Saturday, July 31, 2004
The Network of Trial Law Firms is a Certified State of California CLE Provider
Friday, July 30, 2004
First Year Lawyer Starting Salaries Decrease
For the first time since 1992, starting salaries for lawyers entering the job market has decreased, according to the 30th annual survey of law school graduates by the National Association for Law Placement. Starting salaries for corporate lawyers dropped from $90,000 in 2002 to $80,000 in 2003, reflecting an increase in hiring at small law firms. For lawyers of all types, the median starting salary in 2003 was $55,000, down from $60,000 in 2002.
New York Law Journal, 7/28/04
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Firms Restructure to Mirror Corporate America
By Trevor Delaney
LawFirmInc./June-July 2004
Many law firms are abandoning management committees and migrating to governance models that more closely resemble those of their corporate clients. Interview with a large firm's COO discussing why his firm went in that direction.
Law Firms Having Trouble with Marketing Executives
Kristin Eliasberg
Law Firm Inc.
Is Market Resistant to One-Stop International Firm?
Article re London firms unsuccessfully seeking New York City merger partners.
Author: John Malpas
Source: Legal Week
Start Date: 29/07/2004
End Date: 05/08/2004
Top 100 corporate counsel see boost in financial status as salaries rise 6%
Legal Week reports: General counsel at the US’ top 100 corporations have seen their pay increase by 6% over the past year underlining the increasing financial status of the US’ most senior corporate counsel.
The survey by Corporate Counsel magazine of the US’ top 100 best-paid general counsel found that the average in-house legal chief earned $1.116m in 2003, up by 6% on 2002’s $1.053m.
Fred Krebs, the president of the Association of Corporate Counsel, told Corporate Counsel that general counsel are still being rewarded for their role helping companies to comply with the sweeping anti-fraud measures in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
"Companies are in compliance or have systems in place. Now companies are in more of a maintenance mode rather than the allconsuming compliance efforts made over the past couple of years," he commented.
The research shows, however, that the inflation of average salary levels is slowing down following 2002’s booming 9% increase for remuneration.
Sector experts are predicting that next year will see another decrease, with some predicting a 3% increase for general counsel pay.
The results confirm the position of top US general counsel as the world’s best-paid lawyers, outstripping the vast majority of partners even at top Wall Street firms. Pay for US legal heads is also far ahead of that offered to employed lawyers in other jurisdictions.
Author: Antony Collins
Source: Legal Week
Start Date: 29/07/2004
End Date: 05/08/2004
Profits Slide at London Firms
The top 10 London firms have seen a 7.6% drop in PPP in 2003/04 reports Legal Week. Average PPP is now £674,000, down by 16.5% from a high of £807,000 in 2001.
The results are in stark contrast to those of the rest of the UK’s top 50 firms, which saw an average partner profits rise of over 9% and an average revenue increase of nearly 6.5%.
The top 10 firms have seen less big cross-border work, and increased competition on pricing and they have been relatively slow at addressing costs."
Author: Paul Hodkinson
Source: Legal Week
Start Date: 29/07/2004
End Date: 05/08/2004
Monday, July 26, 2004
Joke Sites -- Lawyer Jokes
We love to hate them, but sometimes you need a good joke for a presentation, so here they are.
• Law Humor -- articles, music, comics and games;
• Law HaHa -- humor writing and actual oddball humor drawn from the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction world of lawyers and law students;
• Mad Kane -- politics, computers, marriage, cars, work, family, the Internet, the IRS, the news, law, music, money, privacy, technology, Web surfing, media, travel and President Bush;
• Lawp Sided;
• Legal Humor;
• DuHaime's Law Fun;
• Power of Attorneys;
• Nolo Jokes;
• Lawyer Jokes;
• Aha's Lawyer Jokes;
• Ex-Lawyer Jokes;
• ExpertLaw Lawyer Jokes and Legal Humor;
• James Fuqua's Law Jokes;
• PondScumAndLawyers.com;
• Profession Jokes: Lawyers;
• SCROOMtimes Lawyer Jokes;
• The 'Lectric Law Library's Rubber Room;
• Stu's Views;
• Cartoon Bank, home to nine decades of New Yorker cartoons, a fair share of which covered lawyers and law;
• Dan's Cartoons, collection of law and legal cartoons drawn by Dan Rosandich;
• Juris Comics, a comic strip that looks at all things law;
• Law Comix, a broad-ranging collection of cartoons by lawyer Charles Pugsley Fincher, whose legal and political cartoons have been widely published;
• Lawtoons, , a comic drawn by Suzan F. Charlton, a lawyer in Washington, D.C.;
• Mason Darrow, non-profit lawyer, is drawn by Maine-based cartoonist John Klossner, who makes his archives available here.
