JD Journal » New York law firms

Pillsbury Gets Five From Orrick

joshua — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:20:21 +0000

Pillsburyhired a five lawyer real estate team away from Orrick in New York, including the only two real estate partners in Orrick’s NYC office. The partners, Marc Shapiro and Jill Block, are joined by counsel Susan Saslow, and associates Jason Schlessel and Christine Roch. This move represents a bet on real estate, a practice that has suffered during the economic downturn. If Pillsbury is right and the market bounces back this year, then the firm will be well placed to take advantage of it in New York.

The acquisition of a group of lawyers has been a trend lately as firms are more particular about who they bring on board. A team of lawyers can hit the ground running more quickly than a single partner and we’ve seen several such moves in the last few months – most recently, Blank Rome picked up a seven lawyer consumer financial services group.

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP Announces its New Partner

marvins — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:06:37 +0000

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, a Minnesota-based law firm with over 250 lawyers, announced that Ronald M. Daignault, a former partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York, has joined their firm as a partner in its New York office. Daignault is the firm’s latest addition to the growing Intellectual Property Litigation practice in New York. For the past ten years, his area of practice has been focused on intellectual litigation practice particularly in the pharmaceutical and life sciences areas including trademark, trade secret and copyright litigation. Daignault also has broad exposure in domestic and international trademark prosecution, counseling and licensing.

Martin R. Lueck, Chairman of the firm’s Executive Board, said that Daignault’s expertise will be a big addition to the continuous expansion of the firm’s IP practice in New York. “The addition of Ron to our New York office is a logical step in our evolution. When we opened the office in February 2010 with David Leichtman, Hillel Parness and Bryan Vogel, we did so to capitalize on and enhance our national trial practice. We will continue to expand our client service in New York during 2011 and beyond. More importantly, we have integrated our new lawyers in New York into our nationwide practice, including the relocation of partner Marla Butler to New York.”

David Leichtman, partner in the New York office, added that he, together with the rest of the partners in New York office, is excited to work with Daignault. “We are very pleased to welcome Ron to our firm. His broad trial experience and the breadth of his intellectual property knowledge significantly enhance our national capabilities and in New York, particularly in the life sciences patent litigation field.”

Morning Roundup

joshua — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:20:37 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Wednesday, October 6th. Here’s a quick recap of yesterday’s stories.

Kilpatrick Stockton and Bell, Rosenberg & Hughes announced their merger…

Chadbourne & Parke LLP added two partners to its New York Office…

Chadbourne & Parke LLP Adds Two Partners in New York Office

joshua — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:07:19 +0000

The international law firm Chadbourne & Parke LLP has added litigators M. Scott Peeler and Jeffrey Wasserman as partners in the New York office.

Mr. Peeler, 39, was formerly a partner at Arent Fox and Mr. Wasserman, 36, was most recently a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, both in New York.

Mr. Peeler focuses his practice on white collar litigation and government investigations, including health care fraud and abuse, money laundering, securities and tax violations. He also regularly advises clients on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption laws.

Mr. Wasserman returns to Chadbourne, where he previously served as an associate. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, concentrating on cross-border disputes and other transactions.

According to the press release at the firm’s website, Chadbourne Managing Partner Charles K. O’Neill was quoted as saying: “We are very pleased to welcome Jeff back to Chadbourne. He and Scott bring a wealth of litigation experience and knowledge to the firm. More stringent enforcement of FCPA and other anti-corruption laws in the U.S. and in countries where we have offices make Scott’s addition to our FCPA team particularly timely.”

Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, private funds, corporate finance, and venture capital. The Firm has offices in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Mexico City, São Paulo, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Kyiv, Almaty, Dubai and Beijing.

Kramer Levin Adds Two Partners to Private Equity Practice

joshua — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:55:05 +0000

Today, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP announced it expanded its private equity practice with the addition of James J. Moriarty and Russell J. Pinilis as partners in the firm’s New York office.

Mr. Moriarty represents a number of middle market private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in a wide variety of industries and transactions, including acquisition and sale transactions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings, and management equity arrangements.

Mr. Pinilis is a tax and fund formation attorney. He has worked extensively with private equity investment funds, representing them in a wide variety of matters, including fund and transaction structuring, ensuring the tax efficiency of investments and portfolio company transactions and fund formation matters.

Prior to joining Kramer Levin, Mr. Moriarty and Mr. Pinilis were partners at O’Melveny & Myers.

