Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that the firm's chairman of the executive committee, Guy N. Halgren, has been re-elected to a fourth consecutive, three-year term leading the firm.  Halgren was first elected to this management role in 2001.  Halgren is the first Sheppard Mullin chairman to hold this position for four terms.  

"Our partnership is very fortunate to have Guy at the helm for another term.  He's smart, fair and forward-thinking," said Benjamin R. Mulcahy, New York-based partner and member of the executive committee.  "Guy has been instrumental in growing the firm in terms of size, locations, and practice areas, while preserving Sheppard Mullin's tradition of collegiality and entrepreneurship."  

Sheppard Mullin has experienced significant growth in the past nine years.  The number of attorneys is now more than 500, which is more than 70% greater than the firm's attorney headcount in 2001.  During the same time period, the firm has geographically grown from a California firm, to a national firm with locations in New York and Washington, D.C., to an international firm with an office in Shanghai.  The firm currently has a total of eleven offices, having significantly expanded from four locations in 2001.

Comparing 2001 to 2009, gross revenue has climbed from $149 million to $361 million.  Practice area growth has occurred in a number of ways, including the establishment of an institutional entertainment and media practice in 2003, the significant growth of the firm's Intellectual Property practice group in recent years, and the strengthening of signature practices: Antitrust, Corporate, Finance & Bankruptcy, Government Contracts, Labor & Employment, Litigation, Real Estate/Land Use and Tax.  

Additionally, Sheppard Mullin's Business Trial practice group co-chair, Robert S. Beall, has been re-elected as the firm's managing partner for another three-year term.  He has held this firm management position since 2005.  Beall, based in the firm's Orange County office, has also been re-elected to the firm's executive committee for another three-year term. 

"I'm very pleased that Robert has agreed to serve as the firm's managing partner for another term.  Our talents complement each other.  The firm could not have made the tremendous progress it has without Robert's contributions,"  Halgren commented.

Partner Judy V. Davidoff has been elected to the executive committee for a three-year term.  Davidoff, based in the San Francisco office, has served as Real Estate/Land Use practice group co-chair and also as one of the firm's alternative fee czars.

About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Sheppard Mullin is a full service AmLaw 100 firm with 550 attorneys in 11 offices located in the United States and Asia.  Since 1927, companies have turned to Sheppard Mullin to handle corporate and technology matters, high stakes litigation and complex financial transactions.  In the U.S., the firm's clients include more than half of the Fortune 100.  For more information, please visit www.sheppardmullin.com. 

A bookkeeper in Wichita has been sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison for embezzling more than $948,000 from a law firm where she worked.

Thirty-four-year-old Vicki J. Olivarez pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of writing checks and forging signatures on the checks while she worked at Pistotnik Law Offices.

In her plea, Olivarez admitted that from 2004 through 2009 she wrote numerous checks on the firm's client trust account and deposited the money into her personal accounts. She used some of the money to make payments on property she owned in Andover.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten also ordered Olivarez to forfeit $948,041 including her interest in the Andover property.

Each South Hampton Roads city has a cadre of attorneys on staff to deal with the many legal disputes that come with running a large city.

Sometimes, a case comes along that poses a potential conflict of interest, requires expertise that can't be found in-house, or just takes too much time.

In those scenarios, officials look outside the city attorney's office to hire a private law firm. That gets expensive.

Saddled with long and costly legal battles, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach have paid nearly $9 million to private law firms over the past five years - more than twice the combined amount spent by Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk.

"When we go through and see how much we have spent on outside counsel, I think we can do better," said Chesapeake Councilwoman Patricia Willis, who is a lawyer.

City Attorney Ronald Hallman said Chesapeake is a "growing city and has faced a host of unique legal matters" including opposition to a planned North Carolina landfill, the Battlefield Golf Club fly ash case, and a challenge to a police test by the U.S. Justice Department. All of these cases required specific expertise and lots of time, which equals large bills.

Albany, N.Y., law firm O’Connell & Aronowitz has acquired Dorsey Law Firm in Saratoga Springs, adding 300 clients to its business.

The Dorsey firm, which now shares the O’Connell name, focuses on elder law and estate planning. The Dorsey firm has two attorneys. It will continue to be run by Matthew Dorsey, 43, the third generation to head the firm.

The two law firms announced the deal this week.

“We’ll bring a new group of clients to their business, and they’ll bring to our business a new group of specialties,” Dorsey said. “Both sides are very optimistic.

The O’Connell firm has 24 practice areas, such as health care, bankruptcy, personal injury and commercial litigation.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dorsey said he was motivated to do the deal as a way to expand the range of services he can offer to clients, a difficult task when the firm was on its own, he said.

In a statement, Jeff Sherrin, president of the O’Connell firm, said the Saratoga location will provide more convenient service for upstate clients. It will also help O’Connell better tap into that market, Sherrin said.

Dorsey said he expects a partner at O’Connell will work out of the Saratoga office a couple of days a week, with other attorneys shuttling back and forth as needed.

“It’s two different geographic areas, but there’s a lot of commonality here,” Dorsey said.

O’Connell now has 37 attorneys, including 30 at its Albany headquarters. The firm also has an office in Plattsburgh, with five attorneys.

Founded in 1982, Bryan A Lowe & Associates is a law firm based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The firm provides a wide range of services, primarily in the areas of estate planning, probate, bankruptcy, general business (corporate, partnership, and proprietorship), taxation, real estate, asset protection, and elder care.

The firm was founded on a philosophy of service that not only emphasizes quality representation in terms of experience and expertise - but places a high value on initiating appropriate actions to meet the client's legal needs and objectives. Particular stress is also placed on providing individualized service and achieving the desired results while working in a cost-effective manner.

At Bryan A Lowe & Associates, we handle a wide variety of legal cases, including the areas listed below. If you need an elder law, estate planning, corporate, tax, or probate lawyer, see the information below or contact an attorney.

    Elder Law
    Estate Planning

    Corporate and Tax Law

    Probate and Estate Administration

    Bankruptcy


http://www.bryanalowe.com/practice_areas.html