Several firms have raised first-year salaries to $160,000 in their Boston offices, and in some cases firmwide. Bingham McCutchen, DLA Piper, McDermott Will & Emery and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, along with Boston-based Foley Hoag are the firms who have recently raised pay to the NY market scale. Ropes & Gray, Goodwin Procter, and Choate Hall & Stewart have also already raised Boston salaries.
Source: www.law.com

Three IP partners from King & Spalding have departed for Heller Ehrman’s NYC office; Kevin Culligan, W. Edward Bailey and John Hanish specialize in patent litigation. Before joining King & Spalding, the partners were with NY IP boutique Fish & Neave prior to its merger with Ropes & Gray. King & Spalding has already begun to fill their spots, hiring Ethan Horwitz, the former IP chairman of Goodwin Procter.
Source: www.law.com

UK firm Trowers & Hamlins has established a new partnership in Saudi Arabia with Feras Al Shawaf. Trowers associate Rami Ami-Ghosh will move to the Riyadh office joining Al Shawaf and his four associates; more Trowers lawyers will join later in the summer. Sources from Trowers are confident with the new alliance – the firms’ corporate and project work complement each other well.
Source: www.thelawyer.com

Portland firm Stoel Rives has opened a Minneapolis office with the hiring of 13 lawyers from Minneapolis-based Lindquist & Vennum. The ten partners and three associates have practices in agribusiness, renewable energy, and food. Stoel Rives has over 350 attorneys in 10 U.S. offices.
Source: www.bizjournals.com

Three white collar defense attorneys from Akerman Senterfitt joined Fulbright & Jaworski’s international litigation and dispute resolution practice this week. Richard C. Smith, Alexandre H. Rene and Guy D. Singer join Fulbright’s Washington, D.C. office; all three are former U.S. Department of Justice attorneys. Smith joins as a partner, and was known in the Justice Department for his quick investigations and prosecutions of corporate fraud cases. Rene also will be a partner at Fulbright – he has prosecuted cases involving bribery, bank fraud, money laundering, securities fraud, obstruction of justice, perjury, mail and wire fraud. Singer joins as senior counsel. Fulbright’s litigation and dispute resolution practice has been a part of the firm since its founding in 1919. The firm today has close to 1,000 lawyers practicing in 16 locations worldwide.
Source: www.home.businesswire.com

Saul Ewing has lost two partners to other firms recently. Suzanne Mayes left the firm after nearly 16 years to co-lead Cozen O’Connor’s public and project finance group. Domenic Pacitti left to rejoin his old firm, Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg & Ellers, as a partner in the bankruptcy practice. Mayes was attracted to Cozen because of the firm’s committment to growing the public finance practice and because of the opportunity for management there. Her practice is primarily based in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and she mainly works with state and county agencies. Pacitti was a partner at Klehr Harrison from 1998 to 2001, when he was recruited by Saul Ewing. He kept in touch with his former collegues, and in mid-May decided to rejoin his old firm. Pacitti works out of both the Wilmington, DE and Philadelphia offices, and focuses his representation on the debtor side of restructuring deals.
Source: www.law.com

Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis has combined its two D.C. offices into one at 1601 K St. NW, the former home of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham. The 190,000 square foot office will house more than 200 lawyers and government affairs professionals. In the nation’s capital, the firm is known for its work in financial services, including an investment management practice and a mortgage banking and consumer credit group. The merger between Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Preston Gates & Ellis created one of the largest public policy and lobbying practices in the U.S.
Source: www.news.moneycentral.msn.com

Morgan Lewis & Bockius is the latest to raise associate salaries to the $160,000 scale in California. Bingham McCutchen and Reed Smith are still holding out, and are likely to be the only other firms that might make the increase. Those two firms have profits high enough that could handle the raise, whereas lower profit firms like Littler Mendelson and Sedgwick probably will not match the rate. Thelen Reid and Townsend are two firms that could go either way with the raise.
Source: www.nylawyer.com