Posts on ‘July 15th, 2009’

Baker & McKenzie has promoted only one lawyer to its London partnership, compared with six in last year’s promotion round. Restructuring and insolvency lawyer Louise Webb boosts the international firm’s London partnership total to 85. Baker’s decision to scale back partner promotions this year comes after similar moves by many of the U.K.’s top law firms, with the prolonged economic turmoil reducing the business case for new partners.

In one of his first acts as chair of the Florida Bar’s 5,000-member business law section, Louis Conti created a diversity committee to find ways to encourage more minority and women lawyers to participate in the section. The new committee is the latest of at least three voluntary lawyer groups formed in Florida to better meet the needs of diverse lawyers. The Palm Beach County Hispanic Bar Association and the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association of South Florida were recently resurrected after years of dormancy.

Fulbright & Jaworski has added a solo practitioner to its New York trusts and estates practice. Stephanie Heilborn, a former associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy who broke off in 2007 to start her own firm, is closing down Heilborn LLC to join Fulbright as a partner. Not typically a hotbed of lateral hiring, trusts and estates practices have been getting more attention from law firms since the start of the recession, say recruiters.

General Motors and Chrysler may see a light at the end of the bankruptcy tunnel, but the parts manufacturers that depended on them for business are still struggling. On Monday, J.L. French Automotive Castings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware. The prenegotiated restructuring will swap company equity for more than $200 million in debt forgiveness. One company that may see the end in sight is Delphi, with a bankruptcy judge this week approving a proposed sale of the company for $2 billion in cash.

As many gamblers know, things can get expensive in a hurry in Atlantic City. The latest proof is the Tropicana Casino and Resort, where the 20-month effort to sell the business has racked up nearly $7.7 million in legal and consulting fees, with still more to come. Among those being paid: Conservator and retired state Supreme Court Justice Gary Stein received $829,468, and his law firm, Pashman Stein, got almost $1.3 million. Debevoise & Plimpton received $3.2 million, and bankruptcy law firm Cole Schotz got $1.1 million.

It’s still too soon to tell whether there will be a tsunami of litigation over credit-default swap agreements gone bad. But it’s probably a safe bet that litigation initiated by a hedge fund against Citigroup and Wachovia won’t roil the waters much. On Monday, a New York federal judge dismissed seven of eight causes of actions brought by the VCG Special Opportunities Master Fund against Wachovia. The judge let pass VCG’s claim for “breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

Two trial courts will close most of their courtrooms and furlough staff Wednesday, offering California a glimpse of the once-a-month closures expected to affect courtrooms statewide later this summer. Leaders of the Los Angeles and Mendocino, Calif., superior courts decided they could no longer wait for a coordinated, statewide closure plan to emerge from the mire of legislative budget negotiations. Instead, they’ll shutter hundreds of courtrooms, keeping a relative few open to handle emergency business.

When is a proposed settlement between class action plaintiffs lawyers and a defendant company collusive and unfair to the class? That’s the question a Massachusetts judge faces at a Wednesday hearing in an eight-year-old wage-and-hour class action against Wal-Mart that has pitted warring groups of plaintiffs lawyers against each other. One side claims the other tried to strike a collusive deal with Wal-Mart; the other side denies the accusation and asserts it’s won an excellent settlement proposal.

Fascinating questions of legal ethics stem from the prosecution of two lawyers accused of stealing cash and property from a murder victim’s estate by accepting $75,000 from their client, the victim’s wife, who pleaded guilty to planning the killing. But arguments at a Georgia appeals court last week centered more on the statute of limitations than on the source of the lawyers’ fees and their obligations related to their client’s guilt.

Former Manhattan Civil Court Judge Salvador Collazo was arrested early Tuesday morning by federal authorities for a conspiracy to commit visa fraud and overcharge clients. Collazo, an immigration practitioner who was removed from the bench in 1998 for passing a lewd note about a female law intern and then lying about it to a judicial screening committee, was arrested shortly after 6 a.m. He is accused of filing false statements with immigration authorities and bilking aliens with excessive fees.