Friday, July 23, 2004
Nixon Peabody Wins NLRB Blockage of Union Organizing by Graduate Assistants at Private Universities
In yet another abrupt policy reversal, the National Labor Relations Board has held that graduate student assistants at private universities are primarily students and are not entitled to protections and rights afforded employees under the National Labor Relations Act, Brown University, 342 NLRB No. 42 (July 13, 2004). This decision overrides the Democratic controlled Board’s contrary ruling four years earlier in New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 (2000). It restores the Board’s original no-coverage policy dating back as far as Adelphi University, 195 NLRB 639 (1972) and Leland Stanford Junior University, 214 NLRB 621 (1974). Graduate assistants at public universities are not covered by the NLRA and are not affected by this ruling.
Nixon Peabody partner Gregory J. Blasi has been named chair of the New York State Bar Association Business Law Section.
George's practice focuses on general corporate and securities matters. He has experience in all phases of acquisition activity from advising clients on proposed acquisitions through negotiations and financing to closing. He has been involved in merger and acquisition activity in connection with chemical companies, energy service companies, radio stations, and computer software companies.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Competing on Price is a Losing Proposition
Des Cahill, Legal Director, 7/22/04
" . . . [F]irms offering to do work for little or nothing are generally viewed with suspicion by clients, according to a snapshot poll taken by [UK-based] Legal Director this week.
"Low-balling on fees is certainly not a new phenomenon and has been a regular feature of the fees landscape for some time. Whenever there is competition for work law firms will attempt to lure clients in by ever more attractive deals. The rationale is that once hooked the firm will continue to advise the client on more lucrative work.
"A key problem for many is the quality of advice the firm can give at the price quoted. While the work levels are low and assistants have some free time it is all well and good — but what happens when work picks up and bigger and more lucrative deals come along for the firm?"
The Client is Key
Tim Nightingale, Legal Week, 7/22/04
(Tim Nightingale is a director of Nisus Consulting)
Results of survey conducted by Tim Nightingale
Commercial understanding and advice
"Understanding the client’s legal requirements in a commercial context" is the most important criterion. "It was more important than ‘responsiveness’, ‘depth and breadth of expertise’ or even ‘price/value for money’."
Focus on key clients
Stay close to clients
‘Systematic’ loyalty
"There is little to prevent firms switching their loyalties. Providing some form of proprietary systems that are beneficial to clients is one means of ‘locking in’ clients more effectively. Few firms were perceived to be doing this."
Passive value billing
"Respondents reluctantly accept that their legal advisers are joined at the hip to hourly billing. However, they are increasingly insisting on some form of retrospective value assessment in conjunction with what is on the clock.
"Firms that do this proactively, amending their own bills according to value delivered, are a step ahead of the game. The perception that US firms ‘bill to the death’ will put them at a disadvantage in this area."
Invest non-chargeable hours
"Clients are calling out for any indication of partners who are prepared to stop the clock and spend time investing in the relationship in whatever way is most appropriate. This is not about free advice, it is about commitment."
Values for advantage
"Clients still stress that they follow individuals, not firms. Explore the reason for this in more depth and lurking beneath the service is, aside from size and location, the fact that law firms are seen as largely undifferentiated.
"Partners are differentiated. A clear set of distinct values that the whole firm consistently works to would be a good start in providing meaningful differentiation. This is something that most firms are less than comfortable with."
