Mary Keller has joined Winstead’s Austin office as a shareholder in the Corporate and Securities Group. Her work deals mostly with insurance regulation and regulatory litigation. Keller was formerly an Associate Commissioner of Insurance at the Texas Department of Insurance, as well as a former Texas First Assistant Attorney General. With offices in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, The Woodlands, TX, and Washington, D.C., Winstead is one of the largest business law firms in Texas.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Houston-based law firm Yetter & Warden LLP has opened an office in Austin which will have six or seven attorneys. The Austin office will focus on a national apellate practice and major clients include American Airlines, General Electric, Levi Strauss & Co., and Southwest Airlines. Greg Coleman, previously of Weil Gotshal & Manges’s national appellate practice in Austin, will head the new office.
Source:www.news.moneycentral.msn.com
Five Fulbright & Jaworski attorneys have joined Greenberg Traurig’s Houston office to launch a real estate practice there. Kent Newsome will serve as the Chair of the Houston real estate practice. He has 22 years of experience in real estate, healthcare, financing, and business law. Joining Newsome are of counsel Gerald Lance and associates Robert Brannon, Adam MacLuckie, and Thomas Rogers. Lance is experienced in commercial real estate, land development, and real estate financing. Greenberg Traurig is an international firm with over 1,000 lawyers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Source: www.earthtimes.org
The Houston office of Fulbright & Jaworski has gained two international corporate partners. Kevin Trautner joins from King & Spalding, where he specialized in finance and M&A. Charles Powell left Haynes & Boone, where he was the head of the technology practice, providing counsel related to venture capital, securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Thompson & Knight has built up its 170-lawyer Trial Practice group by hiring three laterals. Robert F. Brodegaard joined the firm’s New York office as a partner, Richard J. Zook is a partner in Houston, and Jennifer Rudenick has joined the Firm’s Dallas office as an associate. Brodegaard’s practice focuses on international dispute resolution and U.S. commercial litigation. Zook is a trial lawyer who specializes in handling complex business lawsuits in state and federal courts and in arbitration. Rudenick deals especially with litigation and dispute resolution.
Source: www.newyork.dbusinessnews.com
Houston-based Susman Godfrey has joined the ranks of Texas firms raising associate salaries. The firm raised salaries to $160,000 for first-years, $170,000 for second-years, $175,000 for third-years, $180,000 for fourth-years and $190,000 for fifth years. Unlike other firms, Susman’s pay hikes have no hour requirements attached. For example, starting in their third year, Vinson & Elkins associates must bill 2,000 hours in order to be eligible for the full raise.
Source: www.law.com
Locke Liddell & Sapp is the third Texas-based firm to raise associates’ salaries in Texas and Washington, D.C. Following Vinson & Elkins and Andrews Kurth, Locke Liddell has also raised first years’ pay to $160,000 and second years’ pay to $170,000. Additional raises for other associate classes are still under discussion. Locke Liddell is based in Houston and Dallas.
Source: www.law.com
In response to Vinson & Elkins’ Wednesday salary hike, Houston-based Andrews Kurth has announced pay raises of its own. First-year associates in Texas and D.C. will now receive $160,000, and second-years will earn $170,000. The firm has not decided on the compensation structure for higher-level associates.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
One of El Paso, Texas’ larger firms, Delgado, Acosta, Braden and Jones, has broken up. Three of the partners, Alejandro Acosta Jr., Hector Delgado, and John Jones, have become partners with Bickerstaff, Heath, Pollan & Caroom, which changed its name to Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado & Acosta. The Austin-based firm now has an El Paso office where Acosta and Delgado work; Jones will head the Houston office. Two other lawyers moved to the Austin firm, while eleven of the other lawyers from the El Paso firm have found new jobs or opened their own practices. Paul Braden, the other partner of the old firm, has joined Fulbright & Jaworski as a partner, and will continue to work in El Paso.
Source: www.elpasotimes.com
Texas lawyers are making lateral moves. Gary Short left Vinson & Elkins to join Jones Day in Dallas as a partner in the employee benefits & executive compensation practice. Nancy Furney and Lori Oliphant have joined Winstead in Dallas as shareholders. Formerly with Jenkens & Gilchrist, Francis Munchinski has joined Cox Smith Matthews in Dallas as of counsel in the firm’s energy department. Bracewell & Giuliani has gained public law attorney, William King, as of counsel in Houston. Litigation attorney Noelle M. Reed has become a partner in the Houston office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
Houston and Dallas-based Locke, Liddell & Sapp, and Chicago-based Lord, Bissell & Brook are finalizing plans to merge and form a 700-lawyer firm named Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell. After the merger is approved by partners, the deal is expected to close by August 1. Jerry Clements, the Austin, TX-based managing partner of Locke Liddell will head a nine-member executive committee. Locke Liddell is the larger firm, with 399 lawyers compared to Lord Bissell’s 300. However, Lord Bissell’s location cover more area, with offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, CA, and London. The two firms have worked together in the past on banking regulatory matters and as co-counsel or counsel for co-defendants on litigation or arbitration related to reinsurance disputes.
Source: www.law.com
International law firm, Haynes & Boone, welcomed a new attorney to its Houston office. Jill Groff, who specializes in complex business litigation, has joined as an of counsel. She mostly handles antitrust, securities, and white collar criminal defense matters. Haynes & Boone employs over 450 lawyers in its offices in Texas, New York, Washington, D.C., Mexico City and Moscow.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