According to today’s press release at PR Newswire, Paul Pearlman, the managing partner of Kramer Levin, was quoted as saying: “Russell and Jim each bring 15 years of focused transactional experience and will add an exciting dimension to Kramer Levin’s private equity practice that complements our existing representation of private equity sponsors and other participants in private equity transactions. As the state of the economy and private equity markets continue to evolve, their breadth of knowledge, especially in the mid-market sector, will be an invaluable asset to our firm.”

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP is a premier, full-service law firm with offices in New York and Paris. The firm guides Global 1000 companies and emerging growth entities across a broad range of industries to help them fully realize their business goals. For more than a decade, Kramer Levin has had one of the leading and most diverse investment fund practices in the country, with a special emphasis on complex transactions within the middle-market.

Crowell & Moring Adds Federal Prosecutor As Partner

joshua — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:56:47 +0000

Federal prosecutor Kelly T. Currie has joined Crowell & Moring LLP as a partner in the firm’s New York office. Currie, who most recently served as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), joins Crowell & Moring’s white collar and regulatory enforcement group.

While commenting on the addition of Currie, Janet Levine, chair of Crowell & Moring’s White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement Group., called New York “a critical market for white collar and regulatory enforcement matters

“With his experience as a top-level Assistant United States Attorney, Kelly’s extensive prosecutorial, government, and trial experience on high-profile and high-stakes matters bolsters our New York office.”

Currie served at the Eastern District for more than 11 years. He personally conducted numerous complex, global investigations and prosecutions, including those involving FCPA violations, money laundering, securities fraud, public corruption, wire and mail fraud, tax fraud, export control violations, and financing of terrorist organizations.

Crowell & Moring LLP’s white collar & regulatory enforcement group represents corporate and individual clients in federal and state cases in the United States and globally. Crowell & Moring LLP is an international law firm with more than 500 lawyers.

Pillsbury Nabs Nixon Peabody Finance Team

joshua — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:10:18 +0000

A large group of finance and corporate attorneys from Nixon Peabody has left the firm to join the New York office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Leading the group is Mats Carlston, who previously served as head of global finance at Nixon Peabody.

Carlston takes over as the head of Pillsbury’s leveraged finance team. According to a firm press release, the total number of attorneys joining from Nixon Peabody is still being finalized, but as of now the team includes five partners plus other senior lawyers and associates. The attorneys join as members of Pillsbury’s firmwide finance practice, and Pillsbury’s firmwide corporate & securities practice.

Pillsbury chairman Jim Rishwain praised the move in a press release.

“Pillsbury has long been recognized as a world leader in the financial services industry,” said Pillsbury Firm Chair Jim Rishwain. “The addition of this significant team allows Pillsbury to round out and deepen our full range of offerings in the finance, private equity and public finance sectors.”

Carlston has more than 20 years of experience in leveraged finance and general banking. During his time at Nixon Peabody he helped grow the firm’s global finance practice group to more than 50 attorneys.

Carlston is joined at Pillsbury by Bart Pisella, who will now lead the firm’s corporate trust team; Doug Schneller, who will lead Pillsbury’s distressed investing team; Finance lawyer Peter Alfano; James Kelly, who will lead Pillsbury’s leveraged buyout team in the corporate and securities practice; Gregory M. Weston, who takes over the firm’s municipal finance specialty team; and William Egler, who will lead Pillsbury’s asset-backed finance team.

List Of Top Corporate Law Firms Released

eric — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:25:16 +0000

The Law.com has released its list of top corporate law firms. Check it out.

The list is based on a number of different rankings compiled by Corporate Board Member Magazine, FTI Consulting Inc., and big business corporate directors and general counsel throughout the country.

Not to ruin the surprise (if you haven’t yet noticed which firm’s logo is in the upper right hand corner of this post) … but Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has topped both board directors’ and general counsels’ list again. Congrats Skadden!

Skadden is a New York City based firm with 2,000 lawyers in offices around the world including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Hong Kong and Sydney.

DLA Piper Associates Getting Pay Raise

joshua — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:43:10 +0000

Associates at DLA Piper are receiving a 10 percent pay raise that will return salaries to their pre-recession levels, the firm announced Thursday in an internal memo.

The pay increase puts first-year associates salaries at $160,000 in major U.S. markets and $145,00 in secondary markets, the National Law Journal reports. DLA Piper had already raised salaries at its New York office to $160,000 back in January.

