The legal business has been growing over the past few years, and correspondingly, there has been an increase in new partners at large Texas firms. According to the Texas Lawyer’s “The Texas 100” poster, twenty-three of the 25 largest firms in the state report promoting 146 attorneys to partnership in their Texas offices for 2007. That’s 6.5 percent more than the 137 attorneys promoted to partnership by the same firms in 2006. The majority of the new partners recieved their JD between 1994 and 2000, and 40 percent of them are litigators. Women partners comprise 32 percent of the new partners, while minorities make up only 9 percent. This is a change for both groups compared to 2006 when women made up 28.5 percent of new partners and minorities made up 16 percent.
Source: www.law.com
Winstead has acquired 12 more Jenkens & Gilchrist lawyers, adding to the 18 they already hired from the San Antonio and Austin offices. Six of the new additions come from Winston’s Dallas headquarters; the other half are leaving the Austin office. Jenkens’ numbers have dropped to under 200 attorneys in recent weeks; it is rumored that most of the remaining Dallas lawyers will move to Hunton & Williams.
Source: www.law.com
Bracewell & Giuliani has recruited two partners from Bingham McCutchen. Bingham’s former co-head of bankruptcy, Evan Flaschen, and Gregory Nye will join the Texas firm’s Hartford, CT office. The addition of these partners puts Bracewell’s bankruptcy team up to 14 attorneys. These recent hires are a small part of the firm’s overall growth. There are plans to open a London office, and Bracewell doubled its office space in NY. The expansion, especially in NY, is largely attributed to the arrival of name partner Rudolph Giuliani to the firm.
Source: www.thelawyer.com
Three corporate and securities lawyers from Winstead in Dallas recently moved to Bracewell & Giuliani. Partners Bruce Cheatham and Brice Tarzwell, and counsel Connie Stamets joined Bracewell’s 400-lawyer corporate and securities practice at the end of February. Cheatham commented that Bracewell’s New York, Washington, and international offices were a draw because of the benefit they hold for his practice. After losing Cheatham, Winstead reorganized, doing away with his former position of corporate and securities section head.
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
International firm, King & Spalding, announced the hiring of two new partners for its Houston office. Todd Mattingly joins the intellectual property practice from Haynes & Boone, and Steven D. Rubin joins the firm’s corporate group from Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Mattingly focuses on IP matters involving electrical and mechanical engineering, while Rubin deals in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, restructurings and other financing transactions. Including these two new additions, the Houston office has acquired 11 new partners over the last 18 months. In total, the firm’s Houston office has over 100 attorneys.
Source: www.marketwire.com
Ten lawyers from Jenkens & Gilchrist’s San Antonio office have joined Jackson Walker’s central Texas office. Four of the lawyers join as partner, one as of counsel, and the remaining five are associates. Two other attorneys from Jenkens are moving to Winstead’s San Antonio office. With the new additions, Jackson Walker’s office now has 30 lawyers. The decision to close Jenkens’ San Antonio office was made in January, and comes after the closing of the firm’s Houston and LA offices.
Source: www.law.com
The Dallas office of Bracewell & Giuliani has added two new partners. Bruce A. Cheatham and Brice E. Tarzwell have joined the firm’s corporate and securities practice. Connie S. Stamets has also joined the firm as counsel. All three of the new hires came from the Dallas office of Winstead P.C., where Cheatham was the head of the corporate and securities group. Bracewell & Giuliani has 400 lawyers in New York, Texas, Washington, D.C., Kazakhstan and London.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Hunton & Williams has raised starting salaries in Charlotte, NC to $145,000. National firms Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Dechert; and Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw are also reported to have increased to $145,000 or plan to next year. Until now, first-year associates at Hunton’s 43-lawyer Charlotte office were making only $117,5000, making the increase a 23 per cent raise. The firm’s Raleigh, Richmond, DC, LA, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Norfolk, and Knoxville offices also now have a starting pay of $145,000. The NY office also increased to match the market rate of $160,000.
Source: www.charlotte.bizjournals.com
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal plans to open two more offices after the opening of its Menlo Park office in March. The Chicago-firm will open an office in Dallas this month, and by the end of March will have another somewhere in southeastern U.S. Sonnenschein currently has 10 U.S. offices and one in Brussels. The firm is positioned for growth and wants to have more than 1,000 attorneys to increase profits and attract new talent; lateral hiring of lawyers from other firms is the firm’s strategy for increasing its numbers.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Fort Worth, TX-based firm Kelly, Hart & Hallman will be opening an office in Houston within the next few months. Two Houston partners from Vinson & Elkins, along with former Enron Corp. general counsel James V. Derrick Jr. and Kelly Hart partner J. Clark Martin, will open the new office. Representatives from Kelly Hart claimed a friendly relationship between the two firms; Vinson & Elkins’ management declined comment. The new Houston office has room to grow, with space for 15 attorneys.
Source: www.law.com
Jenkens & Gilchrist of Dallas, TX is reported to have been talking with Hunton & Williams management about a number of lawyers from Jenkens’ Dallas office relocating to Hunton & Williams’ Dallas office. Currently, Jenkens’ Dallas office houses most of the firm’s lawyers, 140 of 251 attorneys in six cities across the country. One of the largest firms in Texas, Jenkens’ management assures that the firm is talking with several firms, and refuses to confirm rumors of negotiation with Hunton. Hunton & Williams is based out of Richmond, VA, and boasts 875 attorneys in 18 offices worldwide; management from this firm would not comment either.
Source: www.law.com
