Friday, February 28, 2003
"Making Partner at Morgenstein & Jubelirer Easier Than Earning Kung Fu Black Belt"
The Recorder -- Renee Deger -- 2/24/03
Litigator John Worden gets to kick butt - no matter what happens in the courtroom. When he isn't wrangling with insurance companies for his corporate clients at San Francisco's Morgenstein & Jubelirer, Worden is a practicing black belt in Kung Fu.
What began as a bonding exercise with his 5-year-old daughter has become a way of life for the 38-year-old Worden. He devotes about 20 hours a week to practicing his Kung Fu skills, teaching and mentoring newcomers and other instructors.
"It's the very opposite from my normal life of sitting in conference rooms," Worden said.
He has won national Kung Fu championships and is an expert with a spear, sword, staff and nunchaku, the whirling martial arts weapon.
Five years ago, he started teaching and now also helps train other instructors. Worden is also close to Richard Lee, a Grand Master who is well known in Kung Fu circles, and he hopes to carry on many of Lee's teachings.
While he loved Bruce Lee movies as a kid, Worden didn't study martial arts until he and his daughter signed up for a class at Richard Lee's East-West Kung Fu in Alamo in 1991. After a few years of taking classes, he was hooked.
"It's really fun to fight," Worden said. "We do learn how to beat each other up - but we also learn other things."
The deeper lessons Worden explores with his martial arts include discipline and self-motivation. Earning his black belt, he said, was one of the most difficult things he's done because of the mental and physical demands over so long a period of time. In fact, it took him nine years to graduate to a black belt, compared to just seven to make partner at Morgenstein.
"Having succeeded at this, I think there is no one who could be tougher than me at litigating," Worden said. "I've had tougher challenges."
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Companies Cracking the Whip on Legal Fees
Catherine Aman -- Corporate Counsel -- 02-27-2003
Article reports interviews with Jeffrey Carr, GC of FMC Technologies Inc., E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Woods Abbott of Raytheon, senior manager of legal operations, and Benjamin Heineman, GC of General Electric Corp.
Article Lists "Ten Ways to Slash Spending on Outside Counsel"
1. Designate one person in the corporate legal department to handle bills and pursue savings.
2. Set a strict and uniform billing policy for outside counsel.
3. Forbid rate increases and changes in assigned teams without prior approval.
4. Require outside counsel to prepare budgets for all specific matters and cases.
5. Cut the overall number of firms you retain.
6. Develop a cadre of preferred providers by region or practice area.
7. Investigate reverse-auction Web sites.
8. Explore electronic billing services.
9. Make lawyers' natural competitiveness work for you; grade outside counsel regularly.
10. Share the grades with all of the firms you retain.
Wireless Internet
WiFi is liberating, but there are security risks
Matt Kelly -- The National Law Journal -- 02-27-2003
Internet on Wireless Fidelity, WiFi, for lawyers constantly toting laptops through their daily chores, it's a way to reduce clutter. Wireless networks are great, but lawyers should be aware of the security risks.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
LeClair Attorneys Among Virginia's "Legal Elite"
John Fitzpatrick, David Shuford and Tom Wolf are among only 71 civil litigation attorneys in Virginia named by Virginia Business. Also named to the list of top attorneys in Virginia are Gary LeClair in the Business Law category, David Nagle in Labor & Employment Law, Tom Lisk in Lobbying & Regulatory Law, Steve Delaney in Real Estate & Construction Law, and Neal Brodsky in Taxes, Trusts & Estates Law.
E-Mail to Clients Can Be Risky
New York Lawyer -- February 25, 2003 -- Joel Cohen and James L. Bernard -- New York Law Journal
Regulatory Law Booming
Otis Bilodeau -- Legal Times -- 02-25-2003
"We're in a period of unprecedented corporate regulatory activity," says David Becker, a securities partner at Cleary Gottlieb's 80-lawyer D.C. office. "These practices are probably more active than they've been in 20 years."
The level of activity is probably most visible at the SEC. The spate of corporate failures has prompted what current and former SEC officials describe as frenzy of investigations and enforcement proceedings. At the same time, the commission has also pounded out a host of new rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
The combination, observes Latham's D.C. managing partner Eric Bernthal, amounts to a "sea change in the culture of corporate regulation."
For securities lawyers and litigators throughout the city, that has meant a tsunami of legal work as they counsel queasy clients on strategies for compliance with the new rules, tackle internal investigations for companies that have unearthed problems, and, in many cases now underway, struggle to fend off civil and criminal charges.
Monday, February 24, 2003
Another Los Angeles Satellite Closes Its Doors
New York Lawyer -- February 24, 2003
Renee Deger -- The Recorder
Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly is throwing in the towel in Los Angeles, scattering the 10 attorneys who work in the office to other locales. The move follows last week's withdrawal of NY's Kelley, Drye & Warren from the LA market.
Trophy offices disappear as law firms get practical
Delaware Online -- Maureen Milford -- 2/24/03
Increased competition and rising costs - including hefty salaries for associates, jumbo rents and unwieldy health insurance payments - are forcing firms to nip and tuck.
The shift is evident in Delaware, where law firms are the second-biggest users of office space in downtown Wilmington - behind only the major corporations, according to real-estate brokers.
The legal community has expanded dramatically during the past decade as the state has become a center for federal bankruptcy and patent cases. The profession generated 1.3 percent of the gross state product in 2000, double the contribution in 1977.
