Partner Kenneth Greenberg and of counsel Joan Ohlbaum Swirsky left Drinker Biddle & Reath to join Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young. The attorneys have kept their same titles at the new firm, and will practice in the firm’s investment management and mutual funds group. Greenberg’s work focuses on the representation of investment advisers and investment companies involved with mutual funds. He claims that he was drawn to Stradley’s larger practice group and plans for growth; with 33 lawyers in the investment management group, it is the firm’s second- or third-largest practice.
Source: www.law.com

Chicago firm Seyfarth Shaw has raised starting salaries in Sacramento from $121,000 to $135,000, retroactive to April 1. Seyfarth has 18 lawyers in this office. In an attempt to stay competitive in the market, Sacramento firm Weintraub Genshlea Chediak also raised first-year salaries in March from $90,000 to $100,000. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is paying $145,000, and Morrison & Foerster is at $160,000 in the California city.
Source: www.sacramento.bizjournals.com

Greater Cincinnati’s second-largest firm, Frost Brown Todd, has opened a new office in Florence, Kentucky. This office will be the firm’s eighth. William Robinson III will be the member in charge of the office, and he will be joined by three other lawyers. Robinson was formerly a managing member of Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald, from where he left in March to join Frost Brown. The firm is working to recruit more attorneys to join the team in Florence.
Source: www.news.moneycentral.msn.com

One of New Jersey’s largest firms, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter has created a minority-owned law firm subsidiary. Last month the 230-lawyer Morristown firm acquired a 49 percent hold in Espinosa & Espinosa, a six-lawyer minority firm in Weehawken, NJ. Associating with McElroy Deutsch allows Espinosa to gain corporation work by marketing itself as a minority firm able to take advantage of the support and expertise of its parent firm. While the arrangement seems promising, the president of the National Minority Supplier Development Council cautions against assuming that a minority firm actually hires a significant number of minorities. She would like to see firms like Adorno & Yoss, with 20 percent Hispanic and 17 percent African American lawyers, get more corporate work.
Source: www.law.com

David Melton has joined Foley & Lardner’s Chicago office as a member of the IP Litigation Practice. Melton specializes in the areas of patent, trade secret, copyright and trade dress cases. He has represented Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and mid-sized companies across the country, including high-tech and telecommunications companies, consulting firms, manufacturing companies and futures exchanges. Melton is also a board member for the Chicago Council of Lawyers, where he served as president from 2001 to 2003.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Three Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman partners are leaving to join Jones Day’s Irvine, California office. Former co-leader of the litigation practice, Richard Ruben, along with office-managing partner, Darren Cottriel, and Ralph Blakeney will be making the move. Offers have also been made to at least five associates. Ruben said that his decision to leave primarily had to do with Jones Day’s reputation in litigation and committment to growth in California.
Source: www.law.com

WilmerHale announced that they have raised first-year associates’ salaries to $160,000. The increase will be effective in all U.S. offices on June 1. This decision comes two weeks after Hogan & Hartson and Akin Gump increased starting salaries in D.C. from $145,000 to $160,000.
Source: www.legaltimes.typepad.com