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• Clifford Chance to tell under-performers to take a hike

  May 17 2012 Clifford Chance is attempting to change its own rules regarding the removal of underperforming partners. Under the current system, an under-performing partner will be... more

• Departing Dewey partner claims $61m from firm

  May 15 2012 As the partnership of Dewey & Lebouef’s partnership scatters across the legal services market, one senior partner has made an audacious claim against the firm,... more

• US legal services market becomes more segmented

  May 07 2012 The most expensive US lawyers are becoming even more costly, while the cheapest are barely keeping up with inflation, according to this story published in the Wall... more

• Litigation funding firm BlackRobe hires Simpson Thacher lawyer as MD

  Apr 18 2012 New York-based private investment firm BlackRobe Capital Partners has hired former Simpson Thacher & Bartlett lawyer Michael Chepiga to become its managing director.... more

• Average profits rise at Scottish law firms

  Feb 20 2012 Profits at Scotland’s law firms are rising for the first time since the global finaincial crisis, with the average profit per equity partner across all sizes of firm... more

• 2012 may be more challenging than 2009, says legal industry advisory

  Feb 20 2012 The new client advisory from Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group and the Hildebrandt Institute has some disheartening news for the legal sector: “Unfortunately, the... more

• US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform looks closely at Australian litigation funding industry

  Feb 13 2012 A new report sponsored by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform has taken a look at the six-year-old litigation funding industry in Australia, focusing on the... more

• Orrick gives associates incentives to bill on time

  Feb 08 2012 Here is a brief article on the merit-based compensation system at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. According to this report there are two features of Orrick’s... more

• Litigation support services in high demand

  Feb 07 2012 A new survey put together by New York-based headhunter and consultancy The Cowen Group has attempted to evaluate the ratio of salaries to revenue within law firms,... more

• Law firms remain cautious in recruitment despite recovery

  Feb 01 2012 This article in the Wall Street Journal points out that law firms are finally starting to recover from the recession, but that the returning good fortune is not being... more

• Dechert bonuses based on performance requirement

  Jan 16 2012 Dechert announced its 2011 end-of-year bonuses for US associates just after Christmas, with a schedule of bonuses that broadly matches the standard set by Cleary... more

• Scottish firms still struggling in a difficult market

  Jan 15 2012 A new report from management consultants PwC has observed that Scottish Law firms are still struggling under difficult market conditions and regulatory changes, with... more

• International firm Bryan Cave acquires Denver firm Holme Roberts

  Dec 07 2011 The 113-year-old Denver firm Holme Roberts & Owen is set to merge with St. Louis-based Bryan Cave. Holme Roberts will bring its 150 lawyers under the banner of... more

• New generation of partners surveyed

  Nov 26 2011 The Am Law Daily has hosted a conference for new partners in large law firms. In order to prepare for the conference the publication conducted a survey of about 5,600... more

• UK lawyers push to do away with training contracts

  Nov 23 2011 As US law firms grapple with the question of how to train lawyers when companies refuse to be billed by inexperienced associates, the profession in the UK is... more

• Eversheds sees revenue increase by 6.7% for first half of the year

  Nov 14 2011 Eversheds has saw revenue increase by 6.7 per cent in the first half of the 2011-12 financial year, with turnover increasing to £184.2m over the six month period,... more

• Axiom Law finds success offering cheap legal services

  Sep 16 2011 Interesting article here about Axiom Law – a legal service provider successfully operating in Washington DC with a very non-conventional structure. According to the... more

• Former Greenberg Traurig partner sentenced to six years in prison for overbilling

  Sep 15 2011 A former partner at Greenberg Traurig has been sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to overbilling the suburb of Calumet Park, Illinois, by more than... more

• Associate satisfaction survey shows firms can't buy loyalty

  Sep 06 2011 The American Lawyer has released the results of its annual associate satisfaction survey, which showed that associates billed more hours last year in comparison to... more

• Law firms add value to junior associates

  Aug 23 2011 Law firms are responding to Junior lawyers have long been a profit center for large law firms, charged out to clients at hundreds of dollars an hour. But with clients... more

• Companies recruit law graduates straight out of law school

  Aug 16 2011 Here is an interesting article about the growing trend for large companies to hire graduates directly from law school campuses in order to avoid paying large fees for... more

• Cali firm Irell & Manella pushes ahead of the game with mid year bonuses

  Jul 26 2011 California law firm Irell & Manella has announced that it will be paying mid-year bonuses to associates. After being awarded bonuses that doubled the market... more

