San Francisco based firm, Littler Mendelson, announced today its merger with five-lawyer Portland firm Amburgey & Rubin PC. Just two months ago Littler finalized its largest merger ever with a 46-attorney labor and employment boutique in Cleveland. Littler has grown by 120 attorneys over the past year, mostly gaining small groups from other labor and employment firms. Currently, the firm has over 600 lawyers in 42 offices nationwide.
Source: www.sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com
With the addition of six Saul Ewing attorneys, Atlanta-based labor and employment firm Fisher & Phillips is moving into the Philadelphia area. The firm opened an office in Exton, PA today, making itself the second Atlanta-based labor and employment firm to open up in Philadelphia this year. Partners Christopher P. Stief, David W. Erb and Michael R. Greco; of counsels Susan M. Guerette and Risa B. Boerner; and associate Heather Zalar Steele are making the move. This group has a strong litigation practice, but also counsels clients on employee defection and recruitment matters involving statutory issues under the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, the Espionage Act, and various state trade secrets and unfair competition statutes. Fisher & Phillips only represents management in labor and employment matters; the firm has 18 offices and 190 attorneys throughout the country.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Day Pitney, a law firm resulting from a January merger of Florham Park, NJ’s Pitney Hardin and Hartford, CT-based Day, Berry & Howard, joined its New York offices at 7 Times Square last week. The joint firm occupies 53,000 square feet of the building’s 19th through 21st floors. There are about 50 lawyers and 50 support staff in the new office. The firms’ goal in merging was to establish a presence in New York and broaden their services to reach other northeastern cities between Boston and Washington, D.C. They also aimed to expand their practice in the areas of intellectual property, commercial litigation and energy and corporate investigations.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Howrey has recruited Mark Hodgson from Taylor Wessing for its European IP team. Hodgson was a partner at Taylor Wessing for nine years and was the head of its life sciences practice. He is leaving the firm because of the potential for conflicts between one of his key clients and his current firm’s wider IP practice. Hodgson will join Howrey on April 30, reuniting with former Simmons & Simmons colleague Richard Willoughby.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Philadelphia-based Morgan Lewis & Bockius has its sights set on growth for its 32-lawyer London office. The firm aims to increase numbers there by 40 percent, to 45 lawyers, in 2007. The office is on its way, as it has already hired outsourcing partner Rory Graham and associate Simon White from Brown Rudnick. Two associates are also scheduled to join in April. Morgan Lewis also plans to relocate the London office in July. The growth seen in this office comes after increases in both turnover and average profit per equity partner (PEP) in 2006.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Tom Steed has joined Kilpatrick Stockton’s Investment Company/Investment Manager practice; he joins the firm as Counsel in the Raleigh office. Steed has experience in mutual and hedge fund administration, public and private offerings and compliance matters. His expertise covers the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Securities Act of 1933, The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and regulations of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. Prior to joining Kilpatrick Stockton, Steed worked for five years with a mutual fund administrator, where he served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Kilpatrick Stockton is an international law firm with 500 attorneys in nine offices.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Willkie Farr & Gallagher has hired five lawyers from Clifford Chance’s Frankfurt office. The private equity group consists of counsels Andreas Hautkappe and Rolf Hünermann, who join Willkie as salaried partners, and associates Stefan Joergens, Ole Oldenburg and Ingo Bednarz, who also join as partners. Other recent hires in Germany for the firm include private equity partner Mario Schmidt last December and former PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner Patrick Meiisel, who joined Willkie last month.
Source: www.legalweek.com
In only ten months, DLA Piper has built up a thriving venture capital practice out of its Atlanta, GA office. Since its opening in Atlanta, the firm has recruited Jeffrey M. Leavitt of Arnall Golden Gregory; Douglas R. Spear, who was with Morris, Manning & Martin, and, in October, Joseph G. Silver from Kilpatrick Stockton. In just the last quarter of 2006, this team worked eleven venture capital deals raising $68.7 million for their clients. DLA Piper’s international presence is a real strength for the practice, as local clients are able to connect with capitalist around the world. The firm also has a separate website www.venturepipeline.com which allows startups to link up with investors.
Source: www.law.com
Nixon Peabody has acquired 17 intellectual property lawyers from Jenkens Gilchrist. All but one of the attorneys will be joining the Chicago office; the other will work in Los Angeles. These IP lawyers specialize in patent litigation, a particularly profitable area. This group departure is just one of many faced by Jenkens over the past months.
Source: www.bizjournals.com
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott has hired nine attorneys from bankruptcy boutique Adelman Lavine Gold Schildhorn & Kleban, effectively closing the nearly 60-year-old boutique. The group will start at Eckert’s Philadelphia office on April 2. Lewis H. Gold, Gary M. Schildhorn, Barry D. Kleban, Gary D. Bressler, Alan I. Moldoff and Kathleen E. Torbit will join Eckert Seamans as partners, and Mark Pfeiffer, Alexander Moretsky and Marie C. Dooley will join as associates. Gold reported that the deal was largely due to his firm’s desire to provide the services and have access to the resources of a larger, full-service law firm. Eckert now has about 18 lawyers in its bankruptcy practice. Four attorneys chose not to move to Eckert and instead are joining other firms.
Source: www.law.com
