Posts on ‘September 25th, 2009’

King & Spalding announced Wednesday that it has officially opened in Paris after receiving the required regulatory approval from the Paris Bar Council. The Atlanta firm had signaled it was due to open in the French capital in March when it hired arbitrators Eric Schwartz and James Castello from the local office of Dewey & LeBoeuf. Joining the two now are arbitrator Kenneth Fleuriet, who has relocated from the firm’s London office, and a team of four associates, including three hired from Dewey.

There’s good news on the part-time front, reports The Project for Attorney Retention, an organization that promotes work/life balance policies in the legal profession. It has just released what it describes as a “ground-breaking study,” spotlighting the success of part-time partners. Many part-time respondents interviewed for the study have “significant books of business,” bill 1200 to 1600 hours annually, and hold leadership roles at their firms. Also of note, a significant number are litigators.

The Legal Intelligencer’s third annual diversity survey of Pennsylvania’s 24 largest plaintiffs firms yielded mixed results following a year of recession in which few plaintiffs firms grew at all and some even shrank. While 2008’s survey saw small jumps in the number of female and minority attorneys in the plaintiffs bar, compared to the year before, the 2009 survey found a drop in female plaintiffs lawyers and only a slight increase in racial and ethnic minorities.

A group of 20 former judges and legal scholars have written an amicus curiae brief in the class action suit against two former Luzerne County, Pa., judges and others, supporting arguments that Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. should not be able to invoke the doctrine of judicial immunity. The group — which includes former federal district court and 3rd Circuit judges — says the doctrine cannot cover judges who have admitted to criminal conduct because of public policy concerns.

An attorney does not have a constitutional right to wear jeans and a hat — specifically, an Operation Desert Storm baseball cap — while appearing in state court, a New York federal judge has ruled. Eastern District of New York Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled that the court’s dress code merely enforced “commonly shared mores of courtroom civility,” and did not encroach upon the First and 14th amendments.

Skadden had people talking last month when the firm announced it would make all of its job offers on one day in late-September, abandoning its usual practice of offering 2Ls summer associate positions on a rolling basis throughout the fall. The firm set Sept. 22 as “Skadden Offer Day.” But in this economy, some wondered whether Skadden stood to lose the best 2Ls to firms who made their offers earlier. Skadden Offer Day came and went on Tuesday, and the firm says it is happy with the results.

There appeared to be little love Wednesday on the 11th Circuit for a money-laundering case against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne and two Colombians charged with funneling drug money to the U.S. to pay the legal bills of Medellin drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa. Assistant U.S. Attorney Vijay Shanker was on the ropes much of the time in two sets of arguments defending the government’s positions. After the judges left the bench, Shanker shrugged at the prosecutor trying the case, who was observing from the gallery.

Arent Fox Chairman Marc Fleischaker has confirmed reports that the firm has rescinded offers made to about 12 of its deferred associates, involving 3 different offices. Fleischaker said the firm was pushed to make the decision because the incoming class was larger than in past years, and the firm also wanted to avoid a “logjam” when this year’s class of summer associates are ready to be hired. To “soften the blow,” the firm is giving those who have their offers rescinded a $20,000 stipend.

A New York federal judge has granted a motion to delay a scheduled hearing on the fairness of Google’s plan to create a digital database of books, according to a court order Thursday. Google and the key groups who support the database — the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers — filed the motion on Tuesday. Critics of the proposed database, including the Justice Department, have filed objections claiming that it would give Google a monopoly on so-called orphan works, whose authors cannot be located.

Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife are trying to take their case against Baxter Healthcare Corp. to the highest court in Illinois two years after their infant twins suffered a drug overdose due in part, they argue, to the company’s confusing drug labeling. The Quaids, represented by Chicago attorneys Susan Loggans and William Harte, petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday to review their case and potentially overturn an appellate court ruling dismissing their lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds.