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  • September 17, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 17/09/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day's posts; and more

    1 minute read

  • September 16, 2008 |

    15 partners quit Heller as Mayer Brown talks end

    At least 15 intellectual property (IP) partners are leaving Heller Ehrman to join US rival Covington & Burlington, as merger talks between Heller and Mayer Brown reach a conclusion, reports The Recorder. The end of the talks was announced in an email to the partnership from Mayer Brown chairman James Holzhauer on Monday morning, in which he praised Heller as a firm.News of the 15 partners leaving Heller had come in over the weekend and into Monday, according to one source who would not elaborate on whether the announcements precipitated the end of the merger talks or vice versa.

    1 minute read

  • September 16, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 16/09/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day's posts; and more

    1 minute read

  • September 10, 2008 |

    Enron firms land record $688m class action payout

    A US district court judge has approved an award of $688m (£391m) in legal fees - the largest award in class action history - to plaintiffs lawyers that obtained $7.2bn (£4.1bn) for former Enron shareholders, reports The Am Law Daily. Judge Melinda Harmon ruled on Monday (8 September) that class counsel should receive 9.52% of the total recovery, including interest. As counsel to the suit's lead plaintiff, the Regents of the University of California, San Diego firm Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins is poised to pocket a substantial amount of the record legal fees.Judge Harmon called the $688m award no 'windfall,' but a "reasonable fee earned by an extraordinary group of lawyers who achieved the largest settlement fund ever despite the great odds against them."

    1 minute read

  • September 9, 2008 |

    Proskauer secures Asia launch with Heller China team

    Proskauer Rose has secured its long-awaited Asia launch after hiring a two-partner team in Beijing from Heller Ehrman, including chief representative partner Joseph Cha, Legal Week can reveal. The departing office head is joined by partner Ying Li and one associate from the top 50 US law firm's new office. The New York-based Proskauer Rose has previously expressed interest in launching in Asia but does not yet have offices in the region.Following the loss, Heller's Beijing office has only one partner - dispute resolution specialist Ing Loong Yang, who shares his time between Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore - plus two associates and three legal consultants.

    1 minute read

  • September 4, 2008 |

    Jones Day boosts City litigation with Mayer Brown double hire

    Jones Day is set to significantly bolster its London litigation offering with a double partner hire from Anglo American rival Mayer Brown. Stephen Brown and Michael Brown are set to join the firm later this month, with associate Sarah Cawthra also joining from Mayer Brown. Both Stephen and Michael were partners at Mayer Brown, with Stephen focusing on corporate litigation in the energy, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector and Michael specialising in banking and finance litigation.

    1 minute read

  • September 4, 2008 |

    Heller eyes Mayer Brown deal after Baker Mac talks collapse

    Just two weeks after merger talks between Baker & McKenzie and Heller Ehrman broke down over conflicts issues, Heller has entered into talks with Mayer Brown. News of the discussions was broken by Legal Week's sister title The American Lawyer last week, with sources close to both firms revealing that California-based Heller is aggressively pursuing other merger options, of which the most promising is a combination with Chicago-based Mayer Brown. Both firms have declined to comment on the claims but the talks are understood to represent a second effort to combine the two firms.

    1 minute read

  • September 4, 2008 |

    A&O closes in on Sao Paulo launch as elite law firms pile into Latin America

    CC drafts in senior lawyers to Brazil, DLA Piper mulls LatAm launch and A&O gears up for Sao Paulo debut.Allen & Overy (A&O) is set to launch its first Latin American office within weeks, it has emerged, as growing numbers of international law firms look to make their mark in the region.

    1 minute read

  • September 3, 2008 |

    Insurer Ace lines up City firms for panel roster

    A raft of City firms have been appointed onto the legal panel of insurer Ace European Group. Clyde & Co, Norton Rose, Mayer Brown, Holman Fenwick & Willan and CMS Cameron McKenna have all been appointed external counsel to the company. The firms will advise on non-claims related work. The firms will also work across sub-panels including real estate, corporate and regulatory work.

    1 minute read

  • September 3, 2008 |

    The single solution

    On a crisp sunny day in late March, fee earners from 39 law firms gathered at the corporate headquarters of pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer, a nondescript office building a couple of blocks east of Grand Central Station in New York. The collective mood was cheerful. After all, each of the firms still had a piece of Pfizer's US litigation work. Two years earlier, the company had dumped 80% of its hundreds of outside counsel in a convergence project called P3 - the Pfizer Partnering Programme. Now, representatives from the survivors had been convened to receive an update.There was nothing surprising in what the first speaker, Sandra Phillips, head of the company's product litigation group, had to say. But the second speaker had some unexpected news to deliver. Margaret Madden (pictured right), head of Pfizer's employment law group, explained how her staff had slashed its roster of 50 outside law firms in the first phase of P3 to 10. A quick look around the room, however, revealed that just one of those employment firms was present. What happened to the other nine?

    1 minute read