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SHEPPARD MULLIN RE-ELECTS CHAIRMAN GUY HALGREN
Lawyer News |
2010/04/16 09:56
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| pSheppard Mullin Richter amp; Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that the firm's chairman of the executive committee, Guy N. Halgren, has been re-elected to a fourth consecutive, three-year term leading the firm.nbsp; Halgren was first elected to this management role in 2001.nbsp; Halgren is the first Sheppard Mullin chairman to hold this position for four terms. nbsp; /ppOur partnership is very fortunate to have Guy at the helm for another term.nbsp; He's smart, fair and forward-thinking, said Benjamin R. Mulcahy, New York-based partner and member of the executive committee.nbsp; Guy has been instrumental in growing the firm in terms of size, locations, and practice areas, while preserving Sheppard Mullin's tradition of collegiality and entrepreneurship. nbsp; /ppSheppard Mullin has experienced significant growth in the past nine years.nbsp; The number of attorneys is now more than 500, which is more than 70% greater than the firm's attorney headcount in 2001.nbsp; During the same time period, the firm has geographically grown from a California firm, to a national firm with locations in New York and Washington, D.C., to an international firm with an office in Shanghai.nbsp; The firm currently has a total of eleven offices, having significantly expanded from four locations in 2001. /ppComparing 2001 to 2009, gross revenue has climbed from $149 million to $361 million.nbsp; Practice area growth has occurred in a number of ways, including the establishment of an institutional entertainment and media practice in 2003, the significant growth of the firm's Intellectual Property practice group in recent years, and the strengthening of signature practices: Antitrust, Corporate, Finance amp; Bankruptcy, Government Contracts, Labor amp; Employment, Litigation, Real Estate/Land Use and Tax. nbsp; /ppAdditionally, Sheppard Mullin's Business Trial practice group co-chair, Robert S. Beall, has been re-elected as the firm's managing partner for another three-year term.nbsp; He has held this firm management position since 2005.nbsp; Beall, based in the firm's Orange County office, has also been re-elected to the firm's executive committee for another three-year term.nbsp; /ppI'm very pleased that Robert has agreed to serve as the firm's managing partner for another term.nbsp; Our talents complement each other.nbsp; The firm could not have made the tremendous progress it has without Robert's contributions,nbsp; Halgren commented. /ppPartner Judy V. Davidoff has been elected to the executive committee for a three-year term.nbsp; Davidoff, based in the San Francisco office, has served as Real Estate/Land Use practice group co-chair and also as one of the firm's alternative fee czars. /ppAbout Sheppard, Mullin, Richter amp; Hampton LLP/ppSheppard Mullin is a full service AmLaw 100 firm with 550 attorneys in 11 offices located in the United States and Asia.nbsp; Since 1927, companies have turned to Sheppard Mullin to handle corporate and technology matters, high stakes litigation and complex financial transactions.nbsp; In the U.S., the firm's clients include more than half of the Fortune 100.nbsp; For more information, please visit a href=http://www.sheppardmullin.comfont color=#336699www.sheppardmullin.com/font/a.nbsp; /p |
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Wash. court: Illegal worker status inadmissible
Law Firm News |
2010/04/16 05:55
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| pThe Washington state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a man's undocumented immigrant status in the U.S. should not have been introduced in a trial while the man sought damages in a negligence lawsuit against a construction contractor./ppIn a 7-2 ruling, the state's high court reversed a state Court of Appeals decision to uphold a jury verdict against Alex Salas./ppThe question before the court revolved around the issue of whether Salas' immigration status affects his claim for future wages, given that he is illegally in the country./ppThe jury found the construction contractor had been negligent but did not award any monetary damages to him./ppI knew justice wasn't being done, said Salas' attorney Robert B. Kornfeld. Here you have someone who violates (workers' safety) and they get away with it, because this guy was undocumented? That wasn't right./ppA Mexican native, Salas was working on a construction project in Seattle in 2002 when he fell from a ladder provided by Hi-Tech Erectors./p |
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Law firms seek to represent dead miners' families
Law Firm News |
2010/04/14 09:45
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pLittle more than a week after the disaster, competition among lawyers to represent the families of 29 men killed in the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster has begun./ppMassey Energy, the mine's owner, has deep pockets. Lawyers who represent the families could make millions in fees if they can prove company management showed a conscious and deliberate disregard for safety./ppMassey has repeatedly denied all such accusations./ppAt least one well-known local lawyer questioned whether it's proper to seek clients so soon after the tragedy and said he could not bring himself to do it./ppLaw firms take so-called wrongful death cases for free. Losers earn nothing. Winners typically receive one-third of the amount awarded by the court./ppOn Tuesday, before all of the miners who died in the blast were buried, Underwood Law Offices, headquartered in Huntington, ran an advertisement in the Charleston newspapers and papers in the coalfields urging families of the miners to call the firm.