One-to-one marketing
"Mass marketing, whether it is newsletters, hospitality or even seminars, no longer cuts it. Clients are fed up of being bombarded with newsletters; many cite them more as an irritant than an asset.
"Marketing needs to be bespoke, more functional in offering clients real benefits they value and less about trying to curry favour. 'Anything that is tailored to us I am impressed with,' says one in-house counsel."
Performance measurement
"Procurement departments are there not to select law firms, but to ensure that best value is being achieved in the selection. Law firms need to take the lead in demonstrating best value — and using performance measurement tools is an important part of that.
"Independent reviews seem to be dead in the water," one respondent says. "Senior partners may ask how it is going and do a grip and grin with the new general counsel, but not a review."
"Clients like the legal service they are getting. Big and small firms each bring their own benefits. But clients are less than happy with the price they are paying for it. They do not always think they are getting value for money and they are now under pressure to make sure they get it."
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Nixon Peabody Successfully Defends TAP Pharmaceutical Employee in Major Drug Kick-Back Case
 |  |  |
| Rob Sherman | Bob Kirby | Marisa L. Jaffe |
Nixon Peabody LLP has successfully defended one of the eight current and former employees of TAP Pharmaceutical Products who were acquitted of engaging in kickback schemes with doctors and hospitals. A jury in the U.S. District Court in Boston rejected the federal prosecutors’ charge of conspiracy to violate the federal antikickback statute, finding that the employees acted lawfully in connection with the sale and marketing of company drug products.
Boston-based partners Rob Sherman and Bob Kirby and associate Marisa Jaffe represented Donna Tom, a TAP district manager, during the three-month trial. Prosecutors had alleged that the defendants had defrauded the government of millions of dollars by bribing doctors and hospitals by giving incentives such as cash, free drugs, and trips to resorts.
“The federal government and health care task force have been aggressively pursuing companies and individuals in connection with allegedly fraudulent pharmaceutical product marketing activities,” said Sherman. “This is one of the first cases in which individuals put the government to the test. The acquittals demonstrate that the government was overreaching when it sought criminal penalties against individual employees of this company. Hopefully, this case will send a message about future prosecutions of this nature.”
Ken Bean's Defense Verdict in Psychosis Drug Death Case
Stephen Baccus v. Tenet Healthsystem DI, Inc. d/b/a Forest Park Hospital.
Decedent's representative brought against Forest Park Hospital and the employed ER physician for medical malpractice/wrongful death. (The ER physician was dismissed on the day of trial. Ken Bean, of Network member firm Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard, represented the hospital.)
Decedent, 29, was taken to the ER room of the hospital after he called the police claiming there were intruders in his apartment who would not leave.
Upon arrival at the ER the patient was examined by the ER physician and hospital staff and was treated for acute psychosis secondary to an anticholinergic drug reaction to the OTC meds and herbal remedies the patient was taking.
The patient was observed for several hours and released with instructions specifically not to take additional medication unless prescribed by a doctor.
Fourteen hours later, the patient jumped to his death from the sixth floor of a parking structure.
After the week-long trial, the jury deliberated for approximately 90 minutes before returning a defense verdict.
Keith Phoenix Leads $2.5 Million Settlement in Death Case
Keith Phoenix of St. Louis member firm Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard P.C. recently negotiated a $2.5 million settlement for parents of a ten-year old girl who drowned in a swimming pool while attending a summer camp.
Garrison's Canoe Rental and Campground, Inc. ran a Christian summer youth camp at its campgrounds outside Steeleville, Mo., near the Meramec River. Garrison's invited Dove Covenant Christian Center Church to send children to its camp in 2002, as it had done in the past, after a visit by the church board. The church then encouraged parents to send their children to the camp.
Crystal Winston's mother initially refused to give consent for Crystal to go on the float trip because Crystal could not swim, but was reassured by the church supervisor she would be safe.
On the second day of the camp, after returning from the float trip, the youth camp director suggested the children go swimming in Garrison's pool. A sign outside the pool cautioned that there was no lifeguard and that patrons were to swim at their own risk.
