Friday, May 31, 2002
Charles H. Mercer, Jr. (Moore & Van Allen) Member of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina System, Addresses UNC's 2002 Graduating Class
 
Remarks of Moore & Van Allen's Charles Mercer, on behalf of The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina System.
Mergers Create Two National Mega-Law Firms
Anthony Lin -- New York Law Journal -- May 31, 2002
Accelerating an industrywide consolidation trend, law firms in Boston, San Francisco, New York and St. Louis are moving ahead with two separate merger plans to create mega-firms of more than 800 lawyers each. St. Louis-based Bryan Cave for a merger with New York's Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman. Bryan Cave currently counts 650 lawyers worldwide, while single-office Robinson Silverman has 170 lawyers in New York. In the most recent American Lawyer AmLaw 200 survey, Robinson Silverman's profits per partner in 2000 were $520,000 compared with Bryan Cave's $400,000.
Separately, Boston's 500-lawyer Bingham Dana and San Francisco's 320-lawyer McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen jointly announced a merger Thursday. Among Bryan Cave's largest clients are Anheuser-Busch and Boeing, which acquired St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Other clients include the Marriott Corp. and Daimler Chrysler. Bryan Cave has 18 offices around the world. The combined firm's New York office would be the firm's second-largest after St. Louis, which counts 250 lawyers. Among the firm's other major locations are Los Angeles, Kansas City, Mo., Washington, D.C., and London. According to the AmLaw 200, Bingham Dana's profits per partner were $855,000 in 2000, significantly higher than McCutchen Doyle's $550,000.
Read more . . .
Thursday, May 30, 2002
U.S. Attorneys May Now Qualify as English Solicitors
 U.S. attorneys may now be certified as solicitors following completion of a short open book test, the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test, offered by a company formed for that purpose by Holly Gaskin who describes herself as a former Cardozzo Law School professor, English solicitor and U.S. attorney. The firm's website states that passing the examination qualifies the examinee to practice in England and Wales, as well as in many other jurisdictions. See the website for additional information.
Kelly Corr Seeks Mental Exam of Courtney Love
People -- Stephen M. Silverman -- 4/25/02
E! Online -- Josh Grossberg -- 4/25/02 |    | Kelly Corr, attorney for the late Kurt Cobain's former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, sought to have Courtney Love evaluated. In support, Kelly Corr argued that Ms. Love made statements excusing her execution of a partnership agreement on that ground that her judgment had been "significantly impaired." Kelly Corr also pointed to the original contract which reportedly allows any partner to examine another for "capacity."
Washington state's King County Superior Court judge Robert Alsdorf denied Kelly Corr's request but warned Ms. Love that should she again claim that she was incapacitated when she first signed the business contract, the issue of a mental examination could be reactivated.
Corr told E! Online, however, that the ruling helps shift the burden of proof onto Love, making it more difficult for her to verify whether Grohl and Novoselic actually misled her since she can no longer say was under the influence at the time she entered into the agreement.
Read more in People Magazine
Read more in E! Online |  |
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Boston's Bingham Dana and San Francisco's McCutchen, Doyle Merge
New York Lawyer -- May 30, 2002
Boston's Bingham Dana and San Francisco's McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen are expected to announce today that they will merge, forming a law firm with 820 lawyers, The Boston Globe reports. The merged firm, will be called Bingham McCutchen. Together, the firms would have annual revenue exceeding $400 million. According to the 2001 AmLaw 100, Bingham Dana had 366 lawyers and profits per partner of $855,000. At the same time, McCutchen Doyle reported profits of $550,000 per partner.
Read more . . .
Monday, May 27, 2002
Icahn looms over Thermadyne
St. Louis Business Journals -- Rick Desloge -- May 24, 2002
 Thermadyne Holdings, the welding products business that sought bankruptcy protection last November, is for sale and Carl Icahn is among the company's creditors who is considering buying it.
