Legal Information Blog

Dallas based Valero Cheats Workers Out of Wages with Labor Practices

2009-08-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

"Even though Valero's corner stores are open around the clock, seven days a week, every day of the year, the company assigns just one store manager to each corner store," said plaintiff Ms. McCarthy. "This makes every manager's work week significantly longer than 40 hours, but we are not paid for these additional hours, and we are not provided time for meals or rest breaks. The company's swept our complaints under the rug for years. This class action is the only hope we have of being paid for the work we actually do and getting the breaks we're entitled to," said Weinberg Law Firm, Labor Lawyer Dallas.

Lohan Gets 1 Day in Jail on Los Angeles DUI Plea

2009-08-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

"She's getting what everyone else would get," Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers said after an hourlong hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge H. Chester Horn Jr.'s courtroom. Terms of the plea bargain were worked out in chambers.

If Lohan were to be convicted of another DUI, she would receive a mandatory 120-day jail sentence, Meyers said. If the actress violates her probation in any way, Meyers added, she could face even more time behind bars: up to a year on each of the drunk-driving and cocaine charges and 90 days on the reckless-driving charge, said Michael Bialys, Los Angeles DUI lawyer.

Fireman Sues New York over catastrophic injury

2009-08-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Kedroski and his lawyer, Ann O'Connell, assert that state law requires the city, as his employer, to pay the entire premium of his city health insurance plan for the firefighter, his spouse and for each of his dependant children. His two children are under the age of 18. The lawsuit also points out the fact that the Des Plaines Firefighters Pension Fund Board awarded Kedroski a line-of-duty disability pension, said John Q. Kelly, a New York catastrophic injury lawyer.

"Because the drill was required training for an actual emergency, Kedroski was reasonable to believe that he was faced with an emergency," the lawsuit says. It also says that the city has refused to pay the insurance premiums after City Manager Jason Bajor was asked to do so. Kedroski is asking the city to pay for his insurance premiums, reimburse him for insurance costs he has incurred since the time of the injury and pay reasonable attorneys fees and costs.

Will Obama Keep His Promise to Federal Whistleblowers?

2009-08-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

These are some of the headline-making men and women who put their federal jobs on the line, some of whose cases may be impacted by strengthened whistleblower protection laws:

Former federal air marshal Robert MacLean says he was fired in 2006 for going public with the agency's plans to eliminate air marshal protection on coast-to-coast flights to save money. MacLean has been waiting more than three years for a hearing before the MSPB. The Whistleblower Protection whistleblower lawyer Los Angeles stipulates that cases like MacLean's must be heard within 270 days.

Huron Consulting's attractive saga quickly losing its feel-good aspect

2009-08-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

David Greising
August 4, 2009

Huron was, in fact, an attractive story of a local company that made the best of circumstances that were personally and professionally devastating to thousands of honest, intelligent and competent people.

Unfortunately, the feel-good aspect of the Huron saga is fading fast. This company has something else growing around it these days: A stench of scandal that the company has failed to fumigate.

Damage control
Huron's stock takes 69% hit; company says employee payments not 'kickbacks.'

litigation lawyer Chicago

Sandy Lake man charged with DUI in serious condition

2009-08-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

GREENVILLE -- A Mercer County man charged with driving under the influence is listed in serious condition at a Pittsburgh hospital after he lost control of his vehicle on Sunday.

Thomas V. Varner, 49, of Sandy Lake, was driving around a curve on Route 358 in Perry Township when his Buick Skylark veered off the road about 2:47 a.m. After overcorrecting the car back onto the roadway, his car hit a ditch and rolled over, police said.

Varner, who was not wearing a seat belt, was transported to Greenville Medical Center. He was later flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he was listed in serious condition Tuesday.

-- Mike Maciag

Hire a Pittsburgh Dui Defense Lawyer

Los Angeles Class Action Attorneys Ringler Kearney Alvarez LLP

2009-07-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles personal injury law firm Ringler Kearney Alavarez LLP have established themselves as a premier law firm by providing clients with consistently excellent service. They pride themselves on their intellect, creativity and tenacity.