• London firm Devonshires breaks its promise to pay bonuses

  Jun 27 2011 RollOnFriday has reported that London law firm Devonshires will not be paying the bonuses promised to associates last year. The bonus scheme was introduced to... more

• Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz turns 80

  Jun 24 2011 There is an interesting article in the ABA Journal about how the 80th birthday of Martin Lipton - a founder, rainmaker and mergers partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen &... more

• Study reveals controversial billing practices at large firms

  Jun 10 2011 A new study looking into law firm billings has armed general counsel with information that will help them to negotiate reduced fees. The study, conducted by legal... more

• US firms set more lawyers on the non-partnership track

  May 24 2011 An interesting article here about the creation of two-tier associate system in some of the biggest law firms in the US. These second tier associates do the same kind... more

• Scottish firm Morton Fraser launches 'league tables' of associate billing

  May 16 2011 Scottish law firm Morton Fraser has announced that it will do away with annual fee targets and adopt a policy that encourages competition between associates instead.... more

• New York firm interrogates legal fees

  May 12 2011 After spending 18 years litigating legal bills for insurance companies, David Paige has a finely tuned sensibility for finding questionable legal charges. And now he... more

• Beyond the crisis - what does the future hold for biglaw?

  May 06 2011 After sustained growth for a period of twelve years, the last three years have seen the legal markets in decline around the world. Work in mergers and acquisitions has... more

• UK firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain shames unprofitable lawyers

  Apr 25 2011 London firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain has introduced a new system for distinguishing between lawyers on the basis of how much they are billing. Each associate’s... more

• UK tribunal finds against Eversheds in discrimination case

  Apr 13 2011 The Employment Appeal Tribunal in the UK has found that Eversheds’ handling of an employee on maternity leave amounted to discrimination against other staff. Last... more

• Jones Day promotes 36 to partnership; offers no bonuses

  Jan 10 2011 US firm Jones Day has bucked the trend followed by every other large firm in the country with the decision not to award end of year bonuses to associates. "We... more

• Disappointment over bonuses at Hogan Lovells

  Jan 04 2011 Hogan Lovells has announced its end of year bonus package, the first the firm has given since the merger Hogan & Hartson and Lovells. But associates hoping that the... more

• Hughes Hubbard introduces hardline policy for delinquent time-keepers

  Jan 03 2011 Hughes Hubbard & Reed has announced a scheme designed to ensure better time-keeping by associates. The firm’s plan means that associates who are more than five... more

• Wall Street lawyers working harder and seeing smaller bonuses

  Jan 02 2011 The Wall Street Journal reports that junior lawyers at top law firms worked harder in 2010, but that their end of year bonuses are generally at the same level as last... more

• Outsourcing industry growing at 20-30 % per year

  Dec 22 2010 Legal outsourcing can still be described as small. Of the $180 billion that Americans spend annually on legal services, only about $1 billion goes to outsourcers. But... more

• Arbitrator finds Goodwin Proctor overcharged by $540,000

  Dec 14 2010 Law firms typically try to handle billing disputes in private, avoiding the bad press that inevitably comes with them but, in a rare public display of disaffection, an... more

• Billing rates at US firms up by less than 3%

  Dec 09 2010 The tough economic environment has chilled fees, with average law firm billing rates increasing by a mere 2.7 percent in 2010. This is the second consecutive year that... more

• Is Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's draconian policy illegal?

  Dec 02 2010 US firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has implemented a new policy of docking pay by 20 per cent for associates who are ten days late in filing their time records. The... more

• Clients crave predictable legal costs

  Oct 22 2010 Under difficult economic conditions an old conflict between traditional law firms and corporations has intensified, as demonstrated by a survey conducted by BTI... more

• Billable hour in decline, says US survey

  Oct 12 2010 A new survey confirms that the billable hour is losing ground to alternative billing arrangements, with firms increasingly offering fixed, capped or discounted fees to... more

• US firm Husch Blackwell lays off 20 lawyers

  Oct 06 2010 US firm Husch Blackwell, based in Kansas city, has confirmed that it has laid off 20 lawyers, including associates and non-equity partners. The lawyers affected... more

• High profile Australian lawyer attacks profession for overcharging

  Sep 16 2010 Brian Bartley, the Chairman of the Queensland Law Society's ethics committee, has accused Australian law firms of overcharging clients by using secretaries as... more