If Icahn succeeds in gaining control of Thermadyne, he likely would revamp the company's [top] management. Thermadyne's attorneys -- Bryan Cave's Greg Willard and Lloyd Palans in St. Louis, and Alan Miller of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York -- submitted modified pay packages earlier this month -- cutting Wyss' base salary to $700,000 a year from $900,000, and shaving retention bonuses for the top 10 executives who remain with Thermadyne while it's for sale.
The court scheduled a hearing on the revised executive retention plan for Tuesday, May 28.
Read more . . .
Saturday, May 25, 2002
City of Boston Voluntarily Dismisses Its Lawsuit Against the Gun Industry
    Wildman Harrold achieved a substantial victory for its clients, Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Marlin Firearms, when the City of Boston voluntarily dropped an aggressive lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages from the gun industry and associated trade associations in late March. Congratulations to the Wildman Harrold team consisting of Jim Dorr, Sally Olson, Jim Vogts, Lisa Simmons, Carol Tate, Tim Gardner, Brett Martin, Joyce Wiltscheck and Lorri Kachurik on a job well done.
Read more . . .
Four Corr Cronin Partners Chosen Once Again as "Super Lawyers"
Washington Law and Politics names Washinton's top lawyers as chosen by their peers. Its list of "Super Lawyers®" 2001 is based on three years of research and surveys of more than 12,000 lawyers across the state. There are more than 1,800 names (about 5% of the lawyers in the state) listed in more than 50 areas of practice.
    Four Corr Cronin lawyers have been chosen as "Super Lawyers." Kelly Corr, Bill Cronin, Guy Michelson and Kevin Baumgardner were all selected for this honor for 2002-2003.
How Super Lawyers Were Selected
Former Inhouse Client Joins Corr Cronin as Counsel
Grace Healy Joins the Firm
 Network member firm Corr Cronin (Seattle) is pleased to announce that Grace Healy is joined the firm as Counsel. Grace was Senior Associate Counsel at Champion International in Stamford, Connecticut. Before joining Champion, she was associated with the Olwine Connelly law firm in New York City and prior to that she clerked for Chief Judge Judge Judith Kaye on the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court. Grace graduated from Columbia University and Fordham Law School. In addition, she is also a registered nurse.
Movie Trailer Released for NYC2002 Litigation Management in a New York Minute
A Network of Trial Law Firms Litigation Management Supercourse
 The Network of Trial Law Firms launched the movie trailer for its upcoming CLE program in NYC, August 9, 2002. The trailer can be seen at the website.
Thursday, May 23, 2002
15 Percent Fewer Summer Associates in Texas
[Network's Texas Member Beirne Maynard Bucks Trend with 66 % Increase]
New York Lawyer -- May 15, 2002
 Texas' 24 largest firms hired 15 percent fewer summer associates this year. The big firms will be hosting 1,099 summer associates, down from 1,291 last year, according to Texas Lawyer. At some firms, the drop was at least a 30 percent drop. [By contrast, Network member firm Beirne Maynard & Parsons, with offices in Houston and Dallas, reports a 66 percent uptick in the size of its summer class.]
Read more . . .
Marketing Tip:
Burn a business-card CD with your firm's website on it and send it to prospective clients with a cover letter.
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Chicago Firms Grow New York Offices As Stepping Stone to Super-Firm Status
Chicago Firms Expanding Aggressively in New York City
Anthony Lin -- New York Law Journal -- 5/21/02
Of all the law firms scrambling to expand in New York, none have been more aggressive or forthright in their ambition than those from Chicago. New York expansion has long been particularly compelling to large Chicago and Midwest firms, Ward Bower, a principal with Altman Weil, said, because of their broad corporate client base. While large law firms in markets like Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., often choose to focus on regional industries or lucrative practice niches, the biggest Chicago firms have prospered by being attuned to the varied needs of their traditional clients, the mammoth industrial corporations based in the heartland.