"The environment is really competitive and cost-sensitive," said Jeffrey B. Bove, managing partner of Connolly, Bove, Lodge & Hutz, a Wilmington-based international firm that specializes in intellectual property matters. "We don't want to be wasteful. We don't want to invest in things that don't have a strategic purpose."
As a result, firms are abandoning the trophy office with expensive wood finishes. Some have even gone to a cookie-cutter design, making all the offices the same size regardless of attorney status or seniority.
Are Some Practice Areas Unable to Support High Hourly Rates?
Two $940K PPP Law Firm Employment Lawyers Leave to Start Small Firm
Before they left, one junior partner's hourly rate went from $275 in 2000 to $380 in 2003. Large firm says defectors wanted to pursue plaintiff practice.
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Internet Changing the Way Plaintiffs Sue Business in Securities Litigation
Significant Changes as Lawyers Use Internet in Securities Litigation
Blake Bell, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of CyberSecuritiesLaw.com, 4/5/02
Also, see Bell's prior article (12/01) on this subject.
· Class counsel routinely scrutinize issuers’ Web sites, Webcasts and broadcast e-mails to investors searching for alleged misrepresentations or omissions of material fact that might form the basis for a lawsuit.
· Class counsel monitor financial message boards looking for leads and evidence for their cases.
· New categories of securities lawsuits, arbitrations and enforcement proceedings are emerging.
· Shareholder activists are using electronic bulletin boards and chat rooms to keep tabs on management and to learn about and involve themselves in securities class actions.
· Plaintiffs’ counsel are using so-called data clearinghouse Web sites to exchange data regarding securities suits.
· Plaintiffs’ counsel are using their law firm Web sites to make it easier to retain them to represent allegedly aggrieved shareholders.
· Class counsel are complaining that because their complaints, occasionally based on weeks of hard work and investigation, are immediately available via the Web, their allegations are being filched by other plaintiffs’ firms which quickly file copycat lawsuits.
Saturday, February 08, 2003
National Law Journal's 2002 Litigation Yearbook Cites Snell & Wilmer
in Top 100 Defense Wins
2/7/02
Doug Seitz of Snell & Wilmer's Phoenix office and Gina Rossano-Slattery of Snell & Wilmer's Tucson office were named as the defense team in a significant medical malpractice case tried in Maricopa County Superior Court. Seitz and Rossano-Slattery successfully cleared a pathologist of charges that he was negligent in failing to detect evidence of cancer in the biopsy of a young breast cancer patient. The Phoenix jury found no liability and there was no appeal in the case.
The National Law Journal's annual list identifies the top defense jury verdicts where the amount at risk is substantial. The cases identified are won despite problems such as unfriendly venues, sympathetic plaintiffs and tough opposing counsel. Basic criteria for the list includes; the plaintiff should have had a reasonable chance to win, as indicated by a settlement by a co-defendant, a defense offer of a substantial settlement or previous plaintiffs' wins in similar cases; the win must be complete (a moral victory where the loss is a million dollars instead of a billion dollars does not count); and the jury's decision must be valid, with no reversals or remands for new trials.
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Wildman Harrold Attorneys Get McDonald's "Fat Suit" Dismissed"
It may be a small world, but it's a Big Mac
1-22-03
USDC Robert Sweet tossed out the "fat" suit blaming McDonald's fast food for obesity. McDonald's was represented by Anne Kimball and Sarah Olson of the Network's Wildman Harrold law firm and by Winston & Strawn.
Monday, February 03, 2003
Snell & Wilmer Attorney Named President of International Masters of Gaming Law
Heidi Staudenmaier takes leadership position
PHOENIX (January 17, 2003)- Snell & Wilmer partner Heidi Staudenmaier who practices with the firm's Indian Law and Gaming Law practice group was elected to serve as president of the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) for a one-year term.
IMGL is a non-profit association dedicated to education and the advancement of the gaming law profession, as well as the exchange of professional information regarding local and global practice in all aspects of gaming law. Membership in IMGL is be invitation only. Members include attorneys, gaming regulators and gaming industry executives. Members participate in philanthropic, charitable and educational programs related to the gaming industry. IMGL hosts annual educational conferences for its members, and provides a strong network for its members to use as resources on legal issues that may arise. Staudenmaier recently co-chaired the IMGL 2002 Gaming Law Conference in California.
Staudenmaier, a founding member of IMGL, has been practicing law with Snell & Wilmer since 1985. Her trial and litigation experience regularly involving representation of clients in gaming, financing, leasing, taxation, real property, and economic development issues involving Tribes and Tribal entities. Staudenmaier is past Chair of the Arizona State Bar Indian Law Section, and was honored as a recipient of the First American Leadership Award given by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. She is also a member of the Gaming Law Review board of editors.
Snell & Wilmer has been involved with Indian law issues for more than 60 years. The firm’s representation involves both Indian and non-Indian clients in their affairs and transactions. The Indian Law practice group has provided legal services to tribal organizations throughout the United States, including providing pro bono representation to the National Center. Each year the firm donates hundreds of hours of attorneys’ time to the National Center on matters including general contract and corporate matters, tax issues, employment law and litigation.
Staudenmaier's articles include "Tribal Gaming Management Contracts and the National Indian Gaming Commission," about the explosion of Tribal gaming in California; "Tribal Gaming Management Contracts and the NIGC" concerning management contracts and the need for approval by the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act before they can be deemed valid and endorsable (the article explains the nuts and bolts of preparing a management contract and the NIGC approval process); and an article she co-authored titled, "No Reservations About Indian Law," about several major Arizona law firms courting tribes as clients now that potential casino profits loom large.