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Wichita Bookkeeper Sentenced For Embezzling
Court Watch |
2010/04/14 06:46
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pA bookkeeper in Wichita has been sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison for embezzling more than $948,000 from a law firm where she worked./ppThirty-four-year-old Vicki J. Olivarez pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of writing checks and forging signatures on the checks while she worked at Pistotnik Law Offices./ppIn her plea, Olivarez admitted that from 2004 through 2009 she wrote numerous checks on the firm's client trust account and deposited the money into her personal accounts. She used some of the money to make payments on property she owned in Andover./ppU.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten also ordered Olivarez to forfeit $948,041 including her interest in the Andover property.
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Law firm Mayer Brown lays off more lawyers
Law Firm News |
2010/04/12 09:31
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| pMayer Brown continues to hemorrhage lawyers, despite what the Chicago law firm says are encouraging signs for 2010./ppThe international firm said Thursday that laid off 28 lawyers in its U.S. offices, which represents 3 percent of the approximately 925 U.S. lawyers. The layoffs did not affect partners, only associates and lawyers known as counsel who are not on partnership track./ppMayer Brown also reduced its administrative staff by 47 people./ppThis is the third job reduction since November 2008 at Mayer Brown. The two previous rounds affected at least 78 lawyers. The firm blamed the previous downsizing on the recession, which cut demand for legal services. It said Thursday that demand has bounced back but not enough. In addition, voluntary attrition has dropped, meaning that the firm was overstaffed compared to anticipated demand for legal services this year./ppAlthough most of our practices are performing well, overall demand for legal services has not recovered fully, and in today's tight legal job market, voluntary lawyer departures have been significantly lower than our normal levels, Chairman Bert Krueger said in an e-mail to U.S. offices. A Mayer spokesman provided a copy of the e-mail but declined further comment./ppThe layoffs come as Mayer Brown partners are scheduled to gather in Chicago later this month for the firm's annual meeting./p |
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Beach, Chesapeake pay $9 million for outside legal help
Headline News |
2010/04/12 09:31
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pEach South Hampton Roads city has a cadre of attorneys on staff to deal with the many legal disputes that come with running a large city./ppSometimes, a case comes along that poses a potential conflict of interest, requires expertise that can't be found in-house, or just takes too much time./ppIn those scenarios, officials look outside the city attorney's office to hire a private law firm. That gets expensive./ppSaddled with long and costly legal battles, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach have paid nearly $9 million to private law firms over the past five years - more than twice the combined amount spent by Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk./ppWhen we go through and see how much we have spent on outside counsel, I think we can do better, said Chesapeake Councilwoman Patricia Willis, who is a lawyer./ppCity Attorney Ronald Hallman said Chesapeake is a growing city and has faced a host of unique legal matters including opposition to a planned North Carolina landfill, the Battlefield Golf Club fly ash case, and a challenge to a police test by the U.S. Justice Department. All of these cases required specific expertise and lots of time, which equals large bills.
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