Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle has opened doors in Istanbul, Turkey. The office will operate under the name Curtis Mallet-Prevost Danismanlik Ltd., and will be headed by Ali R. Gursel. Gursel’s practice focuses on international financings and cross-border corporate transactions; he joined the firm in 1997.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Davis Wright Tremaine has acquired three-lawyer San Francisco IP boutique Parsons Hsue & de Runtz. Partners James Hsue and K. Alison de Runtz, and counsel Gerald Parsons bring copyright and trademark prosecution skills to the six-member San Fran IP litigation practice. The Parsons Hsue lawyers were encouraged to join Davis Wright by partner and former collegue Robert Gex. Hsue and de Runtz are looking forward to having the support of a large firm behind them for financial and recruiting reasons.
Source: www.law.com
Duane Morris has begun merger discussions with several London firms. The Philadelphia firm’s London office currently has eight partners, but the firm wants to expand to 200 lawyers through a merger. Firm chairman, Sheldon Bonovitz, reported that the ideal merger candidate will have corporate strength, international capability, and a compatible culture. Duane Morris has also opened offices in Singapore, Vietnam, and Baltimore in the past six months.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Dewey Ballantine has recruited corporate partner Hugh Scogin from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Scogin will become the second partner in Dewey’s five-lawyer Beijing office, which opened in 2004. After the failed merger between Dewey and Orrick in January, Dewey has been on a hiring spree. Just in the past two weeks, the firm has hired five lateral partners.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Lawyers across the Lone Star State are making career moves. The Dallas office of Thompson & Knight has gained two new real estate and banking partners, and three associates. Ben Tobor left Bracewell & Giuliani to join Greenberg Traurig in Houston as an IP shareholder. Stacy Blakeley has joined Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold in Dallas as a commercial litigation associate. In Austin, Sarah Duncan has joined Locke, Liddell & Sapp as of counsel in the appellate section.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced today the hiring of Caitlin Halligan in New York. Halligan will join as the head of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group. Formerly, Halligan was the Solicitor General of New York State for over five years. As the Solicitor General, she managed 45 appellate lawyers and coordinated the legal positions of the entire Attorney General’s office. Weil Gotshal is an international firm with over 1,100 attorneys.
Source: www.pr-inside.com
With the addition of two lateral hires, Dickstein Shapiro is ready to launch a New York bankruptcy practice. Partner Arnold Gulkowitz and counsel Brian E. Goldberg both join from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s NY branch. Gulkowitz’s practice focuses on representing creditors’ committees and financial institutions in domestic and overseas bankruptcy proceedings. D.C.-based Dickstein Shapiro is one of many firms that has recently bolstered its restructuring practice.
Source: www.law.com
Jones Day welcomes well-known ERISA litigators Robert Miller and Steven Sacher to its Washington, D.C. office. Miller joins from Hogan & Hartson, where he provided benefits counsel and litigated on behalf of companies in fiduciary audits and other benefit-related investigations. Sacher comes from Kilpatrick Stockton; he primarily works on complex fiduciary responsibility matters under ERISA, counseling clients and representing them in the federal courts and before government regulators and Congressional committees. Jones Day’s benefits litigation practice is known for successfully representing clients in virtually every type of ERISA and other employee benefit plan dispute.
Source: www.home.businesswire.com
Philadelphia-based firm Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin has announced that it has raised its starting salary from $125,000 to $135,000, effective July 1. 44-lawyer Hangley Aronchick is the first Philly firm with less than 50 attorneys to pay $135,000 to first-year associates. Concerning the raise, firm leaders have remarked that they are just trying to stay competitive with the market. Firms such as Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll; Duane Morris; Blank Rome; Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen; and DLA Piper have already raised to $135,000. Other firms like Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Dechert; Drinker Biddle & Reath; and Pepper Hamilton are up to $145,000 in Philly. Many corporate clients are speaking out against the outbreak of associate raises. Because they are the ones that will mostly pay for these increases, many clients feel that they should be a part of the discussions.
Source: www.law.com
Silicon Valley boutique Tomlinson Zisko is shutting its doors for good; the firm has been downsizing for several years and shrunk from 20 lawyers in 2002 to only five this year. Founding partners Timothy Tomlinson and William Zisko are moving their corporate and securities practices to Greenberg Traurig’s Silicon Valley office. Former Tomlinson attorney, Heather Meeker, helped launch the Greenberg office in 2004, and recruited Tomlinson and Zisko to the 1,600-lawyer firm. With the new additions, Greenberg’s Silicon Valley office will now have 15 corporate lawyers and 43 attorneys total. Real estate partner James Janz is going a different direction, joining Sideman & Bancroft in San Francisco. Three other Tomlinson attorneys also joined Sideman – coporate and IP partner Polly Dinkel, counsel Kelly McCarthy, and real estate partner Susan Taylor.
Source: www.law.com
