Kansas City-based Stinson Morrison Hecker has acquired St. Louis firm Blumenfeld Kaplan & Sandweiss. The 40-lawyer addition puts Stinson’s St. Louis office at 60 attorneys. Blumenfeld Kaplan was founded in 1950, and today has a general corporate practice. Stinson Morrison has close to 360 attorneys in eight offices.
Source: www.kansascity.com
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo welcomes Len Nannarone to the corporate practice in its Boston office. Nannarone is a private equity attorney, and was previously a partner at Greenberg Traurig and an in-house counsel to Intel Capital. Joining Nannarone at Mintz Levin is Matthew McMurdo, also formerly of Greenberg Traurig; McMurdo joins as Of Counsel in the New York office. McMurdo works primarily on general corporate and securities law. Mintz Levin’s Corporate Practice closed more than 200 transactions valuing more than $13.5 billion in 2006.
Source: www.home.businesswire.com
Duane Morris has added three partners to its Pittsburgh construction litigation team. Albert Bates and Edward Gentilcore joined mid-April from Reed Smith, and John Tedder recently followed. Duane Morris’ construction practice has 43 attorneys firmwide, compared to Reed Smith’s 23. The practice will be particularly focused on nuclear power and international arbitration; the group’s lawyers will represent the builders, designers, and owners of nuclear power plants. Duane Morris recently formed a nuclear power group by combining its construction and energy practices. The firm is looking to expand this new group in Houston especially, as well as New York and Miami.
Source: www.law.com
Alan Pomerantz has joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as a partner in New York. He joins the real estate practice from a private equity real estate investment company, ERE Advisors LLC. Before serving as the Co-CEO and President of ERE, Pomerantz was a partner and head of the real estate practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He has worked with many big-name global private equity investors, investment banks, financial institutions, and real estate developers in large and complex transactions. Orrick’s New York office is the firm’s largest, with over 200 lawyers known for their work in global finance transactions, U.S. litigation, and international dispute resolution. The firm has 18 offices worldwide.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
West-coast lawyers are making lateral moves. Hank Roberts left Bingham McCutchen to join Farella Braun & Martel as a partner in the San Francisco business transactions group. In Silicon Valley, Rudy Kim has joined Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal as a partner; he was previously with Irell & Manella. Pepper Hamilton’s Orange County office welcomed Michael Meeks as a partner from Theodora Oringher Miller & Richman.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Discontented counsels at Shearman & Sterling’s London office are seeking partnership opportunities elsewhere. Positions for new partners are few and far between in this office, so as a consolation, many have been promoted to counsel. However, of the 15 associates promoted to counsel, nine have left since 2004. Those that departed did so to become partners at such firms as Simmons & Simmons, Dewey Ballantine, Sheppard & Wedderburn. Shearman has also lost partners Adrian Knight and Nigel Thompson to Skadden Arps and Baker Botts, respectively.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Denver firms are feeling pressure to raise starting salaries as national firms with Denver offices apply firmwide raises. Cooley Godward Kronish, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Morrison & Foer ster and Hogan & Hartson are four such firms that have raised first-year pay to $160,000 in all U.S. offices. In comparison, the largest local firms such as Holme Roberts & Owen and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck pay between $105,000 and $110,000; out-of-state firms pay around $120,000. In thousands of dollars in debt, many recent grads seek out high-paying jobs to pay off their loans; local firms know this, hence the pressure to bump up salaries and remain competitive. However, local Denver firms have certain perks such as fewer billable hours requirements and a faster track to partnership, that for some outweigh the astronomical salaries at national firms.
Source: www.denverpost.com
DLA Piper recruited two corporate and securities partners from Reed Smith, San Francisco. Dale Freeman represents public and private companies primarily in the life sciences industry, in corporate matters such as M&A deals and IPOs. Garth Osterman represents investors and companies, especially emphasizing M&A deals, divestiture transactions, and project finance. The partners were drawn to DLA for its strong emerging companies and venture capital practice, as well as its global reach.
Source: www.law.com
Connecticut firm Pullman & Comley has launched a white-collar criminal defense group with a hire from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney, Alex Hernandez, will head the new four-attorney practice. This area of work is growing, and sources say that Hernandez will have ample opportunity to expand the practice. Corporate litigator, Thomas F. Maxwell, is one of the attorneys that will join the new group; lawyer from other disciplines will also be involved with the white-collar team.
Source: www.law.com
As starting salaries in the D.C. offices of many NY, CA, and national firms have already been bumped up to $160,000, all eyes are now on Atlanta-based firms, and many wonder whether they will make the same move. So far none have budged, but in the spirit of competition, there is a possibility of some action. Many Atlanta firms such as Alston & Bird and King & Spalding already made raises at the start of the year, bringing Atlanta pay to $130,000 and D.C. pay to $145,000. Other Atlanta firms with D.C. offices like Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, Powell Goldstein, Troutman Sanders and McKenna Long & Aldridge have not commented on the issue yet.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
