International law firm, Haynes & Boone, welcomed a new attorney to its Houston office. Jill Groff, who specializes in complex business litigation, has joined as an of counsel. She mostly handles antitrust, securities, and white collar criminal defense matters. Haynes & Boone employs over 450 lawyers in its offices in Texas, New York, Washington, D.C., Mexico City and Moscow.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Since February, five shareholders have left the Florida offfices of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. These partners have raised issues about the firm’s centralized control and what they see as lack of support for their practices. The Cleveland-based firm merged with South Florida’s Steel Hector & Davis in 2005, despite that firm’s financial troubles and partner defections. The attorneys who left the firm claimed that they had wanted to continue work with the newly merged firm, but after a year and a half dealing with unresolved cultural and integration issues, they decided to part ways. Former Steel Hector managing partner Joseph P. Klock, corporate attorney Barry A. Weiss, and lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez are among those who left. Squire Sanders is recognized for its bond work on behalf of government entities; it was ranked 54 on the AmLaw 100 listing of the nation’s top-grossing firms.
Source: www.law.com
Three Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman partners are leaving to join Jones Day’s Irvine, California office. Former co-leader of the litigation practice, Richard Ruben, along with office-managing partner, Darren Cottriel, and Ralph Blakeney will be making the move. Offers have also been made to at least five associates. Ruben said that his decision to leave primarily had to do with Jones Day’s reputation in litigation and committment to growth in California.
Source: www.law.com
WilmerHale announced that they have raised first-year associates’ salaries to $160,000. The increase will be effective in all U.S. offices on June 1. This decision comes two weeks after Hogan & Hartson and Akin Gump increased starting salaries in D.C. from $145,000 to $160,000.
Source: www.legaltimes.typepad.com
Kansas City-based Stinson Morrison Hecker has acquired St. Louis firm Blumenfeld Kaplan & Sandweiss. The 40-lawyer addition puts Stinson’s St. Louis office at 60 attorneys. Blumenfeld Kaplan was founded in 1950, and today has a general corporate practice. Stinson Morrison has close to 360 attorneys in eight offices.
Source: www.kansascity.com
Duane Morris has added three partners to its Pittsburgh construction litigation team. Albert Bates and Edward Gentilcore joined mid-April from Reed Smith, and John Tedder recently followed. Duane Morris’ construction practice has 43 attorneys firmwide, compared to Reed Smith’s 23. The practice will be particularly focused on nuclear power and international arbitration; the group’s lawyers will represent the builders, designers, and owners of nuclear power plants. Duane Morris recently formed a nuclear power group by combining its construction and energy practices. The firm is looking to expand this new group in Houston especially, as well as New York and Miami.
Source: www.law.com
Alan Pomerantz has joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as a partner in New York. He joins the real estate practice from a private equity real estate investment company, ERE Advisors LLC. Before serving as the Co-CEO and President of ERE, Pomerantz was a partner and head of the real estate practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He has worked with many big-name global private equity investors, investment banks, financial institutions, and real estate developers in large and complex transactions. Orrick’s New York office is the firm’s largest, with over 200 lawyers known for their work in global finance transactions, U.S. litigation, and international dispute resolution. The firm has 18 offices worldwide.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
West-coast lawyers are making lateral moves. Hank Roberts left Bingham McCutchen to join Farella Braun & Martel as a partner in the San Francisco business transactions group. In Silicon Valley, Rudy Kim has joined Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal as a partner; he was previously with Irell & Manella. Pepper Hamilton’s Orange County office welcomed Michael Meeks as a partner from Theodora Oringher Miller & Richman.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Discontented counsels at Shearman & Sterling’s London office are seeking partnership opportunities elsewhere. Positions for new partners are few and far between in this office, so as a consolation, many have been promoted to counsel. However, of the 15 associates promoted to counsel, nine have left since 2004. Those that departed did so to become partners at such firms as Simmons & Simmons, Dewey Ballantine, Sheppard & Wedderburn. Shearman has also lost partners Adrian Knight and Nigel Thompson to Skadden Arps and Baker Botts, respectively.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo welcomes Len Nannarone to the corporate practice in its Boston office. Nannarone is a private equity attorney, and was previously a partner at Greenberg Traurig and an in-house counsel to Intel Capital. Joining Nannarone at Mintz Levin is Matthew McMurdo, also formerly of Greenberg Traurig; McMurdo joins as Of Counsel in the New York office. McMurdo works primarily on general corporate and securities law. Mintz Levin’s Corporate Practice closed more than 200 transactions valuing more than $13.5 billion in 2006.
Source: www.home.businesswire.com
