The Kanawha County Commission will be represented by Nelson Mullins in a pro bono effort to remove Mark Plants as the prosecuting attorney, according to The Charleston Gazette.

Melissa Foster Bird is the attorney from Nelson Mullins who has taken on the case. Bird said that she has started work on a petition to remove Plants from the commission. Bird also said that the firm is not charging for the work because of the amount of money Plants has already cost the county.

County commissioners voted in July to begin the removal process for Plants, who is facing two charges of domestic violence at the misdemeanor level.

A special prosecutor is being paid by the county commissioners to prosecute Plants. Another special prosecutor has been assigned to deal with domestic violence cases. Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom prevented the office of Plants from working on domestic violence cases due to the charges against him.

Don Morris, a former assistant prosecutor, was appointed by Judge Bloom to prosecute domestic violence cases. Four assistants from Plants’ office were moved to Morris’ office to help with the cases.

Commissioners said at a meeting towards the end of July that the county has paid $92,000 for the special prosecutors so far.

“The citizens of Kanawha County and the state of West Virginia are paying for numerous people to handle these matters,” Bird said. “Nelson and Mullins thinks of this, not as much for the commission, while that’s obviously our client, but the work being done will benefit the state of West Virginia and Kanawha County.”

Dave Hardy, a Kanawha County Commissioner, said that the commission is going to pay the firm’s expenses, but not the hourly fee.

“I think it’s community service in that they’re willing to help us remedy a very complex problem for the taxpayers,” Hardy said.

A three-panel judge at the state’s Supreme Court will hear the petition once it is filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.

“That panel would hear evidence and then make a recommendation that he should either be removed from office or permitted to continue,” Bird said.

Plants was charged with domestic battery after striking his 11-year-old with a leather belt and leaving a bruise of 6-to-7-inches. According to police, Plants also violated a domestic violence protective order that barred him from contacting his ex-wife and two sons. He violated this order when he approached a car the boys were in outside of a pharmacy in Charleston.

The State Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel asked the Supreme Court to suspend Plants’ license and/or remove him from handling domestic violence cases when the charges were filed.

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Established in 1897, the law firm, Nelson Mullins has more than 500 attorneys and government relations professionals with offices in the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. It has been reported that, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP is expanding its North Carolina corporate practice.

The large U.S. law firm and lobby group based in Columbia, South Carolina, was ranked in the National Law Journal in 2011 as the largest in South Carolina and as the 106th largest firm in the United States. The firm was founded by Patrick Henry Nelson II, and the law firm also ranked 128th in profit per attorney on the 2010 AmLaw 200 survey.

Nelson Mullins has announced in a press release the new additions of B.T. Atkinson as a partner in the Charlotte office and R. Scott Tobin as a partner in Raleigh, South Carolina.

Previously recognized as one of the Top 10 business people to watch in the Triad Region of North Carolina, R. Scott Tobin, a University of North Carolina graduate is focused on building international strategic alliances, commercializing intellectual property, structuring debt and equity arrangements, and guiding global market entries and exits. Mr. Tobin concentrates his practice in the areas of technology finance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions and business litigation.

Nelson Mullins has more than 40 diversified practice areas. B.T. Atkinson has been named in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of securities. Mr. Atkinson has experience in merger and acquisition transactions involving financial institutions and companies in a range of other industries. B.T. Atkinson is licensed to practice in both North and South Carolina.

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Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough have brought real estate attorney Tim Meyer as an attorney of counsel on board their Nashville office. Meyer will focus on real estate, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and loan transactions, according to a press release by Nelson Mullins.

Meyer has over a decade in experience in commercial real estate especially in healthcare, real estate and real estate investment trusts. “He has experience advising clients on acquiring, leasing, financing, managing, developing and selling commercial real estate.”

Nelson Mullins’ Nashville office opened in 2012, and has since grown to 11 attorneys. Larry Papel, head of the Nashville office, comments, “We welcome Tim and are excited about the knowledge and skills he brings to assist our clients in the Nashville market and beyond.”

Tim Meyer represented publicly traded company companies and has handled transactions between investment firms, healthcare providers, developers, and the slew of various interests within his area of focus and beyond. He has earned his JD from Vanderbilt University Law School as well as an MBA from Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management. He also received his BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated magna cum laude.

Nelson Mullins was established in 1897, and since then has grown to more than 500 attorneys across Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington D.C., Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and the Virginias.

