Friday, April 22, 2005
FINANCIAL STUDY REPORTS ON LAW FIRMS' 2004 PERFORMANCE
Citigroup Private Bank Study shows it may be tough to sustain growth
Source: Story on Law.com by Emma Schwartz, Legal Times, 04-22-2005
Citigroup Private Bank study of firm finances is based on the financial performance of 143 law firms across the country and is considered by law firm managers as one of the most important barometers of the state of the legal business.
Finding: Revenues and profits were up by nearly 10 percent in 2004.
How: Rate hikes and more billable hours. Rate increases accounted for two-thirds of the revenue gains made in 2004.
Problem: Mounting pressure from clients to rein in costs. Hours production per attorney maxing out now. Limit on number of clients willing to pay high rates. For more-run-of-the-mill work like licensing, trademarks and insurance defense practices, where specialization and prestige have less effect on the outcome, cost-cutting pressures will exact the highest toll, the study's analysis says. [Note the perception that insurance defense work is run-of-the-mill. The challenge will be to differentiate high risk tort and product liability litigation with runaway jury potential and punitive damage exposure from less risky cases.]
Prediction: Fee increases of 6 percent will be difficult.
Recommendations: Dump underperforming attorneys and practices. [Note that a marginal benefit analysis should always be one of the tools used in such firm planning. Shedding underperforming attorneys, partners and practices and de-equitization may temporarily increase PPP but could also diminish stability, reduce ability to handle new or sudden demands, decrease possibility of finding emerging stars or late bloomers from within the cut practices, and impair firm's ability to adjust to new market opportunities.]
Cavaet: "When it comes to bet-the-company legal work, general counsel are more than willing to pay whatever the price, says Susan Hackett, senior vice president and GC of the Association of Corporate Counsel."
"Ward Bower, a consultant with Altman Weil Inc., says clients are not running away from high billing law firms in any significant number."
Monday, April 18, 2005
SANDBERG PHOENIX & von GONTARD'S NEW TRAINING COURTROOM
State-of-the-Art Training Facility in Downtown St. Louis
Network member firm Sandberg, Phoenix and von Gontard recently opened its on-site mock courtroom, a state-of-the-art training facility for attorneys and clients incorporating cutting-edge computer and multi-media technologies now available for modern courtrooms. The new courtroom and adjoining jury room are designed for training and practice argument.
The courtroom's wireless technology uses computers, monitors, DVDs, CDs, Internet access, audio speakers and microphones, plasma screens and video cameras. Specialized lighting optimizes camera work or playback.
Firm partner Diane Robben (above) works with founding partner Peter von Gontard (left) and associate Bhavik Patel (right0 in the new courtroom while senior associate Mark Prost looks on from the judge’s bench.
Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary. The firm has four primary practice areas: business, commercial litigation, health law and product liability litigation. SPvG has 64 attorneys, 17 paralegals and an administration staff of 70.
Peter von Gontard, a founding partner of Sandberg, Phoenix and von Gontard, P.C., conducts a training session for attorneys and staff in the SPvG Courtroom. The newly constructed mock courtroom incorporates the most sophisticated computer and media technologies available for modern courts today. Specialized lighting was installed to optimize any camera work or playback. The firm modeled the courtroom on the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri.
Monday, April 04, 2005
LeCLAIR RYAN MERGES WITH ALLEN & ALLEN
Merger Reflects Trial Practice Growth
Two of Richmond’s most widely known and active trial firms have announced they will merge, effective April 1. LeClair Ryan and Allen & Allen will combine, reinforcing and strengthening their focus on trial work.
LeClair Ryan will be joined by Everette (“Buddy”) G. Allen, Jr., who with his son, Everette (“E.G.”) Allen III and Robert L. Harris, Jr, started the four-member litigation firm, Allen & Allen in 2001. Buddy Allen and Bob Harris’ practices focus on commercial litigation. E.G. Allen’s practice is general business and corporate matters. Stephen M. Faraci joined Allen & Allen in January 2005 and will also join LeClair Ryan.
“While we began as a venture capital and entrepreneurial firm, now more than half of our work is litigation,” said Gary LeClair, Chairman and founder of LeClair Ryan. “Buddy Allen is on many folks’ short list of Richmond lawyers to call when there is a high-stakes, bet-the-ranch case. On complex and high risk cases, we would often try to be the first to retain Buddy to make sure he didn’t end up on the other side,” added LeClair. “Now we know we have him.”
