Atlanta-based Ford & Harrison has done away with the billable hour for first-year associates. The 190-lawyer labor and employment firm has implemented a program that focuses on having associates spend their time observing depositions and and witness interviews and attending hearings and litigation strategy meetings. Having no billable hour requirement could be a draw for law students, despite the fact that the firm only pays first-years $125,000 in its larger offices. The firm hopes that the new program will enable new associates to handle more important matters more quickly, and it also eliminates the challenge of determining which hours billed by associates are valuable enough to bill.
Source: www.law.com

Crowell & Moring added corporate partner, Bryan Brewer, to its D.C. office. Formerly working for Nixon Peabody, Brewer focuses on public securities, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and export controls. He brings with him between 25 and 30 clients, and said that he was interested in Crowell because he wanted to be a part of a local large corporate practice. Since 2001, when Crowell started a serious effort to increase its corporate group, the practice has grown by 40 lawyers. Sources say that the group could grow to 80 or more attorneys in the next six to eight years.
Source: www.bizjournals.com

Magic cicle firm, Clifford Chance, has recruited three litigation partners from Sidley Austin to join its Washington, D.C. office. Juan Morillo, Stephen Nickelsburg and Steven Coltreau are white-collar and criminal defense attorneys who also have extensive experience in civil practice. In addition to the trio, Clifford Chance added another partner, Wendy Wysong. Wysong was previously a senior lawyer with the US government’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
Source: www.news.crippssears.com

Michael Pabst has left Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw to join Jones Day’s London office as a partner. He joins the firm’s banking and finance group, headed by Ed Nalbantian. Pabst’s work focuses on acquisition, projects and emerging markets financing and restructurings in addition to structured derivatives finance in the context of tax-related asset and commodities deals.
Source: www.thelawyer.com

Baker & McKenzie announced on Wednesday that their profits per partner has reached the $1 million mark. This marks a 22% increase since last year, and a 20% increase in overall revenue. Baker & McKenzie, the world’s biggest law firm, is based out of Chicago and attributes these increases to a focus on expansion of global offices in order to attract multinational clients.
Source: www.nylj.com

Neil Micklethwaite, a litigation partner at Bingham McCutchen, has left his firm to open a human rights litigation boutique with his friend and former colleague Roger Gherson. This moves raises some questions about Bingham McCutchen; what was a human rights attorney doing at a financial law firm? It seems Micklethwaite was a financial attorney at Bingham McCutchen, but his heart just wasn’t in it. A source at Bingham McCutchen didn’t seem that upset to see Micklethwaite go, and said that he’s much better off elsewhere.
Source: www.thelawyer.com