Partners

UK Firms Accept Partnership Alternatives

Top London law firms battling associate attrition are embracing partnership alternatives. Fifty-nine percent of the big U.K. firms offer such alternatives, Legal Week reports. Of those that do, 30 percent introduced the new jobs in the past year. SJ Berwin is one of the firms that is gearing up to…

Sep 20, 2007 11:28 AM CDT

Firm: Melvyn Weiss Faces Charges

Updated: A founding partner of one of the nation’s most powerful plaintiffs securities law firms is reportedly resigning from a management role in the face of expected new federal charges against both him and the firm in an ongoing case concerning alleged payments of illegal kickbacks to clients. Melvyn Weiss…

Sep 19, 2007 10:22 PM CDT

Wachtell, Cravath Rated Most Prestigious

Associates rate Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as the most prestigious law firm, while partners pick Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The two firms took second-place spots on the other group’s lists, according to prestige rankings by Vault, a career information company. Sullivan & Cromwell was third on both lists. Wachtell…

Sep 14, 2007 12:43 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

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

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

‘Retired’ Partners Rehired at Other Firms

In the last decade or two, requiring law firm partners to retire at a certain age has become a common practice. But now the tide seems to be turning on that trend. The median age of lawyers is increasing, and, although more than half of the nation’s larger law firms…

Sep 5, 2007 10:57 PM CDT

Firm Survives 9/11 Attack, But Changes

It takes a lot today to create a crisis at Harris Beach. Its law offices at 2 World Trade Center were obliterated on Sept. 11, 2001, killing three lawyers, two staff members and a contractor supervising an almost-completed $4 million renovation project. Now, many among the more than 100 who…

Sep 5, 2007 6:16 PM CDT

Lawyer Fights Armed Intruder & Wins

A 37-year-old partner at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis isn’t just a tough competitor at the table in corporate transactions. Keith Radtke battled a rifle-toting intruder who broke into his Lakeland, Minn., home on Friday—and won—even after he was shot in the lower back with a .45-caliber handgun. The battle…

Aug 27, 2007 8:45 PM CDT

Latest Name Game Move: ‘Mayer Brown’

Following a trend that is increasingly popular among many major law firms, Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw is shortening its name as of Aug. 31. The 1,500-attorney Chicago-based international firm will hereafter be known simply as Mayer Brown, reports Crain’s Chicago Business. Although rainmaking partners traditionally have had their names…

Aug 22, 2007 11:54 PM CDT

Clifford Chance Settles Sexual Pref Case

In a precedent-setting case in the United Kingdom, a London-based megafirm has reportedly reached a settlement with a former partner who claimed he was discriminated against because of his sexual preference. The agreement, between famed “magic circle” firm Clifford Chance and former partner Michael Bryceland, is for an undisclosed amount.…

Aug 20, 2007 7:30 PM CDT

Pension Suit Turns on Partner Definition

A “partner” who was denied pension benefits from her former law firm because she was not considered a shareholder will get a chance to prove she is entitled to the money. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) Wednesday that a magistrate erred in barring Karen Strom from…

Aug 17, 2007 11:05 AM 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

Alec Scott, Esq: ‘Why I Escaped the Law’

It isn’t just many American lawyers who feel overworked and dispirited. Their Canadian counterparts increasingly feel the same way, according to an article in next month’s issue of Toronto Life magazine. Author Alec Scott, a lawyer who is now a journalist, says that getting fired from a big Toronto firm…

Aug 13, 2007 11:09 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