DLA Piper U.S. Managing Partner Terry O’Malley told National Law Journal the raises are not the result of a stronger job market, but was rather intended to retain mid-level associates. That led the firm to “implement raises for all associates instead of doing so piecemeal.”

DLA Piper is one of the world’s largest law firms. It has 3,500 lawyers practicing in 67 offices in 29 countries.

Top Government Prosecutor Mendelsohn to Join Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

joshua — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:51:36 +0000

Mark Mendelsohn, who’s served for over five years as the Justice Department’s deputy chief in the criminal fraud section, will join New York-based Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP next month.

A top government prosecutor, Mendelsohn oversees the investigation of companies for violating the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) – a federal law that bans American and foreign companies trading on U.S. stock exchanges from bribing foreign government officials anywhere in the world.

According to today’s Wall Street Journal article, the FCPA is vague. The Justice Department, and in particular, Mendelsohn, has had to interpret the law. Corporations may be eager for his inside views on how the Justice Department determines which cases to investigate and prosecute from the many it encounters annually.

According to the same article, Mendelsohn will earn about $2.5 million in his new position. Numerous firms courted him in past months. Because of ever increasing government regulation, many firms seek to hire top governmental lawyers.

Revenue and Profits Increase at Cahill

sara — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:13:17 +0000

Cahill Gordon & Reindel report that in 2009 the firm saw increases in revenue and profits. Gross revenue increased more than 9%, rising from $247 million to $269.5 million. Revenue per lawyer increased almost 6%, from $932,000 to $987,000; and profits per equity partner increased 19%, from $2.1 million to $2.5 million.

Founded in 1919, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a New York City based international firm with additional offices in Washington, D.C. and London. Cahill has one of the most prominent litigation practices in the United States and has handled high profile securities, anti trust and firs amendment litigation.

Revenues and Profits Down at Schulte

sara — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:28:29 +0000

New York City based firm Schulte Roth & Zabel reported a decline in gross revenue and profits in 2009. Gross revenue was $397,000,000, dropping 5.5% since 2008. Profits per equity partner were $2,130,588, dropping 7%. According to partner Alan Waldenberg the firm views 2009 “as an extremely strong year” in light of “what happened in the world and what happened to a lot of our clients.” Waldenberg says that the firms corporate and transactional practices were down but litigation, restructuring and trust and estate practices were up.

Founded in 1969, Schulte Roth & Zabel is a general practice firm with over 450 attorneys. In addition to New York City, the firm has offices in Washington, D.C., and London.

Raises (sort of) and Bonuses at Pillsbury

joshua — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:01:35 +0000

Let’s start with the easy part. Associates in the New York office of Pillsbury are having their salaries restored to the level they would have been at had they never been frozen in the first place, so long as they met their billable hour target of 1,755 hours. Associates that missed their target are still getting a raise, but are only being bumped up one level.

Outside of New York, associates are also getting raises but based on a new compensation model that has base pay set lower. For example, first year associates in California will have a base pay of $145k instead of New York’s $160k. This isn’t terribly uncommon and we’re still on familiar ground here. Associates in DC, Virgina and California (but not Sacramento) who hit their billable hour target for the year will get an extra bonus bringing them up to the New York base pay level. Seems reasonable. All other US associates are stuck with their lower salaries.

Salaries for Asia have not yet been set and the firm says it’s working on it.

Things get a bit more complicated for bonuses. Once again, New York associates have a clear bonus plan that matches the Cravath scale. Outside of New York, associate bonuses are tiered based on some combination of billable hours and merit, and will either be less than the Cravath scale (for the somewhat meritorious) or at the Cravath scale (if you’ve been very very good this year).

Former Ropes & Gray Employee Charged in $53 Million Insider-Trading Case

joshua — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:35:00 +0000

Arthur Cutillo, a former employee of the New York law firm Ropes & Gray, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan yesterday, along with six others charged in a $53 million insider-trading case.

Cutillo is accused of illegally sharing information regarding mergers with an insider-trading network linked to the Galleon Group LLC hedge fund.

Evidence against the seven includes wiretap recordings made by the government, instant messages, trading records and statements some of them made after their arrest, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Fish said in court Tuesday.

According to federal prosecutors, Cutillo allegedly provided inside information regarding pending acquisitions of Basking Ridge-based Avaya Inc., 3Com Corp. and Axcan Pharma Inc. If convicted, Cutillo could face up to 25 years in prison and upwards of $5.25 million in fines.

Ropes & Gray is a leading global law firm with offices in Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.