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This week, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP announced that the firm has hired two corporate associates at its Nashville office.

Thallen Brassel is a former associate with Burr and Forman LLP in Nashville, and had also worked in Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCoy LLP in New York.

Brassel works on business, tax and insurance regulation law. She advises clients on business formation and planning, tax aspects of corporate transactions, estate planning, lending and borrowing arrangements, securities offerings and bankruptcy restructuring.

Lori Brewer, the other associate worked previously in the Banking Department of Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen P.C. in New York and in the Global Finance/Corporate Department of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP in Charlotte, N.C. Brewer practices mergers and acquisitions, debt financing and business technology. She also represents portfolio and growth companies and negotiates both for vendors and suppliers.

Nelson Mullins opened its Nashville office last year with six attorneys, which has now grown to ten.

Larry Papel, the managing partner of the firm’s Nashville office said “We welcome Thallen and Lori to our corporate group … They are bright, young attorneys, with sophisticated experience, who enhance our client service capabilities.”

Nelson Mullins is assiduously trying to build up its strengths and in April the firm added two attorneys who work on the captive insurance industry in Nashville. Papel also said that soon other attorneys focusing on healthcare, technology, real estate, litigation and government relations are expected to join the firm.

Nelson Mullins is a 500-attorney law firm established in 1897 and the firm has offices in the District of Columbia, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina.

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Attorneys Kevin Doherty and Cynthia Wiel joined the Tennessee-based firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough this week. Doherty and Wiel’s strong background in insurance regulation, particularly involving captives, will strengthen the firm’s insurance regulation practice in its Nashville office.

Doherty joined Nelson Mullins as a partner and brings his expertise in insurance regulation to the table. Perhaps best known for his work in rewriting the 2011 Tennessee captive insurance law, Doherty has particular emphasis in captives and other alternative insurance methods, as well as insurance transactions. He is also known for his experience representing clients in the entertainment industry through contracts and transactional deals. He is deeply familiar with all aspects of entertainment law and has worked with individuals on all ends of the music industry, including singers, publishers, writers, and music companies.

Speaking to his strong background in captive insurance, Doherty is currently the president and chairman of the Tennessee Captive Insurance Association. He is deeply involved in the Nashville community, participating regularly in organizations like Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, the Nashville Food Project, and youth hockey. Doherty was named “Best of the Bar” by the Nashville Business Journal and included in the ’07-’13 list of “The Best Lawyers in America” for the Insurance Law, Entertainment Law-Music category.

Ms. Wiels also joins Nelson Mullins’ Nashville office, serving as Of Counsel. Like Doherty, she brings a deep background in regulatory law in the areas of insurance regulation, business and transactions, health care, liquor regulation, and city utilities regulation. Like Doherty, she has particular expertise in captives, and currently serves as the co-chair of the Government Relations Committee in the Tennessee Captive Insurance Association. She has worked with both local and city officials, representing clients primarily on the business and corporate side.

Ms. Wiels’ expertise in regulatory law is particularly notable considering her experience working with members of the state legislature. For two years, she worked as a legislative assistant for then Tennessee Speaker of the House, Jimmy Naifeh. Having worked intimately from all sides of the drafting process, she is better able to advise her clients on the effects of state and local law.

In a news release, Larry Papel, the firm’s Manager Partner in Nashville, warmly welcomed the two newest members of the firm. “We welcome Kevin and Cynthia to the Firm and to our Nashville team and look forward to introducing them to our clients. Their experience adds to the Firm’s regulatory and healthcare practices and provides depth to our scope of client services.”

Nelson Mullins’ Nashville office is a relatively new branch of the firm. The office was opened in April 2012 and currently houses approximately 100 attorneys who concentrate on the firm’s work related to e-discovery.

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The law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP announced via a press release on their website on Monday that it has added 16 lawyers to its office in Boston from the law firm of Cetrulo & Capone. A spokesman for Nelson Mullins, Joe Donovan, said, “This is the third significant expansion for Nelson Mullins in the last four years in Boston.”

In 2008, the Boston office of Nelson Mullins had two attorney. Now, the firm has 55 lawyers in Boston. The firm employs 430 lawyers in 13 offices located in Boston, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Bizjournals talked with Lawrence Cetrulo, the founding partner of Cetrulo & Capone, via phone about the split of the firm.

“This is great news for me and for our firm,” Cetrulo said. “We’re very excited. Capone and I had been talking about splitting up for some time. It was the right thing to do and I wish him good luck.”