Garrison's sent two counselors to watch over the children as they played in and around the pool. Neither counselor had training as a lifeguard or in CPR.
Shortly thereafter, a child approached one of the counselors and told him Crystal was on the bottom of the pool, not moving. The counselor brought Crystal up from the bottom of the pool and a guest at the campground performed CPR, but Crystal died. An autopsy determined that drowning was the cause of death.
Crystal's parents sued the church for failure to warn of the pool's dangers and negligent supervision. They sued the campground for negligence per se in violating state regulations regarding the pool, premises liability and negligent supervision. The plaintiffs retained an expert lifeguard and experts in pool design and recreation.
Defendants denied liability arguing: that Crystal's mother had signed a release; that the danger posed by the pool was open and obvious, that there was a sign stating: "no lifeguard on duty" and "swim at own risk;" and that state regulations did not require defendants to have a lifeguard at the pool. Moreover, defendants argued Crystal assumed the risk by doing back flips off the side of the pool despite the fact she could not swim.
The defendants made no offer prior to mediation. During the mediation conducted by Eugene K. Buckley of St. Louis, plaintiffs demanded the policy limits of both defendants to settle with either defendant. Plaintiffs contended that it would be bad faith for the insurers to expose their insureds to a judgment in excess of the policy limits.
The parties settled that same day for $2.5 million, the joint policy limits of the church and campground's insurance policies.
Top GCs -- What Are They Paid?
Law.com, July 20, 2004
Here's Law.com's list of the 100 best-paid general counsel according to their cash compensation -- salary plus bonus -- in fiscal year 2003.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Deutsch Kerrigan Wins $3 Million Reversal for AIG's Insured K-Mart
Louisiana Supreme Court Accepts Argument by Bob Kerrigan and Ike Ryan
In Green v. K-Mart Corporation plaintiff alleged closed-head injuries from falling merchandise at a K-Mart store and won a $1.5 million jury verdict in the underlying case handled by other counsel. On appellate review, Louisiana's 3d Circuit increased the award to almost $4.5 million.
National Union (AIG) then engaged DKS as appellate counsel for K-Mart with less than ten days remaining before the appellate judgment becoming final and irrevocable.
DKS successfully applied to the Louisiana Supreme Court for a writ vacating the appellate decision and remanding the case to the court of appeal for another hearing. But, on remand, the circuit court again rendered judgment against K-mart for $4,500,000.
DKS then sought a writ of certiorari, and the Louisiana Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. In a unanimous opinion, the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the appellate court and reinstated the jury’s original award, Green v. K-Mart, 2003-2495 (La. 5/25/04), _____ So.2d _____, thereby saving DKS' clients more than $3 million in principal and interest.
Bob Kerrigan and Ike Ryan handled the matter within Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles for K-Mart.
Monday, July 05, 2004
Boston Law firms' profits jump on business rebound
From the July 2, 2004 print edition of the Boston Business Journal
Sheri Qualters
Journal Staff
At Boston-area law firms, revenue gains ranged from a few percentage points to more than 20 percent. Profits per equity partner made single-digit gains mostly across the board, except for Bingham's nearly 15 percent hike.
Friday, July 02, 2004
Another Asbestos Defense Verdict for Peter Wechsler
Miami Network attorney Peter Wechsler of member firm Ruden McClosky was on the Union Carbide trial team that recently successfully concluded a 2 week asbestos trial in West Palm Beach, Florida where plaintiff claimed he had asbestosis. Plaintiff was from Alabama and was part of a ‘screening” in Mississippi. He had made his way down to Miami to hire plaintiff attorneys.
Dr. Sider, a B reader from New York City, testified by telephone because he was unable to attend the trial and testify in person. His testimony was that the x-rays looked normal. Plaintiff put on a B reader from Miami who said the x-rays were consistent was asbestosis.
The defense put on Dr. William Dyson, an industrial hygienist from North Carolina, who testified that plaintiff’s exposure was not enough to cause asbestosis.
