Posts on ‘December 5th, 2008’

Sometime in the next decade, an economic historian will write the definitive account of the 2008 credit crisis. The extent to which there was a regulatory failure is a critical issue that such a history must face. Indeed, this issue is sufficiently pressing that even at this early point it needs to be addressed. What responsibility does the SEC bear for not resisting the steady slide of the major investment banks into insolvency? Law professor John C. Coffee Jr. examines the issue.

Why are so many lawyers atwitter over Twitter? Attorney Robert J. Ambrogi wondered what value there could be in a microblogging tool that limits each post to 140 characters, so Ambrogi strapped on wings and gave it a try. Now Twitter has a new songbird ready to sing its praises.

Levenfeld Pearlstein, a 75-lawyer Chicago firm that targets middle-market clients, won’t raise its billing rates for services next year after learning that 2009 corporate legal budgets will be under pressure. And Pepe & Hazard, a Connecticut-based firm with about 60 lawyers, has announced a rate freeze for existing clients as a way of shouldering some of the burden that the current economic environment has put on clients.

A litigator with New York-based Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison was murdered in Philadelphia by a man stalking his girlfriend, a former Ivy League student moonlighting as a dominatrix. The circumstances surrounding the murder were recounted in tawdry detail in a tabloid cover story, which noted that the lawyer maintained a “secret leather-loving lifestyle.” So what’s a law firm to do when a scandal-tinged tragedy drags the firm’s name into the spotlight?

Birmingham, Ala.’s Bradley Arant and Nashville’s Boult Cummings have voted to merge. At more than 350 lawyers, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings will be one of the largest firms in the region. Bradley Arant is well regarded nationally, having stepped in for Skadden Arps when the firm was conflicted to negotiate a $100 million settlement for HealthSouth. Boult Cummings is the Music City’s third-largest firm. Merger discussions entered into last year failed, but it appears the firms have had a change of heart.

K&L Gates may finally get its wish to be in the Windy City. The firm has announced that it is in late-stage talks with Chicago-based Bell Boyd & Lloyd that, if approved by the partnership, would see the two firms merge in the first quarter of 2009. One recruiter said a global, 2,000-lawyer firm would be a “pretty safe place to practice in this economy.” Another recruiter warned that Bell Boyd valued its work-life balance options and, if the culture at K&L Gates is more aggressive, the match may not work well.

General counsel are often in the background. But Bernard Cassidy will be front and center as the new GC at Tessera. That’s because the San Jose, Calif., company lives and dies by licensing and litigating its patents. Last year, Tessera brought in $159 million, or 81 percent of its total revenue, from royalties and licensing. The semiconductor packaging company is currently suing a whole host of companies for patent infringement both in district court and before the International Trade Commission.