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Business of Law

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    5 Financial Landmines Young Attorneys Should Avoid

    Junior associates riding high on their new BigLaw paychecks may be tempted to spend money now and think about the future later, but doing so could set them up for major financial hardship down the road. Here, five big money mistakes to avoid as a young attorney.

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    How To Foster An Innovative Law Firm Environment

    Large law firms are often slow to embrace change and lawyers are notoriously risk-averse, but with the right measures in place firms can create an environment where innovation can flourish. Here are four ways law firms can further groundbreaking ideas.

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    The 5 Traits CLOs Will Seek In Their Next In-House Hires

    Leaders of corporate legal departments looking to select their next in-house attorneys, either to replace outgoing lawyers or expand their staffs, are prioritizing certain professional skills above others. Here, experts shared the characteristics that could boost lawyers' resumes when applying for in-house roles this year.

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    ABA To Cut Staff And Restructure Amid Membership Slump

    Layoffs have hit the American Bar Association following years of declining membership rates, with approximately 4 percent of its workforce expected to get a pink slip or accept a voluntary buyout by mid-April as major organizational changes are implemented.

  • April 18, 2018

    Judge's Killer Must Die, 11th Circuit Rules

    The Eleventh Circuit Wednesday agreed with a lower court’s decision to uphold the execution, scheduled for Thursday, of pipe bomber Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who killed an Eleventh Circuit judge in 1989, while disagreeing with the lower court’s reasoning.

  • April 18, 2018

    Cohen, Feds Name Special Master Picks To Audit Seized Docs

    President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen and federal prosecutors both submitted candidates for a possible "special master" to review materials the FBI seized from Cohen, with the government suggesting three retired magistrate judges and Cohen naming four former federal prosecutors, including a former top SEC enforcer.

  • April 18, 2018

    EXCLUSIVE: Riley Safer Elects First Black Female MP

    Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP has elected its first African-American female managing partner, potentially marking a racial barrier-breaking first for the industry, Law360 has learned exclusively.

  • April 18, 2018

    El Paso Appellate Backlog Prompts Case Transfers

    The Texas Supreme Court took a first-of-its-kind step last week, transferring more than 80 fully briefed cases away from the Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso — some that have been pending for more than two years — as the court works to clear a backlog.

  • April 18, 2018

    Let Judge See Mediator’s Notes, Proskauer Atty Tells 2nd Circ.

    An attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP who anonymously accused the firm of gender discrimination told the Second Circuit on Wednesday a lower judge was wrong to reject her request for a mediator's notes that she believes prove her claim the firm threatened to fire her, saying the judge should determine if they're relevant.

  • April 18, 2018

    Client Push Gets More Firms Into The Labor Lobbying Game

    Many employers now demand the opportunity to shape laws and regulations as they’re being written rather than simply scrambling to comply after the fact, a desire that has led to an explosion of competition among large law firms to set up and grow labor and employment lobbying shops.

  • April 17, 2018

    Denton Partner Charged In Fatal Hit-And-Run In Canada

    A Dentons partner in Edmonton, Alberta, charged with impaired driving and being involved in a hit-and-run collision that killed a teenage pedestrian, has been suspended, the global law firm said Tuesday.

  • April 17, 2018

    Ex-Liddle Partner Hammers Firm In $32M Equal Pay Suit

    A former Liddle & Robinson LLP partner has sued the employment firm in New York state court alleging she was paid less than her male peers for equal work based on her gender, issuing a summons Monday that requested $32.3 million in damages.

  • April 17, 2018

    Ex-BigLaw Atty Blasts Murder Charges At Trial's Close

    Counsel for a former Fisher & Phillips LLP partner who fatally shot his wife told an Atlanta jury during closing arguments that prosecutors were trying to support murder charges with “speculation and red herrings,” while the prosecution fired back with a theatrical argument that the attorney consistently lied about the facts.

  • April 17, 2018

    Ex-Judge Calls On Men To Help Close Litigation Gender Gap

    Retired U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin told an audience at a Reed Smith LLP symposium on gender diversity in the courtroom on Tuesday that she hoped to see more senior male attorneys acting as allies to help younger, female lawyers more regularly take on prominent roles in litigation.

  • April 17, 2018

    Attys Must Admit Some Errors To Current Clients, ABA Says

    Lawyers have an ethical duty to tell current clients if they discover they have made a potentially significant mistake in the course of the representation, but the obligation does not extend to former clients, the American Bar Association said on Tuesday.

  • April 16, 2018

    Dropping Ranks: Andrews Kurth’s Pre-Merger Dip

    Andrews Kurth Kenyon saw a more than 12 percent drop in headcount in the year before its February merger with Hunton & Williams — a story experts expect to become familiar for regional firms in Texas.

  • April 16, 2018

    Why BigLaw’s Partnerships Are Shrinking

    BigLaw’s brass ring has grown more elusive in recent years, Law360 data shows, and experts say a number of potentially market-changing forces may be at work.

  • April 16, 2018

    Dropping Ranks: Lathrop’s Rough Patch

    Lathrop Gage lost more than 15 percent of its attorneys in 2017. Can a new managing partner help bolster its headcount?

