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  • May 13, 2009 |

    The Am Law 100: Losing their balance

    What has the world come to when Cravath Swaine & Moore has a terrible year? The firm that has served for decades as the touchstone for prestige in the profession last year suffered a 13% drop in revenue and a 24% plunge in profits per equity partner (PEP), and has asked incoming first-year associates to delay their start dates.

    1 minute read

  • May 13, 2009 |

    Law leaders: crunch won't cause legal revolution

    Law firm managers are not planning to make radical changes in the way they run their firms, despite client pressure in the wake of the financial crisis, according to new research. A survey of 208 law firm leaders conducted by management consultants Altman Weil canvassed opinion on how firms are dealing with strategy, growth, pricing, staffing and business development in light of the current economy. "Law firms are not doing anything dramatic and are not planning to do anything dramatic [in response to the economic downturn]," said Eric Seeger, an Altman Weil consultant and co-author of the survey, entitled Law Firms in Transition.

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2009 |

    Do bankruptcy lawyers bill illegally?

    In the past few weeks, we've all marvelled at the huge amounts Jones Day, Schulte Roth & Zabel, and Weil Gotshal & Manges have billed in the country's two most-watched Chapter 11 cases (Chrysler for Jones Day and Schulte Roth, Lehman Brothers for Weil Gotshal). But we have to admit we haven't stopped to ponder - are those fees illegal? According to a new study co-authored by UCLA bankruptcy law professor Lynn LoPucki, the answer might be yes. LoPucki and his co-author, fellow UCLA prof Joseph Doherty, essentially argue that bankruptcy judges allow lawyers to bill their debtor clients for months at a time before submitting those billing statements to the judge for approval. That goes against the federal bankruptcy code, the study argues, and it has allowed legal fees to increase faster than inflation rates. Judges in theory have the option of objecting to those bills and demanding law firms pay back some of the money, but "payments are harder to reverse than to prevent," the study says.

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2009 |

    Simpson Thacher recruits top CC partner Signy

    Clifford Chance (CC) corporate heavyweight Adam Signy has quit the City giant to join New York leader Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.The move is one of the most high profile partner appointments by a US firm in London for years and will be seen as highly significant.

    1 minute read

  • May 5, 2009 | International Edition

    Signy quits - not an earthquake but a definite fault line

    Adam Signy's departure from Clifford Chance (CC) may have been well-trailed in the Square Mile, but all the forewarning in the world is unlikely to have lessened the blow for CC. Adam Signy_CC_p17.jpgNot only was Signy generally considered to be the top name in the magic circle firm's public M&A practice, but his move marks the best corporate CV to hit a US firm's London office since Mike Francies joined Weil Gotshal & Manges way back in 1998. The fact that Signy (pictured) is CC born and raised - having spent some 22 years as a partner - only drums home the symbolism; particularly since the last time CC was in this position it managed to hold on to private equity duo James Baird and Matthew Layton, who came within a whisker of joining Weil Gotshal in 2004.

    1 minute read

  • May 5, 2009 |

    Signy quits - not an earthquake but a definite fault line

    Adam Signy's departure from Clifford Chance (CC) may have been well-trailed in the Square Mile, but all the forewarning in the world is unlikely to have lessened the blow for CC. Adam Signy_CC_p17.jpgNot only was Signy generally considered to be the top name in the magic circle firm's public M&A practice, but his move marks the best corporate CV to hit a US firm's London office since Mike Francies joined Weil Gotshal & Manges way back in 1998. The fact that Signy (pictured) is CC born and raised - having spent some 22 years as a partner - only drums home the symbolism; particularly since the last time CC was in this position it managed to hold on to private equity duo James Baird and Matthew Layton, who came within a whisker of joining Weil Gotshal in 2004.

    1 minute read

  • April 29, 2009 |

    Partners confident of improving business nous

    City lawyers' commercial awareness has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, according to a survey of senior partners, with three out of four respondents rating the profession's business nous as 'good' or 'excellent'.The latest Legal Week Big Question poll found 54% of respondents rated partners' commercial awareness at top 50 UK law firms as 'good', while 21% had it down as 'excellent'. A further 20% rated partners as 'OK' while only 5% viewed commercial knowledge as 'poor'.

    1 minute read

  • April 23, 2009 |

    Candover appoints first-ever GC with SRM hire

    Candover Investments has appointed Philip Price as its first-ever general counsel. Price joined the UK-listed parent company of private equity house Candover Partners at the end of February from hedge fund group SRM Global, to take up a new role as both general counsel and company secretary. He has replaced Candover's former company secretary Andrew Moberly who has resigned, with his post covering Candover's legal, compliance and company secretarial functions.

    1 minute read

  • April 15, 2009 |

    Weil bills $55m on Lehman as US earnings top $84m

    US legal fees and expenses for work on the Lehman Brothers collapse have already topped $84m (£56.5m), writes The Am Law Daily. Figures released in the US show that between 15 September 2008 and 31 January 2009, legal fees relating to the largest and most complicated Chapter 11 in US history totalled more than $84m.Weil Gotshal & Manges, Lehman's lead counsel, has taken the lion's share, so far billing the bank $55m (£36.9m) for 100,296.40 hours of work. Lead restructuring partner Harvey Miller has billed the most hours - 794.80, at a rate of $950 (£638) an hour. However, he is not the firm's highest biller, as exchange rates pushed the fees of Weil's London lawyers to more than $1,000 (£672) per hour. City head Mike Francies is the highest biller involved, spending nearly 78 hours on Lehman at a rate of $1,170 (£786) an hour. All told, 128 Weil partners and of counsel have spent 29,398 hours on the case.

    1 minute read

  • April 15, 2009 |

    Linklaters racks up £33m on Lehman bankruptcy

    Linklaters notched up more than £33m in fees for its first six months of work advising on the collapse of Lehman Brothers.A progress report from administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has revealed that the law firm billed PwC £33.5m for advice given between September 2008 and March this year.

    1 minute read