These Los Angeles train injury lawyers have achieved victories in over 100 trials with total verdicts in excess of $250 million.

Ringler Kearney Alvarez LLP achieves their verdicts by utilizing their substantial financial resources to obtain the best result possible for each of their clients. This California class action specialist law firm fights tirelessly for their clients, no matter the cost and no matter the foe.

New York Personal Injury Attorney John Q. Kelly

2009-01-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

New York Personal Injury Attorney John Q. Kelly is pleased to announce the launch of his new website for The Kelly Group P.C.

The website can be viewed at http://www.kellygrouppc.com and features notable cases and clients of Mr. Kelly.

About John Q. Kelly
One of the most renowned litigators in the country, Mr. Kelly has a proven track record in complex civil and corporate litigation nationwide.

His clients include some of the most widely publicized victims in recent times, including:

- Estate of Nicole Brown Simpson
- Parents of Natalee Holloway
- Estate of Kathleen Savio, ex-wife of Drew Peterson
- Estate of Heiress Anne Scripps Douglas
- Former Yankee great Joe Pepitone

Los Angeles Train Accident Attorneys

2008-09-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

www.rkallp.com

Metrolink Wrecks Another Train

2008-09-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

Metrolink worker sued Burlington Northern Santa Fe, saying his alcoholism returned after the fatal 2002 Placentia collision.

A metrolink conductor who said his drinking problems resumed after the Placentia train crash in 2002 will receive $8.5 million to settle his lawsuit against one of the nations largest railroads.

Patrick Phillips of Riverside agreed Tuesday to settle his suit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. The case was set to go to trial next week in Orange County Superior Court.

Phillips, now 52, suffered minor head injuries the morning of April 23, 2002 when a Burlington Northern Freight train crashed into a Metrolink commuter train in Placentia. Three people died and more than 260 were injured in the early morning crash.

Though his injuries were slight, the conductor alleged that the trauma was serious enough to trigger a resurgence of his severe alcoholism, which he said he had controlled since rehabilitation in the early 1990's.

"I have never seen a case like this in 30 years, yet it is indeed what happened here," said Jerome L. Ringler, Phillips' attorney.

"We had extensive medical evaluations by a variety of neurological specialists. All were in accord that his injury, although minor, changed his behavior."

After the train crash, Phillips was hospitalized for evaluation but released about two hours later, Ringler said. In the months after the crash, however, Phillips allegedly resumed his alcohol abuse, resulting in at least two other hospitalizations.

Ringler said his client was finally diagnosed with alcohol-related dementia, a sever mental deficiency.

Phillips, who is now disabled after working 12 years for Metrolink, was unavailable for comment. He is living with a sister in Riverside.

Under terms of the settlement, Phillips will receive $8.5 million, including interest, paid out over 20 years. The amount is worth about $4.5 million in today's dollars.
Officials for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the nations four largest railroads, confirmed the settlement but declined to discuss the case.

Phillips' lawsuit is one of more than 100 Civil cases stemming from the Placentia crash, which federal investigators said was caused by an inattentive Burlington Norther crew that missed a warning signal.

The lawsuits allege the collision could have been prevented by an automatic braking system, long sought by the federal National Transportation Safety Board.
They also contend that the freight train crew was fatigued by overwork and that the Burlington Northern conductor had a history of losing track of signals.

In December, an Orange County jury awarded Pamela Macek, 53, also of Riverside, about $9 million in damages for psychological and physical injuries suffered in the crash. Her case was the first to go to trial.

Train Accident Lawyer Jerome Ringler - Special Message for Chatsworth Metrolink Victims

2008-09-18T11:55:00.002-07:00

Special Message for Victims of Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster

On September 12, 2008, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in Chatsworth, California when Metrolink Train #111 struck a Union Pacific freight train which was traveling on the same tracks. Our hearts go out to the victims. But this tragedy should not have happened. It happened because of human error on the part of Metrolink employees. Unfortunately, as the lawyers of RKA know well, human error by railroad engineers is not at all unique as a cause of commuter rail disasters.

