New Jersey firms are stepping up to the plate in terms of hiring and first-year salary raises. A sample of 21 firms shows that starting salaries in the fall will range between $90,000 and $130,000. Firms such as Flaster Greenberg felt pressure from the Philadelphia and New York markets to raise salaries; even though they can’t match those rates, the NJ firms still fight for the same talent and want to remain competitive. Most big NJ firms choose to keep their salaries at reasonable levels, and instead reward associates with merit bonuses. These firms also have “quality of life” going for them. They offer the chance to gain responsibility and make partner, whereas associates in NY often only last with a firm for a couple years. New Jersey firms are clearly doing something right, as the number of first year hires increased by 19% compared to last year.
Source: www.law.com

Thompson & Knight has hired IP expert, John Driscoll, as a partner in its New York office. Driscoll specializes in businesses with IP assets, and he advises them in issues such as trademark prosecution and protection, copyright issues, licensing, sourcing, retail operations, employment, and trade matters. He also has experience in corporate and securities transactions, cross-border M&A, hedge funds, and international business transactions. Thompson & Knight has about 420 attorneys in offices around the world.
Source: www.usprwire.com

Crowell & Moring has brought on two new lateral partners to its Government Contracts Group. Angela Styles, the former Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the White House, and international government contracts lawyer Robert Nichols have joined the firm’s D.C. office. Both attorneys join from Miller & Chevalier, where they were members. Styles focuses her work on federal procurement law and litigation, and counsels clients on issues ranging from claim disputes and cost accounting to executive branch lobbying and compliance reviews. Nichols specializes in domestic and international government contracts issues, including traditional counseling, cost accounting, export controls, foreign military sales, and international dispute resolution. With its wide range of expertise and 40-year history, Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group has been recognized as one of the best in the country. The D.C.-based firm has over 350 lawyers practicing in offices in D.C., New York, California, London, and Brussels.
Source: www.prnewswire.com

O’Melveny & Myers has snagged Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s four-partner bankruptcy practice, to be co-headed by Michael Sage. Sage, who also co-chaired the practice at Stroock, focuses his work on representing private equity and distressed debt funds in restructuring situations. O’Melveny will be Sage’s fourth firm in the past 10 years; the highly sought lateral partner has also been employed by Dewey Ballantine and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. The other Stroock bankruptcy partners joining O’Melveny are Gerald C. Bender, Doron Lipshitz and Patricia M. Perez. Many firms have been working to build up their restructuring practices in anticipation of a surge in business.
Source: www.law.com

A seven-partner IP team from Hunton & Williams will be joining Goodwin Proctor in Washington, D.C. Goodwin’s IP practice is mostly based out of Boston and New York; the firm did not have IP lawyers in D.C. until this recent addition. Thomas Scott Jr., Hunton’s former IP chairman, will head Goodwin’s 145-lawyer national IP practice. The other partners joining Scott in D.C. are Scott Robertson, Jennifer Albert, Patrick Doody, David Young, Stephen Schreiner, and Christopher Campbell. The firm has been actively searching for high-profile laterals to join the D.C. office lately. FDA attorney Mark Heller joined in January, and in June a group of private equity experts joined from Hogan & Hartson. Currently, the firm is seeking lawyers who focus on securities enforcement, real estate and real estate capital markets, corporate, and antitrust work.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Harold Ruvoldt has left Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge for Nixon Peabody. Ruvoldt was the partner-in-charge of the New York office of his former firm. At Nixon, he will co-lead an interdisciplinary practice group dealing with corporate integrity. Cathy Fleming is the other co-leader of this group; in March, she too left Edwards Angell.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis has hired investment management partner, Edward G. Eisert, for its New York office. Eisert was formerly a general counsel for Franklin Templeton Investments, and he also served as senior vice president and corporate secretary of Franklin Templeton subsidiary Fiduciary Trust Co. International. At K&L Gates, Eisert will handle investment management, securities regulation, mergers and acquisitions and structured finance.
Source: www.law.com

Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders has picked up five new corporate partners – two finance partners from King & Spalding’s New York and Atlanta offices and a partner each from Alston & Bird, Morris Manning & Martin and Hunton & Williams. Coming from King & Spalding and joining Troutman’s structured finance group are tax lawyer Philip Spector and corporate lawyer Craig Kline. Saba Ashraf joins the firm’s tax practice from Alston & Bird. Former Morris Manning & Martin attorney, Larry Schackelford, joins the securities and corporate governance group. Finally, Jeffery Banish joins Troutman’s employee benefits and compensation group from Hunton & Williams. Troutman Sanders now has 293 partners, almost 90 of which have been added just since the beginning of 2005.
Source: www.law.com

Only a few days after three big California-based firms raised their CA first-year associate salaries to $160,000, three more firms have followed suit. Latham & Watkins; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker all decided to bump up their starting pay for their CA offices. Now, all of California’s biggest and most profitable firms have matched the New York scale; smaller firms like Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Heller Ehrman have remained steady at $145,000. The explosion of pay raises has some big-firm clients worried and questioning whether these lawyers are actually worth what they are being paid.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Hogan & Hartson announced today that it is bumping up its starting salary in Washington, D.C. to $160,000. The raise comes in reponse to the rash of pay increases that California firms have implemented over the past two weeks. Though many New York and national firms already applied the NY market rate ($160,000) to their NY offices, Hogan & Hartson is the first Washington-based firm to do so. Most likely, other firms will follow its lead soon.
Source: www.nylawyer.com