Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Wessels & Pautsch, P.C.

W&P Wins Landmark Decision that dramatically limits the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act!
In a landmark victory, W&P attorneys, Julie Proscia, Kevin Mosher, Sean Darke, and Rebecca Dobbs won the first case to go to court under the revised Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (Act). The Act, effective January 1, 2006, imposes liabilities and restrictions on all companies that are classified as day or temporary labor agencies, as well as, all companies that utilize (even for a day) any contingent, temporary or day labor services. The Act places stringent registration, recordkeeping and classification requirements on both the agency and the company. In addition to these onerous requirements, the biggest controversy is the Acts' potential breadth and scope of the industries that are affected. Specifically, The Department of Labor interpreted the Act to cover any and all corporations, whose employees perform work for third party clients on a temporary or intermittent basis. This irrational interpretation was so broad that it imposed liability on any company that performed services or trade work for any client.

In the current case, the Department used taxpayer money to conduct a fishing expedition into any and all companies with temporary or staffing in their name. In fact the investigator selected W&P's client by performing a search in the telephone book of area companies with either staffing or temporary in the title. Utilizing this sophisticated criteria the investigator showed up, unannounced, at the client's office and questioned the front desk receptionist regarding the inner workings of the business. Based solely off of the 20 minute investigation, the investigator determined that the company was a day and temporary labor service agency. This determination was upheld by an Department even though the hearing officer acknowledged that the company's workers were employees and that they were employed on a continuous basis (many for several years), had a 401k program, health insurance, vacation plan, etc. Regardless of all of these facts the Department concluded that simply because the employees' work assignments at other/third-party company’s facilities were temporary, these employees must be temporary or day laborers.

12-18-2006

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Wessels & Pautsch, P.C.

Julie Proscia Appointed Legal Counsel For The Greater Aurora Chamber Of Commerce
Julie Proscia, Senior Attorney at Wessels & Pautsch, P.C., was recently appointed the General Counsel for the Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce. The Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce is quickly becoming the second largest Chamber of Commerce in Illinois boasting approximately 1,000 members. The Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce encompasses the City of Aurora, as well as the greater Aurora area including the City of Naperville, the tri-cities of Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles and the fast-growing Kendall and Kane County communities of Oswego, Yorkville, Montgomery, Sugar Grove, Plainfield and North Aurora.

Ms. Proscia has successfully represented employers in federal, state and administrative venues and has an extensive background in employment law and human resource related issues. She concentrates her practice in employment litigation and the pitfalls and legal quagmire that human resource professionals face on a daily basis.

Wessels & Pautsch, P.C. is a management-side labor and employment law firm with a nationwide client base. The firm is headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois with five other offices: Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Indianapolis, Indiana and Davenport, Iowa.

12-18-2006

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Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A.

Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A. is pleased to announce that Christopher R. Shaw has joined the Jackson office
Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A. is pleased to announce that Christopher R. Shaw has joined the Jackson office as an Associate in the Litigation Practice Group. Chris is a 1997 cum laude graduate of the University of Mississippi and a 2001 cum laude graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law. While in law school, he served as Business Manager of the Mississippi Law Journal and was on the Executive Board of the Moot Court Board. He is a member of the Defense Research Institute, Jackson Young Lawyers and a 2003 graduate of Leadership Jackson. Chris is also an active member of the American, Mississippi and Hinds County Bar Associations.

12-18-2006

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Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Thompson Comments on Various Sports Topics
Milt Thompson of the Indianapolis office has been mentioned in several media outlets in the last two weeks. He was mentioned in the Indianapolis Star "Buzz Page" on December 17 about the Indiana Sports Corporation holiday party. He was interviewed on Channel 8 on December 20 regarding the Indiana World Ice Skating Academy (firm client) and its search for a new home. Milt was quoted in a December 21 Indianapolis Star article, "Skating Operation is now on thin ice." He also was quoted in a December 26 Indianapolis Business Journal article, "Indians stock buyback raises more questions.

12-17-2006

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Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP

Weil Gotshal Helps Promote Work Life Balance
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is making great strides to promote flexibility in the work place and ensure that the work-life balance becomes more of a reality. The firm recently created a brand new title, flex-time partner, and named two attorneys, including Washington DC-based P.J. Himelfarb to that position. According to Ms. Himelfarb, “I knew if I were ever going to make partner I would have to do it as sort of a trendsetter. My life didn’t allow for me to do it the usual way.” Ms. Himelfarb has been working on a flex-time basis since she began at Weil Gotshal so that she could help care for one of her children who was diagnosed with autism. Ms. Himelfarb realizes that as a flex-time partner she is the exception, but she is hoping that others who need it also will be able to benefit from the firm's flexibility.

The article, “Flex Time for the Rest of Us,” appeared in the December 17, 2006 issue of The New York Times.

12-17-2006

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White & Case, LLP

Judge's Rebuke Prompts New Rules for Prosecutors
In this article, Browning reports on a strongly-worded criticism of the prosecution in a criminal case against former KPMG tax experts by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Manhattan's Federal District Court. Kaplan believed that the government let its quest for a conviction cloud its judgment. This led to the development of new guidelines meant to safeguard corporations and companies from unfair prosecution techniques.

During the time that the new guidelines were being drafted, the US deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, discussed the proposed changes with his friend George J. Terwilliger, a partner with the Washington, DC office of White & Case and the former deputy attorney general under President George H. Bush.

Terwilliger had recently had direct experience with the rule criticized in the KPMG case that disapproved of companies under investigation advancing legal fees to their affected employees because they felt that companies paying such fees were hindering the investigation.

Terwilliger told McNulty, "Rather than try to establish a list of all-inclusive criteria about the circumstances where it would be appropriate or not to pay counsel fees, why not have a bottom-line standard saying it's appropriate to do so except in extremely limited circumstances?"

The White & Case partner, who had represented Schnitzer Steel in a similar case, noted that prosecutors did not wince at the company's payment of legal fees to employees caught up in the investigation. He even mentioned an internal Justice document that referred to the payments as "a positive" for the investigation because it would encourage employees to speak candidly with Justice investigators. Before the final new rules – which give Mr. McNulty the power to authorize waiver requests – were issued on December 12, 2006, Mr. Terwilliger continued to provide "especially significant" advice and counsel.

12-16-2006

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Kaye Scholer LLP

Deutsche Land plc/Acquisition of Europäischer Hof (Baden-Baden)
Kaye Scholer (Germany) LLP represented Deutsche Land plc in the acquisition of the five-star hotel Europäischer Hof, Baden-Baden, a real estate investment totaling nearly $25 million. Europäischer Hof is one of the best known German hotels, managed by the Steigenberger Group. In this deal out of the Frankfurt office, most of the legal work was done by Thomas J. Krall (contract lawyer, Real Estate), who negotiated the relevant contracts on behalf of the client. Joe Borggraefe (European partner, Tax) and Martin Weger (associate, Corporate Finance and Tax) structured the asset deal and advised on its tax consequences. The deal was closed on December 16, 2006.

12-16-2006

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