Jerome L. Ringler has greater experience in representing victims of commuter rail and freight train disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California, if not the country. He has served as lead counsel in every one of the largest commuter rail disasters which have occurred in Southern California in the past 10 years.

In the Placentia Commuter Rail Disaster of 2003, Mr. Ringler was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs. He was requested by all of the lawyers representing individuals injured or killed in that incident to try the first case. That case resulted in the largest verdict for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ever rendered by a jury in the United States. That verdict, which was for $9 million, is detailed below in the multimedia section.

In the Burbank Commuter Rail Disaster, which also occurred in 2003, Mr. Ringler was again appointed by the Court to serve as lead counsel. In that capacity he was given the responsibility to try the entire liability (i.e., fault) case for all of the victims. In other words, every one of the dozens of lawyers who represented individual victims in that disaster trusted Mr. Ringler to try the liability phase for them, knowing that their clients would only recover if Mr. Ringler was successful. He was. In fact, Mr. Ringler not only obtained a favorable verdict for all of the plaintiffs, he obtained a $12 million verdict for his own client as well. This verdict was the largest in the State of California for a person with the type of injuries Mr. Ringler's client had suffered. This verdict is detailed below in the multimedia section.

Mr. Ringler is currently lead counsel for all plaintiffs in the Glendale Metrolink Derailment Disaster of 2005. This incident was, before September 12, 2008, the largest Metrolink disaster in history. Interestingly, in that case (which involves 11 deaths and dozens of serious injuries), Mr. Ringler has, against all odds, developed testimony proving that, even though a mentally-ill person placed a jeep across the tracks that the Metrolink train was traveling upon, human error on the part of the Metrolink engineer prevented him from stopping the train before hitting the jeep, which caused the train to derail. In other words, while the jeep certainly never should have been on the tracks, the Metrolink engineer would have been able to stop the train before ever striking the jeep had he only been paying proper attention. That case is scheduled to go to trial on June 8, 2009, with Mr. Ringler as lead counsel.

The verdicts detailed on this page all relate to railroad litigation. However, Mr. Ringler has achieved enormous, record-breaking monetary awards across California in a variety of complex areas. Those accomplishments are detailed elsewhere in this website. To see them, click here.

If you or a loved one has suffered injury or death as a result of the horrific Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster, we are available to discuss your rights with you confidentially and at no charge.

Please feel free to contact us at your convenience. Ask for Mr. Ringler,or any of his partners, at (213) 473-1900.

www.rkallp.com

Jerome Ringler Featured on FOX 11 talking about the Metrolink Crash

2008-09-18T11:55:00.001-07:00

Breaking Legal News Names Roth Law Featured Firm

2008-06-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

The Roth Law Group has been named a Breaking Legal News Featured Law Firm for its outstanding achievements in Business law and contract law in the Chicago area. Below is a little bit about the firm.

About Roth Law:
Business owners know that it takes hard work and dedication to make it in today's competitive marketplace. And choosing a law firm that understands the needs of small business is essential if you want to get a leg-up on the competition. You expect that your law firm will provide you with practical solutions and attentive individualized service. At the Chicago-based business law firm of the Roth Law Group, that's what you get.

At the Roth Law Group, we understand the concerns of small business owners like you and we have experience working in industries ranging from construction to chemical manufacturing. Our lawyers know that you need to remain focused on business and legal issues often detract from this goal. When the Roth Law Group represents you, we concentrate our efforts on resolving matters efficiently and economically and seek to reach the best business outcome in the least amount of time whenever practical. From contract negotiations to commercial litigation, we offer a full-range of business legal services specifically tailored to meet your needs.

If your small business is in the market for business legal services in Cook County or throughout Illinois, contact the Chicago-based Roth Law Group for a Free Initial Consultation. We offer practical solutions to your small business legal challenges at affordable rates.

A Few Representative Matters

-Obtained six-figure settlement on behalf of an Italian-based Manufacturer of wood veneer products in a breach of contract action against U.S. based distributor.

-Obtained judgment in favor of a Commercial Landscaping Contractor involving breach of contract.

-Negotiated nuisance value settlement on behalf of a Multi-Media Company sued for violation of Non-Compete Agreement, thus avoiding business interruption and an injunction.