Plaintiff asked the jury for $2.4 Million which the jury rejected and returned in one hour with a defense verdict. Union Carbide is the only asbestos defendant that is trying cases in south Florida.
This "Suing Your Lawyer" Stuff Has to Stop
Editor's Comment
Lloyds Suit Against Its Own Panel Defense Counsel Can Have But One Result -- Overprepared matters (to be doubly sure nothing is missed), Higher Legal Fees, and Increased Professional E&O Policy Premiums
Matthew Haggman writing for Miami Daily Business Review reports in its 07-02-2004 edition:
"Lloyd's of London filed suit Thursday in Florida against [two of its] law firms . . ., seeking to recover a previously undisclosed $30 million settlement the insurance giant paid in a 2003 swimming pool negligence case.
"The London-based insurer alleges that lawyers from the two firms committed a variety of blunders and oversights in representing the defendant building owner, which carried a $1 million liability policy from Lloyd's.
"In the 45-page complaint filed in Broward County Circuit Court, Lloyd's is suing under the theories of legal malpractice and equitable subrogation. It not only seeks to collect the $30 million settlement but all expenses, costs and attorney fees it paid to [those law firms] during the litigation.
"One of the key contentions in the suit . . . is that the defense lawyers failed to properly advise Lloyd's that the damages could far exceed the policy limit and that the carrier should quickly offer the limit to avoid the high risk of a big judgment.
This is not the first time a client has sued its law firm after an adverse verdict. See "Fried Frank settles malpractice case with Fruit of the Loom," NLJ, Oct. 22, 2001 ed. Suing one's own law firm is bad business.
From my experience during 10 years as vice president and chief of litigation of two New York Stock Exchange-listed companies (Combustion Engineering Inc. and GAF Corp.), a case as significant as the underlying LMP case in the claim against Fried Frank (a dispute over a licensing agreement) in which a $96 million verdict was ultimately returned in a second trial won by the plaintiff licensor, and the underlying case in the Lloyds claim would never have gone to trial without a thorough prior review of all options by those persons within the corporate or insurance company client responsible for claims management -- a corporation's general counsel, executive committee and even its board of directors, or an insurer's claim adjusters and supervisors.
Responsible corporations have meetings of senior management in-house, formal and informal, to discuss the potential downside of underlying cases, as well as the wisdom of settlement for an amount less than cases' jury potentials. The LMP case would have been lunchroom conversation, hallway conversation, night and weekend talk, boardroom material. Slapped once with a prior $25 million verdict, a company does not go blindly into trial once again without a thorough analysis of the risks of another, and possibly worse, downside result. Such a company thinks, analyzes, conferences, consults and cogitates.
And, insurers don't assign matters to counsel and go to sleep. They remain actively involved, monitoring matters and keeping apprised of settlement opportunities, even making decisions as to claim potentials and assigning cases to categories that they create to help them identify high risk potentials.
Where does responsibility for bad litigation decisions begin in a corporation or insurer? Try-settle decisions, particularly in cases of the magnitude of these, are the responsibility of the same people who decide other issues material to a company's financial condition -- management and, ultimately the board of directors; claims departments in insurance companies.
And insurers especially often have instructions to counsel as to how they are to defend matters, report developments, and conduct discovery.
Under such circumstances law firms cannot be held to be guarantors or insurers of litigation results. Insurers suing the very defense counsel they hire and often hamper with their own rules of engagement, reporting requirements, billing requirements, and legal fee audits, they are the last people who should be heard from challenging bad results in underlying cases.
Ellis R. Mirsky
Tarrytown, N.Y.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Michael Bub, a Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard partner (St. Louis) and member of the firm’s products liability practice area, has recently been appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers.
The Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers was established to help defense attorneys provide the highest quality representation for clients throughout the state. Since its inception in 1984, the organization has supported the state's defense lawyers with continuing legal education programs, amicus curiae briefs and a wide variety of information assistance programs. In addition, MODL has sought, through its legislative efforts, to balance the scales of justice for all citizens in the State of Missouri and to improve the quality of the Bench.
