The collaboration between Dewey Ballantine and Italian firm Galgano is finally complete. Though Dewey initially only expected to gain ten lawyers in the deal, the New York-based firm ended up acquiring 15 associates and five partners, including Galgano’s heads of TMT and finance, Marco Consonni and Davide Contini respectively. Those two, along with founder Galgano, and corporate partner Alessandro Accinni will become full partners; two other Galgano partners will become local partners at Dewey. This deal is a sign of Dewey’s desire for growth in Europe, where they have already had recent success.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Bracewell & Giuliani Expands NY Office
Bracewell & Giuliani has expanded its New York office to now take up the 18th and 19th floors of the Americas Tower building. The expansion doubles the size of the space, adding 24,475 square feet for the growing firm. Bracewell opened in New York in 2005 after former mayor Rudolph Giuliani joined as a name partner. Since then, the office has grown from two to fourty attorneys, thanks to outstanding recruitment efforts and a maintenance of a good deal of work from the firm’s central practices.
Source: www.prnewswire.com
Holland & Knight Acquires Millstein & Taylor; Expands IP Group
Holland & Knight has acquired D.C.-based firm Millstein & Taylor, and in the process its Intellectual Property Group gains a prominent biotech patent lawyer. Name partner and respected life sciences attorney Larry S. Millstein joins the firm’s D.C. office as partner. Name partner and transactional lawyer Robin Taylor, also joins and will practice in the firm’s Northern Virginia office in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. The addition of Millstein is just the latest move in a series of lateral hires by Holland & Knight’s IP group, which added eight lawyers last year. With a Ph.D. in molecular biology and chemistry, Millstein’s practice focuses on technology and intellectual property portfolio development and strategy. Taylor has more than 20 years of experience in matters relating to business transactions, taxation, regulatory compliance, intellectual property law, and employment law.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Sheppard Mullin Opens First Overseas Office in Shanghai
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton opens its first international office in Shanghai, China. The LA firm has recruited former Coudert chairman David Huebner as its regional managing partner in the new office, and has also hired two attorneys from AllBright for the opening. Though this will be the firm’s first overseas location, it did already have US-based teams for Israel, Italy, Latin America, South Korea, and China. Because many of Sheppard Mullin’s clients have operations in China, the firm felt that in order to provide them with the needed support, they needed to establish a branch there.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Lateral Partner Hiring at Pittsburgh Firms
Wesley Yang, a tax attorney and certified public accountant, joined Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl LLC as a partner. He has 30 years’ experience in international tax and estate planning, corporate/commercial matters, nonprofit and health care tax issues, and the environmental and energy fields. Rawle & Henderson also gained two new partners; Michael D. Heintzman and Jeanne Welch Sopher joined the firm’s Pittsburgh office. Heintzman specializes in the defense of product liability, medical malpractice and toxic tort cases. He joins the firm after 14 years of being a partner with Heintzman, Warren, Wise & Fornella P.C. Sopher’s practice focuses on medical professional liability, toxic tort and product liability.
Source: www.pittsburghlive.com
Skadden Moves in Chicago
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is moving from its 165,000 square foot space at 155 N. Wacker in Chicago to 333 W. Wacker. The new office takes up six floors, or about 15 per cent of the building. Areas of practice in the Chicago office include negotiated acquisitions and leveraged buyouts, contested takeovers, public and private equity and debt financing, leveraged leasing, restructuring and reorganization, federal income tax work, large-scale litigation, communications, and real estate finance, development and restructuring. Skadden’s Chicago office is just one of the firm’s 22 offices worldwide.
Source: www.suntimes.com
Gordon & Rees Opens Denver Office
West coast firm Gordon & Rees has opened an office in Denver. Litigators and co-managing partners, Scott Cook and Miles Scully, will head the new office which will focus mostly on commercial litigation initially. Senior associate Amy Darby will join them in Denver; she deals with complex business disputes, class action matters, and general business litigation. The San Francisco-firm’s Colorado client based spurred the opening of a branch there. Gordon & Rees now has 14 offices nationwide.
Source: www.denver.bizjournals.com
Pepper Hamilton Raids Cozen O’Connor for IP Group
Pepper Hamilton has added to its IP group again – this time the lawyers come from Cozen O’Connor. Earlier this month, five other IP attorneys joined the Boston office. From Cozen, partners Mark DeLuca and Paul K. Legaard joined the firm’s Berwyn, PA, office and were followed by four other intellectual property attorneys and one patent agent. DeLuca commented that he and the group wanted a firm with a more active life sciences business practice. Sources from Pepper Hamilton report that the firm still is seeking to expand its intellectual property practice; likewise, Cozen is looking for replacements for its losses in the IP department.
Source: www.law.com
Lateral Hires at Dinsmore
Dinsmore & Shohl is gaining four new partners from the toxic torts practice of Pittsburgh-based Thorp Reed & Armstrong. James Zeszutek, Michael R. Bucci Jr. and P.J. Murray of the Pittsburgh office, and Denise D. Klug of the firm’s Wheeling, West Virginia office will join the firm, proabably along with some associates. The partners met Dinsmore attorneys last year while the two firms were in merger talks; though the merger did not materialize, the partners maintained connections with the firm. All of the partners except for Klug will move into Dinsmore’s Pittsburgh office; Klug will work in Wheeling. Dinsmore & Shohl has 300 attorneys in offices in Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.
Source: www.law.com
Bracewell & Giuliani Matches NY Rate for First-Years
Bracewell & Giuliani announced today that they matched market rates for first-year salaries in their New York office. The increase to $160,000 was made effective February 7, 2007. This leading firm has 400 lawyers in offices in New York, Texas, Washington, D.C., Kazakhstan and London.
Source: www.prnewswire.com