-Successfully prosecuted foreclosure and other actions on behalf of a Colorado-based Mortgage Company.

www.rothlawgroup.com

Myspace Wins $230M Spam Suit

2008-05-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

The popular online hangout MySpace has won a $230 million judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam award ever.

A federal judge in Los Angeles issued the award when Sanford Wallace and associate Walter Rines failed to show up for a court hearing.

Wallace earned the monikers "Spam King" and "Spamford" as head of a company that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails a day in the 1990s. He left that company, Cyber Promotions, following lawsuits from leading Internet service providers such as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, only to re-emerge in a spyware case that led to a $4 million federal judgment against him in 2006.
Click here to find out more!

MySpace sued under the federal anti-spam law that provides $100 in damages for each violation and triples that if the violation is on purpose.

Wallace and Rines were accused of sending more than 730,000 messages to MySpace members as fake friends, recommending "cool" sites that turned out to be money-making schemes selling things like ring tones.

MySpace said the spamming ate up valuable space and angered members.

Yahoo! Shareholders Keep Filing Lawsuits

2008-05-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Two Detroit pension funds have filed a shareholders lawsuit against Yahoo in the Delaware Chancery Court, according to reports Friday.

The lawsuit, filed by the a Detroit public employees pension fund and a Detroit firefighters and police pension fund, accused the Internet search pioneer of stonewalling Microsoft's unsolicited buyout offer, initially valued at $44.6 billion on February 1.

"Yahoo's directors cannot 'just say no' indefinitely to legitimate acquisition offers when the effect of that decision is to deny shareholder choice in the face of non-coercive and economically beneficial bid--especially where, as here, the bid may yet be improved through negotiations," the lawsuit stated, according to MarketWatch.

Earlier this month, the Wayne County Employees Retirement System sued Yahoo in a Michigan court.

Separately, Microsoft on Friday released a copy of an e-mail that Windows and Windows Live unit head Kevin Johnson sent to his staff.

In the memo, Johnson repeats Microsoft's language that it believes its offer is "full and fair."

"While Yahoo has issued a press release rejecting our proposal, we continue to believe we have a full and fair proposal on the table," Johnson said. "We look forward to a constructive dialogue with Yahoo!'s Board, management, shareholders, and employees on the value of this combination and its strategic and financial merits."

Johnson also addresses many of the key questions that have been raised about the merger, although he does so in largely general terms, sidestepping the question of which Microsoft and which Yahoo products would be kept once a deal was completed.

"Both Microsoft and Yahoo have great brands and technologies," he wrote. "Yahoo has a very strong consumer brand and we are committed to build on the Yahoo brand as a major part of the combined products and services we deliver to customers."
Kevin Johnson

But, he repeated the company line that "it is premature to say which aspects of the brands and technologies we would use in our combined offerings," saying such decisions would be made by an integration team made up of leaders from both companies.

On the open source vs. Windows question, Johnson writes that "Services we've acquired over the years have been based on both Windows and open source technologies.

"Although Windows is our strategic platform and in some cases the teams ultimately migrated their products to Windows for a variety of reasons, in other cases we have prioritized continuity and have used open interoperability mechanisms to achieve effective systems integration," Johnson said. "Yahoo has made significant investments in both its skills and technologies, so we would work closely with Yahoo engineers to make pragmatic platform and integration methodology decisions."

He also briefly addressed the issue of competing corporate cultures.

"Some aspects of the two cultures will naturally merge quickly and some will remain unique in the near-term and merge more slowly over time," he said. "At Microsoft today, we have a corporate culture, but individual teams develop, nurture, and retain a culture of their own as well. The culture of the combined entity will be shaped by individuals and teams from both Yahoo and Microsoft."

Johnson had downplayed the notion of cultural differences in an interview the day the deal was announced.

US Attorney Generals Agree on Facebook

2008-05-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

The attorneys general of 49 states have reached a sweeping agreement with Facebook Inc. to implement new safety and privacy rules designed to protect younger users from sexual predators and inappropriate Internet content.

