A seven-attorney team from Alhadeff & Solar (A&S) has joined Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in California. The A&S lawyers will add to Buchanan’s existing San Diego, Del Mar office, as well as adding an office in downtown San Diego and one in Temecula. The two name partners, Sam Alhadeff and Keith Solar, lead the team which includes two senior attorneys, three associates, and eight staff members. In the San Diego market, where Solar is based, A&S was known for handling business law, litigation, and water law matters. Solar is well-known for his work in water rights and the tuna industry. A&S’s practice in Temecula focused primarily on land-use and environmental law. Alhadeff’s work here deals with real estate development, entitlement, and conservation.
Source: www.earthtimes.org
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is the latest large California-based firm to raise salaries. Its San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego offices will have the $160,000 starting salary, and Sacramento first-years will earn $145,000. LA-based Munger, Tolles & Olson also raised first-year pay to $160,000, and San Francisco’s Shartsis Friese went up to $165,000. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips announced that on Jan. 1 it would also match the $160,000 rate.
DLA Piper has raised starting salaries in its Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices to $160,000. Sacramento first-years will get $145,000. Earlier in the year the firm raised salaries for CA intellectual property associates to $160,000 but left all other associates at $145,000. The firm assured associates that the raise will not mean higher billing rates, an increase benchmark hours requirements, or a reduction in bonus pay.
Source: www.law.com
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has hired Heiko Kai Schultz as of counsel in the Los Angeles office. Schultz was formerly a partner with Kirkland & Ellis. His commercial litigation practice handles intellectual property, bankruptcy, securities, accounting malpractice and environmental litigation.
Source: www.lawfuel.com
Houston and Dallas-based Locke, Liddell & Sapp, and Chicago-based Lord, Bissell & Brook are finalizing plans to merge and form a 700-lawyer firm named Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell. After the merger is approved by partners, the deal is expected to close by August 1. Jerry Clements, the Austin, TX-based managing partner of Locke Liddell will head a nine-member executive committee. Locke Liddell is the larger firm, with 399 lawyers compared to Lord Bissell’s 300. However, Lord Bissell’s location cover more area, with offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, CA, and London. The two firms have worked together in the past on banking regulatory matters and as co-counsel or counsel for co-defendants on litigation or arbitration related to reinsurance disputes.
Source: www.law.com
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton has announced that first-year associates in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. will now earn $160,000. However, the L.A.-based firm is upping the hours-based bonus requirement from 2,000 to 2,100 hours. According to the firm managing partner, in 2007 the extra cost will come out of partner profits rather than increased rates. Seyfarth Shaw also raised its San Francisco and L.A. starting salaries to $145,000.
Source: www.law.com
Chicago firm Seyfarth Shaw has raised starting salaries in Sacramento from $121,000 to $135,000, retroactive to April 1. Seyfarth has 18 lawyers in this office. In an attempt to stay competitive in the market, Sacramento firm Weintraub Genshlea Chediak also raised first-year salaries in March from $90,000 to $100,000. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is paying $145,000, and Morrison & Foerster is at $160,000 in the California city.
Source: www.sacramento.bizjournals.com
West-coast lawyers are making lateral moves. Hank Evans left Bingham McCutchen to join Farella Braun & Martel as a partner in the San Francisco business transactions group. In Silicon Valley, Rudy Kim has joined Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal as a partner; he was previously with Irell & Manella. Pepper Hamilton’s Orange County office welcomed Michael Meeks as a partner from Theodora Oringher Miller & Richman.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
DLA Piper recruited two corporate and securities partners from Reed Smith, San Francisco. Dale Freeman represents public and private companies primarily in the life sciences industry, in corporate matters such as M&A deals and IPOs. Garth Osterman represents investors and companies, especially emphasizing M&A deals, divestiture transactions, and project finance. The partners were drawn to DLA for its strong emerging companies and venture capital practice, as well as its global reach.
Source: www.law.com
Davis Wright Tremaine has acquired three-lawyer San Francisco IP boutique Parsons Hsue & de Runtz. Partners James Hsue and K. Alison de Runtz, and counsel Gerald Parsons bring copyright and trademark prosecution skills to the six-member San Fran IP litigation practice. The Parsons Hsue lawyers were encouraged to join Davis Wright by partner and former collegue Robert Gex. Hsue and de Runtz are looking forward to having the support of a large firm behind them for financial and recruiting reasons.
Source: www.law.com
Silicon Valley boutique Tomlinson Zisko is shutting its doors for good; the firm has been downsizing for several years and shrunk from 20 lawyers in 2002 to only five this year. Founding partners Timothy Tomlinson and William Zisko are moving their corporate and securities practices to Greenberg Traurig’s Silicon Valley office. Former Tomlinson attorney, Heather Meeker, helped launch the Greenberg office in 2004, and recruited Tomlinson and Zisko to the 1,600-lawyer firm. With the new additions, Greenberg’s Silicon Valley office will now have 15 corporate lawyers and 43 attorneys total. Real estate partner James Janz is going a different direction, joining Sideman & Bancroft in San Francisco. Three other Tomlinson attorneys also joined Sideman – coporate and IP partner Polly Dinkel, counsel Kelly McCarthy, and real estate partner Susan Taylor.
Source: www.law.com
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has increased first-year associate salaries in California to $160,000. The Silicon Valley firm is not, however, applying that rate to its Seattle or Salt Lake City offices. Additionally, the associates receiving the raise will not benefit from the quarterly bonus program. Other firms that already made the raise include Orrick; O’Melveny; MoFo; Latham and Gibson; Paul, Hastings; Winston & Strawn; Akin Gump; and Cooley Godward Kronish.
Source: www.nylawyer.com
