Law Shucks

Quick Shucks – 9/2/10

law shucks — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:00:09 +0000

Dell Walks Away From 3Par Bidding After HP’s $33-a-Share Offer – Bloomberg – It was already a huge premium when Dell bid $18 for shares that previously closed at $9.65. So in addition to potentially having made HP overpay, Dell should also collect a $72 million breakup – much of which will go to its lawyers at Debevoise. Wilson Sonsini (for 3PAR)and Cleary (for HP) will have to wait for closing to get paid.
Law.com – Calif. Appeals Court Approves Contingency Fee Greater Than Client Award – Surprisingly, there's a BigLaw connection in a contingency-fee dispute. Gibson Dunn represents the client disputing a fee that exceeds the value of the property and the settlement.
M & A Law Prof Blog: More Advice for Young Lawyers – Add this to the list of Insider Advice for Wannabe Insider Traders. Be discreet – or in Gen Y terms, "STFU, pls. k thx bai!"
Another Lawyer Sues Avvo Rating Site, Claims Its Practices Are ‘Beyond Unfair’ – News – ABA Journal – We wouldn't care about some Florida solo, until ABA Journal noted that he's a former Foley & Lardner lawyer. Oh, labor and employment or healthcare or something… back to not caring.
Reuters Confirms: August Was Busy M&A Month – Only if you compare announced-deal size to last year. There were actually fewer deals this August, but they were bigger (BHP Billiton-Potash and Intel-McAfee being the listed examples).

“Anti-Feminist” Lawyer to Everyone Else; Ex-Cravath Lawyer to Us

law shucks — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:53:53 +0000

Roy Den Hollander (pictured) is being written about all over the place lately because he just lost an appeal at the 2nd Circuit, where he was trying to get “Ladies Nights” promotions banned.

See, e.g., WSJ Law Blog, the Daily News, the Post (“Party on, gals“), Gothamist, etc.

Of those, only the Journal mentions the most-important part (to us):

The suit was brought by former Cravath lawyer Den Hollander (pictured), about whom we blogged some two years ago after he sued Columbia University for offering women’s studies courses.

Yes, the man trying to pee in the dating pool used to tread the hallowed halls of Cravath – albeit in the pre-Worldwide Plaza days (Cravath moved over to the West Side building affectionately known as the Death Star in 1989).

His details after the jump.

According to his bio, Den Hollander was at Cravath from 1986-89, having done a stint in the prestigious Treasury Honors program.

Despite that impressive credential, Den Hollander wasn’t your stereotypical Cravath hire. He started out at Brooklyn Law then transferred to and graduated from George Washington, earning Order of the Coif in ’85.

Compare that to some of his contemporaries as a Cravath junior associate: litigation partner Rowan Wilson (Harvard AB ’81, JD ’84, clerk with Browning (9th Cir)); corporate senior attorney Patrick Moriarty (Chicago BA ’81, Yale JD ’86); and corporate partner Marc Rosenberg (Princeton AB ’80, Harvard JD ’83, Sears prize, clerk with Mansfield (2nd Cir)). Lots of Ivy.

But put it in context – when Den Hollander left Treasury in ’86, the market was booming and firms were being forced to look outside their traditional hunting grounds for fresh talent.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, N.Y., 1986-1989
As an associate wrote briefs, took and defended depositions, and prepared expert witnesses in a variety of Fortune 500 company cases.

So he made it through the market crash of 1987, then went out on his own and became a bit of a Russo-phile.

Attorney and Business Consultant, New York, N.Y., 2000-Present
Litigate civil cases and advise on corporate governance.

Kroll Associates Russia, Moscow, Russia, 1999-2000
Managed and improved Kroll’s delivery of intelligence and security in the former Soviet Union.

Attorney, New York, N.Y., Russia, Ecuador, 1990-1999
Counseled companies, individuals, and nonprofit organizations in America, Russia and Ecuador on legal and business issues, including international financing and marketing.

Along the way, he picked up an MBA from Columbia in ’97 (coincidentally, the year of another crash).

He’s got an interesting set of personal interests, too:

Enjoy martial arts, salsa and hip-hop.

Two out of three probably aren’t bad for picking up women, despite his self-proclaimed status as the “anti-feminist.”