 Starting in the 1980s, as corporate America increasingly eyed international markets and participated in a Wall Street-based deal economy, Chicago firms headed east. Through the 1990s, the top Chicago firms steadily built strength in New York; by the end of the decade, most had more than 100 Manhattan-based lawyers.
They have met with considerable success. Chicago firms' New York offices have built some of the strongest litigation groups around, and they have made substantial inroads in transactional practices like bank finance, corporate debt and structured finance. Securitization, in particular, is emerging as something of a Chicago specialty.
Read more . . .
Scarier than Multidisciplinary Practices
 In Next: The Future Just Happened (just released in paperback), Michael Lewis explores the bizarre underworld of the Internet. Of most interest to lawyers is the story of Marcus, the teenager who became the highest rated legal expert at AskMe.com, an expert advice site. During his tenure, Marcus dispensed legal advice based on what he learned from television shows. So much for law school.
Source: The Technolawyer.com
Monday, May 20, 2002
Boston Firms Laying Off Attorneys
Choate, McDermott are the latest law firms with layoffs
Sheri Qualters -- Boston Business Journals -- 5/17/02
Low-key layoffs are still shaking up the Boston legal scene, and word on the street is that Choate, Hall & Stewart and McDermott Will & Emery have recently let lawyers go.
Read more . . .
Sunday, May 19, 2002
Jeff Parsons Quoted by Associated Press on Arthur Andersen Trial Histrionics
Comment on Jurors' Overall Sense of Case Carried by National Press
In Sunday papers across the United States today, Jeff Parsons (Beirne Maynard & Parsons) was quoted by the Associated Press as follows with regard to developments in the Andersen trial in Houston, Texas:
``The niceties of the dispute are less important to the jurors than the overall sense of who's got the white hat and who doesn't,'' said Jeffrey Parsons, a securities and business fraud attorney for Beirne, Maynard & Parsons in Houston.
See AP coverage in:
New York Times
Arizona Republic
Destination: New York
New York Law Journal -- Anthony Lin -- May 16, 2002
Without question, New York is now the No. 1 destination for expansion by large law firms across the country. Out-of-town firms are banging on doors midtown and downtown looking for merger partners. Firms that already have a substantial New York presence are committed to becoming larger still. Since the beginning of last year, more than 10 New York firms have been swallowed up by out-of-town firms of 300 lawyers or more. New York now is becoming the center of an increasingly concentrated legal profession, a development that cannot fail to have far-reaching repercussions for the future of the law and its practice throughout the nation.
The profitability of the New York legal market is one of the major reasons New York already has a substantial claim to being the center of the profession. The top-tier New York firms consistently have been the most profitable and prestigious in the nation, and their proximity to Wall Street investment banks has allowed them to maintain a stranglehold on virtually all premium mergers-and-acquisitions and capital markets work.
It is also clear that size matters. "Firms are realizing it's not enough to have 30 or 40 lawyers in a New York office," said Ward Bower, a principal at law firm consultancy Altman Weil. "They've got to have enough critical mass to take on significant matters." The need of out-of-town firms to be not just in New York but also big in New York is creating tremendous pressure on the markets for both firm mergers and lateral partners.
Midsize general-practice New York firms have a lot to lose in direct competition with out-of-towners. Clients obviously may opt for an aggressive pitch from a bigger non-New York firm but a more gnawing and persistent fear is that a New York firm's most productive partners will accept generous offers from, say, Chicago and Los Angeles firms. Indeed, many already have.
On average, New York lawyers, partners and associates alike, are the highest-paid in the nation. For firms with greater presence in cities where average attorney compensation and hourly rates are lower, breaking into the New York legal market can represent a daunting and controversial investment. Indeed, senior associates at New York firms frequently earn more than partners in other markets, a fact that does not often sit well with those particular partners.
Read more . . .
Saturday, May 18, 2002
Women GCs
The airlines have more women GCs than any other industry.
Margery Gordon -- Corporate Counsel -- May 20, 2002
Women hold 21% of the top legal jobs in the industries in a recent examination by Corporate Counsel of U.S. companies.