• Robust growth for fees in the heart of the recession: US Report

  Sep 09 2010 Among all the talk of increased competition and clients demanding more value from legal practitioners, a new report from CT TyMetrix and the Corporate Executive Board... more

• The billable hour isn't going anywhere soon

  Aug 30 2010 The billable hour is seen as rewarding inefficiency, putting intense and unhealthy pressure on associates and undermining the culture of law firms and the profession.... more

• CMS Cameron McKenna shakes up its billing structures

  Aug 09 2010 CMS Cameron McKenna has launched a new billing concept under which clients can pay what they think the legal services are worth. The firm has notified 3,500... more

• Survey finds lawyers charge different fees for different clients

  May 26 2010 A new survey examines the billing practices of over 4000 law firms, 50,000 individual billers and 18.9 million invoice items, to find that firms are charging different... more

• Firms criticised over legal bills in Lehman bankruptcy proceedings

  May 07 2010 Certain law firms the Lehman bankruptcy have come under harsh criticism from Washington's "Pay Czar" for overspending. Kenneth Feinberg works for the the US... more

• Greenberg Traurig over-billling ran into the multi millions

  Mar 23 2010 You might have heard about the Former Greenberg Traurig partner Mark McCombs, who was charged with over-billing his home town (so much for loyalty), to the tune of $1... more

• Greenberg partner charged with overbilling client by $1m

  Mar 08 2010 Mark McCombs, a now former Greenberg Traurig partner, is charged with theft for allegedly overbilling the Village of Calumet Park more than $1 million since 2003.... more

• US law firms expect to raise billing rates in 2010

  Jan 28 2010 Most US law firms plan to increase their billing rates in 2010, according to a survey by management consulting firm Altman Weil Inc. Larger firms anticipate a... more

• Weil Gotshal's Lehman bankruptcy fees exceed $100m

  Aug 19 2009 Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to pass the $100m mark in total billings on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, reports legalweek. Weil Gotshal's first request for $55m... more

• For Large Firms, Alternative Billing Makes Inroads

  May 25 2009 When Eli Lilly & Co. settled a whistleblower suit in January for $1.42 billion over allegations it improperly marketed an anti-psychotic drug, Duane Morris was in the... more

• What recession? UK lawyers charge $1400 an hour

  Apr 03 2009 UK regulatory lawyers at firms like London-based Simmons & Simmons bill as much as 1,000 pounds ($1,440) an hour for advising clients on the financial crisis and... more

• Slaughters Northern Rock bills high

  Mar 23 2009 Slaughter and May has billed the UK Government more than GBP 9 million for its advice on the nationalisation of failed lender Northern Rock. A report by the National... more

• Two notable US lawyers can't agree on billing

  Mar 19 2009 The heads of US firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore and K&L Gates both seem to agree that fee arrangements based on alternatives to the billable hour are a good step. They... more

• Top White & Case lawyers bill $1,260 an hour

  Dec 15 2008 More than 70 percent of big US law firms surveyed rising billing rates in 2008, with rates up to $1,200 per hour. The average partner rate was at $451 an hour at all... more

• Sullivan attorney resigns for fraudulent expense claims

  Sep 25 2008 Carlos J. Spinelli-Noseda, a former Sullivan & Cromwell partner has resigned from the bar. Spinelli-Noseda, a banking and finance specialist who joined Sullivan &... more

• The Skinny on Flat Fees

  Jul 25 2008 'Value pricing' requires managing a new way. Some attorneys claim it really is possible to make more money while charging less. The secret lies in vastly improved... more

• Lawyer investigated for billing 30 hours a day

  Feb 08 2008 A Canadian lawyer is in trouble after being accused of charging a client for an impressive 30 hours' work in a single day. Mobina Jaffer, who is also a Canadian... more

• Female Lawyers Bill Clients at Lower Rates Than Male Counterparts

  Jan 26 2008 Female lawyers in smaller firms and solo practices generally bill clients at lower rates than their male counterparts. This and other billing trends are highlighted in... more

• Former McDermott Partner Gets 30-Day Suspension due to Billing Issues

  Dec 24 2007 In a case that has taken a decade to resolve, attorney Michael Romansky received a 30-day suspension Thursday from the D.C. Court of Appeals relating to overbilling... more

• Large Firms' Billing Rates Continue to Climb

  Dec 11 2007 Attorney billing rates shot up in 2007, with approximately three-quarters of the law firms that participated in The National Law Journal's annual survey boosting the... more