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Hill Wallack enters gaming practice

Princeton-based 28-year old law firm Hill Wallack LLP will merge with Atlantic City-based Sandson & DeLucry. The merger will lay the groundwork for the firm to enter the gaming practice area. The new firm's combined strength will be roughly 65 attorneys.

The law firm, which will set up shop in southern New Jersey, will organize a four-member team to look into the legal needs of the gaming industry and casinos. Richard DeLucry and Timothy Lowry from Sandson & DeLucry will join the new firm in Atlantic City. Hill Wallack deals in casino, regulatory, real estate, and litigation practice. The team of specialists will include two veteran attorneys who have prior experience in gaming regulations; former Deputy Solicitor for Atlantic City, Joseph Dougherty, and Paul Josephson, ex-director of the Division of Law in the Attorney General's Office. With a track record of more than 15 years in casino regulatory issues, the firm has the structure in place to compete for business in gaming suits. Josephson, partner-in-charge of the Regulatory & Government Affairs Practice Group of the firm will head the Gaming Law Practice Group and the Atlantic City office.

The firm's lawyers have handled a wide array of matters that confront gaming interests, from licensing and enforcement issues to personal injury and workers compensation litigation. With their new gaming practice, the firm will be involved in emerging legal needs in real estate, land use, community association, and trial and litigation practices.

12-22-2006

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Ford & Harrison opens Melbourne office

Atlanta-based national labor and employment law firm Ford & Harrison LLP hired Andrew S. Hament as partner for its newly opened office in Florida. The new office is the firm's fifth location in Florida, and the sixteenth location in the U.S. An expert in the practice area, Hament joins the law firm from GrayRobinson. Hament has amassed wide experience with businesses in the Space and Treasure Coast area of eastern Florida. In addition to representing clients in all areas of labor and employment law, Hament counsels clients in employment relationships, including sexual harassment, drug abuse, and drug testing, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the growing concerns about violence in the workplace. Hament has done much work towards the establishment of employers' right to transfer wage and hour lawsuits filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act from state court to federal court. The firm has more than 175 lawyers in its 16 offices. Other Florida locations include Jacksonville, Miami, Melbourne, Orlando, and Tampa.

12-21-2006

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Duane Morris’ offices garner strength

Duane Morris hired former DLA Piper attorneys to fortify its newly created Baltimore office. The four new hires, three partners and one senior counsel, will concentrate in the firm's corporate practice group. The firm is receptive to hiring more attorneys, and wants to expand the scope of their practice areas beyond corporate and transactional work. The creation of the Baltimore office was spurred by the firm's active decision to reach out to the clients in the mid-Atlantic region. Senior counsel Wilbert Sirota, the partners Jay Gordon Cohen, Keli Isaacson, and George Nemphos will deal primarily with venture capital and private equity work, mergers and acquisitions, and securities law.

Nemphos will serve as the managing partner of the Baltimore office. He will concentrate on venture financing, public offerings of securities, securities law compliance, debt financing, and mergers and acquisitions. Sirota, as chairman of the office, will look after transactions involving venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, estate planning, and general corporate and tax law. Cohen's lot will be venture capital and private equity investments, domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, and start-up company financing. Isaacson will concentrate on finance law, corporate law, and securities law regarding private and public debt and equity offerings, and venture capital transactions.

The firm plans to continue expansion by increasing its presence in Chicago. To accomplish this, the firm has added nine experienced attorneys from well-known law firms in the Chicago area. These firms include Baker & McKenzie, Jenkens & Gilchrist, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLC, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, LLP, Quarles & Brady LLP, and the Illinois State Government's Department of Health. The Chicago office is trying to bolster its diversity, which has had a positive effect on the firm's overall growth. Specific improvements have been made in the areas of health law, business reorganization and financial restructuring, corporate, real estate, trial, employment, and immigration.

The Chicago office also added three new partners earlier this year. Patricia S. Hofstra, Charles B. Lewis, and John R. Weiss, the said partners, each specialize in different practice areas. Hofstra advises healthcare professionals and healthcare companies in corporate, regulatory, and litigation matters. Lewis practices in construction law and litigation. Weiss specializes in corporate restructurings and recapitalizations, loan defaults, and bankruptcies. The office also added two Special Counsels in the Employment and Immigration Practice Group, and four associates in the areas of health law, corporate practice, real estate, and trial practice.