Read more . . .
Source: Corporate Counsel, June 2002
Women GCs in Fortune 500 Companies
Women comprise 12% of the Fortune 500 GCs.
Vivia Chen -- Corporate Counsel -- May 20, 2002
Source: Corporate Counsel, June 2002
What Do Women GCs Want From Outside Counsel?
Tips to Win Business from Women GCs
Linda Addison -- Corporate Counsel -- May 20, 2002
When outside counsel pitch their services to GCs, they tout their firms' stellar legal work, experience and cost-efficiency. Here are a few tips on building relationships with female clients:
• Keep it short, including entertainment.
• Provide an opportunity for personal and professional growth (cultural, educational, professional).
• Pay attention to detail.
• Assess and consider the family situation.
Read more . . .
Friday, May 17, 2002
Largest U.S. Law Firms' Revenue Growth
Richard Tromans -- Legal Week Reports -- 16/05/02
America’s largest law firms appear to have escaped the toughest corporate market for nearly a decade relatively unscathed as research by Legal Week’s sister title, Legal Week Global, shows the majority of firms clocking up double digit revenue growth in 2001.
A survey of the largest 100 US firms’ financial results shows most firms with strong East Coast practices achieved more than 10% growth in 2001 with a number of firms seeing fee income rise by more than 15%.
The news comes despite New York firms freezing associate salaries this year and many laying off staff, notably Shearman & Sterling and Dewey Ballantine. As expected, both firms saw sluggish comparative growth with Shearmans’ annual income up 5% to $620m.
However, domestic consolidation and international mergers will have bolstered turnover at many firms.
Leading performers such as Los Angeles’ Lathams & Watkins and New York’s White & Case, which both saw fee income growth of more than 20%, have been aggressively expanding their US and European practices in the past two years.
White & Case managing partner Duane Wall said: “We finished 2001 ahead of budget for net income, which is a significant achievement in the political and economic environment.
“Our business can adapt to the downturn through our practices such as litigation, bankruptcy, work-outs and restructurings.”
However, evidence of the undoubted pressure on the US legal market is expected to be seen when West Coast technology specialists, which have been hard hit by the collapse of their sector, release their 2001 figures later this year.
Likewise, Wall Street’s elite firms, which are notoriously secretive about their finances, are believed to have suffered from the lack of big ticket M&A and public offering work.
Early indications from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are that the leading firm’s 2001 revenues have been static at $1.1bn, while partner profits are slightly down on 2000’s figures of $1.6m.
New York’s Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson was also hurt in 2001, with dropping revenue and profits. The firm blamed 11 September for its relatively poor performance.
Pittsburgh’s Buchanan Ingersoll also suffered a dip in turnover and the firm has recently drastically downsized its London office.
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Tiffany Brosnan, an attorney at Irvine, California-based Snell & Wilmer LLP, has been elected to the board of directors for the Surf City International Film Festival in Huntington Beach. Brosnan brings a decade of legal experience to the board, which is arranging a first-time event to recognize a variety of movies.
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
NYC: The Capital of Law
New York Lawyer -- May 14, 2002
To an astonishing degree, the practice of law at major US law firms has become New York-centric over the last decade. A New York office of considerable size has become a prerequisite for firms that want to claim they are international players, the New York Law Journal reports. Since the beginning of last year, more than 10 New York firms have been swallowed up by out-of-town firms of 300 lawyers or more. The key motivation is profits. New York offices:
-- Bill at higher rates than those anywhere else.
-- Can lay claim to the lucrative investment bank work that has long been the mainstay of major New York firms.
-- Provide a platform for luring international clients.
Read more . . .
Tactics for resolving disputes without litigation
Russell Stowers at Snell & Wilmer -- Inside Tucson Business -- 2/11/02
Lawsuits are poor tools for solving most business problems. Not only is litigation costly, but there are no guarantees of the outcome. After all, people who make the big decisions in lawsuits–judges and jurors–usually have no business background. So, litigation should be the last resort for the average business dispute.
