JD Journal » willkie farr

Willkie Farr Announces 2011 Year-End Bonuses

jim — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:06:38 +0000

The law firm of Willkie Farr handed out bonuses to its associates back in December but news of the bonuses is just leaking out now. Willkie Farr is one of the most prominent law firms in New York, so you can bet on what they did for bonuses in 2011.

The firm announced a variant of the Cravath/Sullivan & Cromwell bonus scale. The scale can be defined as the Cleary Gottlieb scale, which is one of the more generous bonus scales of all the main-line law firms out there. The scale offers prorated bonuses for the class of 2011 and a top payment of $42,500 for the senior lawyers at the firm (class of 2003 and up).

Cleary announced its bonuses on December 9, which is when Willkie Farr announced its bonuses to its associates. Since the two announcements came at almost the same time, it is safe to say that Willkie Farr created its bonus scale on its own. As a matter of face, maybe the bonus scale should be referred to as the ‘Cleary/Willkie scale.’

The memo sent out to associates at Willkie Farr can be seen at the bottom of this post.

Willkie Farr is Raided for In-House Talent

chelsei — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:51:24 +0000

Willkie Farr may be getting raided, but it’s not entirely a bad thing. Because Willkie is just losing talent to a top client, instead of losing talent to a rival law firm. The Bloomberg LP has decided they want to strengthen their in-house presence, and they plan on doing so with almost all of Willkie’s attorneys.

Could this be a good thing for Willkie Farr? Even with less work coming in from the client, the firm will remain Bloomberg’s outside counsel.

And Willkie was even generous enough to send an email to all of their people, to insure that nobody freaked out. He obviously didn’t chaos in the firm. If chaos were to happen, things would be a lot harder to manage.

Even if it may not seem like it, I think this move could be a net positive for Willkie. Because, according to the Bloomberg press release, the company doesn’t want to shift work away from the outside counsel, they just want more in-house lawyers to make the company grow.

The Bloomberg press release says this:

Bloomberg LP announced today that five partners from Willkie Farr & Gallagher will be coming to Bloomberg as full-time employees to join the existing Bloomberg legal team, effective January 1, 2012. The newly constituted internal legal team will include Dick DeScherer, Dan Grossman, David Levine, Carol Mascera and Sarah Osborn from Willkie. DeScherer will become Chief Legal Officer. ”As a growing company operating in almost 200 locations around the world, we are finding unprecedented opportunities for growth in our customer base, our product offerings and our local partners. Bloomberg will benefit greatly from a ramp-up of both the number and range of expertise of in-house legal staff to ensure we are much more efficient and nimble and we seek to take advantage of these global opportunities.” said Bloomberg CEO Daniel L. Doctoroff.

If Bloomberg decides to expand, there will be plenty of work for the outside counsel. And with the five additional Willkie partners on board, it feels like Willkie has really locked up the client for the future.

And it doesn’t hurt Willkie recruiting to say that not only can you work on the Bloomberg account, but if you’re really good at the job, then Bloomberg may hire you.

Willkie says this to calm everyone:

For many years we have been privileged to handle almost all of Bloomberg LP’s legal matters with a dedicated team of attorneys. Effective January 1, 2012, some core members of that team, including our partners DeScherer, Grossman, Levine, Mascera, and Osborne, as well as a number of counsel and associates, will move in-house at Bloomberg. Willkie will continue to serve as the company’s primary outside counsel. Given the profile of the team, we wanted to let you know first hand about this change. A press release will be issued by Bloomberg shortly that we will also circulate. We look forward to working with our new colleagues in their new in-house roles and to our continued representation of Bloomberg. Please join us in wishing a successful transition to those involved in this new chapter of our client’s growth.
-The Executive Committee.

Hey, this is just an opportunity for new talent to show the company what they’re made of.

Almost Twenty Attorneys Will Leave Willkie Farr & Gallagher for Bloomberg

rebneely — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:54:32 +0000

Almost twenty legal professionals are leaving Willkie Farr & Gallagher to join Bloomberg’s existing legal team, effective January 1, 2012.

That number includes five partners, and perhaps fifteen associates and counsel. Among those leaving Willkie include Dick DeScherer, Dan Grossman, David Levine, Carol Mascera and Sarah Osborn. DeScherer will join the company as Chief Legal Officer.

Bloomberg Chairman Peter T. Grauer was quoted as saying in a press release at the company’s website: “Dick DeScherer has been a vital partner to Bloomberg for several decades and we’re thrilled to welcome him as the Chief Legal Officer of the company. We are also looking forward to the addition of his talented colleagues from Willkie Farr & Gallagher and integrating them into our existing internal legal team.”

Richard “Dick” DeScherer is a partner in the firm’s Corporate and Financial Services Department and Chair of the Information Systems/Technology Practice Group in New York. He focuses his practice on general corporate law, information technology, media, and intellectual property.

Bloomberg CEO Daniel L. Doctoroff was quoted as saying in the October 27^th press release at the company’s website: “As a growing company operating in almost 200 locations around the world, we are finding unprecedented opportunities for growth in our customer base, our product offerings and our local partners. Bloomberg will benefit greatly from a ramp-up of both the number and range of expertise of in-house legal staff to ensure we are much more efficient and nimble as we seek to take advantage of these global opportunities.”

