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  • July 3, 2008 |

    Dewey ups pay - but Bakers and O'Melveny stick

    Dewey & LeBoeuf, O'Melveny & Myers and Baker & McKenzie have unveiled their associate salaries for the coming year, as some of the first mid-Atlantic firms reveal their new rates. Newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers at Dewey & LeBoeuf will now earn £80,000 after the firm's first salary hike post-merger, representing an increase of around £5,000 on the previous salaries paid at both legacy firms.

    1 minute read

  • July 3, 2008 |

    Survey: GCs cut back on outside counsel

    In the latest sign of an ever-tightening legal market, a new survey shows that more chief legal officers are planning to decrease their reliance on outside counsel and increase their in-house headcount in the coming year. Chief legal officers from 126 companies responded to the survey, which was carried out over the last two months by US consultancy Altman Weil. Of these, nearly half came from companies with revenues of between $2bn (£1bn) and $10bn (£5bn).

    1 minute read

  • June 27, 2008 |

    US Briefing: Goodwin ups ante with Latham lateral

    Goodwin Procter has built a buzz in California by hiring from notable law firms like Morrison & Foerster, Munger Tolles & Olson and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. On Monday (23 June), the firm upped the ante, adding a Latham & Watkins corporate partner to its trophy case. Bradley Bugdanowitz became the ninth partner in Goodwin's San Francisco office, bringing the firm from zero to 90 total attorneys in California in just two years.

    1 minute read

  • June 26, 2008 |

    O'Melveny relocates global M&A head to City corporate

    O'Melveny & Myers has moved to rebuild its London corporate team with the relocation of the firm's worldwide M&A head to the City. Greg Gilbert will move to London from New York after the summer, although his moving date is still to be decided. His relocation will take the number of corporate lawyers in O'Melveny in London to four partners and around 16 associates.

    1 minute read

  • June 25, 2008 |

    Dealmaker: Ian Hamilton

    Weil Gotshal M&A partner Ian Hamilton on a memorable worst day on the job and being the butt of Cooke and Compagnoni's jokes

    1 minute read

  • June 18, 2008 |

    Insolvency teams getting restless as predicted bankruptcies fail to appear

    Let us hark back to the end of 2006 - the Dow is soaring, credit is flowing freely, and default rates are at historic lows. Far from cursing its luck, the corporate restructuring group at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is running at full tilt. Partners juggle at least four multibillion-dollar bankruptcies between them, including Delphi and Refco, requiring them to deploy battalions of lawyers simultaneously in several states. Over 14 months, Refco alone had 20 partners billing more than 200 hours and generating $43m (£21.9m) in fees for the firm.Eighteen months later, the economy is in the tank, business bankruptcies are up nearly 50%, and Skadden's bankruptcy lawyers are talking about the good old days. "We have been lucky enough to generate some smaller matters," says partner DJ Baker. "But you cannot just replace a Refco or a Winn-Dixie with a couple of smaller cases in terms of keeping people busy."

    1 minute read

  • June 11, 2008 |

    The Am Law 100: Goodbye golden age?

    It was fun while it lasted. In 2007, The Am Law 100 - the top-grossing law firms in the US - finished the best sustained growth spurt since The American Lawyer began tracking firm financials in 1984. For the first time, the firms showed five consecutive years of better-than-average growth in both revenue per lawyer (RPL), the key measure of law firm financial success, and profits per equity partner (PEP), the metric that has turned law firm managers into contortionists. How good was this run? Since 2003, average RPL has increased by $205,000 (£105,000). Before that, it took the firms 10 years - from 1992 to 2002 - to improve that much. The relative gain in profits was even more impressive. Since 2003, PEP has jumped by $438,000 (£224,000), to an average of $1.3m (£665,000). It took the Am Law 100 firms 15 years - from 1987 to 2002 - to make a similar gain.

    1 minute read

  • June 11, 2008 |

    Cads names ex-Weil man as restructuring co-chair

    Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has appointed Deryck Palmer as the new co-chair of its key financial restructuring practice. He joins Bruce Zirinsky in managing the 65-lawyer team. Palmer joined Cadalader in 2007 as part of a heavyweight four-partner team to switch from the business finance and restructuring department of rival New York firm Weil Gotshal & Manges. Fellow partners George Davis, John Rapisardi and Andrew Troop comprised the rest of the team.

    1 minute read

  • June 6, 2008 |

    Weil Gotshal to open in Beijing

    Weil Gotshal & Manges has continued its emerging markets push after confirming that it has received a license to practise in Beijing. Steve Xiang - who heads up the New York law firm's China practice and is currently based in Shanghai - will lead the new office, which will focus initially on M&A and private equity work.

    1 minute read

  • June 6, 2008 |

    US Briefing: Making history with Obama

    As an avid student of modern US history, Covington & Burling partner Eric Holder Jr is well aware that he has been a groundbreaker. He was the first black US Attorney for the District of Columbia and later the first black deputy attorney general. Now some are wondering whether Holder - the campaign co-chair for Barack Obama and an individual with an acute sense of his duty to serve - could become the first African-American attorney general.

    1 minute read