Under terms of the agreement, Facebook will begin to provide automatic warning messages when a child is in danger of giving personal information to an unknown adult, restrict the ability of users to change their listed ages, and act more aggressively to remove inappropriate content and groups from the site, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said in a statement.

The agreement, which also includes the District of Columbia, is the latest attempt by law enforcement officials to shield children from sexual predators and other strangers on the Internet following a wave of high-profile cases in which adults have been charged with trolling social-network sites to meet young members. The agreement is similar to one reached in January with News Corp.'s rival social network MySpace. News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

As part of its agreement, Facebook will join the industry-wide technical task force, which was created after the MySpace agreement, to explore and develop age and identity verification tools. The group will issue a formal report with findings and recommendations at the end of 2008. Companies that make widgets, software applications that provide services to Facebook users, will also be required to implement and enforce the social network's safety and privacy guidelines.

Furthermore, Facebook has agreed to maintain a list of pornographic Web sites and regularly remove any links to such sites. It has agreed to remove groups for incest, pedophilia, cyber bullying and other violations of the site's terms of services, and will expel members who violate these terms.

US Corporate Law Firms' Future Looks Bright

2008-05-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

In 2015 -- the year that New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez will surpass 762 home runs and break the Major League record -- Latham & Watkins and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom will both gross more than $5 billion. Baker & McKenzie will have more than 6,600 lawyers, and the lucky partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz will bring home about $7.7 million apiece -- a handsome sum, but one that will itself be dwarfed by the $15.7 million Wachtell partners will average in 2025.

Or maybe not.

Predicting the future based on the past is a risky business. Just as age or injury might derail Rodriguez's bid to become the all-time home run king, so do both exogenous and planned events -- ranging from strategic mergers to disastrous recessions -- affect the growth curves of the firms in the Am Law 100. Rodriguez has averaged 44 home runs a year for 11.8 seasons, but one cannot run a simple mathematical model (762 divided by 44) to guarantee when or if he'll break the record. Nor can we know for sure exactly how rich Wachtell partners will be, or how huge a behemoth Baker & McKenzie will become.

Nevertheless, the past is typically our best predictor of the future. As forecasting techniques like scenario-planning suggest, we can use historic trends as a tool to gain insight about what is likely to happen. Of course, to come up with the likeliest projections, we must consider more than just historical performance. We have to scrutinize projections to identify possible factors or events that might promote or impede the forecasted values, which can then be built into the strategic-planning analysis.

Moreover, when projections from past trends are so bold that they make the future look unlikely or even impossible, we must question the underlying basis for the projections. To return to the baseball analogy, when Alex Rodriguez was on his home run tear early in the 2007 season, some analysts projected that he would shatter the single-season record. But the smarter bet was that his pace was unsustainable in light of history and would eventually slow, which it did. So for some law firms, projections will be straightforward and speak to sustainable business models. For others, projections will be almost impossible to believe, telling us something about why those firms may struggle to meet their goals.

This analysis is based on data that goes back to The American Lawyer's inaugural effort to document law firm finances, the 1985 Am Law 50, which identified the top revenue producers in fiscal year 1984. Forty-seven of those original 51 firms were still in existence through the 2006 Am Law 200 (which examined fiscal year 2005), providing us with financial data for a period of just more than 20 years. The projections, which also call upon head count data from sibling publication The National Law Journal, take us out an additional 20 years, to 2025.

The forecasting model was relatively straightforward: Law firms were predicted to continue to grow commensurate with their historic rate of growth. Past growth was based on the compound annual growth rate (CAGR), which is commonly used to estimate investment rates of returns, offering a "smoothed out," or uniform, average growth rate through the use of a geometric (as opposed to arithmetic) mean over a specified period of time. Firms' historic CAGRs were then projected into the future.

Some of the results -- such as Latham's projected revenue of almost $23 billion in 2025 -- may seem hard to swallow. But remember: Large U.S. corporate law firms have enjoyed astonishing growth since the inaugural Am Law survey in 1985. Who would ever have thought that Wachtell would see its profits per partner go from $795,000 in 1984 to almost $5 million today? Or that Skadden's gross revenue would balloon from $129 million in 1984 to more than $2 billion in 2007? While these nominal values overstate the real dollar values ($4 million today would be equal to roughly $2 million in 1984), even the inflation-adjusted figures show that firms have made extraordinary -- if not hard-to-believe -- gains in the last two decades. They also highlight, in retrospect, the highly speculative nature of prediction. But it's that very lack of certainty that makes prognostication so irresistible.