WilmerHale May Expand New York Office Space

sara — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:19:01 +0000

Washington D.C. based firm WilmerHale has sent out inquiries to real estate brokers in New York City. The firm is looking for between 200,000 and 225,000 square feet of new office space. This is significantly larger than the space it currently occupies at Boston Properties’ 399 Park Avenue. At 399 Park Avenue WilmerHale occupies 163,000 square feet of space on floors 27 through 31, and 37. Other tenants in the building make it difficult for the firm to expand any further at that location.

WilmerHale has additional offices in Boston, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, California, and Waltham Massachusetts. International offices are located in London, Brussels, Berlin, Beijing, Oxford and Frankfurt. The firm has approximately 1,100 attorneys worldwide.

Chadbourne & Parke Bolsters IP Practice with New Partner

joshua — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:48:12 +0000

International law firm Chadbourne & Parke has named John Hintz a partner in the intellectual property practice group in its New York office. He arrives from the office of Wilmer Hale in New York.

Hintz is the latest in a series of additions to Chadbourne’s IP practice in the areas of financial services, Internet technology and media. They include John Squires, formerly chief intellectual property counsel for Golden Sachs; former Time Warner Chief Patent Counsel Chuck Fish; Ken Johnson, former chief patent counsel for Credit Suisse Securities; and Duane Valz, previously V.P. and associate general counsel for Yahoo.

Hintz’s practice focuses on all aspects of patent disputes and has litigated in federal courts throughout the country and before the International Trade Commission.

Chadbourne is currently defending clients in various IP litigation matters in Texas and other jurisdictions, according to a press release. The firm is headquartered in New York City and also has offices in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Mexico City, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Kyiv, Almaty, Dubai and Beijing.

Mischon de Reya Goes International with New Office

joshua — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:13:01 +0000

London-based firm Mischon de Reya opened the doors to its first international office in New York City Tuesday. James McGuire will serve as managing partner of the new office and oversee a staff of 15.

“Opening our first international office in one of the major financial centres of the world is an exciting opportunity for both our business and for our clients, said Kevin Gold, managing partner of Mischcon de Reya. “It is also timely. There has been a rise in the level of regulation globally. A presence in two of the world’s leading financial centres is exactly what clients of the expanded firm need. ”

McGuire previously was a founding partner of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton’s New York office and formerly was a partner at international firm White & Case.

Kramer Levin Matches Cravath Bonuses

joshua — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:30:16 +0000

Kramer Levin is paying bonuses mid February and they are based on the Cravath scale. To be eligible for a Cravath sized bonus, an associate must have met certain billable hour targets. Anyone that falls short may be eligible for a smaller bonus and those that joined the firm mid year will receive a pro rated bonus.

Founded in 1968, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP is a law firm with offices in New York City and Paris.

Weil Gotshal Bonuses

joshua — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:33:43 +0000

Weil Gotshal is paying most of its associates on the Sullivan & Cromwell scale – $7500 for the first years up to $33k for the most senior – but some of the senior associates who are on Santa’s nice list will be getting a bit more. At the top of the scale, bonuses for about 25% of the most senior associates will hit the $50k mark. Weil is also bumping everyone up a notch for 2010 salaries.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. It is one of the largest and most highly regarded law firms in the world, with approximately 1,300 lawyers and gross annual revenue in excess of $1.7 billion.

Kelley Drye Trifecta – Abandon Lockstep, Freeze Salaries, Pay Bonuses

joshua — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:32:32 +0000

In a firm wide email sent out yesterday, Kelley Drye managed to fold what would typically be three different stories into one.

Over the next two years, Kelley Drye will move away from lockstep compensation and into a merit based pay scheme. Details have not yet been worked out. As a first step, however, 2010 salaries will be frozen at 2009 levels. Salaries for incoming associates, who were scheduled to begin in January, have not yet been set and according to the firm would be decided “early next year”. Looking at my calendar, January appears to me to be pretty early in the year so I certainly hope by “early next year” the firm means “within the next two weeks”. Either that or the firm is planning to re-defer their new associates but forgot to tell anyone. As a final point of business, the email said that bonuses for this year would range from $10k to $30k which puts them above the Cravath bonuses on the low end, assuming that first year associates receive bonuses at all.

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP is an American law firm headquartered in New York City. It has over 300 attorneys in 7 offices, including an affiliated office in Mumbai.

