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  • June 25, 2008 |

    Making history with Obama

    The day after the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, Eric Holder Jr is working from Covington & Burling's elegant new Manhattan offices inside the year-old New York Times Building. He is there to prep Fernando Aguirre, the chief executive of Chiquita Brands International, for an interview with US news show 60 Minutes, which will be broadcasting a segment on the company's past involvement with Colombian right-wing paramilitary forces. Last March, Holder helped Chiquita secure a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal to charges that it had paid off the terrorists.But before the Aguirre meeting, Holder has to place a call to Warren Ballentine, a nationally-syndicated African-American radio talkshow host, who wants to discuss last night's primary results.

    1 minute read

  • June 20, 2008 |

    Ex-Bear Stearns GC resurfaces at lender WaMu

    US lending giant Washington Mutual (WaMu) has hired the former general counsel (GC) of stricken investment bank Bear Stearns. It named Michael Solender as its executive vice president and chief legal officer earlier this month (4 June). Solender will take on responsibility for overseeing the company's legal, compliance and government relations functions, reporting to chief executive Kerry Killinger. He also becomes a member of the group's executive committee.

    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 16, 2008 |

    K&L Gates hires Bear Stearns NY legal chief

    Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis has moved to beef up its Manhattan financial services practice with the hire of the former managing director of Bear Stearns' legal arm in New York. Phillip Cedar joins the New York arm of K&L Gates as a partner from the legal department of the stricken investment bank, where he was in charge of a team of 20 lawyers. Cedar's practice focuses on securities and mortgage litigation and investigations.

    1 minute read

  • June 12, 2008 |

    Sullivan in for InBev on $47bn Anheuser-Busch bid

    Sullivan & Cromwell has scooped a starring role on one of the year's largest deals so far, advising drinks giant InBev on its approach for market rival Anheuser-Busch. Sullivan is acting for InBev on the unsolicited bid, which values the target at $47bn (£23.6bn) and would unite two of the world's four largest brewers.

    1 minute read

  • June 12, 2008 |

    Editor's Comment: When you're 54

    Not many lawyers in the UK can walk into a senior executive position with a major multinational after a career in private practice. Tony Angel, the new head of Standard & Poor's Europe, Middle East and Afrrica (EMEA) business, has always been something of an exception. However, as Linklaters' former managing partner prepares to take up his new role later this month, several City firms are looking at how best to help their partners prepare for a life outside of the law. Most want more options than simply retiring in their early 50s and spending the next 30 years hacking their way around a golf course.

    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 |

    The Am Law 100: The sky's the limit

    In 2015 - the year that New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez will surpass 762 home runs and break the Major League record - Latham & Watkins and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom will both gross more than $5bn (£2.56bn), Baker & McKenzie will have more than 6,600 lawyers and the lucky partners at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz will bring home about $7.7m (£3.95m) each - a handsome sum, but one that will itself be dwarfed by the $15.7m (£8.05m) Wachtell partners will average in 2025. Or maybe not.

    1 minute read

  • June 4, 2008 |

    Hot topic

    Kenneth Berlin and his team at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have been working on climate-related matters for years. He headed the Justice Department's Environmental and Natural Resources Division, chaired the Environmental Law Institute and has shepherded a mountain of environmental litigation for major corporations. Skadden had not needed a climate change group before: it simply tapped environmental, energy regulatory, intellectual property and tax lawyers to help out when the need arose. Partners at the US's highest-grossing law firm have, however, changed their minds: this month, they were scheduled to launch a 23-lawyer group specifically devoted to climate change issues.

    1 minute read

  • June 2, 2008 |

    US leaders join China quake aid effort

    A clutch of leading US law firms have opened their wallets to help China's recent earthquake victims, writes The American Lawyer, including a number of firms with active China practices. Firms to have contributed to various relief organisations working to aid the Chinese include New York's Dewey & LeBouef and Sullivan & Cromwell; West Coast outfits Heller Ehrman, Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe; and the Chicago pair of Kirkland & Ellis and McDermott Will & Emery.

    1 minute read