Lawyer - News

A local bar association's victory in court this week should be welcome news for all 270 of California's voluntary bar associations. In a suit involving a disbarred lawyer trying to get his mediation business off the ground, a state appeals court unanimously held that such groups don't violate the state's Unfair Competition Law if they reject requests to buy their membership mailing lists. And that's true, the court said, even if the associations simply want to protect some of their members from price competition. No comments

Beth Baldwin, an assistant state disciplinary counsel in Connecticut, says there's increased demand for trustees -- lawyers who volunteer to assist clients, refer cases and clean up files when another lawyer has died or can no longer maintain a practice. "People are working longer and doing things on a smaller scale and once they're gone there's no one there to pick up the pieces," she says. Trustee work requires a significant amount of commitment, but volunteers also find it rewarding to help other lawyers. No comments

Turning 50 has triggered some reflection by consultant Frank Michael D'Amore on what he's learned in 25-plus years in the legal profession. He discusses four important lessons that can help lawyers in both their professional and personal lives, including, "Don't hold happiness hostage." No comments

Lateral partner hiring by U.S. firms in London fell to its lowest level since 2004 last year, according to new research from Legal Week. A survey of hiring trends at the London operations of 37 of the biggest U.S. and trans-Atlantic firms found there were just 59 lateral partner moves in 2009, with many firms shying away from expansion against the backdrop of the global recession. Greenberg Traurig Maher, which launched in London in June 2009, was responsible for a quarter of those hires. No comments

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become the first leading U.K. law firm to announce its associate salary rates for 2010, with the firm lifting the freeze on associate lockstep it put in place last year. The Magic Circle firm, which also led the market last year when it froze both pay levels and lawyers' progression through them, told staff Thursday that the freeze would be lifted at the start of the new financial year. No comments

Federal prosecutors are beefing up their case against Web radio talk show host Harold "Hal" Turner, charged with encouraging listeners to murder three federal appellate judges. In Turner's retrial, which starts next week in New York, prosecutors plan to call those judges to the stand. Turner was indicted after he posted Internet messages that said the judges "deserve to be killed" for allowing a Chicago handgun ban to stand. Turner has argued that he's just a shock jock exercising his First Amendment rights. No comments

Lateral partner hiring by U.S. firms in London fell to its lowest level since 2004 last year, according to new research from Legal Week. A survey of hiring trends at the London operations of 37 of the biggest U.S. and trans-Atlantic firms found there were just 59 lateral partner moves in 2009, with many firms shying away from expansion against the backdrop of the global recession. Greenberg Traurig Maher, which launched in London in June 2009, was responsible for a quarter of those hires. No comments

Anti-corruption enforcement is bulking up. Already the acknowledged leader in global enforcement, the Department of Justice unit that prosecutes Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases will soon grow "substantially," according to the lawyer who runs it. Mark Mendelsohn, deputy chief of the fraud section's criminal division, said his section "may grow as much as 50 percent in size in the next year or two." At the same time, he added, he expects companies to play an increasingly aggressive role in thwarting corruption. No comments

When he was in private practice at Hogan Hartson, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. did not handle veterans' benefits claims. So, during oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Monday in Astrue v. Ratliff, an attorney fee case under the Equal Access to Justice Act, Roberts understandably found "startling" information with which lawyers for veterans are only too familiar: In litigating with veterans, the government more often than not takes a position that is substantially unjustified. No comments

Crowell Moring had a banner year in 2009. Gross revenue jumped 14.5 percent, climbing from $296 million to $339 million. Revenue per lawyer increased by 9 percent to $809,231. Kent Gardiner, the firm's chairman, attributed the surge in revenue to strong litigation, antitrust and government contracts practices. He also credited greater use of alternative billing arrangements with helping the firm bring in new clients and receive additional business from existing clients. No comments