Dallas-based firm Jenkens & Gilchrist has shrunk from 600 lawyers in 2001 to less than 200. Over the past few years the firm was sued by former clients over improper tax shelter advice and has been strategically downsizing in response. Its most recent move was the handing over of its entire 19-lawyer L.A. office to Baker Hostetler. Jenkens also moved most of its Chicago office, about 15 IP lawyers, to Nixon Peabody this week. It is also rumored that some of Jenkens’ Dallas lawyers might join Hunton & Williams.
Source: www.law.com

Foley & Lardner LLP announced today the opening of another office in Los Angeles. Adding to the Century City branch, the firm will open an office in downtown LA catering more to its corporate and litigation practices. Jack Lasater, the current managing partner in Century City, will also oversee the new LA office. This office is the firm’s 7th in CA and 20th worldwide.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Over the past eight months, Los Angeles has become the hotspot for mid-size East Coast firms looking to expand. Seven firms have opened or expanded offices in LA: Duane Morris; Dreier; Goodwin Procter; Hunton & Williams; McGuireWoods; Steptoe & Johnson LLP; and Venable. Several of these firms have recruited large numbers of attorneys from prominent local firms; Goodwin Proctor, for example, acquired real estate partners from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Century City. The recent activity seems to be the beginning of a trend – lawyers in the west are considering their options and are much more willing to move than some others.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

New York firm, Milberg Weiss & Bershad, promoted four associates to partners this week. Neil Fraser, Matthew Kuppilas and Christopher Polaszek have joined the partnership in the firm’s NY headquarters, while new partner Sabrina Kim is based in Los Angeles. The firm also promoted two associates to of counsel.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

In response to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s salary increase implemented this week, several firms have matched their first year pay rate of $160,000. Miami’s Greenberg Traurig reported that first-year, mid-level, and senior associates’ salaries in its 330-lawyer New York office would be increased. Litigation boutique Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges also plans to increase salaries in both its Los Angeles headquarters and its 85-lawyer New York office. New York firms Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Shearman & Sterling and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson also announced associate pay raises yesterday. Some firms like O’Melveny & Myers, on the other hand, matched NY salaries, but didn’t apply them in all offices; first years in their CA office will receive $145,000. Morrison & Foerster also will match in New York, but keep its CA starting pay at $135,000.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

New York firm Dreier Stein & Kahan recently opened a Los Angeles affiliate firm focusing on entertainment law. The 100-lawyer litigation boutique, headed by litigator Marc S. Dreier, has opened several affiliate firms specializing in areas like trusts and estates, labor law and lobbying. For the LA firm, Dreier recruited around 40 lawyers from the litigation and transactional practices of Los Angeles’ Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Nixon Peabody acquired a four-lawyer Century City, California, boutique, gaining two partners with expertise in video games and new media transactions. The lawyers from Offner & Anderson will join Nixon’s 18-lawyer downtown Los Angeles office and bring all of their clients with them. Daniel Offner and David Anderson come aboard as partners and the firm’s two other lawyers as associates. In the past two years, the LA office has grown from two to 22 attorneys.
Source: www.law.com

Arent Fox makes its presence known in California with Tuesday’s takeover of Los Angeles-based, litigation boutique O’Brien Abeles. This is the first expansion for the Washington firm since they closed four offices starting in 1993, keeping open only the D.C. and NY headquarters. Besides O’Brien Ables’ nine lawyers, Arent Fox is also adding two new attorneys and relocating two others to the CA office. Arent Fox’s revenue was up 7.7 percent last year, grossing $153 million in revenue with 260 lawyers.
Source: www.law.com

Denver firm Brownstein Hyatt & Farber and Las Vegas’ Schreck Brignone will merge on Jan. 1, 2007. The new firm will be called Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. After the merger, Brownstein Hyatt will have over 170 associates in seven different locations. The 25-attorney Schreck Brignone is known for its gaming practice, while Brownstein Hyatt has political, real estate, corporate and litigation practices. Bruce James of Brownstein Hyatt will remain CEO and managing partner of the new firm, and Schreck Brignone managing partner Ellen Schulhofer will join the executive committee.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Continuing its ambitious expansionary path, New York’s Dreier has set another goal: Los Angeles. In a merger set to go through by January 1, Dreier looks to pick up thirty attorneys and an office from L.A. firm Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan, including name partners Stanton Stein and Robert Kahan. Head-man Marc Dreier expects the office to house 100 attorneys by next year.
Source: www.nylawer.com