Quick Shucks – 9/1/10

law shucks — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:00:30 +0000

Big Banks, The Whipping Boys of the Financial Crisis, Go After MBIA – Law Blog – WSJ – The real metaphor Serena Ng wanted to use was “shit rolls down hill,” but the WSJ is too classy (even the blogs) for that kind of headline.
Twitter Makes Another Run For “Tweet”, “Twitter” Trademarks – With the assistance of Karen Webb of Fenwick & West.
Law.com – Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Is a Defendant in Wrongful-Death Suit – Around here we would call him “Baker Botts partner.” This is an interesting and tough issue for parents. If you assume kids are going to drink, is it better to have them do it at home where they might be supervised (notwithstanding the tragic result in this instance), or sneaking around parking lots and woods? Is it realistic to assume kids are NOT going to drink?
Law.com – BofA Shareholders’ Key Claims in Merger Disclosure Class Action Can Go Forward, Judge Rules – Bad news for Wachtell, which represents B of A (with Cleary) and was supposedly the firm that advised on the disclosure that is now at issue. Andrew Levander of Dechert represents former Merrill CEO John Thain and Charles Duggan of Davis Polk represents former B of A CEO Ken Lewis.
LucasFilm sues firm over ‘Jedi Mind’ trademark | The Digital Home – CNET News – No BigLaw angle, but we’re huge Star Wars geek. Some guy named David M. Given of Phillips & Erlewine & Given LLP got the plum assignment.

We’re Signing up for Digg

law shucks — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:56:07 +0000

And we have to do this…

191fd05ac4bc4ad5a4bc701f360dad07

So you can follow us there or, better yet, digg our stories.

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Mid-Level Satisfaction Results

law shucks — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:46:06 +0000

It’s that time of year. American Lawyer has published the results of its mid-level lawyers’ satisfaction survey.As usual, BigLaw doesn’t fare particularly well.

Nutter McClennen is #1 again. Gibson Dunn carries the flag for BigLaw, coming in at a respectable #3 (up from #4 last year).

Paul Hastings made huge strides, jumping from #66 to #7. Dorsey & Whitney was another BigLaw climber, going from #24 to #6. Ropes & Gray (hurray for Boston?) is the fourth BigLaw member of, and rounds out, the top 10 (down from #9).

The rest of the Top 10 are smaller firms we haven’t heard of (in which case we claim small-sample-size bias) or are regional.

After the jump, the bottom 10, which is, as usual, a bit more weighted down with BigLaw.

Blank Rome is the Biggest Loser this year – debuting at #137 of 137. They edged out Curtis Mallet-Prevost, which dropped to #136 from #110, and Kaye Scholer, which was actually UP five spots, at #135 from #140 last year.

Other BigLaw firms in the bottom 10: K&L Gates #127; Dechert #128; White & Case #130; Stroock #131; Bryan Cave #132; and Winston & Strawn #133.

So BigLaw is eight of the Bottom 10, compared to four of the Top 10.

Other notables: Cadwalader #125; Cleary #18; Cravath #51 (up from #87); Kirkland #121; Latham #22 (up from #79); Sullivan & Cromwell (#69); Wachtell #16; and Weil Gotshal #49.

Any surprises?

BigLaw Refugees/Bloggers Bicker About Diversity

law shucks — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:01:27 +0000

Are women being shut out in the technology sector? Two bloggers who started in one of the historically biggest old boys clubs, BigLaw, disagree.

White & Case and Torys alum, and currently founding editor at Mediaite, Rachel Sklar fired the first shot in the WSJ VC blog:

“Part of changing the ratio is just changing awareness, so that the next time Techcrunch is planning a Techcrunch Disrupt, they won’t be able to not see the overwhelming maleness of it,” said Ms. Sklar, referring to the influential tech conference.

TechCrunch is run by Mike Arrington, an alum of Wilson Sonsini and O’Melveny & Myers. He thinks the startup environment is a pure meritocracy:

Success in Silicon Valley, most would agree, is more merit driven than almost any other place in the world. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what sex you are, what politics you support or what color you are. If your idea rocks and you can execute, you can change the world and/or get really, stinking rich.

That meritocracy argument is one that has been made in BigLaw forever. As we’ve written countless times, it was disruptive firms like Skadden, Wachtell, and Weil Gotshal that started to break down the WASP barricades 50-60 years ago. Will tech take that long to catch up?

We would be remiss to forget to throw into the discussion our favorite BigLaw refugee(Skadden)/woman/startup (Moxsie) founder/lingerie model: Catalina Girald.

Quick Shucks – 8/31/10

law shucks — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:00:40 +0000

LucasFilm sues firm over ‘Jedi Mind’ trademark | The Digital Home – CNET News – No BigLaw angle, but we’re huge Star Wars geek. Some guy named David M. Given of Phillips & Erlewine & Given LLP got the plum assignment.
Pen pal gets inmate freed, with help from lawyer son | ajc.com – We’re terrible at writing headlines – so we understand what they meant (plus, we read the article). It was the pen pal’s son, a King & Spalding lawyer, who helped the inmate (convicted of murder) get out of jail. [HT: ABA Journal.]
Michael Attanasio: A Big Name Behind the Clemens Defense – Law Blog – WSJ – Attanasio is a Cooley partner.