Earlier additions to the firm's head count include two new partners; James E. Brown and Kristin Werner. These two have joined the Philadelphia office in a bid to strengthen the firm's presence there. The duo joined the Duane Morris from Cozen O'Connor, where they handled insurance coverage.

12-21-2006

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DLA Piper strengthens its practice areas

Aiming to bolster its practice areas by adding experienced veterans, DLA Piper hired transactional and industry expert, Jerry H. Herman to its Hospitality and Leisure practice group in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. It also hired Al-Harith Sinclair for its regional financial regulatory practice in Dubai.

Herman, who joins the firm as Of Counsel, comes from Arlington Hospitality, where he served as the CEO. Herman commands over 25 years of experience in the field of hotel and real estate acquisition, development, financing, and capital formation transactions. Jay Epstein, DLA Piper's U.S. Real Estate practice group head, welcomed Herman to the group stating that they will benefit highly from the latter's excellent experience and wide accomplishments.

DLA Piper's real estate practice is diversified continuously by the recruiting of leading practitioners in the field. Boasting a real estate practice attorney strength of 550 lawyers globally, the firm's U.S. offices alone has more than 250 attorneys who provide a full range of transactional and advisory services in addition to offering advice on acquisitions, dispositions, financing, corporate facilities and related legal services to its impressive list of clients.

As part of its continued expansion program, DLA Piper has appointed Al-Harith Sinclair for its regional financial regulatory practice in Dubai. Working along with Jayshree Gupta, the head of the Dubai office, Sinclair will build on business with international and local financial institutions in the region. A UK financial regulatory lawyer, Sinclair comes from the London office of Pinsent Masons, where he was partner. He has ten years of experience in London, and focuses his practice on investment bank regulation, financial services regulation, and mergers & acquisitions in the financial area.

All over the world, DLA Piper's 3,200 lawyers, spread across 24 countries and 62 offices, practices in commercial, corporate and finance, human resources, litigation, real estate, regulatory and legislative, tax, and technology, media, and communications.

12-20-2006

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Orrick strengthens global real estate practice

International finance and real estate attorney, Hervé Kensicher has joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP as a partner in its Global Real Estate practice in Paris. Kensicher focuses his practice on French domestic and cross-border commercial real estate finance and securitization, and has significant experience in finance and banking law. Prior to joining Orrick, Kensicher was a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The merger of Orrick with the Paris law firm Rambaud Martel in January has created a strong practice for the law firm, especially in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, finance, and corporate matters.

12-20-2006

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How women fare in the U.S. law firms' inclement weather

Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton LLP has promoted Diane Prucino to its highest administrative position. Her postion in the 500-attorney firm will begin Jan. 1. She will work alongside Bill Dorris, head of the firm's litigation practice group. The move to promote two of its veteran partners to the top managerial positions was spurred by the firm's decision to end its traditional practice of having only one. The fact that this second administrative position has been awarded to a woman expresses the firm's commitment to diversity.

Prucino, whose experience spans more than two and a half decades, is hopeful that more firms will follow suit. In the new position, aside from being responsible for the firm's growth, she will also concentrate on staff beneficiary issues pertaining to hiring, retention, and rewards. The new position will also give the duo the time to continue their respective practices. Prucino's work is primarily in employee benefits, labor laws, and employment. Dorris, will continue with to focus on client services and practice management, as well as being responsible for teaming up with lawyers in response to emergent issues.

When it comes to gender equations, the public sector and corporate legal departments have long dealt differently from law firms. The top positions have traditionally been the realm of men. Female lawyers often stumble on a career roadblock once they enter the legal ring. Alternatively, on the road leading up to management positions, women are usually on par with their male counterparts. At the head of the pack in the promotion of women to top positions are many law firms in Minnesota, though firms in Atlanta tend to do a slightly better job.