LeClair Ryan, noted for its national trial practice and participation as the Virginia member firm of a national association of defense trial law firms, has garnered placement in the “Top Ten Defense Verdicts” listing in Virginia Lawyers Weekly for three consecutive years with 4 of the top 5 in defense verdicts in 2004, 7 of the top 10 in 2003 and 3 of the top 10 in 2002. “Many fail to appreciate the difference between litigation and trial practice. We are increasingly being called upon by companies throughout the United States to try important matters for them. Clearly our folks know how to take a case to verdict and win,” observed LeClair. The addition of Allen places an exclamation point on this national trial practice.
Buddy Allen holds the distinction of being cited by Virginia Lawyers Weekly as one of Virginia’s best lawyers in civil litigation. Allen is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the highest honors for the trial bar in the United States and Canada. He has always been listed among Virginia’s foremost civil litigators by Virginia Business, and was profiled as the top civil litigator in its 2004 “Legal Elite” listing. Like his new partners, Allen is more than a litigator – he is a trial lawyer.
“We looked long and hard for the right mix of depth, expertise and established successes in trial work prior to selecting a merger partner for our firm,” said Buddy Allen, Chairman and Senior Partner of Allen & Allen. “We found just what we were looking for in LeClair Ryan. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to bring our expertise to another ‘high-stakes’ litigation practice. In fact, it’s exciting. These attorneys go to trial to win, and that’s the name of the game. Together we believe that the most effective solution to the tort crisis is to hire defense counsel who can try cases and win them. ”
The merger with Allen & Allen is the second in the last year for LeClair Ryan, which merged last April with Roanoke-based Flippin, Densmore, Morse and Jessee, one of Southwest Virginia’s best known business and litigation firms. LeClair Ryan is moving its headquarters in late April to Richmond’s Riverfront Plaza’s East Tower, where the firm will occupy nearly 69,000 square feet of office space.
LeClair Ryan, the fifth largest law firm in Virginia, has been in business since 1988. With over 140 lawyers across Virginia and Washington, D.C., LeClair Ryan is a leader in Virginia’s legal and business communities. The Richmond-based firm also has offices in Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Norfolk, Alexandria, Roanoke, and Washington, D.C. For additional information, please visit www.leclairryan.com or contact Gary LeClair at (804) 343-4060 or Buddy Allen at (804) 545-1525.
WILL CARROLL (MORGENSTEIN & JUBELIRER) WINS IN CALIFORNIA'S HIGHEST COURT
In a long-awaited case determining the fate of public sector whistle-blowers who fail to exhaust available internal grievance procedures, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Morgenstein & Jubelirer’s client, the Regents of the University of California.
The case, Campbell v. The Regents Of The University of California, --- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, 2005 WL 517295 (Mar. 7, 2005), was filed by Janet Campbell, an architect employed at the University of California, San Francisco, who had alleged her supervisors were involved in illegal bid-rigging. Campbell contacted the FBI, and, after she was subsequently laid off, filed an internal grievance under the University’s procedures, claiming she had been retaliated against for “blowing the whistle.”
However, she failed to pursue the grievance, and instead filed a retaliation lawsuit in Superior Court, alleging violation of two California anti-retaliation statutes.
The Regents, represented by Morgenstein & Jubelirer partner Will Carroll, sought dismissal on the ground that Campbell had failed to exhaust internal remedies. After the Regents won in the trial court and the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court accepted review in order to resolve the question of whether exhaustion is required for public sector whistle-blowers asserting statutory retaliation claims.
Mr. Carroll argued the case before the seven-member Court in December, 2004. In early March, 2005 the Court released its unanimous decision, resoundingly affirming the exhaustion doctrine, and laying to rest any effort by public sector whistle-blowers to circumvent available internal remedies in suing their employers.
Mr. Carroll was assisted on this case by Morgenstein & Jubelirer associate Jennifer Achtert, and legal assistant Jeff Gonzales. A copy of the decision may be obtained at Janet Campbell v. The Regents of the University of California.
PFIZER'S TONY PORTUESE BATTLES COUNTERFEIT DRUGS AND HELPS IN TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT
Geologists say that the shape of the earth changed as a result of the recent tsunami. The massive tidal wave that struck on December 26, did shorten the time of the earth’s daily rotation, if only by seconds. For Tony Portuese, Senior Corporate Counsel, Litigation, every moment of waking life was transformed -- as it was for so many others.