Bloomberg is one of Willkie’s largest clients, and will continue to be. The firm has served Bloomberg as its primary outside legal counsel for almost 25 years. For almost the same amount of time, DeScherer has served on the Board of Directors of Bloomberg, and he will continue to do so.

Bloomberg is known as the global business and financial information and news leader. The company gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength lies in its delivery of data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately.

Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the founder and eighty-eight percent owner of Bloomberg L.P, and a widely acclaimed business magnate, politician, and philanthropist. Since 2002, he has been the Mayor of New York City and, with a net worth of $18.1 billion in 2011, he is also the 13th-richest person in the United States.

Founded in 1888, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has nearly 600 attorneys. An international law firm with eight locations in six countries, including offices in New York, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Frankfurt and Brussels, the firm has an established corporate practice which focuses on investment funds, bankruptcy and intellectual property. The firm has a wide variety of clients, ranging from Fortune 500 to pro bono community causes.

Man Freed From Prison After Thirty Years, with Help of Willkie Farr Attorneys and Innocence Project

rebneely — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:31:19 +0000

Through the Innocence Project, a pair of attorneys with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Thomas Golden and Jeanna Composti, enabled a man wrongfully convicted of rape thirty years ago be set free just last week.

In 1981, Henry James was convicted raping a next-door neighbor at knifepoint, and imprisoned in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. On the date of his release, James had been imprisoned longer than any of the other eleven wrongfully convicted Louisiana prisoners to be exonerated with the aid of DNA evidence, according to the October 26^th amlawdaily, “Willkie Farr Duo Helps Exonerate Louisiana Man After 30 Years in Prison”.

Golden is a New York–based litigation partner litigation, and Composti an associate in the firm’s New York office, who had worked with the Innocence Project as a Cornell Law School student

James testified at his trial, along with three witnesses to corroborate his alibi that he was asleep during the rape. The Innocence Project said James’ trial lawyer neglected to tell jurors that bodily fluid testing had excluded James as the attacker.

After exhausting his appeals, James wrote to The Innocence Project asking for help. When his new lawyers sought to perform DNA tests on evidence from the rape kit in the case, the Jefferson Parish crime laboratory at first was unable to find any. However, a lab worker found a slide from James’ case in May 2010 while looking for evidence in a different case.

Last month, a final report on the results of court-ordered DNA tests verified James was not the rapist.

Innocence Project attorney Vanessa Potkin was quoted as saying in the October 21^st Google.com article, “Cleared man freed from La. prison after 30 years”: “It is an actual miracle that Henry James is here today. It was a miracle that his evidence was found.”

Golden was quoted as saying in the amlawdaily.com article: “I was really struck by the fact that innocent people get convicted all the time. Jurors misunderstand the importance of eyewitness identifications, scientific methods are not always followed. If there’s evidence out there that would exonerate a defendant and identify the actual perpetrator, then we as lawyers ought to pursue every avenue to make sure that evidence gets tested.”

Golden continued: “I really thought that the basic facts regarding his conviction did not add up. Jeanna and I traveled down to Angola and met with him and it solidified my view that he was innocent.”

James plans to live with his daughter, who was just three years old when he went to prison. He also plans to use the woodworking skills he learned while in prison to find work.

According to information at the organization’s website, the Innocence Project is a non-profit legal clinic affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992. It is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The Innocence Project has to date been able to set 274 wrongfully convicted people since 1989.

Founded in 1888, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is an international law firm with nearly 600 attorneys in eight offices in six countries.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:56:58 +0000

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, May 26th. Here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s stories.

Arizona has hired Snell & Wilmer to represent it in legal challenges to its immigration law…

Willkie Farr grew its New York office…

and Shutts & Bowen added four to its health care practice…

Law Firms Dealing With Mandatory Retirement Policies

joshua — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:30:42 +0000

The recent discrimination suit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Kelley Drye & Warren because of its mandatory retirement policy has brought the controversial mandate back into focus. The Washington Post touched on the subject in a report out Monday.

In the story, Greenberg Traurig partner Leslie Corwin called the provision “one of the biggest issues facing the legal profession and other professional service firms today.”

When the American Bar Association recommended law firms end mandatory retirement policies back in 2007, several firms heeded the advice, according to the report, including Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Pillsbury, and K & L Gates. Kelley Drye joined the ranks last week when it announced it had dropped its mandatory retirement policy in the face of the EEOC lawsuit.

According to the report, only 38 percent of firm leaders who have set retirement ages felt it should be enforced. The story goes on to note industry experts believe firms are liable “to pay the price when partners forgo retirement benefits to defect to competing firms and take their clients with them.”

The New York Law Journal lists several New York firms that still have mandatory retirement. They include Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which has a retirement age of 65; Weil Gotshal & Manges has 68 as its mandatory retirement age; Paul Weiss lists the age at 70; and at Willkie Farr, the age is 65.

Two More Firms Match Cravath on Bonuses

joshua — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:02:29 +0000

Was everyone waiting to see what Skadden would do? Now that Skadden has fallen in line, it looks as though everyone else Is going to play ball too. Today, Willkie Farr and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett both announced their bonus schedules and they’re a match for Cravath. New associates will get $7500 and the scale slides on up to cap out at $30k.