Though there is some movement in the legal field to bring men and women to an equal playing field when it comes to top legal positions, women who fill these positions are often asked to concentrate on softer issues. These may include attorney development, personality improvement, or diversity. Such women are seldom given a voice in key internal issues like pay decisions, partnership selection, and other management matters. The findings of the Minnesota Bar Association on this topic have led to some ruffled feathers among diversity promoters.

Personal prejudice held by many in positions of power can also hinder the progress of female attorneys. Although a female lawyer may initiate the attraction of potential clients to the firm, higher profile cases are often assigned to men by default.

In a recent study conducted by the American Bar Association's `Commission on Women in the Profession' on women of color in law firms, a dismal picture was painted. The study, undertaken by Paulette Brown and Arin Reeves, stemmed from the 1999 National Association of Law Placement (NALP) report showing percent attrition of female minority lawyers within the first few years of hiring. The report focused on the nation's top law firms. The ABA report, "Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms", stated that women tend to leave their positions because they are not assigned meaningful jobs, are excluded from formal and informal networking opportunities, and are exposed to demeaning comments or other types of harassment on the job. These experiences, along with more subtle forms of discrimination, are prompting the growing numbers of minority women to abandon their lucrative prospects in the nation's biggest law firms. More than a 1000 of those who responded to the study revealed often disturbing details about their experiences with discrimination.

The study's conclusion states that simply hiring minority women wouldn't does not suffice as a measure of ensuring diversity. Law firms also need to ensure that these attorneys are treated with equal regard, making them want to remain at the firms.

Though it may be coming at a snail's pace, change is on the horizon. The number of female partners at law firms across the United States averages at 17.3 percent, according to a recent NALP report. At Reed Smith, 19 percent of the partners are females. Out of Fox Rothschild's 169 equity partners in its offices across the nation, 24 are women. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham encourages female lawyers, and has done its part to ensure equal opportunity for women by creating a sub-committee for women's issues.

Prucino's promotion puts her in a league among extraordinary females in the legal profession. Tonia Sellers is the head Weissman, Nowack, Curry & Wilco P.C.'s top post. Louise Wells serves as partner in the residential real estate group, and is a member of the management committee at Morris, Manning & Martin LLP. Other women in this group include Elizabeth Vranicar Tanis of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP; Sara Kay Wheeler, a partner and member of the board of partners at Powell Goldstein LLP; Pinney Allen, of Alston & Bird LLP; Lizanne Thomas, who handles various administrative functions across 30 locations of Jones Day; Chilton Varner, a senior partner and the first woman to serve on the management committee at King & Spalding LLP; and Marianne Short, who was named by Dorsey & Whitney as the new managing partner this year, and is the firm's first woman to hold the coveted chair at Dorsey.

12-19-2006

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Bingham McCutchen goes to Tokyo; Fried Frank to Hong Kong

Boston-based international firm Bingham McCutchen joined forces with a 22-lawyer Tokyo-based law firm Sakai & Mimura. The pact is still awaiting partner approval, and is expected to be effective from January 31. Sakai & Mimura is known for its financial restructuring, mergers, and acquisitions. Following the merger, the new office will be looked after by Hideyuki Sakai managing partner of Bingham's Tokyo office. The new office, with the extensive moniker Bingham McCutchen Murase Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi Jimusho, Sakai & Mimura Houritsu Jimusho, will consist of a team of American lawyers, and nearly 20 bengoshi (Japanese lawyers). Out of Bingham's 950 lawyers, 30 lawyers are associated with the Japanese practice group and are, at present, working in the firm's New York office. The firm's attorneys represents clients in high-stakes litigation, complex financing and financial regulatory matters, government affairs, and a vast range of sophisticated corporate and technology transactions.

In a similar overseas collaborating, Hong Kong law firm Huen Wong & Co. and New York-based Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP have announced the launch of a Hong Kong office. Combining with Huen Wong's M&A, capital markets, real estate and litigation practices, the new home-base will provide Fried Frank's clients with access to the firm's US, European and international expertise in the areas. With 120 lawyers working in offices outside the US, Fried Frank is rapidly increasing its presence in the international arena.

12-19-2006

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