Tony Portuese left New Jersey for Bangkok, Thailand on secondment in late September. His mission: to establish the Legal Department for Pfizer (Thailand) Limited in Bangkok. The business was seeking to respond more quickly to legal issues and to achieve cost savings by decreasing expenses for outside counsel.
Tasks in His New Assignment
Shortly after arriving in the country, Portuese reflected on the many challenges he was facing in his 12-month assignment. In addition to setting up the Legal Department, he was responsible for the rollout of the Pfizer Global Compliance Program in his role as Compliance Officer for Pfizer Thailand. To this end, he participated in a training session in November for attorneys and senior management of the Southern Asia region.
He also quickly discovered Thailand’s unique legal challenges. The Thai equivalent of the FDA had ruled Viagra to be a ”danger to the public,” and allows sale only at certain hospital or clinic pharmacies. Pfizer International filed suit against the Thai authorities a year ago in order to allow Viagra to be sold in retail drugstores. The case is still pending.
Counterfeit drugs are also a major problem in the country, particularly with Viagra. In one case, Pfizer retained a consultant to make sample purchases of Viagra at 23 pharmacies in Bangkok; of those, 11 were found to be selling counterfeit Viagra. Most of the counterfeit product is made in India and, in Portuese’s words, “They are extremely talented. I have seen product packaging virtually indistinguishable from branded products but for a mistake in the color coding on the box.” Pfizer Thailand works closely with consultants, Thai regulators and Thai customs to attempt to stifle the flow of such products.
Priorities Turned Upside-down
Clearly, Portuese had his work cut out for him. However, nearly three months to the day after his arrival, the landscape -- and everyone’s near-term priorities -- turned upside down with the tsunami. Immediately, the main concern for Portuese and his colleagues was to learn the status of Pfizer employees and their families. The national sales director and his team, along with the security director – those people most familiar with the country – raced to the affected area. By January 1, the Bangkok office had a web site up where colleagues around the world could search for the missing and provide personal information to assist in identification.
Having seen the extent of psychological distress and shock among survivors, Portuese explains, “Pfizer felt it was important for us to make a contribution that would last beyond the moment.? Thus the idea was born for a conference, "After the Tsunami: Mental Health Challenges to the Community for Today and Tomorrow." The objective of the conference, which was officially sponsored by Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, was to empower medical and mental health professionals in the impacted countries to address the psychological problems that have affected the population.
In record time, conference organizers from Pfizer HQ in New York and Thailand pulled together an international group of recognized experts on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and persuaded them to participate in the conference that was held February 2 and 3.”
This conference, originally conceived as a way for Pfizer to realize a lasting relief effort, snowballed into an international symposium with 150 - 180 attendees. Representatives from aid organizations such as the Red Cross and UNICEF, and mental health professionals from other affected countries (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India), were invited. CEO Hank McKinnell and Dr. Joe Feczko, President, Worldwide Development, gave keynote speeches.
The hope is that the professionals in the affected countries will be better equipped to deal with the emotional distress that will affect people for years to come, and that international informal networks have been established that will live on beyond the boundaries of a meeting.
Picking Up the Pieces
Now, the Pfizer Thailand legal team is back to battling counterfeit drugs, handling intellectual property issues, and addressing other routine business. Portuese appreciates the opportunity to learn the business and assist in its operation, particularly on a senior management level.
The tsunami assistance work continues, and Portuese feels privileged to serve. “When a widespread tragedy like the tsunami occurs, it is necessary, and fulfilling, to support relief efforts with donations of food, clothing and money. It is even more rewarding to have the opportunity to do hands-on work that makes a demonstrable difference in the lives of the affected – and, hopefully, the lives of the next generation.”
Tony can be reached at Anthony.B.Portuese@Pfizer.com .
ALUMNI -- A LOYAL SOURCE OF LAW FIRM BUSINESS
Boston Business Journal
From the April 4, 2005 print edition
Legal notebook
Law firms tap alumni to stake out client mind share
Sheri Qualters
Journal Staff
As lawyers' loyalty to their firms continues to wane, Nixon Peabody LLP is among many commercial law firms with alumni programs designed to keep it in the good graces of former attorneys and employees.
This year, Nixon began standardizing and expanding its alumni program across its offices by using a Web site to reach out to old friends who just might be good sources for new business.
