Posts on ‘July 30th, 2009’

The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday it is delaying enforcement of new rules designed to prevent identity theft. The ABA has been lobbying for months to have lawyers exempted from the rules, which it says would be burdensome to law firms and set a precedent for federal agencies to place other requirements on lawyers. Last week, the ABA had been preparing a lawsuit to prevent enforcement. Outgoing President Thomas Wells Jr. says the bar association could still file suit if necessary.

Through previous recessions, general counsel stayed largely untouched. Indeed, the past decade shows a nearly unbroken string of pay raises. No more. While some indexes of GC pay rose, the basic trend was nearly flat. Why? Because executive pay has become inextricably bound with corporate performance. And if the company doesn’t do well, the GC might find a thinner pay packet. How thin? It’s all relative. But it seems that top corporate counsel aren’t immune to market forces anymore.

A Goldman Sachs attorney has been charged with conducting Internet sex chats with an investigator he thought was a 15-year-old girl, according to a local DA’s office. Todd Genger was arraigned Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted disseminating indecent material to a minor, a class E felony. Genger, who was released on his own recognizance, faces a maximum of 1 1/3 to four years in prison if convicted.

Sue Hodges, the longtime managing partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman’s San Diego office, has decamped to K&L Gates. She is the first lateral to join K&L Gates’ office in San Diego since its creation earlier this year, via the firm’s merger with Bell, Boyd & Lloyd. Hodges, a corporate lawyer who devotes much of her practice to insolvency and restructuring matters, started Friday.

A rough few months for Dallas-based Highland Capital Management got worse on Monday when the investment firm’s former lawyers at Schulte Roth & Zabel sued for nonpayment of $2.83 million in legal fees. The New York Law Journal reports that Schulte filed a summons in state court in Manhattan, seeking payment for unpaid bills dating back to June 2008. In a statement to the Law Journal, Highland slapped back: “We believe Schulte Roth overbilled the firm and its funds for legal services.”

A group of court-appointed attorneys has filed an emergency motion, asking the judge overseeing their case against the city of Philadelphia to order that they be paid. According to the motion, the attorneys have not been paid since late April or early May. Wrote attorney Samuel Stretton in his filing, “Lawyers are being called by their landlords for eviction purposes and/or foreclosure. … Some lawyers are having trouble paying health insurance or meeting medical needs.”