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White & Case LLP expands its high yield practice

White & Case LLP expanded its high yield practice group with the addition of a team of five lateral partners. The team leader, Ronald S. Brody, is well known for his strong investment banking relationships and market presence in New York. The new team includes Jin Kim, Kenneth Suh, Jeffrey Whyte, and Nazim Zilkha. The firm's top-notch bank finance practice is led by Eric L. Berg. He hopes that Brody's team will help the firm increase its practice and provide an international edge while advising clients on bank-bond transactions. White & Case LLP hopes to leverage on the new team's finance markets expertise. The firm has more than 2,000 lawyers in 35 offices across 23 countries offering clients advice in complex cross-border commercial and financial transactions, and international arbitration, and litigation.

02-22-2007

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Kilpatrick Stockton receives 2006 Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year Award

Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP, recently received the 2006 Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year award, instituted by The Pro Bono Project in New Orleans.

The firm received this award at the organization's Volunteer Appreciation Reception for donating several hundred hours of assistance and legal expertise for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The firm's employees donated about $76,000 time's worth in clearing titles on properties for clients. They also assisted these clients in receiving FEMA awards for housing assistance or insurance money.

Led by the firm's Pro Bono Partner, Debbie Segal, the firm created an infrastructure to help out-of-state volunteers offer their legal skills. The firm's associates - Jasa Gitomer, Daniel Fishbein, Lauren Estrin, and Avril McKean Dieser - helped in training, managing, and supervising a group of law students from the University of North Carolina volunteering for the Project. The firm's paralegals, Betsy Hale and Katie Nowell, helped the organization by entering records generated by the law students into the Project's database.

02-21-2007

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Bjerke joins Heller Ehrman as a shareholder

Leading Seattle attorney Bruce Bjerke has joined San Francisco-based Heller Ehrman, LLC, as a shareholder.

Before joining Heller Ehrman, Bjerke worked with Seattle-based Riddell Williams for 29 years. During his career, Bjerke has made his mark as a pro in the areas of hospitality and mergers & acquisitions. Bjerke's clients include companies such as Starbucks Corporation, Puget Sound Energy, Coast Hotels (USA) LLC, and Security Properties, among others.

Bjerke's major concern about the move was whether the new firm would offer the broader range of legal services his clients needed. He decided in favor of Heller Ehrman after taking his clients into confidence and satisfying himself about the culture and resources of the new firm.

Two other Riddell Williams lawyers, Matthew D. Le Master and Donna M. Cochener, have also joined Heller Ehrman as special counsel and associate, respectively. More than 700 attorneys and professionals work in Heller Ehrman's 12 offices worldwide.

02-21-2007

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Ogletree Deakins ranks No.1 in discrimination suits

Top discrimination lawsuit firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., was ranked as the most sought-after law firm for representation in federal discrimination suits. The survey conducted by Employment Law360 found that as many as 349 federal discrimination suits were handled by the firm alone last year. The firm also captured the second position in employment litigation and ERISA litigation. Published by Portfolio Media, Inc., the Employment Law360 is a newswire for legal professionals in the employment industry and covers developing stories in litigation, law, and regulation.

Three decade old Ogletree Deakins recently added three more offices. This move boosts the firm's attorney count to 350, and its number of offices now stands at 28. Ogletree Deakins' practice in employment, immigration, safety, or benefits law is well known on the national scene. Besides handling labor and employment law matters, the firm's attorneys also practice in business immigration, employee benefits, and workplace safety and health law.

02-20-2007

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Small- and mid-sized firms match salary rise by large law firms

The recent rise in the salaries of the associates at large law firms affected mid-sized and small firms, too. Considering the market changes, even some small and mid-sized law firms have tried to match the hike in the salaries made by the large firms.

It started last month end when Troutman Sanders raised the starting salary of its associates from $115,000 to $125,000. Soon, first-year lawyers started getting $130,000 at many other mid-sized firms.

Some small law firms like Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, a litigation boutique having fewer than 30 lawyers, and Atlanta-based Rogers & Hardin with about 50 lawyers have already raised the starting salary to $130,000, says dailyreportonline.com. Other mid-sized firms, such as Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial, pays the first-year lawyers $110,000 a year, besides offering them a signing bonus. The firm also evaluates its starting salaries each year. However, firms like Atlanta-based Carlock, Copeland, Semler and Stair having 80 attorneys, and Parker Hudson having 60 lawyers are yet to announce their decisions.

02-20-2007

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Nixon Peabody LLP expands Silicon Valley arm

Nixon Peabody, LLP, with more than 600 attorneys across 15 major practice areas in 16 office locations, added one more office to its list with a few more names in the roster. The move was spurred by the firm's desire to enhance its capabilities for clients who are based in California as well as for other clients who operate in California. The firm represents a wide variety of high-tech, biotech, venture capital, and emerging growth businesses both locally and on the national scene. Posed as one of the largest potential growth markets, Silicon Valley has carved its own place in the world economy.

Among the new entrants to Nixon Peabody's new office are James C. Chapman and a group of four other attorneys from the Silicon Valley Law Group. The group will be joined in Silicon Valley by several existing Business and Intellectual Property attorneys from the firm's San Francisco office. Chapman who joins the firm as a new partner to the Venture Capital, Emerging Growth and Technology Practice group, led by Jonathan R. Karis, specializes in areas including public and private securities offerings, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and international business transactions. He was the founder of the Silicon Valley Law Group, and chaired the firm's Corporate and Securities Group.

After establishing its growing practice in areas of venture capital and emerging growth company on the East Coast, the firm's move to induct Jim Chapman in Silicon Valley, Dan Offner and Dave Anderson in the Los Angeles office, registers the firm's aim to consolidate its position among the venture capital firms nationally.

02-19-2007

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Cozen-Wolf Block merger called off

Cozen O'Connor and Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen called off their plans for merger. In a joint statement, the two firms' management stated that the major roadblocks that made the merger impossible were the business and structural differences.

Chairman Stephen Cozen of the 500-lawyer Cozen firm controls majority stake and runs it as a personal corporation. However, 300-lawyer Wolf Block is more of a standard partnership. Since the beginning critical observations were made on the merger's "interesting cultural combination".

Cozen is involved in other serious discussions for group acquisitions in major practices in Chicago, Washington, DC, New Jersey and Philadelphia. These, Cozen elaborated, will not be in the range of full-scale mergers. Meanwhile, Wolf Bock suffered a major setback when Jay Dubow, leading securities litigator and executive committee member joined Pepper Hamilton.

02-19-2007

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