Posts on ‘October 2nd, 2009’

In this economic climate, lawyers have to bring their “A” game to every job interview. If you botch your initial encounter with a recruiter, human resources director or general counsel, you might not get another opportunity for months, if at all. Surprisingly, the rules for succeeding in the dating world and in the job market have more in common than you might think, says consultant Diana Rubin. She lists 10 dating rules that can help you improve your prospects of landing your dream job.

This spring, Richard Rochlin, a former Shipman & Goodwin partner, and Scott Sigman, a former assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, started their own small firm. A couple of months later, three former members of an Am Law 100 firm also shifted gears and opened their small firm, Seiger Gfeller Laurie. For the past several months, lawyers have been splitting off from big law firms to create small firms where they can call their own shots and serve clients who are demanding lower rates.

Stanford spent a lot of time pursuing a patent case against Roche for its HIV test kits. Unfortunately for the university, it’s also spent a lot of time losing. On Wednesday, the Federal Circuit ruled that Stanford didn’t have standing to sue because it didn’t own all the patent rights and ordered the case dismissed. The appellate court undid previous rulings that had disposed of the case in a different way, ruling that the patents were invalid.

Litigators Jeffrey Essner and Allonn Levy from 50-lawyer Hopkins & Carley were advised this was a bad economic climate in which to try a case on behalf of a bank client. “They said not to expect a jury to award a multimillion-dollar verdict,” Essner said. But that’s exactly what the attorneys got from a unanimous jury.

Finding that a police officer’s instruction to a driver to shut off his engine had effectively converted a consensual citizen encounter into a “seizure,” a federal judge has suppressed all evidence obtained in a subsequent search of the car. The practical effect of the ruling is to force the government to drop felon-in-possession-of-a-gun charges against both defendants or take an immediate appeal. An Assistant U.S. Attorney said the government is “studying its options” and has not yet decided whether to appeal.

For the second time this year, Cooley Godward Kronish is axing employees. Fifty-eight staffers were cut Thursday, although no attorneys were let go, according to an all-hands memo from Cooley COO Mark Pitchford, who said the layoffs were done to “eliminate pockets of staffing overcapacity throughout the firm.” The Palo Alto, Calif., firm has had a rough go of it lately, losing a string of partners, including some of its top M&A lawyers.

For a U.S. Supreme Court justice who remains mum during oral arguments, Clarence Thomas shared a lot during an appearance this week at Southern Methodist University. In a conversation on stage with former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, Thomas said that the other justices should let the advocates talk during oral arguments rather than interrupting them with questions. “I have no idea what they are doing,” Thomas said of his fellow justices, and speculated that they may be seeking “to get a chuckle out of the audience.”

Pascal Lieblich spent six years working for New York firms before moving to India last year to become the head of document review at Clutch Group, a legal outsourcing firm. The Belgian-born University of Pennsylvania law graduate says he was looking for a legal challenge and a change of scenery, and with his move he got both. The Am Law Daily recently spoke with Lieblich by phone from his current hometown, Bangalore, about the transition and the adjustments he’s made, both culturally and professionally.

Chicago-based Wildman Harrold had some bad news for some of its new lawyers Thursday, rescinding job offers to 10 of the 14 associates it had hired from the class of 2009. The first-year class had already been deferred until March, but after the firm assessed client needs it became clear that it needed to make some cutbacks, the firm says in a statement. Wildman will still pay the 10 associates a stipend until March.

Former White House special counsel Lanny Davis and veteran journalist Eileen O’Connor have left Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to join McDermott Will & Emery’s regulatory and government strategies practice. At Orrick, Davis and O’Connor led an unusual practice that included litigation and related media strategies. They also advised clients on crisis management regarding a broad range of public policy and regulatory matters. They will handle similar matters at McDermott.