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

New York’s former Republican governor, George E. Pataki, has joined Chadbourne & Parke as a counsel. He will focus on environmental issues, paticularly renewable energy, and will be joined by his former chief of staff, John Cahill, who will also become counsel at the firm. Pataki was governor for 12 years before stepping down this year; he was a strong supporter of renewable energy while in office, and was drawn to the firm because of their experience in the area. New York firm, Chadbourne & Parke, has 400 lawyers.
Source: www.law.com

Bracewell & Giuliani announced today that they matched market rates for first-year salaries in their New York office. The increase to $160,000 was made effective February 7, 2007. This leading firm has 400 lawyers in offices in New York, Texas, Washington, D.C., Kazakhstan and London.
Source: www.prnewswire.com

Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen is the latest firm to jump onto the pay raise band-wagon. Starting salaries in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill went from $125,000 to $135,000. First-years in New York and Roseland, NJ get a $15,000 increase to $145,000 and $115,000, respectively. The salary increase are not equal for more advanced associates, however. Duane Morris, Blank Rome and DLA Piper have also raised associate salaries in Philadelphia to $135,000. Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Dechert topped that with starting rates of $145,000 in Philly.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Two corporate lawyers from Reed Smith will join Dewey Ballantine’s New York office. John J. Altorelli and Jeffrey A. Potash will join the firm’s Structured Finance Group as partners. Altorelli’s practices focuses on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations, private placements and public offerings of securities. Potash has a uniquely diverse coporate practice and a wide variety of experience including in-house counsel and executive positions with public and private companies.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

New York-based firm Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman is set to open a new office in Chicago, which will be headed by Stephanie Scharf, formerly a partner at Jenner & Block and the former president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. The opening makes the firm the first women-owned firm to have offices in New York and Chicago, and one of only a handfull to have offices in two major metropolitan areas. The firm emphasizes alternative fee arrangements for corporate clients, flexible work time for its lawyers, and teaming with other firms in order to gain representation on large matters.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

David Bayless has joined Covington & Burling’s San Francisco office from Morrison & Foerster. Bayless comes to the Washington-based firm as a partner after more than seven years with MoFo’s securities litigation practice. Sources from MoFo’s San Francisco office speculate that in moving, Bayless is seeking to pursue his regulatory practice. Covington’s securities and enforcement practice is based mainly in Washington and New York, and is known for its former government lawyers.
Source: www.law.com