Posts on ‘December 4th, 2008’

Former White & Case partner Raymond Sullivan Jr. has joined Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, where he leads a global customs practice. As to why he switched firms, Sullivan said: “The reason was really to move my practice, in these tougher economic times, to a firm that has a friendlier rate structure for my clients,” explaining that the lower billing rates at Baker Donelson will potentially translate into a broader client base.

In the 30th anniversary year of the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the “second generation of pregnancy discrimination” has arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court, say some civil rights and women’s rights lawyers. The four women at the center of entered the work force and took maternity leaves before the PDA was enacted. The case, which will be argued on Dec. 10, could affect thousands of female workers, retired or about to retire, as well as company pension plans.

K&L Gates and Chicago’s Bell, Boyd & Lloyd announced Thursday they are discussing a possible merger. The merger — if approved, it’s expected to occur in the first three months of 2009 — would create a 2,000-lawyer firm with 30 offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The move continues K&L Gates’ expansion push, coming a little more than five months after the firm’s merger with Charlotte, N.C.’s Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman.

Given that much of today’s economic turmoil is the product of a crisis of confidence, future reforms likely will address a lack of confidence in America’s corporate boardrooms. While it is impossible to predict what regulatory fruit the crisis will bear, there are corporate governance principles that public and private boards of directors should apply as prudent practices even before a new administration and Congress move to Washington, say attorneys David B. Gail, Mary R. Korby and Michael A. Saslaw.

To avoid electronic billing woes that can plague law firms, Choate Hall & Stewart sought a system that would automate bill creation, upload bills to clients’ e-billing apps and allow invoice tracking. The firm chose software as a service eBillingHub — with interesting results.

A shift may be coming in the way associate bonuses are structured, as firms use the economic downturn as a reason to overhaul associate compensation packages. Leaders at several firms say that while bonus structures aren’t changing this year, models for next year may be more closely examined. Meanwhile, in the short term some firms are predicting reductions. K&L Gates managing partner Peter Kalis said he wouldn’t be surprised if, across the country, bonuses were “more subdued” than they have been.

What will next year look like at the biggest law firms? For the first time since began surveying firm leaders in 2003, their answer is: We’re not sure. More than half the respondents reported feeling uncertain about the year ahead, up from a quarter a year ago. Managing partners are projecting lower profit gains and fairly stagnant deal flow. Still, one aspect of firm management may never change: Ninety-eight percent of respondents said their billing rates will be higher next year.

Although the layoffs announced Wednesday by Reed Smith — including 115 U.S. staff positions and an anticipated 11 U.K. associates — represent less than 4 percent of the firm’s work force, they look to be the largest one-time staff cut of any firm nationally since the economic downturn began this year. Global managing partner Gregory Jordan said he does not expect any more staff cuts, and that he does not anticipate any attorney layoffs in the United States.

Judges often feel constrained by federal sentencing guidelines. But this fall a federal district court judge in Brooklyn came up with a different way of determining punishment — by looking at sentences in comparable cases. Judge Frederic Block decided that the length of a sentence should be proportionate to the amount of losses caused by a crime. The result was that Block sentenced Lennox Parris and Lester Parris to five years in jail each. The government had been asking for 30-years-to-life.

W.R. Grace & Co. has agreed to pay up to $140 million to settle a class action lawsuit stemming from its use of an attic-insulating product that contained asbestos. The payouts stem from the specialty chemical maker company’s sale of Zonolite attic insulation, a loose-fill vermiculite product that can contain naturally occurring asbestos. Zonolite was installed in millions of homes throughout the U.S. and Canada.