Posts on ‘April 1st, 2009’

It’s the type of remark a lawyer would advise a client never to make. Yet corporate counsel William Wachtel allegedly told a management meeting after a hostile takeover that the way to avoid paying severance to the prior management members was to kill them or hope they die. Wachtel, of Wachtel & Masyr in New York, is now attempting to set aside a $2.1 million jury verdict, including $250,000 in punitive damages, in a whistleblower and defamation suit that hinged on those words.

Finding that no Internet-based practice management software existed at the time, Larry Port and a co-worker designed Rocket Matter, software as a service that gives lawyers the ability to track billable hours and manage matters, contacts, calendars and to-do lists from a Web browser.

In November, The Am Law Daily interviewed Ropes & Gray restructuring co-head Mark Bane to discuss the merits of a prepackaged bankruptcy to save General Motors. Now, several months and many billions of dollars in government aid later, we’re essentially back where we started, according to Bane, who explains some of the legal ins and outs of the feds’ plans for the ailing automakers.

Amid the pressure that general counsel face in today’s economy, a select group of in-house leaders has shown particular finesse in managing their departments, choosing outside counsel and remaining committed to diversity in their own ranks and those of the law firms they hire. In this inaugural publication of ’s Most Influential General Counsel, we have highlighted 20 attorneys whose leadership has proven strong — and even creative — during the turmoil in the legal industry.

When it comes to billing, it’s time to get creative. Midsize and small firms, as well as solo practitioners in a wide range of practice areas, including patent law, animal law, business law and bankruptcy, are responding to the tanking economy by doing everything from adopting flat rates and packaging legal services to bartering their work. Some firms are also charging clients less for e-mail advice or teaming with software companies to develop programs that generate low-cost pro se documents.

While the idea of outsourcing legal work overseas has been around for years, last month law associate Laurel Edgeworth launched Law Clerk Connection, a Web site seeking to put junior lawyers in contact with companies and law firms looking to outsource low-end legal work in the U.S. For a fee, law students, graduates and lawyers can create a professional profile on the site and bid on work projects by submitting an hourly rate or a fixed price for completing the project in a specific time frame.

Los Angeles’ Allen Matkins cut first-year associate salaries on Tuesday, an indication that cracks are starting to show in the compensation model for new associates. All first-years at the firm are now making $145,000, and those joining in the fall will make that much as well, said managing partner Brian Leck. Some associates at higher levels will also see their pay cut. The firm has laid off a “small number” of people, but Leck said more layoffs were averted by the salary reductions.

The U.S. Supreme Court blinked Tuesday in a long-running standoff with the Oregon Supreme Court over the handling of a punitive damages suit against Philip Morris brought by the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer in 1997. As a result, the widow, Mayola Williams, stands to receive at least a portion of the $79 million verdict, which has grown to $150 million with interest. The Court dismissed the case as “improvidently granted” in a one-sentence opinion, nearly four months after argument in the case.