Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Healthcare Heavyweight Joins Ruden in Miami
Suzanne K. Sterling joined Ruden McClosky's Miami office as Of Counsel. Suzanne represents biotech companies, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, wholesale pharmaceutical distributors, dietary supplement manufacturers and distributors and other companies whose products are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Florida Board of Pharmacy. She also represents physicians and other health care providers.
Suzanne was in-house counsel at CIBA-GEIGY in the early 90's where she worked in commercial (e.g., patent and know-how licenses, R&D agreements, Manufacture and Supply agreements, Purchaser Utilization agreements involving managed are entities) and regulatory areas (e.g., FDCA rules and regs, drug promotion materials, packaging, labeling, recall issues; anti-kickback laws, Medicare fraud investigations and State AG investigations).
In addition, Suzanne is Co-chairperson of Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Advisory Board. She is also an active member of the Programming Committee for BioFlorida, the Biotechnology Incubator Committee for the South Florida BioScience Consortium, the American Health Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association, and the Florida Bar Health Law Section.
Friday, November 21, 2003
In-House Counsel Quality of Life Survey 2003
Corporate Counsel
11-20-2003
Chart
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Survey: General Counsel Salaries Rose in 2003
New York Lawyer, November 18, 2003
By Anthony Lin
New York Law Journal
The average general counsel earned a salary of $278,500 in 2003, a 4 percent increase from 2002, according to a survey by law firm consultancy Altman Weil.
Salaries were also up slightly for most other in-house lawyers, with the exception of high-level specialists in areas such as tax or international law. Their salaries dropped 7.5 percent from $139,000 in 2002 to $128,600 this year.
General counsels also saw a 11.4 percent jump in bonus compensation, up to $179,000 from $160,700.
Most other in-house lawyers saw bonuses drop by between 12 percent and 16 percent. Senior attorneys, for instance, received $13,200 in bonuses in 2003, down from $15,000 in 2002.
James Wilber, head of Altman Weil's corporate law group, said companies seemed to be trading off salary and bonus compensation for most in-house lawyers.
Altman Weil polled 330 corporate law departments and included compensation data for 7,223 lawyers, most of whom worked at companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenues.
Monday, November 17, 2003
Philadelphia Bar Awards Hecker Brown Sherry and Johnson for Pro Bono Service
The Philadelphia Bar Association's Citizens Pro Bono Award bestowed by the Association, the Philadelphia Bar Foundation and Citizens Bank was presented to Hecker Brown Sherry and Johnson LLP.
"The Award Committee received numerous very impressive nominations for this honor," according to Committee Chair Alan M. Feldman. "The nominations showed a genuine commitment to pro bono activities. The members of the Committee marveled at the descriptions of the cases covered, and the intensity and excellence demonstrated by the pro bono attorneys, who showed extraordinary effort and uncommon commitment to the cases they took on," he added. "These attorneys really ‘went the extra mile’ to provide a level of service well above and beyond the call of duty - a level of lawyering that personifies the ideal of ‘the Philadelphia lawyer.’ The winners should be very proud. Their work is a wonderful reflection on the Philadelphia Bar, its leadership, and their commitment to pro bono work at every level."
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Survey: Costs drive decisions on outside counsel
Charlotte Business Journal, 12/3/03
Cost concerns are driving decisions by chief corporate attorneys when it comes to hiring or firing outside legal counsel, according to a survey by Altman Weil Inc.
About 60% of chief legal officers surveyed by Altman have fired or were considering firing at least one outside law firm this year, up 4% from 2002. The primary reason was cost followed by lack of responsiveness and "overworking projects."