Most of the firm's alums have "gone on to do great things," said Chief Marketing Officer Amy Staley. One example is Tom Gunning, general counsel of Rockland-based Serono Inc., the local headquarters of Switzerland-based Serono SA (NYSE: SRA). Gunning was recently featured on Nixon's alumni site, Staley said.
"Associates who leave (for corporate jobs) grow into positions of importance," Staley said.
"To the extent that they have a predisposition to use Nixon Peabody, it allows us to stay 'top of mind' and continue to demonstrate our expertise. We can use it as a new business-development opportunity."
So far, about 85 to 90 former Nixon folks have signed on, Staley said.
Besides offering industry alerts and invitations to law firm seminars, Nixon's alumni program gives participants a means to contact others with whom they might have lost touch, Staley said.
Nixon also recently hosted an alumni social function for its Rochester, N.Y., office, which it plans to replicate in other locations, Staley said.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
NIXON PEABODY WINS SECURITIES CASE FOR CORNING AND ITS OFFICERS
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action securities fraud complaint against Corning Incorporated and several of its officers alleging violations of Sections 11 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In a decision dated March 30, 2005, the appellate court ruled that Judge Charles J. Siragusa of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York correctly decided that the defendants, represented by Nixon Peabody LLP, were not liable for losses caused by the decline in the price of Corning stock between September 2000 and July 2001. The corporate officers named in the suit included the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors; a senior vice president, controller, and principal accounting officer; and an executive vice president and chief financial officer.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants misrepresented demand for Corning's photonics products, the value of goodwill associated with two multibillion-dollar acquisitions, and the value of Corning's photonics-related inventory. According to the plaintiffs, although Corning made a series of increasingly cautionary warnings and dire predictions about its business beginning in January 2001, as the telecommunications market deflated, the true facts were disclosed only in July 2001.
The Court of Appeals held that Judge Siragusa was correct in dismissing all claims of wrongdoing by Corning and its executives. Noting that plaintiffs had not provided any support to prove that Corning was aware that its business would slow, the Court affirmed Judge Siragusa's ruling that Corning was not required to be clairvoyant, and that Corning's expressions of hope regarding future earnings were tempered by sufficient warnings of risks.
The defendants were represented by Carolyn G. Nussbaum and Richard A. McGuirk, partners at Nixon Peabody LLP. Nixon Peabody's Securities Litigation Team represents public and private companies, broker-dealers, and financial services companies, as well as individual officers, directors, and employees, in litigations, arbitrations, and regulatory actions and investigations involving claims relating to the sale of securities.
LOWENSTEIN SANDLER PICKS TWO FOR MINORITY LAW SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS
NJ Law Firm, with 25% Minorities, Gives Law School Scholarships
Two Rutgers Law School (New Jersey) 1Ls are the inaugural recipients of the Lowenstein Fellowship awarded by the Roseland law firm of Lowenstein Sandler PC. The new award is designed to increase the diversity of lawyers it employs. Syrion Jack from Rosa Parks High School in Paterson, New Jersey, and Danielle Carmona from Teaneck High School, who are in their first year at Rutgers School of Law, received this year's award.
"We wanted to attract very highly qualified minority attorneys, and we wanted to start developing relationships with them early in their legal career," said Lynda Bennett, a lawyer for Lowenstein Sandler and the chairwoman of the firm's diversity committee.
Jack and Carmona, both 22, will receive $10,000 a year to help finance the remaining two years of law school. They will also serve internships at the law firm and be considered for jobs at the firm after graduation.
Lowenstein Sandler is a full-service law firm with about 220 lawyers - about 25 percent of whom are minorities, Bennett said. But the firm felt it could do better.
"Everybody benefits from different perspectives that people can bring to work," Bennett said. Diversity is something everyone is looking for, she said. "It's also becoming increasingly important to our clients."
About the Lowenstein Sandler Fellow Scholarship Program
A cornerstone of the firm's Diversity Initiatives, the Lowenstein Sandler Fellow Scholarship Program provides two minority students each year with $10,000 toward second year tuition and a paid summer associate position with the firm upon completion of the first year of law school. The scholarship may be renewed for the third year if the Fellow is offered and accepts a paid summer associate clerkship after the second year of law school and maintains a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 during their second and third years. Applicants for the scholarship program must be a racial or ethnic minority currently enrolled full-time at Rutgers University School of Law, Newark or Seton Hall University School of Law with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0.
