Law Firms

Mega-Firm’s Mega-Profit: $1 M-Plus PPP

Impressive profits for the 2007 fiscal year have been announced by one of the world’s largest law firms, Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie. Its gross was $1.83 billion, up from $1.52 billion the previous fiscal year. A 22 percent gain for the first time boosted profits per partner into seven figures,…

Aug 16, 2007 8:23 PM CDT

Judge Summons Qualcomm Lawyers

A federal magistrate has ordered former lawyers for Qualcomm Inc. to appear in court later this month to face possible misconduct sanctions stemming from their roles in a cell phone patent case. The LA Times reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major has ordered more than a dozen lawyers from…

Aug 15, 2007 4:09 PM CDT

Ogletree Adds Two New Offices

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart is opening offices in St. Louis and Detroit. The move to St. Louis will make Ogletree the only national labor and employment law firm in the city, managing partner Gray Geddie told the National Law Journal. “St. Louis is a large corporate headquarters city,”…

Aug 15, 2007 11:44 AM CDT

Akin Gump faces $4 Billion Suit

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is facing a $4.4 billion lawsuit filed by two former hedge fund managers who claim the law firm provided bad legal advice that cost them their livelihoods. James McBride and Kevin Larson managed a series of Veras funds with more than $1 billion in…

Aug 15, 2007 10:36 AM CDT

MA Building Boom, MA Law Firm Boom

A booming market for commercial real estate in Boston in recent years means that law firms specializing in this practice area are booming, too. The Boston office of DLA Piper, for instance, started up at the beginning of 2003 with 33 mostly real estate lawyers from the now-defunct Hill &…

Aug 14, 2007 10:14 PM CDT

First Legal Action in Bridge Collapse

The first litigation has reportedly been filed in the Minneapolis bridge collapse case, by a law firm seeking access in order to investigate before the site is cleaned up. It was filed Monday in federal court because the firm, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben of Minneapolis, has been told that federal…

Aug 14, 2007 7:41 PM CDT

Working Mother Lists Top 50 Law Firms

A new player has just entered the law-firm rankings game. Working Mother magazine, in an issue that arrived on newsstands today, has listed 50 law firms that it considers particularly attuned to the concerns of its readers. “In this, our inaugural Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for…

Aug 14, 2007 3:30 PM CDT

How Public Law Firms Would Benefit GCs

General counsel have long complained that lawyers have no incentive to deliver services economically. The focus on generating profits through hourly billing produces an incentive to pad lawyer hours and maximize work, they argue. That focus could change if ethics rules changed to allow lawyers to sell shares in their…

Aug 14, 2007 1:15 PM CDT

ABA: End Forced Retirement

The ABA House of Delegates decided Monday that the time has come for law firms to put mandatory age-based retirement policies out to pasture. In addition to recommending that law firms end those policies, the House of Delegates urged that law firms evaluate their older partners on the basis of…

Aug 14, 2007 2:10 AM CDT

Egads! Will US Law Firms Go Public?

Of course it can’t happen yet. But senior partners at big U.S. law firms are talking about the possibility that they will one day be allowed to be have nonattorney shareholders, as Australia already permits and the United Kingdom is expected to allow within a few years. Otherwise, major American…

Aug 13, 2007 10:25 PM CDT

V&E Latest Bankruptcy Convert

Vinson & Elkins is the latest law firm to add bankruptcy lawyers, acquiring a five-lawyer boutique for its New York office. The firm, Cronin & Vris, worked extensively with V&E on the bankruptcy on Enron Corp., the New York Law Journal reports. Founders of the New York boutique once worked…

Aug 13, 2007 1:06 PM CDT

Anger, Frank Talk Help Promote Diversity

Working to diversify the legal profession–which lags significantly behind corporate counterparts–requires, as a first step, talking clearly about the issue. And sometimes anger helps. Or so Stanley Stallworth found about six years ago, as he was on the verge of making a diversity presentation to the executive committee of the…

Aug 10, 2007 10:01 PM CDT

Refco Suits Depend on Pending Case

A lawsuit accusing Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw of aiding the collapse of commodities brokerage firm Refco could turn on a pending U.S. Supreme Court case. The suit against Mayer Brown claims the law firm helped prepare documents for false transactions that covered up fraud, according to a column in…

Aug 10, 2007 3:16 PM CDT

Seven Leave Holland & Knight

Seven lawyers at Holland & Knight have announced they are leaving the firm’s Miami office to start their own boutique firm. Six of the lawyers are partners, the Daily Business Review reports. The publication says the partner departure is the largest since the firm experienced financial problems several years ago.…

Aug 10, 2007 11:33 AM CDT

Librarians Do More Rainmaking

Librarians at big law firms are spending more time on rainmaking, increasing their prominence and influence with the lawyers who employ them. Sixty-three percent of law librarians at Am Law 200 firms say the library is the main source for marketing research and 55 percent say the library is the…

Aug 10, 2007 11:29 AM CDT