The Washington law firm Arent Fox said Monday that it has named longtime partner Mark M. Katz as its new chairman, a leadership change that comes as the legal sector copes with an economic downturn that has curtailed business and prompted layoffs.
Katz, 52, succeeds Marc L. Fleischaker, who served as chairman of the firm's executive committee for 14 years. Fleischaker will remain at the firm, concentrating on antitrust and civil rights cases.
Like many of its counterparts, Arent Fox has faced declining revenue as corporate clients cut back on legal work, particularly in commercial real estate and finance, Katz said Monday in an interview. Although the firm cut 13 associates and 15 staff members and is in the early stages of restructuring how it bills clients, Katz said Arent Fox wasn't hurt as deeply by the recession because it decided to grow more cautiously during the boom.
"Some of the firms that grew very rapidly and worked on a mega-international platform seem to be running into difficulties," he said. "We've grown on a patient pace, and that's helped us."
As of 2008, the latest year for which statistics from the economic development group Greater Washington Initiative are available, more than 40,000 lawyers worked in the Washington region, second only to the New York area. Nearly 64,000 people work in the legal profession in the Washington region, which employs more people in that sector on a per-capita basis than any U.S. metropolitan area.
Keith Halleland, one of the founders of Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson, is leaving to start a new law firm — and taking his name with him.
Halleland’s new firm will focus on business law and consulting when it launches this spring, according to a news release issued Thursday by the 50-attorney, Minneapolis firm now known as Nilan Johnson Lewis.
“I am proud of what we have achieved together over the years,” Halleland said in the release. “I am very excited about building something new, and I look forward to establishing a firm where my focus will be on the work I really love – business law and consulting.”
Nilan Johnson Lewis President Matthew Damon called Halleland “a big part of our growth and success over the 13 years we have been in business,” and said he expects the two firms to work together.
Robert Joffe, an antitrust, corporate governance and litigation specialist who worked for more than four decades at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, including eight as presiding partner, has died.
Joffe, 66, died on Thursday from cancer, according to Greg Johnson, chief executive of asset management company Franklin Resources Inc (BEN.N), where Joffe was a director and chaired the corporate governance committee.
Johnson spoke on a conference call. A spokeswoman for the law firm confirmed Joffe's death.
Joffe was principal litigator for Time Inc in its efforts in 1989 to resist a takeover by Paramount Communications Inc, according to a biography on Cravath's website,.
It said he later represented Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) in connection with its merger with America Online Inc, and a proxy fight by the investor Carl Icahn.
Michael Bialys, a Los Angeles DUI lawyer also known as theDUI Guy, is the former managing partner of a large criminal defense firm.In his time in that role, he saw manymismanaged DUI cases and realized his true calling was to go into DUIdefense.Mr. Bialys’s philosophy is thateveryone should be able to get a comprehensive and aggressive defense, and withthat ideal in mind he opened up his own DUI defense law firm.
Mr. Bialys prides himself on offering client orientedservices, focusing on one-on-one personal relationships with his clients.He has a full understanding of the long termeffects of criminal records on areas of life such as employment opportunitiesand knows how important it is to get records expunged.If you have been in a related accident andwish to be fully and comprehensively defended by a premier Los AngelesDUI lawyer, call Michael Bialys today at 1-888-DUI-1-GUY.
According to The National Law Journal, a federal judge on Friday revived the discrimination suit filed by former Covington & Burling staff attorney Yolanda Young against her old firm. Last we reported, Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had dismissed the case after Young and her attorney, Latif Doman of Doman Davis, failed to show up in court.
Young asked the judge to reconsider, saying that Doman had simply written down the wrong time for the conference on his calendar. She pointed out that although the judge had dismissed the case without prejudice, more than 90 days had passed since she received a right-to-sue notice from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Therefore, she would not be able to file another claim under Title VII or the D.C. Human Rights Act. That was far too harsh a penalty for a small oversight, Young contended.
Walton seems to have agreed. The case is back on, with the next status conference scheduled for Dec. 18.
Young, for those who don't recall, is the writer who after leaving Covington, published a long essay on the Huffington Post comparing conditions at her erstwhile employer to the Jim Crow South.
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a practice that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in losses, in violation of the securities laws. Securities Arbitration. Generally speaking, securities fraud consists of deceptive practices in the stock and commodity markets, and occurs when investors are enticed to part with their money based on untrue statements.
The content contained on the web site has been prepared by Securities Law News as a service to the internet community and is not intended to constitute legal advice or a substitute for consultation with a licensed legal professional in a particular case. | Affordable Law Firm Website Design by Law Promo
Legal News RSS Feed