Take it down a notch: The best business problem-solvers avoid raised voices, profanity and personal attacks in discussions with the other party.
Keep the cement wet: Stay flexible and avoid hardened positions on both sides as long as possible. Ultimatums like “ this is our final offer,” “take it or leave it,” or “if you don’t agree to this, my lawyer will squash you like a bug,” often end discussions.
Listen more, talk less: “You cannot listen when you are talking.”
Be ‘the idea person’: Good negotiators keep an open mind about less obvious, alternative solutions.
It never hurts to ask: Veteran business problem-solvers are not afraid to take multiple shots at solving the problem.
Put it in writing: [Plan for a dispute with dispute resolution provisions in your contract.]
Don’t go it alone: They say that a lawyer who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. The same can be true for business people who go it alone in difficult business disputes. The bigger the problem, and the madder you are about it, the more you need a second opinion.
Read more . . .
Thursday, May 09, 2002
Thompson Hine Combines with New York's Gould & Wilkie Law Firm
May 1, 2002
Thompson Hine LLP today announced that it will combine with the 110-year-old New York law firm of Gould & Wilkie LLP. The combination, effective May 1, will add 19 new attorneys and 16 legal assistants and support staff to Thompson Hine, as well as the firm’s first office in New York City. The combined firm will operate under the name of Thompson Hine LLP.
"This expansion is important to us on several levels,” explains David J. Hooker, Thompson Hine’s managing partner. “First, we are bringing on an extremely talented group of business lawyers, which will be a great complement to our team. Second, Gould & Wilkie is a long-established, successful New York firm with great local and regional clients and relationships, which will be very helpful as we enter a new market. Perhaps most importantly, New York is critical to our strategic growth. Having a New York office will enable us to expand our services to our existing clients and will make us more attractive to potential clients and recruits. It also gives us the opportunity to enhance our international relationships, as foreign clients and lawyers often need to conduct business in New York.”
“This combination is a strategic move for our firm as well,” adds John E. Gould, co-managing partner of Gould & Wilkie, one of the oldest corporate law firms in New York. “Even after 110 years of success, we recognize that combining with a larger firm is clearly in the best interest of our clients and our own personnel. The needs of our clients have been growing faster than our capacity to provide additional services. We found ourselves turning down work, or referring it elsewhere, because we just did not have the staffing or geographic reach of a larger firm.”
George J. Walsh III, Gould & Wilkie’s other co-managing partner, provides some insight into why they elected to join Thompson Hine: “We had been approached by a number of large national firms about a merger, but we felt that the cultures, bureaucracies, and billing rates of those firms would not be a good fit for our clients or our personnel. We decided it would be best for us to contact a firm with whom we had good experiences in the past; a firm we knew and liked, and one that we believed our clients would like to work with as well. We contacted Thompson Hine.”
Discussions between the two firms began last year with an original goal of closing the deal by the end of 2001, but the events and aftermath of September 11 delayed their plans. In fact, Hooker and another Thompson Hine partner were just one block from the World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m. on September 11, on their way to meet with Gould and Walsh, when they were forced to evacuate the city amid falling debris.
“While 9-11 certainly caused delays in the negotiation process, it only strengthened our resolve to have a New York office—and to do so with Gould & Wilkie,” comments Hooker. “You don’t share an experience like that without developing a stronger bond.”
Under the terms of the agreement, all of the Gould & Wilkie partners will join Thompson Hine as partners; the associates and staff will become employees of Thompson Hine. John Gould will become a new member of Thompson Hine’s Executive Committee. George Walsh will become the Partner-in-Charge of the New York office. To assist in the integration of the firms, two Thompson Hine partners, Kathie Brandt and Stuart Welburn, will relocate to New York. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The Gould & Wilkie combination is just one of several recent and planned strategic additions for Thompson Hine. In February, the firm strengthened its international presence by entering into a cooperation agreement with the Brussels firm of Delporte Dugardyn DeThier & Lefebvre, adding 14 “Of Counsel” attorneys to Thompson Hine as well as new offices in Brussels. In March, the firm acquired the Cincinnati offices of Huprich & Krasnove LLP, a nationally recognized real estate law firm, in a deal that further strengthened Thompson Hine’s already dominant real estate practice. The firm also made several recent partner and Of Counsel acquisitions, including a top patent attorney from Procter & Gamble and an experienced finance partner from Jones Day.