Seyfarth Shaw Picks up two

joshua — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:22:15 +0000

Simeon Spencer is leaving the London office of Morgan Lewis and, along with associate Anna Margolis, joining Seyfarth Shaw in New York. The two new arrivals will join the firm’s International Labor & Employment Practice Group. Although they will be working out of New York, Spencer’s focus will remain on European multi-jurisdictional labor and employment law.

Chicago’s Seyfarth Shaw LLP is a full-service law firm founded in 1945. It has ten offices, nine of which are in the United States. The firm is well known for its labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation and business services.

New Leadership at Sullivan & Cromwell

joshua — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:27:08 +0000

After 10 years at the helm, Rodgin Cohen is stepping down as chairman of New York’s Sullivan & Cromwell. Corporate real estate partner Joseph Shenker will take over the management of the 800 lawyer firm as of January 1.

Cohen has been a force in mergers and acquisitions of some of the largest banks and companies in recent years, representing Wachovia when it was purchased by Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan when it purchased Washington Mutual. He also represented AIG when the government invested in it.

Shenker joined the firm straight out of law school in 1980, made partner at age 29 and joined the leadership committee at 39. He is a veteran of large corporate real estate deals including the purchase of Canary Wharf and the building of a football stadium in The Meadowlands, New Jersey.

New Leadership at Weil Gotshal

joshua — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:39:48 +0000

Barry Wolf, co-chair of Weil Gotshal’s corporate practice, has been named executive partner. He will succeed Stephen Dannhauser, who will focus on client development once Wolf takes over.

Wolf joined Weil Gotshal as an associate in 1984 and made partner in 1992. In 2005 he was named co-chair of the firm’s corporate practice, a role that will be taken over by Tom Roberts.

More Bonuses

joshua — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:43:22 +0000

Two more firms have announced bonus schedules. Fried Frank’s bonuses for New York associates look and feel a lot like the Sullivan & Cromwell bonuses, which were of course a very slight modification to the Cravat scale most firms have been using. Boies Schiller & Flexner, however, is paying bonuses well above the market rate.

Fried Frank’s New York associates will receive bonuses up to $35,000. These bonuses are based on a number of discretionary factors. The $35k is the same cap that Sullivan & Cromwell and the firms that have followed it are using, but firms on the Sullivan scale base bonuses strictly on seniority. No word yet on what associates outside the big apple can expect.

Ahhh but the bonuses at Boies… Let’s just say that the top bonus for second year associates at Boies is $70k. That should give some idea of the difference in scale between Boise bonuses and the market rate. Boies is using a formula based on revenue generated for the firm and base salary. Bonuses are equal to 30% of the revenue generated, minus base salary. Bill more hours, make more money. Bring in more clients, make more money. As if that’s not enough, Boies is also paying above market rate base salaries, with first years starting at $174k. Oh, and did we mention – first year associates who started after September of this year are getting a $5k bonus.

Chadbourne & Parke Restoring Salaries

joshua — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:29:57 +0000

In April, Chadbourne & Parke cut associate salaries and promised that some or all of the money would be returned based on each associates contribution to the firm. Now it appears that all of the money cut from salaries will be restored in a lump sum payment in early 2010. On the one hand, this appears to be good news for a legal industry that has been struggling along with the rest of the economy. Chadbourne had a ready made excuse to keep some of the money but isn’t doing it. On the other hand, half of Chadbourne’s class of 2009 is still deferred indefinitely.

New York’s Chadbourne & Parke LLP, founded in 1902 by Thomas L. Chadbourne, employs 400 lawyers and tax advisers in 13 offices in nine countries. Chadbourne is best known for its global practice in project finance and energy, international insurance and reinsurance practice, multi-jurisdictional litigation in courts from Rhode Island to Russia, and corporate transactions.

Davis Polk Bonuses

joshua — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:46:47 +0000

Davis Polk has announced its year end bonus schedule and, surprise!, it looks all too familiar. Yup, it matches the bonuses put out by Cravath, which match the bonuses of every biglaw firm to announce bonuses in the days after Cravath set the bar. New associates are receiving $7500, with seniors making $30,000 and everyone else sliding in the middle.

Davis Polk & Wardwell is an international law firm headquartered in New York. The firm employs more than 700 attorneys and is primarily known for its corporate, litigation and tax practices.

