Zuckerman Spaeder announced that it plans to close its Miami office due to loosing five of its attorneys to Carlton Fields. Departing are the following: managing partner Walter Tache, partners Michael S. Pasano, Stephen J. Bronis and Thomas J. Meeks, and of counsel Paul A. Calli. After closing its Miami office, Zuckerman will have one remaining office in Tampa, Florida.
Source:www.bizjournals.com
Hunton & Williams has announced that Michael A. Silva will join their Miami office as a partner within their private wealth tax practice. Silva has 13 years of experience with tax law as well as over a decade of international tax experience in addition to having been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami. Silva will join Hunton & Williams partner Cary Tolley in the tax practice.
Source: www.digital50.com
Six Holland & Knight Miami partners have announced their departure from the firm to start their own boutique. The Coral Gables firm will be known as Avila Rodriguez Hernandez Mena & Ferri. Former head of H&K’s banking and finance group, Alcides Avila, will be joined by partners Wilfredo Rodriguez, Eugenio Hernandez, Patricia Hernandez, Daniel Mena, and Marco Ferri; associate Asnardo Garro Jr. is also joining. Holland & Knight’s Miami office executive partner, Peter Prieto, is not worried about the loss of the partners, and said that the remaining attorneys cover all the same areas of expertise.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Holland & Knight welcomed three new attorneys to its Tallahassee office this week. Frederick R. Dudley and Mia L. McKown join the firm’s Florida Government Advocacy Practice, and Gigi Rollini joins the firm’s Litigation Section. Dudley focuses on construction law, administrative law, and legislative and governmental affairs. McKown specializes in administrative law and legislative and governmental affairs, and Rollini practices administrative law as well as utility regulation and appellate law.
Source: www.metrocorpcounsel.com
Littler Mendelson has opened an office in Orlando with six employment lawyers from Fisher & Phillips. With locations in Charlotte, NC; Columbia, SC; Atlanta, Mobile, AL and Miami, the San Francisco firm’s new office pushes it farther into the Southeast. Littler Mendelson is known as the nation’s largest labor and employment firm, and has over 600 attorneys across the country.
Source: www.sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com
Since February, five shareholders have left the Florida offfices of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. These partners have raised issues about the firm’s centralized control and what they see as lack of support for their practices. The Cleveland-based firm merged with South Florida’s Steel Hector & Davis in 2005, despite that firm’s financial troubles and partner defections. The attorneys who left the firm claimed that they had wanted to continue work with the newly merged firm, but after a year and a half dealing with unresolved cultural and integration issues, they decided to part ways. Former Steel Hector managing partner Joseph P. Klock, corporate attorney Barry A. Weiss, and lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez are among those who left. Squire Sanders is recognized for its bond work on behalf of government entities; it was ranked 54 on the AmLaw 100 listing of the nation’s top-grossing firms.
Source: www.law.com
Greenberg Traurig has increased salaries in its South Florida offices. The starting base salary in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale was raised from $120,000 to $135,000, while the total compensation is actually more than $150,000. That extra $15,000 comes in the form of a signing bonus, year-end bonus, Bar costs, and a discretionary bonus. More senior associates in those offices will also receive raises of about the same amount. Greenberg’s starting salary now matches that of White & Case; Holland & Knight, Hogan & Hartson and Akerman Senterfitt recently raised salaries for first years to $130,000 in South Florida. Greenberg also made a change in its pro bono policy. After a 15 percent firmwide drop in pro bono hours in 2006, the firm now allows lawyers to count 20 pro bono hours toward their billable hours target.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Former Miami Beach Mayor Neisen O. Kasdin was hired to head Akerman Senterfitt’s 27-lawyer land-use practice group in Miami. Joining Kasdin, who was formerly a shareholder with Gunster Yoakley & Stewart, are associates T. Spencer Crowley and Andrew W. Frey. Kasdin plans to have his practice group work closely with the environmental law group. He served as mayor of Miami Beach from 1997 until 2001 and as a Miami Beach city commissioner from 1991 until 1997. Many credit the former mayor with helping the growth and revitalization of Miami Beach.
Source: www.law.com
Constance (Connie) S. Huttner has joined Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC as the chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group. The patent and intellectual property litigator was previously a partner at Skadden, Arps. At Skadden, Huttner established the firm’s patent litigation practice in 1990. Huttner joins a team of 120 attorneys and patent agents in Buchanan’s IP and IP Litigation groups, yet the firm expects to add more patent litigators over the next weeks. Buchanan has made several other acquisitions over the past two years including seven tax and immigration lawyers in Miami; 55 attorneys and patent professionals from Burns, Doane, Swecker & Mathis; and three government relations professionals in Washington, D.C.
Source: www.prnewswire.com
Holland & Knight announced this week its plan to increase first-year associate salaries in its South Florida offices to $130,000. Besides implementing raises in FL, the firm is also raising salaries in NY to $160,000 and in Chicago, D.C., and LA to $145,000. This move will likely prompt other firms to boost FL salaries, but two NY-based firms already have pay a starting salary of $160,000. The two firms, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Boies Schiller & Flexner, are reported to pay the same in all of their offices.
Source: www.law.com