“In October, our partnership overwhelmingly endorsed our vision to strengthen Thompson Hine’s position as a first tier national law firm,” concludes Hooker. “Establishing a New York presence is an important step in achieving that vision.”
About Gould & Wilkie... One of the oldest corporate law firms in New York City, Gould & Wilkie was founded in 1892 by Charles Winthrop Gould and John Lincoln Wilkie. The firm was located on Wall Street from 1892 until 1993, when it moved one block north to its current offices on the 58th floor of One Chase Manhattan Plaza. In its long history, a number of prominent lawyers have practiced at Gould & Wilkie, including Learned Hand, who was a partner with the firm when he was appointed to the Federal Bench by President Taft.
Today, Gould & Wilkie has 19 attorneys and a total staff of 35. The firm is engaged in business law, representing both public and private companies on a wide range of corporate matters. John Gould (no relation to the firm’s founder) and George Walsh are the firm’s co-managing partners.
About Thompson Hine... Established in 1911, Thompson Hine today is among the largest business law firms in the United States. Recently, the firm was selected as one of the best Corporate Law Firms in America (in a survey of 32,000 corporate directors conducted by Corporate Board Member magazine). With more than 370 attorneys and a total staff of nearly 1,000, Thompson Hine serves some of the premier businesses in the world, including: Ford, Toyota, Goodrich, Goodyear, Alltel, Verizon, KeyCorp, Bank One, Toro and Whirlpool. The firm has offices in Brussels, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, New York, and Washington, D.C.
ANC Corporation Wins Pivotal Motion in Federal Bankruptcy Court
May 8, 2002 7:05am -- Hoover's On-Line -- Business Editors/Travel Writers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2002--A Federal Bankruptcy Judge ruled in ANC Rental Corporation's favor on Friday, May 3, approving the company's motion to combine the operations of its Alamo and National car rental brands at airports in four additional cities: Las Vegas, Nev., Memphis, Tenn., Houston, Tex., and Melbourne Fla. Judge Mary Walrath rejected a motion from Hertz and Avis to block consolidation, and precluded both companies from making similar attempts in the future.
Read more . . .
In-House Counsel and Outside Attorney Memos Reveal Controversial Enron Trading Practices
Brenda Sandburg -- The Recorder -- May 9, 2002 | When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released internal Enron memos on the company's controversial trading practices this week, two memos written by an in-house Enron attorney and a lawyer at Portland, Oregon's Stoel Rives outlined company strategies that may have been designed to manipulate California's energy market. Former Brobeck attorney Gary Fergus was the primary author of a third, undated draft memo that put a positive spin on these practices.
Read more . . . |  |
Railroad Agrees to Pay $2.2 Million to Workers It Genetically Tested
Leigh Strope -- The Associated Press -- May 9, 2002 |  | Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. will pay $2.2 million to 36 employees the railroad sought to genetically test in secret, settling the first federal challenge involving such testing and privacy.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad was accused in February 2001 of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by testing or attempting to genetically test workers without their knowledge after they had submitted work-related injury claims.
Read more . . . |
Saturday, May 04, 2002
Tracking Federal Cases With PACER
Barry D. Bayer -- Law Office Technology Review -- May 6, 2002
Public Access to Court Electronic Records, or PACER, is an electronic public access service of the U.S. Judiciary that allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts. Although there are fancier and more flexible options offered by private companies, PACER seems to work well, and lawyers who practice in the federal courts should consider signing up for a PACER account.
Read more . . .
