Law Firm News

---

Law Firm News

Firm Name

News Title

News

News Date

25383 matches |  15737-15743 displayed

1  2246 2247 2248 2249 2250  3627

---

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP

Supreme Court to Consider Extraterritoriality
The Supreme Court is to consider whether U.S. patent law can be applied overseas in a case that could have big implications for the software industry. Eric Puknys, a partner at Finnegan Henderson, said the case highlighted a deficiency in the country’s 35-year old patent law. “American software developers are confronted with a liability that foreign companies are not,” he said. Puknys added: “The question is, does this statute have a place in the modern economy?

11-01-2006

---

Cozen O' Connor

Cozen O’Connor Attorney Whitney Whisenhunt Elected to Philagrafika Board of Directors
Cozen O’Connor associate Whitney Whisenhunt has been elected to the Philagrafika board of directors. Philagrafika is a non-profit organization that promotes and sustains printmaking as a vital and valued art form by providing artistic, programmatic and administrative leadership for large-scale, cooperative initiatives with broad public exposure. Its centerpiece program, Philagrafika 2010, is an international festival for the printed image that will premier in Philadelphia at venues throughout the city.

Philagrafika executive director Teresa Jaynes said of Whisenhunt’s election, “We’re thrilled to have Whitney on the Philagrafika board. She brings enthusiasm and initiative in building a group of young collectors for the organization, and with her international contacts, interests and language skills, she will be a great asset to us as we build our global profile for 2010.”

Whisenhunt practices with Cozen O'Connor’s general litigation department from the firm’s Philadelphia office, where she focuses her practice in commercial litigation.

Whisenhunt is a member of the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia bar associations and the Young Lawyers Association. She is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Whisenhunt earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota (B.A., 1995) and her law degree from Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2003), where she was a staff member of the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal, and a member of the International Legal Society, the Asian Student Law Association, the Women's Law Caucus and the American Student Bar Association. Whisenhunt participated in summer study abroad in Rome, Italy, and spring semester study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. She also served as a research assistant at Temple, as a contributing editor and radio announcer in Taipei, Taiwan, and as a high school English teacher in Budapest, Hungary.

11-01-2006

---

Cozen O' Connor

Cozen O'Connor Returns to Court Over Harsh Anti-Immigrant Law in Hazleton, Pa
Cozen O'Connor, an AmLaw top-100 law firm with more than 500 lawyers in 23 offices, along with a coalition of local attorneys, civil rights and immigrants’ rights groups filed new legal papers on October 30, 2006 charging that the city of Hazleton has overstepped its authority by passing harsh anti-immigrant ordinances that are at odds with federal immigration law. “Immigration reform is an important issue, but if every little town like Hazleton across the 50 states makes up their own rules about immigration, we’re going to be left with an even bigger mess. Clearly we can’t have every community setting foreign policy,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

Cozen O’Connor, the ACLU, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Community Justice Project and local attorneys George Barron, David Vaida and Barry Dyller today filed an amended complaint to address the city’s new ordinances, which are set to go into effect on November 1. The city council approved the new ordinances in the last several months to replace a similar law that was scrapped following a federal lawsuit filed by the coalition. However, the groups say the new ordinances remain unconstitutional and would prevent people who look or sound “foreign” from living or working in Hazleton—regardless of their actual immigration status.

“These ordinances are nothing more than an officially sanctioned witch hunt,” said Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. “Hazleton intends to aggressively search out and identify every single immigrant within its boundaries, assess their immigration status by a lawless process in which the immigrant has no say, and expel those who do not pass the test.”

“It is the responsibility of the federal government to regulate this very visible and volatile area of the law,” said Cozen O’Connor attorney Thomas G. Wilkinson, Jr., lead pro bono counsel for the plaintiffs. “To regulate such issues inconsistently and haphazardly on a local basis would be highly inappropriate.”

Hazleton continues to blame many of its ills, including crime, economic burdens and social dilemmas on undocumented immigrants, and maintains its express goal is to drive what it calls “illegal aliens” out of town. The new ordinances impose fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny business permits to companies that give them jobs. In the new legal papers filed today, the coalition charges that the new ordinances infringe on the constitutional rights of all Hazletonians, not just those who are in the United States illegally.

Many Hispanics, including legal U.S. residents, have already left Hazleton and Hispanic-owned businesses are struggling to stay open, according to business association estimates. The new ordinances place burdens on business owners and landlords to investigate the immigration status of their employees and tenants, and fail to provide a way for immigrants to challenge the determination before they are forced from their homes or jobs.

The ordinance will inevitably force Hazletonians to discriminate against anyone they suspect of being foreign rather than risk the fines and penalties associated with a failure to comply with the law, said the coalition groups.

“We expect the government to make laws that will prevent discrimination, not require it,” said Omar Jadwat of the national ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Hazleton’s ordinances clearly violate federal law, but more than that, they violate America’s tradition of fairness and democracy.”

The groups are asking the district court to strike down the ordinances because they violate the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause by seeking to override federal law and the exclusive federal power over immigration, and because they violate due process and equal protection rights under the Constitution. Additionally, the groups assert that the ordinances conflict with Pennsylvania law governing the authorities granted to municipalities under the Home Rule Charter Law and the Landlord and Tenant Act, and violate the federal Fair Housing Act.

11-01-2006

---

Baker & McKenzie, L.L.P.

Baker & McKenzie LLP Announces Ambitious New Strategy and Leadership Team in New York
Moving to further strengthen its presence in New York, Baker & McKenzie LLP today announced an ambitious new strategy and management team for its New York office. The changes, launched at the Firm’s recently concluded annual partners meeting in Washington, D.C., are designed to capitalize on the momentum generated by the Firm’s recent lateral acquisitions, including its combination last year with most of Coudert Brothers’ New York office, which more than doubled the size of Baker & McKenzie’s New York office.

