JD Journal » simpson thatcher

The Legal Teams Behind the AOL-HuffPo Deal

joshua — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:32:09 +0000

In a surprise move late Sunday night (so surprising most HuffPo employees learned about it on the news), AOL purchased The Huffington Post for $315 million and put HuffPo founder and namesake Arianna Huffington in charge of all AOL provided content.

HuffPo was represented in this deal by a team of lawyers from Latham & Watkins led by partner Alex Voxman and counsel David Blood. Also contributing were benefits and compensation partner Laurence Seymour, antitrust partner Abbott Lipsky, tax partner Samuel Weiner, and antitrust counsel Sydney Smith.

AOL used long time outside counsel Peter Malloy from Simpson Thatcher. Malloy was assisted by intellectual property partner Lori Lesser, tax partner Katharine Moir, and executive compensation partner Tristan Brown.

The $315 million deal includes a cash payment of $300 million with the remained in stock and is expected to close no later than the end of the second quarter.

Top Corporate Law Firms Announced

todd — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:06:35 +0000

American Lawyer publication Corporate Counsel has come out with its annual list of law firms representing the big shots in corporate America. The survey stuck to Fortune 100 companies as a marker for “corporate America.”

In general corporate law, the mentions were as follows: Cleary represented 12 Fortune 100 corporations, Davis Polk represented 11, Cravath represented 10, as did Simpson Thatcher.

In the field of intellectual property, Alston & Bird were mentioned 8 times, K&L 7 times, Baker Botts 6 times and Fish & Richardson were mentioned 6 times as well.

To aggregate the information for the list, Corporate Counsel used PACER, an electronic public access service of the United States federal court documents, public filings, the Corporate Scorecard, and the Patent and Trademark office.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:53:27 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Wednesday, March 24, and here’s a look back at yesterday’s news…

Simpson Thatcher is facing allegations of cover up related to its representation of PrediWave…

Days before the Hogan Lovells merger finalizes, 18 partners in Germany have left to form a new firm…

CSH partner Frank Albetta is moving to Raleigh as part of a firm wide effort to broaden its scope in North Carolina…

In Canada, Blakes has been named among Canada’s best diversity employers for the third time…

A former DLA Piper partner has been convicted of fraud in Singapore…

Baker Hostetler has been retained as outside counselby several state AG’s in their efforts to overturn the sweeping health care reform bill…

and Pepe & Hazard is merging with MDM&C…

Morning Roundup

joshua — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:08:41 +0000

Good morning everyone! It’s Thursday, December 17, and here’s your snapshot of yesterday’s news…

John Schulman, top counsel for Warner Bros for 25 years, has joined MS&K…

Seyfarth Shaw picks up a lateral from Hogan & Hartson…

WilmerHale’s new partnership class is over 50% female…

The FTC wants a piece of Intel….

Dewey & Leboeuf match the Cravath bonuses…

and Simpson & Thatcher is the only firm that we know of paying bonuses to deferred associates doing public interest work…

Simpson & Thatcher Paying Bonuses to Public Interest Deferrals

joshua — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:58:34 +0000

Simpson & Thatcher deferrals who are doing public interest law while waiting for their new start date will be receiving a prorated bonus from the firm this year. Given that Simpson & Thatcher rushed in to follow the Cravath scale, the bonus won’t be much, particularly once it has been pro rated and taxed, but it’s still better than deferred associates from other firms are likely to get.

I spend too much of my time reading and writing about how biglaw is mistreating employees – it’s nice to get a story like this one. Props to Simpson & Thatcher.

More Bonuses

joshua — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:11:24 +0000

-Insert cookie cutter story here-

Debevoise & Plimpton announced bonuses today. Second verse, same as the first… I’m rapidly running out of new and creative ways to say this, so here it is – it’s the same bonus schedule first issued by Cravath, then followed by Cleary Gottlieb, Skadden, Wilkie Farr, Simpson Thatcher, and Davis Polk. $7500 for first year associates, seniors get $30k, and everyone else is on a sliding scale somewhere in between.

Nothing to see here, move along…

Morning Roundup

joshua — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:31:33 +0000

Good morning everyone! As we head into Thanksgiving week, things have slowed down a bit. Here’s a look back at the end of last week.

Seyfarth Shaw has redeferred half of its incoming class and cut salaries for all first years…

Wilkie Farr and Simpson Thatcher have both put out their bonus schedules….

Scott Rothstein has made a written request for disbarrment….

Skadden has also settled on bonuses, and they look very familiar…

and I mused ahead on the trial and likely conviction and execution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.