Jesse Markham Jr. is leaving Morrison Foerster to join Holme Roberts & Owen in San Francisco as the antitrust team co-chair. At MoFo, Markham was the co-chair of the antitrust group for three years. His reasons for the move included lower billing rates and an opportunity to grow HRO’s practice. With the new addition, Denver-based HFO will have 19 lawyers in its San Fran office. Markham aims to establish one of the “go-to” antitrust practices in the country, but some say that will be difficult without a larger group of lawyers and in a firm that isn’t known for its antitrust work.
Source: www.law.com

Wilson Sonsini will be closing its Salt Lake City office within the next two months. The 13-lawyer office opened in 2001. The Silicon Valley firm decided to close the office in order to bring partner Robert O’Connor back to the San Francisco office where he will help organize and manage the clean-tech practice. Corporate partner Mark Bonham will stay in Salt Lake, joining local firm Ray Quinney & Nebeker, along with four associates.
Source: www.law.com

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has merged with Lewis Fisher Henderson & Claxton opening two new offices in Memphis, TN, and Jackson, MS. The merger will add 19 lawyers to Ogletree’s 365. Though Memphis had not been a city that Ogletree had been considering, it will allow the firm to service Western Tennessee, Arkansas, and parts of Mississippi. Moreover, only one other labor & employment boutique, Ford & Harrison, has an office in Memphis. Ogletree has opened six new offices since the beginning of 2005, and now has 30 nationwide.
Source: www.law.com

Chadbourne & Parke has begun intial merger discussions with London-based firm Watson, Farley & Williams. The combined firm would have over 600 lawyers and combined revenues of more than $350 milion. Chadbourne has been looking to merge to increase its size and become more competitive with larger firms. Managing partner, Charlie O’Neil, has been trying to increase Chadbourne’s profitability over the past couple years after a bad year in 2005. He has succeeded in increasing the firm’s revenues, but the firm has also lost several key partners along the way.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

The San Diego legal market has become saturated with lawyers and firms over the past 10-15 years, making the competition fierce for the limited number of clients. Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps and what was then Gray Cary Ames & Frye were the first two firms in the city, but in the 1980s some L.A. firms started setting up shop in the city. Tech-focused San Francisco firms arrived in the early 90s, taking advantage of the booming life sciences industry. Most recently, Boston firms such as Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo and Goodwin Procter are staking their claim in the southern CA market. Some people say that these new arrivals will not have what it takes to compete against the well-established firms, though others argue that with some agressive lateral recruiting, these firms will be able to grow their San Diego offices into a real player in the market.
Source: www.law.com