Four top bankruptcy partners from Weil, Gotshal & Manges have left for Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. George A. Davis, Deryck A. Palmer, John J. Rapisardi and Andrew M. Troop will be joining the firm’s New York office. Though the partners’ departures comes at the same time as the return of well-known bankruptcy partner Harvey Miller, the loss is still a difficult one for Weil Gotshal. Back in 2001, the firm lost partner Bruce Zirinsky to Cadwalader; getting to work with him again was actually one of the attractions for the four lawyers. The partners were also drawn to Cadwalader’s strong client base among financial institutions, investment groups and in the health care arena, as well as their performance-driven culture.
Source: www.law.com

Drinker Biddle has announced that they are pushing up the start date for their first-year salary increases. The firm originally planned to make the pay raise effective September 1, 2007, but it changed the date to March 1 of this year. Starting salaries in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago and Wilmington, Delaware were raised to $135,000, and will increase again in September to $145,000. First-year pay in New York, California, and Washington, D.C. was raised to $145,000. The firm’s Albany, NY and Milwaukee offices will be handled individually due to the small number of attorneys in each. More advanced associates will also receive a pay increase, but it will not necessarily follow a lock-step system.
Source: www.law.com

The collaboration between Dewey Ballantine and Italian firm Galgano is finally complete. Though Dewey initially only expected to gain ten lawyers in the deal, the New York-based firm ended up acquiring 15 associates and five partners, including Galgano’s heads of TMT and finance, Marco Consonni and Davide Contini respectively. Those two, along with founder Galgano, and corporate partner Alessandro Accinni will become full partners; two other Galgano partners will become local partners at Dewey. This deal is a sign of Dewey’s desire for growth in Europe, where they have already had recent success.
Source: www.thelawyer.com

Bracewell & Giuliani has expanded its New York office to now take up the 18th and 19th floors of the Americas Tower building. The expansion doubles the size of the space, adding 24,475 square feet for the growing firm. Bracewell opened in New York in 2005 after former mayor Rudolph Giuliani joined as a name partner. Since then, the office has grown from two to fourty attorneys, thanks to outstanding recruitment efforts and a maintenance of a good deal of work from the firm’s central practices.
Source: www.prnewswire.com