The projections make it clear that U.S. corporate law firms of the future will be wealthier, larger and more international than they were in the past. Of the 47 firms in the analysis, only Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Kelley Drye & Warren are projected to have gross revenues of less than $1 billion in 2025. Six firms, on the other hand, will gross more than $10 billion: Kirkland & Ellis; Mayer Brown; Baker & McKenzie; Jones Day; Skadden; and Latham. By 2025 Latham, at $23 billion, will have dramatically outpaced Skadden, its nearest competitor at $15.9 billion.

The PPP projections for 2025 have Wachtell partners bringing home almost $15.7 million (before adjusting for inflation). Cravath, Swaine & Moore's PPP will be $9.6 million; Skadden's $6 million; and Baker & McKenzie's $2.5 million. The highest 2025 projected profits per partner are at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where the model suggests partners will net nearly $20 million apiece in 2025. But don't count on being one of those partners: Based on Am Law 100 data, the firm is predicted to have only 88.

White & Case is projected to be the biggest of the 47 firms in the analysis, with 13,824 lawyers; Baker & McKenzie will follow closely behind with 13,512. More than three-quarters of the lawyers at both firms will be based outside the United States. Jones Day will have 11,623 lawyers and Latham 11,066, of whom almost 40 percent will be international. Cravath and Wachtell will remain relatively small, with 832 lawyers and 400 lawyers, respectively.

Those 11,066 Latham lawyers will generate revenue per lawyer of more than $2.3 million in 2025, but they'll be outdone by the lawyers at several firms with RPL of more than $3 million. These include Kirkland ($3.1 million); Cadwalader ($3.2 million); Cravath, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (each at $3.6 million); Simpson Thacher & Bartlett ($4.2 million); and Sullivan & Cromwell ($5.6 million). Wachtell will generate a chart-busting RPL of $7 million in 2025.

And as the roster of firms atop the PPP and RPL projections indicates, the gap between firms will grow ever larger. The rich will continue to get richer and the poor relatively poorer. The former Am Law 50 firms with the lowest profits per partner in 2007, for example, are Fulbright & Jaworski ($775,000); Hunton & Williams ($750,000); Dorsey & Whitney ($670,000); and Baker & Hostetler ($555,000). They will trail still farther behind the pack in 2025, with Fulbright at $1.8 million; Hunton & Williams at $2.1 million; Dorsey at $1.2 million; and Baker & Hostetler at $1.4 million. Big firms will become bigger relative to smaller firms; and firms with a strong international presence will stand in greater contrast to those firms that have a minimal or no international presence.

These projections present numerous challenges and opportunities for firms in the Am Law 200. For firms to maintain the growth rates they established in the last 20 years -- the rates that resulted in these optimistic predictions -- they will have to grapple with a number of critical questions:

Will the market for high-end corporate legal services continue to expand? The projections assume that demand will continue to grow at historic rates. For that to happen, however, law firms will have to penetrate or create new markets, whether in other countries or new practice areas. But what happens if the market for high-end corporate legal services slows down, reaching what organizational theorists call its "carrying capacity"? Growth could then become more costly for firms, because it would come directly from other firms' market shares.

Where will firms find the lawyers they need to continue to grow? The entering classes at elite U.S. law schools are either not growing or growing at a rate insufficient to fill the future demands of elite law firms. Firms will have to do much more to find, retain and develop talent -- and perhaps to outsource more work. These projections also suggest that more firms will need to merge.

How will the firms of the future manage the complexities of their ever-increasing size and geographical scope? The firm of the past had a few hundred lawyers. Several firms today have more than 1,000 -- but in 20 years, a 1,000-lawyer firm will be midsize. And firms will be much more geographically dispersed. Managing complexity will require that firm leaders continually develop and market their firm's expertise, while at the same time nurturing talent.

