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

Kathryn L. Clune has joined Crowell & Moring’s Litigation Group and Intellectual Property Group as a partner in Washington, D.C. Previously employed by Greenberg Traurig, Clune offers 14 years of litigation experience to clients with patent infringement concerns spanning a wide variety of technology industries including electrical, mechanical, and software. Crowell & Moring has close to 350 attorneys practicing in more than 45 areas of law. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices in California, New York, London, and Brussels.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Atlanta firm, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, has raised starting salaries from $115,000 to $130,000. The firm has already raised pay in New York to $160,000 and in Washington to $145,000. The firm has not decided whether this $15,000 raise will affect all associates, or whether a raise will be implemented class-by-class. Sutherland’s pay increase comes on the tails of that of other big Atlanta firms like Troutman Sanders, Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, and Powell Goldstein.
Source: www.dailyreportonline.com