 family friendly law firms. Debevoise & Plimpton and Steptoe & Johnson made the list last year, but they are off this year. In their place are Covington & Burling, which made the 2009 list, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw…

Apr 29, 2011 11:43 AM CDT

Dechert: Our Culture Is Not Macho, and We Don’t Encourage Stereotypical Roles

A macho culture? That’s not our law firm, Dechert says in an answer (PDF) to an associate’s bias suit. Former Boston associate Ariel Ayanna had claimed in a lawsuit filed in December that the law firm retaliated against him for taking paternity leave and derided him for being the primary…

Apr 28, 2011 12:20 PM CDT

BigLaw Money Machine Revs Up Again: PPP Rose 8.4% at Am Law 100 in 2010, to Average $1.36M

The BigLaw money machine was back in business again in 2010, according to the American Lawyer’s annual survey of the nation’s 100 largest law firms. Average profit per partner was up 8.4 percent, to $1.36 million, after increasing only 0.3 percent in 2009 and falling 4.3 percent in 2008, reports…

Apr 28, 2011 12:11 AM CDT

Fulbright Raids K&L Gates for 6-Lawyer Energy Team to Open New Pittsburgh Office

Fulbright & Jaworski has opened an office in Pittsburgh, raiding K&L Gates for a six-lawyer energy team to do so, reports the Houston Business Journal. Led by Ken Komorski,who will head the new office, the group focuses its practice on activity in the Marcellus Shale area of the Appalachian basin.…

Apr 27, 2011 3:23 PM CDT

Partner, 66, Balks at BigLaw Retirement, May Be an Employee Under Civil Rights Statute

A 66-year-old partner in one of Canada’s biggest corporate law firms is fighting a policy that ordinarily would have forced him to retire at 65. Mitch McCormick won a key preliminary victory late last year in his age-discrimination case against Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, when a British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal…

Apr 27, 2011 12:08 AM CDT

Meet J. Thomas Schieffer, Akin Gump Attorney to Serve as Manager of Los Angeles Dodgers

A Texas lawyer who serves as senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has been tapped by Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig to oversee the operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers, reports the Am Law Daily. A three-term member of the state legislature, starting at age 25,…

Apr 26, 2011 11:20 PM CDT