Automated Service of Process -- Coming Soon
Carlyn Kolker -- American Lawyer Media -- May 6, 2002
While lawyers now work on transactions online, conduct discovery electronically and communicate through BlackBerrys, there is still one practice that remains in the dark ages -- the business of serving papers in a litigation. Serve-em.com, a small company in Palm Beach, Fla., has now found a way to at least partially automate the process of serving. State and federal courts mandate that parties serve witnesses, as well as opposing parties, when initiating a case.
Read more . . .
Friday, May 03, 2002
Holland & Knight Lays Off 30 in Boston
Firm cuts 5% of its lawyers in US
Beth Healy, Boston Globe Staff, 5/2/2002
Holland & Knight has let go 30 staff members and lawyers in its Boston office, including three partners, people in the legal community said yesterday. Holland & Knight said it let go 60 lawyers in all, or nearly 5 percent of its 1,250 attorneys in 25 US offices. Thirty-three of those dismissed were partners. The others were associates or temporary lawyers. The firm also cut 170 staff jobs, or about 10 percent of its 1,750-member administrative work force, spokeswoman Karen Schoening said.
James Smeallie, executive partner in Boston, declined to be specific about the breakdown of the local layoff. He said in a statement, ''This is extremely difficult for us. We performed an extensive review and found that these steps are necessary to better align our firm's internal resources - people and practice groups - to more efficiently serve the changing legal needs of our clients.'' He added, ''Law firms, like other organizations, aren't immune to the effects of a slower economy.''
The cuts represent a reversal for Holland & Knight, which spent the past decade aggressively expanding. The firm entered the Boston market through its 1998 acquisition of Sherburne, Powers & Needham. Robert Feagin, the firm's managing partner, has blamed the cuts on the slow economy since Sept. 11.
Read more . . .
Wilson Sonsini Alters Partner Compensation Scheme
New York Lawyer -- May 2, 2002
Silicon Valley's Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has revamped the way it compensates partners, to put more emphasis on servicing clients and less on bringing them in, the San Francisco Daily Journal reports. The "eat what you kill" compensation system had been one of the reasons 30 partners left in the last two years, according to some of the defectors. The firm now has 143 partners. Under the old scheme, "responsible credit" rewarded partners for the amount of work they did on a case. "Originating credit" rewarded them at a significantly higher rate for landing new clients. Under the new scheme, both kinds of credits remain, but those who bring in matters "will not be rewarded more than a lawyer who does high quality legal work," the article says.
Read more . . .
More Layoffs at Brobeck
Eric Young -- 07:05 PM EST, May 2, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO — A downturn in dealmaking prompted high profile business law firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison llp to lay off 35 associates and 24 staff members in its second round of employee cuts in the past three months. All of the cuts were in Brobeck's business and technology practice, which expanded rapidly from 1999 through 2000. The firm, with headquarters in San Francisco, now has 640 attorneys. Brobeck reduced its workforce by approximately 85 staff and 50 associates three months ago.
Read more . . .
Emerging Litigation -- California jury finds MTBE is a defective product, says five firms liable
June D. Bell -- The National Law Journal -- May 3, 2002
The oil industry could be hit with billions of dollars in damages as a result of a jury's decision that the gasoline additive MTBE is a defective product. The milestone verdict holds five companies responsible for selling MTBE-enhanced gasoline, a product a San Francisco Superior Court jury deemed unreasonably dangerous and defective. The case was the first involving MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether) to go to trial, and dozens more are pending.
The San Francisco jury found that Shell Oil Co., Texaco Inc., Lyondell Chemical Co. (formerly ARCO Chemical Co.), Tosco Corp. (part of Phillips Petroleum) and Equilon Enterprises sold a defective product because they failed to warn about its dangers.
The jury also held that Shell and Lyondell acted maliciously by withholding information about MTBE's dangers. Punitive damages can be awarded in California only if a jury finds malice.
For a 2-minute primer on what MTBE is and why it's used, click here.
Read more . . .
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