Legal Industry RSS

  • April 16, 2014

    4 Reasons Law Firms Should Promote More Partners

    While law firms have become much tougher on who they elevate to their partner ranks in recent years, experts say that firms seeking to grow their presence in a certain geographic region or fortunate enough to find themselves with associates ready to be self-sufficient business generators should start offering promotions, lest they lose valuable talent to competitors.

  • April 16, 2014

    Female Powerbrokers Q&A: Holland & Knight's Laurie Daniel

    Fifteen years ago, I was the first equity partner at my firm to take maternity leave. Our managing partner wanted to accommodate, but I soon realized that I had to continue speaking out to make sure that my future compensation would not be pegged to productivity levels during the year of my daughter's birth, says Laurie Daniel, chairwoman of Holland & Knight LLP's appellate team.

  • April 16, 2014

    Female Powerbrokers Q&A: Williams & Connolly's Hubbard

    One time, opposing counsel suggested we “go away together to a romantic B&B to negotiate the settlement.” I was not sure whether/when/how to break it to him that his suggestion was unlikely to increase his settlement value, says Heidi Hubbard, chairwoman of Williams & Connolly LLP's product liability practice group.

  • April 15, 2014

    Brown Rudnick's Revoked Offers Likely To Catch On

    Law firms struggling with dwindling profits may follow Brown Rudnick LLP's lead and return to the recession-era cost-cutting play of rescinding associate job offers, experts say.

  • April 15, 2014

    Cos. With 1 Class Action Manager Save Big, Report Says

    More companies are tasking a single in-house lawyer to handle class actions, and that move has resulted in big cost savings, according to a survey released Tuesday by Carlton Fields Jorden Burt PA.

  • April 15, 2014

    5 Surefire Ways To Get On A Judge's Bad Side

    If you prick a judge, does he not bleed? If you tickle him, does he not laugh? Judges are real people who feel real emotions. One of those emotions is anger. Here, Law360 looks at five surefire ways to make a judge feel it.

  • April 15, 2014

    5 NY Trial Judges Moving Up To Appellate Courts

    Five New York trial court judges, including veteran Dreyer Boyajian LLP, Girvin & Ferlazzo PC, Lynch & Lynch lawyers and veteran prosecutors, are on their way to the state's appellate division after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced their appointments on Tuesday.

  • April 15, 2014

    Female Powerbrokers Q&A: BakerHostetler's Pennington

    When I was being considered for managing partner in my office — at a time no other law firm in all of Texas had a sole female managing partner — one female partner told me she didn’t want me to be selected because if I failed, it would reflect poorly on all the other women partners, says Lisa Pennington, managing partner of BakerHostetler's Houston office.

  • April 15, 2014

    Female Powerbrokers Q&A: Veenker Law's Vicki Veenker

    Not having female peers is a challenge — my summer associate class was 10 men and me, I was the only woman partner on the West Coast at Fish & Neave, I was the only woman present at my first Shearman & Sterling worldwide litigation partners meeting, and in my IP practice, I am often the only woman in client meetings, says Vicki Veenker, founder of Veenker Law Offices.

  • April 14, 2014

    Cos. Rely On Larger Litigation Teams Amid Big-Money Suits

    More corporations are employing large litigation teams in response to increasingly high-stakes lawsuits, according to a survey released Tuesday.

  • April 14, 2014

    Social Media A Big Headache For More GCs

    Social media has become a headache for more general counsel, with one in five companies saying they had to preserve data from an employee's social media account in 2013.  

  • April 14, 2014

    You Should Fear The Regulator, GCs Say

    Corporations devoted more time and money to fighting regulatory challenges in 2013, a trend that general counsel say shows no sign of slowing.

  • April 14, 2014

    Firms Cash In On Internal Investigations

    In the face of increased government scrutiny and regulatory crackdowns, more and more U.S. companies are launching internal investigations that rely on the help of outside counsel, according to a litigation trends survey released Tuesday.

  • April 14, 2014

    Corporate GCs Spreading The Litigation Love

    A moderate but growing number of corporate departments are increasing the number of outside law firms they call upon to handle their legal challenges, a trend fueled by smaller companies looking to beef up their legal ranks, says a Norton Rose Fulbright survey released Tuesday.

  • April 14, 2014

    Alternative Fee Use Rebounds As GCs Seek Stability

    The use of alternative fee deals bounced back last year after a dip in 2012, according to an in-house counsel survey released Tuesday, as corporate clients look for budget predictability and firms willing to share in their financial risks.

  • April 14, 2014

    Litigation Stays Steady But Firms' Costs Keep Rising

    The number of lawsuits companies faced in 2013 remained relatively unchanged compared with prior years, but the potential financial impact of those cases and the cost of defending them have risen, with health care and energy companies appearing particularly vulnerable, according to a new litigation survey released Tuesday.

  • April 14, 2014

    Advisory Panel OKs Higher Bar For E-Discovery Sanctions

    An advisory panel agreed Friday to amend civil procedure rules to require parties seeking sanctions over lost electronic documents to show the documents were destroyed to be withheld from litigation, setting a higher bar that attorneys say could curb devastating product liability verdicts like the recent $6 billion award against Takeda Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

  • April 14, 2014

    Legions Of Lawyers May Soon Be Free From NY Office Rule

    Tens of thousands of New York-admitted, nonresident lawyers could soon be relieved of a Civil War-era requirement to keep an office inside the state if a skeptical federal appeals court prevails on top state judges to relax rules that experts say dissuade many attorneys in nearby states from taking Empire State clients.

  • April 14, 2014

    Nixon Peabody, Fitzpatrick Cella Announce Layoffs

    Dozens of Nixon Peabody LLP staffers have been hit with layoffs, the firm confirmed Monday, at the same time that Fitzpatrick Cella Harper & Scinto announced it had made cuts to its associate ranks.

  • April 14, 2014

    Brown Rudnick Pulls Associate Job Offers

    Boston-based Brown Rudnick LLP on Monday pulled out of job offers it made to nearly half of its incoming associate class, a move that echoed the post-financial crisis years.