What will be the organizational identity of firms with an increasing percentage of lawyers outside the U.S.? A number of firms will cross the threshold and become global operations, no longer just U.S. firms with an international presence. Will such firms suffer identity crises? Will they be able to create a global identity that unites their partners worldwide?

Will firms that have avoided international expansion be able to continue to grow? Projections suggest that in 2025 Wachtell will still be wholly domestic and Cravath will have only about 6 percent of its lawyers outside the U.S. If the market forces them to move to a more global model, they may suffer significant financial and cultural costs, especially if they have to move quickly. Domestic firms with less marketable reputations may be hurt even more if they have to play global catch-up.

Which firms are the next up-and-comers? Latham & Watkins has seen explosive growth in the last 20 years. Can it continue to gain momentum or is it primed to stumble and fall?

Will a firm like Cadwalader be able to sustain its slow-growth model? Profits per partner of $20 million in 2025 sound great; 88 equity partners doesn't, which may indicate a lack of sustainability for the firm's present model. How can the firm ensure that it has enough young talent to fuel its growth if it permits so few partners to share the jackpot?

Will the firm of the future be a partnership or a publicly held corporation? Partnerships of the past started with two or three lawyers and a handshake. Firms today look more and more like corporations, with hierarchical management structures and tiers of ownership. This corporatization has the potential to lead to drastic consolidation through takeovers, with midsize firms facing increased pressure to grow and large law firms gobbling up small elite shops.

No growth model can promise that Latham's 2025 gross will exceed by orders of magnitude the revenues of the entire 1985 Am Law 50, or that in 20 years Baker & McKenzie will have about as many lawyers as the total number employed by the inaugural Am Law 50. These forecasts are not set in stone; they are merely indicators of what lies within the realm of possibility. But they show that realm to be a land of enormous opportunity and wealth for those firms that are able to build on their history to control their destiny.

Peter D. Sherer is an associate professor at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, specializing in strategy and management with a focus on law firms. He was the lead author of a study on institutional change in law firms that was named the Best Paper of 2002 in the Academy of Management Journal.

See related Am Law 100 coverage, including the 2007 financial figures for the top firms.

Full Story

Herbert Smith Posts Record Profits-Per-Partner

2008-05-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

Herbert Smith has unveiled a record-breaking financial year, with profits per equity partner (PEP) smashing the 1 million pound barrier on the back of a 25 percent surge in turnover.

Revenue at the U.K. heavyweight jumped by a quarter, from 324 million pounds ($630.8 million) in 2006-07 to 417.5 million pounds ($812.9 million) for the most recent financial year.

PEP, meanwhile, also grew by 25 percent from 820,000 pounds to 1.02 million pounds ($2 million), making Herbert Smith just the seventh firm in the Legal Week Top 50 to break the 1 million pound barrier alongside the Magic Circle giants and rival London firm Macfarlanes.

The results represent a major turnaround from last year’s performance, when Herbert Smith saw PEP dip by 2.5 percent against a rise of 12.8 percent in total revenue.

A spokesperson for them firm confirmed that all practice areas comfortably exceeded their target revenues, while Dubai was singled out as a strong performer in the first year since the office's launch. Moscow and Southeast Asia were also cited as having performed well on the international stage.

News of the record profits and turnover comes after Herbert Smith announced on April 30 that it was freezing its associate salaries at last year's levels.

Meanwhile, Norton Rose Tuesday posted a 23 percent rise in turnover for 2007-08, jumping up to 297 million pounds ($578.2 million). PEP at the top 10 City firm has yet to be announced.

U.S. Interrogation Lawyers May Face Overseas Charges

2008-05-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

Philippe Sands believes former Bush administration lawyers should think twice before traveling abroad. As Sands sees it, those government attorneys who crafted and green-lighted interrogation procedures for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay may have crossed a line and engaged in torture. And while they might not have to answer for this in the United States, outside the U.S. the lawyers face a real possibility of criminal charges for violating international laws against torture.

