Winstead has acquired 12 more Jenkens & Gilchrist lawyers, adding to the 18 they already hired from the San Antonio and Austin offices. Six of the new additions come from Winston’s Dallas headquarters; the other half are leaving the Austin office. Jenkens’ numbers have dropped to under 200 attorneys in recent weeks; it is rumored that most of the remaining Dallas lawyers will move to Hunton & Williams.
Source: www.law.com
Four firms in Wilmington, Delaware have recently increased their first-year associate salary. Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell and Potter Anderson & Corroon increased starting salaries across-the-board; first-year associates now make $145,000, up from $135,000. Richards Layton & Finger and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor matched the $145,000 first-year salary, in addition to raising pay for all other full-time associates by $10,000. Potter Anderson also implemented at $10,000 raise for all assoicates; Morris Nichols’ pay increases were slightly more than $10,000 for more senior associates. The last time that salaries have increased in Wilmington was in April or 2006.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Baker Hostelter has a new addition to its D.C. office. Former Ohio Representative, Michael Oxley, joins the firm’s government policy group as of counsel. Oxley served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2001 to 2006, and is known for his role as the co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the 2002 corporate reform law Congress passed in response to the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and other companies. Oxley’s former chief of staff, James Conzelman, and his former speechwriter, Peggy Peterson, also are joining Oxley at Baker.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
At the start of this year, Shook Hardy & Bacon created the option for part-time partnership. Rather than having to remain of counsel, attorneys can advance from part-time associate to part-time partner. This policy was enacted especially in order to meet the needs of young female associates who often are trying to start families while managing their careers. This juggling act clearly has its effects, as only 16 percent of partners at the nation’s largest firms are women though they make up almost half of associates nationwide. However, it’s not just women that need more accomodating schedules; many women and men nowadays simply don’t want to put in the hours that previous generations did. Flexible work schedules like those offered by Shook allow these attorneys more freedom, yet still keep them on track for partnership if that is what is desired.
Source: www.kansascity.bizjournals.com
Six health care partners left Powell Goldstein for McKenna Long & Aldridge this week. Senior health care and media litigator, James C. Rawls, along with Charlene L. McGinty, Joann G. Jones, Kathlynn Butler Polvino, Summer H. Martin and Charlotte A. Combre all jumped ship; senior litigation associate, S. Derek Bauer, also joined the partners in the move. The attorneys took with them Northside Hospital, a client that the two firms had previously shared. McKenna does government affairs work for the hospital, and had an interest in expanding its health care practice.
Source: www.law.com
Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis will open a new office in Walnut Creek, CA this May. This office will be its second in the San Francisco Bay area; the real estate firm’s five other offices are in Southern California. The 6,600 square foot office will accomodate up to 11 attorneys, and will hopefully attract new clients. San Francisco land use partners Michael Durkee and David Blackwell and associate Thomas Tunny will work in Walnut Creek initially, but the firm will be recruiting new partners and associates with real estate experience.
Source: www.law.com
After less than two years at the firm, former New York state Attorney General John Farmer Jr. has left Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. Citing money as the main motivation, Farmer has joined John Arseneault’s criminal defense boutique in Chatham as a partner. Farmer brought along with him K&L Gates partner, John Azzarello, a former assistant U.S. attorney, and associate Joshua Gillette. John and Mary Whipple of Morristown have also joined the firm, bringing the firm which is now known as Arseneault, Whipple, Farmer, Fassett & Azzarello to 11 attorneys. For Farmer and Azzarello, the new firm better supports their concentration of white-collar criminal practice and internal corporate investigations; they were also made equity partners, whereas at K&L Gates they were only income partners.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Shipping firm Thomas Cooper & Stibbard will open an office in Paris after hiring a three-partner shipping team from the local office of Reed Smith Richards Butler. Lars Lewis, the former managing partner of Reed Smith’s Paris office, along with Peter Iglikowski and Christophe Hunkeler will make the move next month. Thomas Cooper now has a total of six offices, including those in London, Singapore, Athens, Vancouver and Madrid. The firm also recently hired shipping and insurance specialist Ben Browne from Shaw & Croft for its London office.
Source: www.legalweek.com
Sidley Austin announced the hiring of James Mendenhall, former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel. Mendenhall will join the Washington, DC office as a partner in the firm’s International Trade and Dispute Resolution Practice. In his former position, Mendenhall managed U.S. dispute settlement activities under international trade agreements and supervised trade negotiations dealing with intellectual property, investment and services, including financial services; over the past five years, he was central to many of the most important trade issues facing the U.S. government. Sidley’s International Trade and Dispute Resolution Practice includes more than 50 professionals in the firm’s Brussels, Geneva and Washington, D.C. offices.
Source: www.prnewswire.co.uk
Bracewell & Giuliani has recruited two partners from Bingham McCutchen. Bingham’s former co-head of bankruptcy, Robert Flaschen, and Gregory Nye will join the Texas firm’s Hartford, CT office. The addition of these partners puts Bracewell’s bankruptcy team up to 14 attorneys. These recent hires are a small part of the firm’s overall growth. There are plans to open a London office, and Bracewell doubled its office space in NY. The expansion, especially in NY, is largely attributed to the arrival of name partner Rudolph Giuliani to the firm.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