The Firm’s new strategy in New York is designed to build on the success of the Coudert combination and several other lateral additions whose practices significantly expanded Baker & McKenzie’s corporate transactional and capital markets practices in New York. In its new plan, Baker & McKenzie plans significant additional growth in the size and depth of its New York practices, with special emphasis on corporate and banking transactional practices (including M&A, private equity, securities, and banking and finance), litigation, tax and intellectual property.

“We are firmly committed to growing our New York office pursuant to our Firm’s Strategy,” said John Conroy, Chairman of Baker & McKenzie’s Executive Committee. “We are very encouraged by the considerable progress that we have made in New York this past year. By more than doubling our playing strength in our prioritized practice areas, we have deepened major client relationships, generated more transactional deal flow and, as a consequence, sharply improved our profitability – all key objectives under our global Firm Strategy. As a leading financial market, New York is obviously important for many law firms, but it has become especially important for Baker & McKenzie given the scale and depth of the legal business we have built throughout the world for nearly six decades and the escalating opportunities that our global business is now generating for us in New York.”

The Firm also named Charles F. Niemeth as new Managing Partner in New York; and appointed Janna Bellwin and Clyde “Skip” Rankin III to a newly created three-person management committee for the office. In addition, William Scarbrough has assumed the role of New York Chief Operating Officer.

“This new management structure is designed to effectively manage a much larger and growing office, as well as the growth process itself,” said David Hackett, Baker & McKenzie LLP’s North American Managing Partner. “Chuck, Janna and Skip are all very seasoned lawyers with rich experience in areas of critical importance to our New York strategy. We are pleased to have them lead our strategic efforts in New York.”

Charles F. Niemeth, who succeeds Gerry Hayes as New York Managing Partner, joined Baker & McKenzie last year and has more than 40 years of legal experience in mergers and acquisitions and securities matters. His practice principally involves advising U.S. and foreign clients on mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of securities, and other corporate and financing matters. He also has a wide range of experience in the offering of tax-advantaged partnership securities, project financings, and corporate reorganizations and restructurings. He began his legal career at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles in 1965, and founded that firm’s New York office in 1983.

Janna Bellwin is a Partner in the New York Office of Baker & McKenzie and past Chair of Baker & McKenzie’s North American Banking, Finance, and Major Projects Practice Group. Bellwin’s practice consists of over 25 years of experience representing banks and borrowers in lending and other finance transactions including project finance and trade finance transactions, syndicated secured loans, private and public debt restructuring, acquisition finance, senior and subordinated debt indentures and asset swaps.

Clyde E. Rankin, III is a member of the Firm’s Global Corporate & Securities Practice Group. Rankin advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, privatizations, licensing and distribution agreements, joint venture agreements and project finance. For the past several years, he has represented U.S. companies investing in the Russian Federation and Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Eastern and Central European governments in the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Rankin counsels clients extensively on renewable energy projects in the U.S. and abroad. Rankin came to Baker & McKenzie from Coudert Brothers LLP, where he served as its ninth Chairman.

“I am honored to be given the opportunity to lead our New York office,” said Niemeth. “I look forward to working with Janna and Skip to build on the Firm’s momentum in adding more depth to our New York office to enable us to provide top quality legal services to our clients.”

Baker & McKenzie’s recent growth in New York was headlined by the September 2005 acquisition of Coudert’s flagship office in New York, which more than doubled Baker & McKenzie’s presence in the city. Other key additions in M&A and banking & finance law in New York since 2004 include Robert Grauman, Howard Jiang, Laurence Pettit, David Spencer, Roslyn Tom and Martin Weisberg. Last month, Baker & McKenzie added two corporate & securities partners in New York, Jonathan Stapleton and Margaret Paradis.

11-01-2006

---

Moritt Hock Hamroff & Horowitz LLP

Marc Hamroff Receives 2006 ELA Distinguished Service Award
We are pleased to announce that the firm's Managing Partner, Marc Hamroff, recently received the 2006 ELA Distinguished Service Award from the Equipment Leasing Association for his outstanding commitment and dedication to the development and growth of the leasing industry.

The firm proudly congratulates Marc on this prestigious honor.

11-01-2006

---

Allen & Overy LLP

Half-year financial results show 18% increase
Managing Partner David Morley has announced excellent results for the the first half of Allen & Overy's financial year.

I am very pleased to announce that, following a record billing month in October, for the first half of our financial year (the six months to 31 October 2006) we achieved turnover of £422 million (US$802m, €631m), against £358 million (US$681m, €536m) for the same period last year; a rise of 18 per cent.

This is very healthy organic growth. It results from buoyant M&A and finance markets but most of all from our ability to combine impressive individual talent with a great team effort across the firm. The figures show the true strength of A&O around the world. They also demonstrate how, alongside our stellar ICM and banking practices, the corporate business is a real powerhouse that is performing strongly.

Almost every office and practice group contributed an improved performance. The U.S. in particular is going from strength to strength through the hiring of more world-class lawyers. As this new team starts to bed in I am confident that we will see lasting, consistent growth from our U.S. practice.

Looking to the next six months we will, of course, need to keep up the momentum. That means focusing on our clients and ensuring that we raise the bar in everything that we do.

11-01-2006

---

Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, LLP

Curtis counsel Lizabeth L. Burrell was mentioned in October 2006 on The Maritime Advocate online as new counsel to the Firm
Curtis counsel Lizabeth L. Burrell was mentioned in October 2006 on The Maritime Advocate online as new counsel to the Firm.

11-01-2006

---

25383 matches |  15737-15743 displayed

1  2246 2247 2248 2249 2250  3627