Duane Morris has added three partners to its Pittsburgh construction litigation team. Albert Bates and Edward Gentilcore joined mid-April from Reed Smith, and John Tedder recently followed. Duane Morris’ construction practice has 43 attorneys firmwide, compared to Reed Smith’s 23. The practice will be particularly focused on nuclear power and international arbitration; the group’s lawyers will represent the builders, designers, and owners of nuclear power plants. Duane Morris recently formed a nuclear power group by combining its construction and energy practices. The firm is looking to expand this new group in Houston especially, as well as New York and Miami.
Source: www.law.com
Lawyers across the Lone Star State are making career moves. The Dallas office of Thompson & Knight has gained two new real estate and banking partners, and three associates. Ben Tobor left Bracewell & Giuliani to join Greenberg Traurig in Houston as an IP shareholder. Stacy Blakeley has joined Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold in Dallas as a commercial litigation associate. In Austin, Sarah Duncan has joined Locke, Liddell & Sapp as of counsel in the appellate section.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
As first-year salaries go up on both coasts, firms in Texas are resisting the pressure to raise. Though some non-Texas-based firms applied have applied the NY/CA market rate of $160,000 to their Texas offices, large Texas firms are staying put. The resistance may come from the fact that most firms just went through salary increases in 2006, and TX firms do not feel the need to raise them again so soon. Moreover, these firms know that because the cost of living is lower in Texas than in CA or NY, they remain competitive even if they don’t match East and West Coast salaries. Many top law students want to remain or return to Texas for just that reason. However, if any firm in the Lone Star state breaks down and decides to make the raise, it is likely that more will follow.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges was the number one grossing out-of-state firm in Texas in 2006, according to Texas Lawyer’s ranking. With offices in Dallas, Austin, and Houston, the firm posted $62.9 million in net income last year. Weil, Gotshal was also the top firm in Texas profits per partner and revenue per lawyer. The NY firm has seen rising gross revenues in Texas ever since it opened in Dallas 19 years ago. Following Weil, Gotshal in the ranks were Jones Day of Cleveland, Atlanta-based King & Spalding, Chicago’s Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw and Washington, D.C.-based Howrey. Net income for these top five firms totaled $162.4 million, a 4.6 percent increase from 2005.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Baker Botts Dallas has hired litigation partner and former Harris County prosecutor Victor Vital. Vital deals mostly with complex commercial matters and business disputes. His cases involve a wide range of claims including breach of contract, fraud, tortious interference, misappropriation of trade secrets, and defamation. Vital was previously a partner in the Dallas office of Haynes and Boone. Baker Botts has 750 attorneys practicing in offices in Austin, Beijing, Dallas, Dubai, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Moscow, New York, Riyadh and Washington.
Source: www.sev.prnewswire.com
Longtime labor & employment powerhouse, Littler Mendelson, is finally facing some competition from regional firms and boutiques. With 617 lawyers and 41 U.S. offices, Littler is the largest labor & employment firm in the U.S. The San Francisco-based firm has expanded greatly in recent years, adding 13 new offices since the start of 2005. However, other firms are following suite and becoming more national in scope. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has added six offices in the last three years; 400-lawyer Jackson Lewis also added six. Two Atlanta-based firms, Fisher & Phillips and Ford & Harrison have pushed beyond the Southeast, together opening more than 12 offices in cities such as Dallas, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Philadelphia. The firms’ expansion is generally a part of a strategy to compete nationally, though most deny that they follow other firm’s into specific markets.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
After hiring an 18-lawyer capital markets team from Kilpatrick Stockton, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal has opened an office in Charlotte, NC. John Suhr, Jonathan Nugent and James Tucker all joined Sonnenschein as partners, along with counsels Linde Carley and Keith Jones, and 13 associates. The partners, who will be heading Sonnenschein’s capital markets practice, specialize in commercial real estate finance and equity investment by traditional and capital markets lenders. Sonnenschein has been expanding recently, having announced in March plans to open in Silicon Valley; the firm also intends to open in Dallas.
Source: www.legalweek.com
Fulbright & Jaworski has gained four litigation partners from fallen Texas firm Jenkens & Gilchrist. Rodney Acker, Theodore Daniel, Ellen Bush Sessions and Guy Wade will all join Fulbright’s Dallas office as partners. This is the second group of Jenkens partners that Fulbright has recruited. In January, the entire Houston tax team joined Fulbright.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Seven real estate lawyers from varied firms have joined Thompson & Knight in its New York and Dallas offices. The New York office hired John B. Wood and Bohdan “Bud” S. Kosvych from Sussman, Sollis, Tweedy & Wood. In Dallas, Jay Gibson and Laura McClellan joined as partners, while Misty Willcox, Sean D. Hawkins and Meg Squiers joined as associates. Gibson came from Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons; McClellan left Foster Pepper in Seattle; Willcox came from Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr; Hawkins left Vinson & Elkins; and Squiers returned to Thompson & Knight after taking a leave. These new additions boost the firm’s real estate and banking practice to 54 lawyers.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan has gained eight lawyers from Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Partners Scott Hobby, Charles Hollis, III, Derek Johnston and John Miller, Jr., along with Counsel Timothy Dodson and three associates, will join noted technology and licensing Partner Peter Quittmeyer to create a new Outsourcing/Systems Integration practice within Sutherland’s Corporate Group. Hobby will chair the new practice. This Outsourcing/Sysytems Integration practice has over 20 years experience structuring, negotiating, and documenting domestic and offshore outsourcing services arrangements. Sutherland has over 450 lawyers in offices in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, New York, Tallahassee and Washington.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Gary Short has joined Jones Day as a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice. Working out of the Dallas office, Short will focus on the treatment of employee benefit plans and executive compensation in business transactions. He also has done work designing, implementing, and administering benefit plans; he has handled governmental plans as well. Short was formerly a partner with Vinson & Elkins. Jones Day is one of the world’s largest law firms, with over 2,200 laywers practicing in 30 offices around the world.
Source: www.home.businesswire.com
Locke, Liddell & Sapp is welcoming back Former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, as a partner. At Locke Liddell, Miers will rejoin the public policy group and the litigation group, working out of the Dallas, Austin, and DC offices. She left the firm in 2001 to work in the Bush administration; she become White House counsel in 2005. Mier was also nominated to the Supreme Court in 2005, but she withdrew her name from the race. Mier only just decided a few weeks ago to return to her former firm; she felt she was ready to get back to work, and that Locke Liddell’s reputation and people were a huge draw to her.
Source: www.law.com
