Posts on ‘March 24th, 2009’

Clifford Chance partners have given the go-ahead to plans to reduce the size and shape of the Magic Circle firm’s partnership. A partnership vote closed on Monday, with the firm achieving the majority required to allow management to restructure the partnership. Although the firm has not released any numbers on the cuts, it is believed that more than 10 percent of partners could go as a result of the overhaul.

Any thoughts that an Obama presidency would herald a moratorium of the federal death penalty can be safely laid to rest. Attorney General Eric Holder recently rejected a defense offer of life without the possibility of release in the prosecution of alleged San Francisco gangbanger Dennis Cyrus. The decision came after Holder accepted a 41-year plea deal in a separate capital gang trial that had opened down the hall the same week.

Faced with a harsh economic climate, many employers are forced to explore a reduction in work force to survive financially. An employer must take steps to ensure that the savings created by a RIF are not outweighed by the costs of potential litigation. Attorney A. Michael Weber explores some measures an employer should take to protect the benefit realized by a RIF, so that an employer can survive to see better times.

As the world of technology continues to impact the legal profession, paralegals are turning to social and professional networking sites to investigate claims. These sites can provide a deluge of data, including specific communications and entries concerning parties to the action.

Jones Day has launched an office in Dubai with the relocation of London-based project finance partner Arman Galledari to head the new outpost. The firm is also relocating Washington, D.C.-based litigation partner Sheila Shadmand to the office, which will have six lawyers in total. One counsel and one associate are moving with Galledari from London, while another associate has been hired from U.S. rival Baker Botts’ Dubai base. The firm has also recruited a local United Arab Emirates-qualified associate.

Many young attorneys and soon-to-be attorneys are grappling with the fallout of the abysmal economy, facing delayed start dates or worse. Some firms have trimmed back or eliminated their 2009 summer associate programs and rescinded 3L job offers. And a few firms have extended offers to current associates to leave for a year and work with a public interest group for a reduced salary. Although law firms can save money with delayed starts, not everyone agrees it’s a smart decision in the long term.

Lawyers behind a class action against mortgage giant Fannie Mae are about to find out what happens when the company you’ve sued becomes a government ward. Investors filed suit against the publicly traded behemoth in 2004, in the wake of an accounting scandal. Now, more than six months after the Treasury Department’s decision to place Fannie Mae in a government conservatorship, many players in the litigation are still wondering how the change will affect their case.

E-Pass Technologies is trying to recover millions it paid to Moses & Singer and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in an ill-fated patent lawsuit by going after the two firms with a negligent misrepresentation suit. E-Pass alleges that the lawyers pursued claims without a legal basis, misrepresented evidence and overbilled. James Rosen of Rosen Saba, which filed the suit for E-Pass against its former lawyers, said the firms charged E-Pass $7.6 million and then cost the tiny patent holding company $2.3 million in attorney fees.

Wolf Block’s partners voted on Monday to dissolve the law firm. There is no indication the firm is in dire financial straits, though it was said to be seeking extensions of its line of credit and had been looking for a merger partner for more than two years. A statement issued by the firm cited the recession, especially in its core real estate practice; the constriction of credit occasioned by the ongoing banking crisis; and the intended and anticipated departure of significant partners and practices.

More than 135 general counsel and executives from 500 and 100 companies are protesting a controversial proposed amendment to financial accounting statements on corporate disclosures of litigation-related loss contingencies. The proposed amendments would require companies to make significantly more extensive disclosures in financial statements regarding loss contingencies, even when the company expects to prevail or does not believe there will be a material cost to settle the matter.