  • April 16, 2018

    Dropping Ranks: Stroock’s ‘Shrink To Grow’ Strategy

    De-equitized partners. Contracting offices. Declining headcount. The leaders of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan say it’s all part of the plan — a plan that’s already paying dividends.

  • April 16, 2018

    SEC Reaches Deal With Exec Convicted In Dewey Fraud

    Former Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP Chief Financial Officer Joel Sanders, who was convicted of fraud, reached an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that bars him from serving as a public company official and allows for a future disgorgement order or fine, according to a Monday court filing.

  • April 16, 2018

    Cohen, Trump Can't Get Block Of Fed. Review Of Seized Docs

    A New York federal judge on Monday refused calls from President Donald Trump and his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for an order blocking federal prosecutors from looking through a trove of materials seized in raids on Cohen’s office and home.

  • April 16, 2018

    Gorsuch Taps 1st Ever Native American Supreme Court Clerk

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has chosen a member of the Chickasaw tribe in Oklahoma to clerk for him this coming year, marking the first time a Native American tribal member has served as a clerk on the nation's highest court, it was announced on Friday.

  • April 16, 2018

    Gingrich Leaving Dentons, 'In Discussions' With Other Firms

    Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is on the hunt for a new law firm, announcing on Monday that he plans to leave Dentons after spending three years as a senior adviser in the global law firm's public policy and regulation practice.

  • April 16, 2018

    15 Minutes With FactSet’s General Counsel

    Rachel Stern started working as the first lawyer at the Connecticut-based data and software company FactSet Research Systems Inc. in January 2001. Since then, her role has expanded to include several nonlegal responsibilities. She recently shared with Law360 why it's not sufficient for firms to present a pitch with three white men and one junior woman of color, and why it's important to embrace the European Union's upcoming General Data Protection Regulation.

Expert Analysis

  • Best Practices For Building A Better Meeting

    Nicholas Cheolas

    How can we improve meetings in the legal industry, which tends to evolve with the speed of a tranquilized water buffalo mired in quicksand? Breaking it down to three phases can yield significant benefits, says Nicholas Cheolas of Zelle LLP.

  • Guest Feature

    Michael Rubinoff: From Commercial Real Estate To Broadway

    Randy Maniloff

    “Come From Away” sounds like the stuff of a documentary on the Discovery Channel, not singing and dancing on stage. How could a musical tied to the 9/11 terrorist attacks ever get made — and by a real estate lawyer? The show’s producer, Michael Rubinoff, was kind enough to find 30 minutes to tell me, says Randy Maniloff.

  • 5 Ways Law Firms Are Becoming More Like Hotels

    Bella Schiro

    One way law firms differentiate themselves from the competition to attract and retain top talent is through their real estate and workplace strategies. Taking a lead from the hospitality industry can help create a more inviting, welcoming and collaborative workspace environment, says Bella Schiro of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

  • Opinion

    Gorsuch's 1st Year Shows He Is A Conservative Activist

    Elliot Mincberg

    In his first year on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch has proven to be a narrow-minded elitist who consistently votes in favor of corporations and the powerful, acting to roll back protections for workers, consumers, LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized communities, says Elliot Mincberg of People for the American Way.

  • Opinion

    There Is Middle Ground For US Lawyers On AML Regimes

    Matthew O'Hara

    The American Bar Association continues to oppose legislation that would impose certain European Union and U.K. anti-money laundering requirements on U.S. lawyers. The ABA should further consider its approach to this issue as there is a viable middle ground that protects privileged communications and confidential information while advancing the interests of the legal profession, says Matthew O’Hara of Freeborn & Peters LLP.

  • Finance-Savvy Millennials Are Shifting Business Of Law

    Michael Perlich

    The impact of millennials has already been felt within the legal community by our eagerness to embrace new technologies. One way that we will have potentially even more impact lies in our willingness to embrace new ways of developing business and financing law, says Michael Perich of Burford Capital LLC.

  • Opinion

    Attorney-Client Privilege Is Alive And Well

    Genie Harrison

    The FBI raid of the office of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer set off a firestorm of controversy about the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege, epitomized by Trump's tweet that the "privilege is dead." But attorney-client privilege is never taken lightly — I have battle scars from the times I have sought crime-fraud exceptions, says Genie Harrison of the Genie Harrison Law Firm.

  • Roundup

    Dissolving Practice

    Dissolving Practice

    In this series, experts discuss the unique aspects of closing a law firm, and some common symptoms of dysfunctionality in a firm that can be repaired before it's too late.

  • Series

    Dissolving Practice: How To Fix A Dysfunctional Law Firm

    Larry Richard

    I am often asked, “When there are one or more partner departures, what can a firm do to prevent this from escalating to a catastrophic level?” The short answer is “nothing.” Law firms need to adopt culture-strengthening lifestyles to prevent defections from occurring in the first place, says Larry Richard of LawyerBrain LLC.

  • Series

    Dissolving Practice: Partner Agreement Clauses That Can Help

    ​​​​​Leslie Corwin

    Given the competing public policies of protecting clients’ right to counsel of their choice, lawyer mobility, and the fiduciary duty partners owe to a dissolved firm, it behooves law firms to carefully review their partnership agreements to make sure they adequately spell out what happens in the unfortunate event that the law firm chooses to wind down, say ​​​​​Leslie Corwin and Rachel Sims of Blank Rome LLP.