The founder of LA boutique, Fox Spillane Shaeffer, is leaving to join Liner Yankelevitz Sunshine & Regenstreif. Gerard Fox and partner Raul Perez are leaving because the practice needs the support of a larger firm. Fox’s 15-lawyer former shop will continue practicing, changing its name to Spillane Shaeffer Aronoff Bandlow. Fox specializes in entertainment, intellectual property, and product liability defense. He and Perez will bring Liner Yankelevitz an additional $5 million in business.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

London firm Ashurst has hired Orrick Rambaud Martel finance partner Sylvie Perrin for its French projects practice. Perrin specializes in project finance, asset finance, and tax leasing. Ashurst’s Paris office now has 70 lawyers and focuses on M&A, acquisition finance, and structured finance. Several other attorneys have left Orrick’s Paris office since its Jan. 2006 merger with Rambaud Martel.
Source: www.legalweek.com

Jones Day has hired Bryan Davis as a partner in its Atlanta office. Davis comes from Alston Bird, where he was the chair of the M&A practice quality practice. With his new firm, he will be working in the international law practice group. Jones Day’s international presence and the current trend of increasing cross-border M&A made the decision to move a good one for Davis. He works primarily on the representation of public and private companies and investment banking firms in M&A transactions.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

In January the Stowers Institute for Medical Research hired 64-year old David Welte to be its full-time general counsel. Welte had acted as the legal chief for the Kansas City insitute since 2000, while simulataneously serving as a partner at law firm Polsinelli Shalton Welte Suelthaus. He resigned from the firm in January to work full-time with the institute, but then in mid-March he accepted a partnership with Bryan Cave’s K.C. office. Welte built the life sciences practice at Polsinelli, securing Stowers as one of its most important clients. He will bring his book of business to Bryan Cave. At Stowers, Welte’s responsibilities include ensuring compliance with regulations imposed on the medical research industry by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, and handling tax matters for nonprofit organizations and licensing and affiliation agreements for medical technology.
Source: www.law.com

After losing two executive compensation and benefits partners in recent months, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz has made a move to revive that practice group. The firm that has only made two other lateral hires in its 42-year history has hired Michael Segal, the former co-head of executive compensation and benefits at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Wachtell has been quiet about the lateral hire; apart from confirming Segal’s start date (April 23) and that the hiring was a rare event, the firm has not provided any more details. Segal will join Jeannemarie O’Brien, the only remaining executive compensation partner.
Source: www.law.com

Post-merger conflicts have prompted four Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney lawyers to leave for a small Pittsburgh firm, Sherrard German & Kelly. Shareholders Stanley J. Lehman and Karen Y. Bonvalot and associates Samuel J. Toney IV and Erin E. Milliken will join the 30-lawyer firm next month, each retaining their respective titles. Client conflicts arose after Buchanan Ingersoll’s July 2006 merger with Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling. All four attorneys were at Klett Rooney before the merger. Lehman was the chairman of the firm’s estate and tax group and served as a practice manager for its corporate department; he and Bonvalot primarily handled insurance coverage issues. Even before the merger, Lehman had to deal with conflicts with Klett Rooney’s insured clients – the problems only got worse as the firm grew post-merger. He looked towards Sheppard German, which already has a longstanding referral network with Buchanan Ingersoll.
Source: www.law.com

Law firms are gaining wealth through hedge fund money. Nine thousand funds manage more than $1.4 trillion in assets, so firms that originally advised hedge funds and even those with more traditional corporate finance practices are reaping the benefits. Hedge fund fees account for about a third of total revenue at Schulte Roth, for example, and at Willkie Farr & Gallagher the asset management practice (which includes hedge funds) has doubled in the past few years. As a result of this growth, firms with no significant hedge funds clients are looking for attorneys with these types of practices. Recruiters and law firms are busy searching for lawyers experienced in asset management work; hedge funds themselves have also been looking to hire, especially transactional and compliance lawyers.
Source: www.nytimes.com

Fenwick & West has recruited tax partner Michael Solomon. Prior to joining Fenwick, Solomon was most recently a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop. He has over 30 years experience in tax planning and related business structuring for large U.S. and foreign multinational companies. Solomon expressed excitment to make the move because of Fenwick’s large pool of talent, international reach, and impressive list of clients. The firm is recognized as having one of the country’s leading domestic and international tax practices; this year it was named on of only seven U.S. firms in the first tier in tax.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Addleshaw Goddard has increased its partner numbers in the UK after two lateral hires and five partner promotions this week. Real estate partner Leona Ahmed of Lawrence Graham has joined the firm. Addleshaw also hired O’Melveny & Myers Matthew Doughty to join the firm’s London real estate and corporate practices. There partner promotions were spread over three offices – two in London, two in Leeds, and one in Manchester. The firm now has a firmwide total of 187 partners.
Source: www.legalweek.com