Morgan Lewis & Bockius acquired a new partner from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison for its Tokyo office. Lisa Yano joins the team as a co-managing partner and co-head of the firm’s local joint venture, Morgan Lewis-TMI. Yano focuses her work on M&A and private equity transactions; she has practiced in Tokyo for over 15 years. Opened in 1998, Morgan Lewis’ eight-lawyer Tokyo office now has five partners.
Source: www.legalweek.com
Ten lawyers from Jenkens & Gilchrist’s San Antonio office have joined Jackson Walker’s central Texas office. Four of the lawyers join as partner, one as of counsel, and the remaining five are associates. Two other attorneys from Jenkens are moving to Winstead’s San Antonio office. With the new additions, Jackson Walker’s office now has 30 lawyers. The decision to close Jenkens’ San Antonio office was made in January, and comes after the closing of the firm’s Houston and LA offices.
Source: www.law.com
Stibbe has recruited finance partner Ivan Peeters from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to join its Brussels office. Peeters will be Stibbe’s first dedicated finance partner, with a practice focusing on securitization work. The firm’s Brussels office has made two other lateral hires within the past year, while Freshfields on the other hand, has lost several partners recently to other firms. In Germany, Haarmann has hired two new corporate partners, pushing its numbers up to 17 lawyers. Joern Hirschmann joins from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, and former Allen & Overy (A&O) senior associate Holger Erwin has moved as well. Another independent German firm, Georg, recently acquired a five-lawyer public law team from Clifford Chance’s Frankfurt office.
Source: www.legalweek.com
Williams Mullen, Virginia’s third largest law firm, and North Carolina-based Maupin Taylor, P.A. announced today that they have merged. With 300 attorneys, the combined firm is now one of the largest in the Southeast, and has offices in Raleigh, Research Triangle Park and Wilmington, N.C.; Charlottesville, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, Tysons Corner, and Virginia Beach Va.; Washington, D.C.; and London. The firm’s name will remain Williams Mullen, and Joey Smith continues to serve as the chairman and CEO.
Source: www.triangle.dbusinessnews.com
Kathryn L. Clune has joined Crowell & Moring’s Litigation Group and Intellectual Property Group as a partner in Washington, D.C. Previously employed by Greenberg Traurig, Clune offers 14 years of litigation experience to clients with patent infringement concerns spanning a wide variety of technology industries including electrical, mechanical, and software. Crowell & Moring has close to 350 attorneys practicing in more than 45 areas of law. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices in California, New York, London, and Brussels.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
When deciding their recent pay increases, DLA Piper set patent litigators on a different scale than other associates. First year patent litigators are put on the $160,000 pay scale while other associates in California receive the standard $145,000. Patent litigators often have science or engineering degrees, and are in high demand with clients who are willing to pay high rates for their services. As a result, many firms already offer these attorneys higher compensation, often through bonuses or other means. Though DLA has always rewarded attorneys with a technical or science background, the firm decided to increase its starting pay after competitors such as Fish & Richardson raised salaries to $160,000.
Source: www.law.com
Four litigators have joined the New York and Los Angeles offices of Winston & Strawn. Jeffrey P. Rosenstein, Robert J. Saville and Kenneth D. O’Reilly have joined its New York office, and Rebecca L. Calkins joins the firm’s Los Angeles office. All four attorneys were formerly with Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP; they follow a group of eight lawyers that moved to Winson in February. Joining as partner, Rosenstein focuses on construction, infrastructure, and engineering matters. Saville will be of counsel, dealing with a variety of commercial litigation and abitration issues. The other two attorneys join the firm as associates.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Four transactional lawyers from Epstein Becker & Green have joined the Atlanta office of Chicago-based Schiff Hardin. The group specializes in the design and implementation of Employee Stock Ownership Plans and leveraged ESOP transactions. Preston C. Delashmit and Robert E. Lesser join as partners, and Randolph R. Smith Jr. and Danielle R. Doerhoff join as associates. Schiff Hardin’s Atlanta office opened in 2003; the firm also has offices in Washington, New York, and San Francisco.
Source: www.law.com
Heller Ehrman welcomed two new additions to its Washington office. Maureen F. Browne and Johnny Cheng-Teh Chiu have joined the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group as shareholders. Both lawyers come from Washington, D.C.-based firms where they practiced intellectual property law – Browne from Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, where she was a partner, and Chiu from Powell Goldstein, where he was a partner. The two attorneys will be valuable to Heller for their expertise in litigating IP disputes, including Section 337 proceedings before the U.S. International Trade Commission; their presence significantly strengthens the firm’s ITC and Asia practices.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Atlanta firm, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, has raised starting salaries from $115,000 to $130,000. The firm has already raised pay in New York to $160,000 and in Washington to $145,000. The firm has not decided whether this $15,000 raise will affect all associates, or whether a raise will be implemented class-by-class. Sutherland’s pay increase comes on the tails of that of other big Atlanta firms like Troutman Sanders, Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, and Powell Goldstein.
Source: www.dailyreportonline.com
