After founding and 22 years of heading Dewey Ballantine’s private equity practice, Sanford Morhouse is stepping down. New York partner Joseph Smith will take over as chair, and Morhouse will continue work in NY as of counsel. The NY private equity practice gained one new partner as a result of recent firmwide promotions; the practice now has five partners who work solely in private equity and one who works in private equity and real estate.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
MoFo Gains Two in NY
San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster acquired two bankruptcy attorneys from the NY office of UK firm Lovells. Gary Lee and Karen Ostad join MoFo’s NY office, where there are already about 160 lawyers. In total, the firm has 1,100 attorneys.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
No Merger for Cozen O’Connor and Wolf Block
As of late yesterday (Feb. 13) Cozen O’Connor and Wolf Block have ended merger talks. The firms began discussion of a possible merger about three months ago, but decided that business and structural differences were too difficult to overcome. They both reported feeling great respect for each other still, despite the fact that they weren’t able to join forces. Had the firms combined, they would have had over 370 attorneys in Pennsylvania, more than any other firm in the state.
Source: www.law.com
Davis Polk Opens in Beijing
Davis Polk & Wardwell just opened its third Asian office. The new Beijing site comes after offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Even before having an office in China, the New York-based firm has advised in some of the biggest deals in the country. Davis Polk & Wardwell has about 640 attorneys worldwide.
Source: www.law.com
Heller Ehrman Picks up Three for London
Soon after the announcement of the opening its new London office, Heller Ehrman recruited three corporate lawyers from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. Richard Eaton, Christopher Grew and Struan Penwarden will join the three Heller Ehrman partners already chosen to open the new office. The three Wilmer Cutler attorneys’ practices deal with emerging companies and corporate technology. The firm will be recruiting associates and aims to have 25 lawyers in London by the end of ’07. Already present in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore, this office will be the firm’s fourth outside the U.S.
Source: www.law.com
Hiked Salaries and Lateral Moves in SE U.S.
There has been a lot of activity recently in Southeast U.S. McKenna Long & Aldridge raised its first-year associate salary to $130,000 in Atlanta, where it has 55 attorneys. Kilpatrick Stockton gained a partner from PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York who will out of the firm’s Atlanta and New York offices. Three attorneys have also left Greenburg Traurig for Carlton Field’s intellectual property practice; they joined the firm as of counsel.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Pepper Hamilton Elects First Chairwoman
In Philadelphia yesterday, Pepper Hamilton elected Nina M. Gussack as chairwoman of its executive committee, replacing Barry M. Abelson who had been chair for the past 12 years. This shift in power makes Pepper Hamilton the first large firm in Philly to have a woman as its head. Gussack has been a partner in the firm since 1987 and was the leader of its pharmaceutical and medical litigation and counseling practice. She is widely recognized in and out of the firm as an exceptional attorney and one of the firm’s top producers. Subsequently, she will most likely maintain her practice while serving as chairwoman, simply adding more hours to her day. Gussack’s practice focuses on civil litigation, with a primary emphasis on defending pharmaceutical and medical device companies. She also counsels clients on clinical trial compliance, FDA compliance in promotional activities and Lanham Act claims in the pharmaceutical industry.
Source: www.law.com
Sonnenschein Opens New Offices
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal plans to open two more offices after the opening of its Menlo Park office in March. The Chicago-firm will open an office in Dallas this month, and by the end of March will have another somewhere in southeastern U.S. Sonnenschein currently has 10 U.S. offices and one in Brussels. The firm is positioned for growth and wants to have more than 1,000 attorneys to increase profits and attract new talent; lateral hiring of lawyers from other firms is the firm’s strategy for increasing its numbers.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Possible Merger and Increased Revenue, PPP for Wolf Block
Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen and Cozen O’Connor put merger talks on hold while Wolf Block closed out its fiscal year. Now that the calculations are complete, Wolf Block reported that gross revenue and profits per equity partner increased by 8 percent. The increase of profits per equity partner (PPP) from 448K in 2005 to 485K in 2006 puts Wolf Block closer to the Cozen’s 2005 PPP (470K). It is likely that Cozen’s key financial indicators also increased last year, making it easier for the two firms to combine.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Mid-Size Firms Try New Recruiting Strategy
Some mid-size firms like Phillips Lytle of Buffalo, NY have shifted their recruiting efforts away from the top schools like Harvard or Yale, and to regional, less prestigious schools. Because large firms are having to consider lower ranked students at top schools, mid-size firms are starting to look elsewhere. These smaller firms cannot compete with the top firm-salaries so large firms do have an advantage in first-year recruiting. However, mid-size firms are staying afloat thanks to their ability to keep experienced associates and acquire lateral recruits.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