Sands, an English lawyer who has done some work on behalf of British detainees at Guantánamo, makes his case in his just-published book Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values. The memo in question, which authorized a range of aggressive interrogation techniques, was signed by the former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on December 2, 2002; it was retracted two months later.

William "Jim" Haynes II, then general counsel of the Defense department, authored the memo. Five other government lawyers played a key role in its development, in Sands' estimation: Douglas Feith, then an undersecretary of Defense; Jay Bybee and John Yoo, former Justice officials who coauthored a controversial August 2002 opinion on interrogation procedures; and David Addington, then counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Sands takes violations of international law seriously--the field is his specialty, both as a lawyer and an academic. A founding member of Matrix Chambers, one of London's leading barrister firms, Sands is a professor of law at University College London. He also taught at New York University School of Law for 12 years. On a visit to the U.S. last week to talk about the book with audiences, Sands also testifed before the House Judiciary Committee, which has been investigating the government's interrogation policy. He found time to speak with The American Lawyer. American Lawyer present the first part of this conversation here.

This book's focus is very narrow--it's literally just about a single memo.

A single, one-page memo that authorizes 15 techniques of interrogation and leaves open the possibility of using three others, including waterboarding. I traced back every single person who'd been involved in the decisionmaking process. And I interviewed, face to face, as many of them as I could, to get the story of where that memo had emanated from.

Is there any one individual in particular you think bears the most responsibility?

The person who comes out as the leader is David Addington. I've got a lot of people talking about his role, and his fingerprints are all over this. But Haynes was most directly involved. It was he who crafted the memorandum that was put in front of Rumsfeld.

You write that these interrogation procedures were used primarily on Mohammed al-Qahtani and a second detainee at Guantánamo.
(Note: The government claims that al-Qahtani is the "twentieth hijacker" and one of the masterminds of the 9-11 attacks. al-Qahtani, who has been held at Guantánamo for more than six years, was charged with murder and war crimes in February; those charges were dismissed late last week - a report appears in The Am Law Daily.)

I don't think they were used on anyone else. Although they are the same techniques that have been used by the CIA in extraordinary rendition proceedings, and they have also been used at Kandahar and Bagram in Afghanistan. But I haven't focused on that.

I don't believe there has been systematic torture at Guantánamo. I think Guantánamo is not a good place, I think Guantánamo is lawless in many respects, but I don't think there has been systematic torture.

Let's pull back for a moment, for people who may not be keeping up with the torture debate. Why did the administration's lawyers have to weigh in on the interrogation policy in the first place?

Because U.S. law and international law define torture reasonably clearly, and establish an unambiguous prohibition against torture from which there is no exception, under any circumstance. Faced with this, the Bush administration recognized that if it was to act lawfully, it had to find a way to get around those definitions and those constraints. The lawyers were invoked to provide that necessary service.

Do lawyers have the capability to define torture?

Not on their own. I don't think a lawyer can determine whether someone has been tortured without technical assistance. I found a clinical psychiatrist who's probably one of the leading experts in the United Kingdom on torture-Abigail Seltzer, who's treated torture victims from Iran and Egypt. I gave her the interrogation log for al-Qahtani and I asked her, "Does this match torture?" (Note: The log describes the response of al-Qahtani to the interrogation procedures--extreme sleep deprivation, aggravating noise, and humiliation techniques--that were used on him during a 51-day period in late 2002 and early 2003.)

She was very careful in what she said. In her view, there isn't a medical definition of torture. Ultimately, it's a legal definition. She was looking for "indicators of distress" to determine whether al-Qahtani had suffered severe mental pain and suffering. And she concluded that he had. From a medical perspective, there were indicators of distress that would allow the conclusion to be made by another person--a lawyer or a judge--that he had been tortured.

A lot of sincere people disagree about what constitutes torture. Some will allow procedures that others find abhorrent. Is there an objective way to determine what crosses the line and what doesn't?

There's no more an objective way of making that determination than other determinations that judges and lawyers have to make every day: Is a defendant insane? Is he mentally fit to stand trial? We have to make judgment calls every day on these kinds of issues, and this issue is no different.

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2006-12-28T17:40:00.000-08:00

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2006-12-28T17:37:00.000-08:00

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