“We are pleased to have this experienced group join our firm,” said Nelson Mullins Boston Managing Partner Amy Mandragouras in the firm’s press release. “These attorneys have considerable experience in and ties to New England, and beyond, and have been active in some of the more high-profile cases in the region. Their experience helps us expand the services we can offer to clients.”

The new attorneys joining the firm include Bert Capone, Jim Carroll and Tom Hayman, who all will lead teams at Nelson Mullins.

“We are excited to be joining Nelson Mullins and we look forward to continuing to serve our clients throughout New England and beyond,” Capone said. “Nelson Mullins has shown phenomenal growth over the past six years in Boston because of the hands-on approach all of its attorneys take in representing clients and expanding its business foothold here.”

The full list of lawyers joining Nelson Mullins, per their press release, is below:

“Also joining the firm as partners are:

• Dwight T. Burns, III, who represents clients including owners, contractors and sureties in construction-related civil litigation.
• Gregory J. May, who concentrates his practice on environmental, products liability, and commercial claims throughout New England and the United States.
• Francis R. Powell, who represents clients in commercial disputes, construction and surety litigation, and defense of product liability and personal injury claims. He also has been engaged in Big Dig litigation.
• Michael F. Sommerville, a former insurance company manager and experienced litigator focusing on environmental and toxic tort litigation brought by and against insurers and insured companies.
• Gillian A. Woolf, who concentrates on the defense of commercial claims. She has handled multi-party cases involving negligence, products liability, breach of contract, insurance coverage, and municipal liability.

Joining as associates are:

• Benjamin J. Carroll, who focuses on wrongful death, catastrophic personal injury, products liability, and insurance coverage.
• Carl E. Fumarola, who represents corporations and individuals in disputes.
• Kate J. Borgondy, who focuses on civil litigation involving wrongful death and products liability.
• Marc E. Finkel, who defends clients involving wrongful death, catastrophic personal injury, products liability, municipal liability, and insurance coverage matters.
• Adam Florey, who represents clients in matters involving commercial, construction, professional liability, and surety disputes.
• John McDonnell, a professional engineer, professional land surveyor, and licensed construction supervisor who represents all manner of clients in transactional and litigation matters pertaining to construction projects.  
• Kathryn D. Stone, whose cases encompass issues such as products liability, wrongful death, and personal injury matters.
• Patrick Uiterwyk, who represents clients in matters involving commercial, admiralty/maritime, construction, personal injury, and professional liability disputes.”

The post Nelson Mullins Adds 16 Attorneys from Cetrulo & Capone first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

BigLaw is promoting fewer to partner this year…

An aspiring lawyer in New York has been refused admission to the bar because of his excessive student loans…

Nelson Mullins opens a new office in West Virginia…

Chadbourne & Parke is paying associates the money originally cut from their salaries…

and another firm has matched the Cravat bonus schedule…

The post Morning Roundup first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP is a large US law firm and lobbying group based in Columbia, South Carolina. The firm ranked 127th in profit per attorney on the 2007 AmLaw 200 survey.

The post Nelson Mullins Opening in West Virginia first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

Those resurfacing at Nelson Mullins include five Boston partners, including Wolf Block Public Strategies CEO Robert Crow; two associates and two lobbyists from Boston; and a lobbyist from Washington.

Crowe was co-chairperson for finance for the Democratic National Committee during the 2004 presidential campaign, and is co-chairperson of Senator John Kerry’s finance committee and political action committee.

Wolf Block’s partnership dissolved the 106-year-old firm on March 23th.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP is a large US law firm and lobbying group based in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2007, the National Law Journal ranked the firm the the largest in South Carolina and 111th largest in the United States. The firm also ranked 127th in profit per attorney on the 2007 Am Law 200 survey.

The post Wolf Block Groups Join Nelson Mullins first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

The attorneys include partners Dean Bunch and Andy Bertron, of counsels Melissa Fletcher Allaman and C. Everett Boyd, Jr., and associate Virginia L. Gulde. These attorneys represent most of the automobile manufacturers and importers doing business in Florida.

The group plans to remain at their current Tallahassee offices.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP is a large US law firm and lobbying group based in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2007, the National Law Journal ranked the firm the the largest in South Carolina and 111th largest in the United States. The firm also ranked 127th in profit per attorney on the 2007 AmLaw 200 survey.

The post Nelson Mullins Launches Florida Office first appeared on JDJournal Blog.