Dodgers Divorce Has Nasty BigLaw Curve

law shucks — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:47:45 +0000

Few BigLaw firms handle divorces. Occasionally they’ll do it for a big T&E client (or the sister of an associate), but even in the race to “one-stop shopping” by covering every practice area, family law is the red-headed stepchild.

Aside from the interpersonal mess and conflicts, there’s just not that much money in it – even if some firms gauchely brag about a $1 million fee.

There has to be something big involved – and a Major League Baseball team counts, we guess.

The divorcing spouses’ counsel aren’t BigLaw, but they sure are dragging the firms into their quagmire.

Details after the jump.

Frank and Jamie McCourt are divorcing and, not surprisingly, they’re fighting over the distribution of assets, with the key one being ownership of the LA Dodgers.

Frank thinks he should keep the team, which he acquired in an LBO a few years ago. Jamie says the post-nuptial agreement was tampered with, confusing, and included the Dodgers as a marital asset (not separate property – and there ends our ability to use actual law words in this subject area).

Both sides agreed that the couple, who married in 1979, signed six original copies of the contested agreement. Jamie McCourt signed all six copies in Boston, while Frank McCourt signed three in Boston and three in Los Angeles.

Wasser contended that there were two versions of the same agreement, thus nullifying the deal. In one version, referred to as the “California version,” the Dodgers were not designated as Frank McCourt’s separate property in an attached exhibit; the couple’s attorney, Lawrence Silverstein, a partner in the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen, quickly replaced the exhibit hours before the documents were signed, he said.

There’s your BigLaw angle – they’re blaming the mess on Bingham!

In a letter, Bingham McCutchen acknowledged that the switch occurred and that the “California version” of the agreement had “disappeared,” Wasser said. “Frank and his lawyers have represented to Jamie, us and you that the California version and Massachusetts version were the same, and they weren’t,” he said.

In response, Susman argued that Silverstein, in producing copies of the “California version,” accidentally used an earlier draft that contained the erroneous exhibit. It wasn’t until he provided Frank McCourt with the three copies in California several weeks later that he discovered the “insignificant and innocuous” mistake and quickly corrected it.

Susman, by the way, is Stephen Susman, about whose eponymous firm we just wrote.

“Jamie is seeking to twist a simple drafting error … into some massive fraud,” Susman said.

And she should know better. Turns out she’s a lawyer (University of Maryland) and has served as GC of the family business. So her saying she didn’t understand the documents may be a little disingenuous, according to Frank’s lawyers.

He posited an alternative theory: That “lawyer Jamie” suggested drafting the agreement to protect her “nest egg” from her husband’s business creditors, especially after his highly leveraged purchase of the ailing Dodgers for $421 million. By 2003, she had acquired seven additional homes worth $68 million, he said.

“Frank could’ve been upside down in a second,” he said.

Microsoft Founder’s Gift to BigLaw

law shucks — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:21:10 +0000

Microsoft founder Paul Allen has gone and handed BigLaw a big, fat gift. His patent-holding company (it used to actually do research) has sued 11 of the world’s biggest internet companies.

This is going to be like SOX (or Dodd-Frank) for patent geeks – full employment for all.

The list of defendants is filled with some of BigLaw’s best clients: AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube.

Even Weil Gotshal has to be excited about this: long-time client Microsoft is one of two big companies (Amazon is the other) not being sued, so they should be able to pick up work from someone else.

Susman Godfrey has the Herculean task of representing Allen. Justin Nelson, Matthew Berry, and Max (“the trouble with”) Tribble signed the complaint.

Which firms do you think will defend which companies?

Quick Shucks – 8/27/10

law shucks — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:00:18 +0000

When Attorneys General Attack – …turn to former Indiana AG Jeff Modisett, currently of Bryan Cave.
HP Announces Revised Proposal to Acquire 3PAR for $30 per Share in Cash | Business Wire – 3PAR must be feeling the love right now. Dell offered a huge premium, HP topped, Dell matched, HP tops again, bringing the value up to $2 billion. And the lawyers are loving it, too.
Media Law Blog – Hello, new blog! This one is by a media-law professor at USD, Junichi Semitsu (who is already part of Poplicks).
Bill Hurt To Star In HBO Financial Crisis Pic – Deadline.com – The CNBC TV movie about Lehman sucked, and not just because Harvey Miller only got about 2 seconds of screen time. The movie will be called "Too Big to Fail" and is based on NYT writer (and BigLaw scion) Andrew Ross Sorkin's book of the same name.
Facebook Pokes Cooley for Teachbook Suit – For what it's worth, we were going to write these two stories yesterday but we have a non-blogging full-time job. And Brian did a better job anyway. So there ya go, more on Cooley's BFF, facebook.