Posts on ‘June 15th, 2009’

Weil Gotshal, Jenner & Block and Honigman Miller have filed their applications for employment as counsel to General Motors in the troubled automaker’s Chapter 11 case. The filings show GM has paid more than $80 million in fees to the three firms over the past six months. As lead bankruptcy counsel, Weil has the lion’s share of the billings at more than $54 million accrued in that period — roughly equivalent to the $55 million Weil billed bankrupt Lehman Brothers between September 2008 and January 2009.

The Supreme Court law clerk hiring season has begun. It is a pricey mating dance in which hiring bonuses for the much-prized clerks have escalated rapidly, reaching $250,000 last year. But that was before the economy tanked, bringing down law firms along with everyone else. So when the clerks sit down with top partners during the summer to talk about job openings, will the $250,000 be on the table with them? For firms that have bled during the current recession, the answer will be no.

When Dana Wagner interviewed for the job as Google Inc.’s antitrust lawyer in 2006, he had one question: “Is this really a full-time job?” But three years later Wagner’s job is definitely as full-time — and prime-time — as it gets. The fresh-faced, 33-year-old lawyer is in charge of defending Google against the increasingly intense scrutiny of antitrust regulators, from a DOJ probe of its recent book digitization settlement to an FTC investigation into ties between the boards at Google and Apple.

Companies operating in these challenging economic times might have to
navigate a number of pressing issues in order to weather the storm.
Before making hasty employment-related decisions, companies would be
wise to analyze the legal ramifications of such decisions, especially
when it comes to reductions in force. Attorneys Carrie B. Rosen and
Emily Simpson-Miller address five legal risks that an employer should
consider before reducing its work force.

Law firms running Microsoft SharePoint already own most of the required tools to recover from a complete or partial data loss, so implementing a backup plan need not be costly. But be sure to include an automated, site-level backup, says Fenwick & West’s SharePoint expert Mark Gerow.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has taken an about-face on its
position regarding retaliation by association in the workplace. The
federal appeals court ruled en banc that relatives and associates of
those who file workplace lawsuits or complaints are not protected by
retaliation laws. The ruling comes as a huge boost to management-side
lawyers, who had feared the old ruling would trigger a slew of lawsuits
by third parties.

In an effort to keep cash-strapped clients in the fold, Kirkland & Ellis is expanding its use of alternative-fee arrangements, discounting rates and extracting promises of future work from corporate players. During the past three years, the firm says it has given away more than $100 million worth of billable hours, but it hopes to make the revenue back through follow-up work from those clients. Kirkland is the largest firm by revenue or head count making the most of such arrangements, says one consultant.

What will law firms’ hiring patterns and client lists look like after the firms eventually climb out of the current economic morass? Consultants and law firm leaders offer their predictions on the future of practice diversification, geographic positioning and lateral moves.

As Chrysler and GM dispose of billions of dollars in assets and debts,
there are potentially thousands of death and injury claims that either
will be out of luck or will face near insurmountable obstacles to
success. When both auto companies emerge from bankruptcy, they are
expected, as in the terms of Chrysler’s sale to Fiat, to do so “free and
clear” of all pending and future claims and interests in all property
sold pre-bankruptcy.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on a terrorism suspect’s
constitutional claims may help commercial defendants obtain
pre-discovery dismissals of claims against them. The Court’s decision in
Ashcroft v. Iqbal should make it easier for defendants to win
motions to dismiss commercial cases, especially in cases involving
seemingly weak or speculative claims or where allegations of the
defendant’s knowledge or intent play a critical role, say attorneys
Robert A. Schwinger and Eric Twiste.