Skadden Bonuses Match Cravath and Cleary

joshua — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:02:58 +0000

If you’re an associate at Skadden Arps, the good news is not only do you still have a job, you’re getting a bonus for surviving the year. The not so good news is that it’s the same as associates from Cravath and Cleary. There had been some hope that Skadden would buck the trend, much as they did last year when it paid bonuses around double that of most firms, but such is not the case. Like Cravath and Cleary, Skadden’s bonuses run from $7,500 up to $30,000.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP is a global firm headquartered in New York City with offices in twenty-four cities around the world. Core areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions, litigation, bankruptcy, tax, and securities law.

Layoffs at Schulte Roth

joshua — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:19:43 +0000

Reports are trickling in, but it looks as though at least 13 associates at Schulte Roth have received pink slips today. We have reports that some of the layoffs at least came from the real estate practice group, but no hard numbers as of yet. We’ll update this as more tips come in. If you have any additional information to share, send us an anoymous tip here.

Schulte Roth & Zabel is one of the top 100 largest law firms by revenue. The firm was founded in New York City in 1969 and launched in London in 2002. The firm also has an office in Washington, DC. Schulte employs nearly 450 attorneys in its three offices.

Jackson Lewis Opens in Cincinnati

joshua — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:05:24 +0000

New York firm Jackson Lewis has opened a new office in Cincinnati, with the help of five local attorneys. This marks the second office in Ohio for the firm, who already has a Cleveland branch.

The office will be headed up by Scott Carroll, formerly of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. Also joining the firm as partners are David Montgomery and Katherine Weber. Corey Tracey and Tara Burke will move with Carroll from Vorys as associates.

Salary Freeze at Covington & Burling

joshua — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:43:30 +0000

Stick this one in the “It could be worse…” file.

At an all associates meeting today, Covington & Burling announced a freeze on associate salaries for all offices other than New York. Although Covington’s associates are probably not thrilled with the news, things could be worse. If Covington can reign in costs without having to lower salaries or cut jobs, it puts them a step ahead of most firms.

Back in April, Covington & Burling’s Diversity Update included a statement that they had not frozen salaries. It took longer than a month, but now we can finally link back to it.

Cleary Gottlieb Follows Cravath on Bonuses

joshua — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:49:21 +0000

Cleary Gottlieb Gottlieb has confirmed their bonus schedule for this year, which falls right in line with Cravath. Cravath was the first major law firm to announce its year end bonuses. The bar was set so low by Cravath that it’s no great feat for other firms to meet it. Gottlieb

Like Cravath, bonuses at Cleary Gottlieb this year will range from $7500 for first year associates up to a cap of $30,000 for the most senior associates. Of course it could always be worse… at least there are no pink slips attached to the checks.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has 12 offices and 900 attorney spread around the world. It is headquartered in New York City, which also houses its largest office.

Baker Hostetler Expands New York Office

joshua — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:18:08 +0000

Baker Hostetler announced today that four new attorneys, three partners and one of counsel, have joined the New York office. The four new partners are Partners Mark Kornfeld, formerly of Hogan & Harson, Deborah Renner, from Sonnenschein Nath, and Gonzalo S. Zeballos who served as assistant general counsel for AIG. Timothy Pfeifer, who will be of counsel, moves from White & Case.

Cleveland’s Baker Hostetler is the 94th largest law firm globally, employing more than 600 attorneys. The firm has offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Costa Mesa, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando and Washington, D.C.

Morrison & Foerster Lower Incoming Associate Salaries in California

joshua — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:05:38 +0000

Morrison & Foerster is lowering the starting pay of its associates to $145,000 in California, while associates in New York and Asia will continue to receive the same pay. The firm is the first Big Law firm to lower California rates, which are generally the same as New York rates with associates in other offices receiving less. Firm Chairman Keith Wetmore noted that this is actually a return to the historical practice of major law firms paying associates in New York more than in other cities, in part due to higher billing rates.

Other firms have dropped salaries for first year associates this year, but they’ve kept New York and LA parallel.

Schulte Roth Offers for Summer Associates

joshua — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:29:19 +0000

Schulte Roth ran an abbreviated eight week summer program this year, and back at the end of July announced they were not making any offers yet, but would get around to it eventually. Eventually arrived yesterday. Early reports indicate that approximately two-thirds of this years group received offers, but the firm has not confirmed that number. The firm has already announced that next year the summer program will be 11 weeks and that they anticipate having enough offers for every summer associate.

Chadbourne Defers Half its Incoming Associates

joshua — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:53:53 +0000

Half of the incoming class of associates at Chadbourne & Parke have been deferred indefinitely. The firm will pay the deferred associates an additional stipend of $60,000.

This deferral comes on top of salary cuts in April and layoffs in March.