JD Journal » Foley Hoag

Day Pitney Adds Two Attorneys to Trusts and Estates Practice

joshua — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:14:46 +0000

Attorneys Kenneth Grinnell and Dani Ruran have joined Day Pitney LLP’s Trusts and Estates practice – Grinnell as partner and Ruran as counsel. Both come from Foley Hoag.

Mr. Grinnell’s primary areas of practice are estate planning, estate and trust administration and related tax planning, including planning for business owners and international tax planning.

Mr. Ruran’s primary areas of practice include estate planning, estate and trust administration and related tax planning, international estate tax planning, and planning for retirement benefits and higher education expenses.

According to the April 1 press release at PR Newswire, Gregory Hayes, chair of the firm’s Individual Clients department was quoted as saying: “Ken and Dani are experienced attorneys whose arrival reflects our strategic commitment to build on our strengths representing individual clients and to offer the highest level of service possible. They are a great addition to our growing Boston office.”

Day Pitney was formed in 2007 through the merger of two prominent east coast law firms – Day, Berry & Howard and Pitney Hardin. The merger brought together approximately 400 attorneys and the century-long legacies of the two firms to create a firm that reaches from Boston to Washington, D.C. with nine offices in five states.

We’re Doing This for Your Own Good… Really!

joshua — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:55:28 +0000

Do you wake up every morning hoping that today will be the day that your firm will improve attorney development, and strengthen its ability to recruit, retain and develop the best talent at all professional levels by cutting your salary? If so, you may want to consider moving to Foley Hoag.

In a firm wide memo obtained by abovethelaw.com Foley Hoag has done just that. The salaries of all first through third year associates and some fourth years have been cut by ten percent in order to meet the aforementioned lofty goals. As bad as that sounds, this comes on top of salary freezes that had second year associates making the same as first years, so with the ten percent cut, second year associates and some third years are now making less than they did as first years.

Maybe this will be the start of a new trend. Maybe law schools around the country will pick up on the idea and charge less for second year students than first year students. Maybe student loans will lower the interest rate each year. Seems about as likely as retaining the best talent by cutting salaries.

50 Best Law Firms for Women Announced

Erik Even — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:33:38 +0000

Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers have announced their 2009 Best Law Firms for Women.

The accolade is awarded based on attention to work-life and women’s issues, and the increased use of part-time and other family-friendly policies.

Firms with at least 50 lawyers were eligible to apply, and the application included detailed questions about issues that are important to the retention and promotion of female lawyers. The winning firms were selected based on their workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, advancement and retention of women, among other criteria utilizing 2008 data.

The 50 firms chosen are not ranked in any order, but include:

Alston & Bird
Andrews Kurth
Arent Fox
Bass Berry Sims
Chapman and Cutler
Covington & Burling
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Debevoise & Plimpton
Dorsey & Whitney
Drinker Biddle
Foley Hoag
Folger Levin & Kahn
Fox Rothschild
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
Frost Brown Todd
Gibbons PC
Goodwin Procter
Gray Plant Mooty
Hanson Bridgett
Hardy & Bacon
Holland and Hart
Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn
Ice Miller
Jenner & Block
Katten Muchin Rosenman Cornish LLP
Latham & Watkins
Lindquist & Vennum
Littler Mendelson
Lowenstein Sandler
Manatt Phelps & Phillips
McGuireWoods
Miller & Chevalier
Morrison & Foerster
Munger Tolles & Olson
Neal Gerber & Eisenberg
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Perkins Coie
Pillsbury Winthrop
Quarles & Brady
Shook
Sidley Austin
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Smith Moore Leatherwood
Steptoe & Johnson
Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox
Vinson & Elkins
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Huh. The list of firms not included might be shorter.

Report: Women Still Not Making Partner

Erik Even — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:48:42 +0000

According to a report released by the San Francisco-based Project for Attorney Retention, which surveyed 100 American law firms, only 23 of those firms had partnership classes consisting of at least 40% women in 2008.

Fourteen of the 100 firms did not include any women.

The survey included 100 law firms, which were chosen based on prior years’ surveys, firm size, reputation, and availability of information.

From the report:

The best: Cravath (67%), Dickstein Shapiro (67%), Wiley Rein (60%), Andrews Kurth (57%), Bryan Cave (56%), Arent Fox (50%), Baker & Daniels (50%), Hogan & Hartson (50%), Holland and Hart (50%), King & Spalding (50%), Luce Forward (50%), Simpson Thacher (50%), and Sullivan & Cromwell (50%). A special mention goes to Farella Braun, whose only new partner is female (100%).

The worst: None of the following firms made a female partner this year: Cadwalader, Cleary Gottlieb, Dechert, Foley Hoag, Kaye Scholer, Lowenstein Sandler, Milbank, Schulte Roth, Steptoe, Strook, Venable, Wachtell, White & Case, and Wilkie Farr.

PAR is an initiative of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Foley Hoag Cuts 6%, or 32 Associates & Staff

Erik Even — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:13:21 +0000

Boston’s Foley Hoag has cut 6% of its workforce in response to the economic meltdown, the law firm has announced.

The layoffs affect 32 people, both associates and staff. Foley Hoag has 227 lawyers in Boston.

Although Foley Hoag had strong financial results in 2008, we have concluded that a reduction in personnel is a prudent step to ensure the continued strength of the firm in these unprecedented economic conditions. We believe the approximately 6 percent reduction in force that we have implemented today will vouchsafe the firm’s ability to continue to deliver the efficient and high quality service our clients have come to expect.

Blah blah blah.

Foley Hoag is the latest of several Boston law firms to announce staff and lawyer reductions, including Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge and Goulston & Storrs PC.

Butts, Maher Join Obama in Washington

Erik Even — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:47:21 +0000

President-elect Barack Obama is attracting even more Washington lawyers to his incoming administration.

Cassandra Butts, who met Obama at Harvard Law, will serve as deputy White House counsel. She is currently general counsel for the transition. Her previous jobs include senior veep for domestic policy at the Center for American Progress; senior adviser to former Representative Dick Gephardt of Missouri; assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund; and legislative counsel to Senator Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania.

Shawn Maher, a longtime aide to Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, will be Obama’s deputy director of legislative affairs for the Senate. Most recently he served as staff director and general counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, which Dodd chairs. He has also been Dodd’s legislative director, and his counsel when Dodd was chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The names of two other DC lawyers have been mentioned in connection with the Obama team. Peter Rundlet, former counsel to the 9/11 Commission, has been mentioned as a possible deputy staff secretary at the White House. Mark Childress, a partner at Boston’s Foley Hoag LLC and former chief counsel to Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, has been mentioned as chief of staff at the Department of Health & Human Services. Obama has tapped Daschle to head up the DHHS.

Via The BLT.