|
|
|
Chinese Law Firms Opening In The US
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 09:37
|
For many years, U.S. law firms have been rushing into China, investing people and resources to help clients on the ground there.
Now, a Chinese firm is mimicking their strategy -- opening a representative office in the United States. This year, Guangzhou-based Alpha & Leader, with more than 60 lawyers, planted its flag in Los Angeles.
The firm is among a handful from China that have set up shop here -- such as King & Wood in Silicon Valley and Jun He in New York City -- likely harbingers as Chinese law firms mature and expand internationally.
"I think we're going to see more Chinese firms here -- they want to have a footprint here," said Robert Allan, the managing partner of Alpha & Leader's Los Angeles office.
For now, the advantages for Alpha of having its five-lawyer office here are mostly practical, he said. They also mirror what American firms say about opening in Asia: It's helpful to have someone based in the distant time zone, who literally speaks the client's language.
Allan is a Canadian-trained lawyer who has been a solo practitioner in the U.S. since 1985. In 2003, a client suggested that Allan meet one of the client's Chinese lawyers. Through an interpreter, he connected with Wesley Pan, now the senior partner in Alpha & Leader's China office. The two started working together under a loose alliance called the USA China Law Group. This summer, they formalized the relationship under the Alpha & Leader name, and Allan now devotes most of his time to the firm because, he says, the name says it all.
"We're first and first. You can't beat that."
He and Pan formed an alliance that resulted this summer in the L.A. representative office.
The firm targets much of its practice on a specialized niche: the purchase and sale of non-performing loans -- loans that are in or near default. As the Chinese government has transferred NPLs from state-owned banks to asset management companies over the past decade, it opened the door for foreign investors. Those foreign investors were looking to invest in China's development, but were limited by the Chinese government's currency restrictions and rules governing foreign ownership of property, Allan explained.
The legal work includes locating a loan, doing the due diligence on it, and handling the actual transaction. The firm's clients include Chinese banks and asset management companies as well as purchasers such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
Allan said it was Pan who realized that a firm could find a lot of work in that specific area.
"Wesley's theory really struck me -- I thought it was an astute observation," Allan said.
Alpha & Leader has been involved in some aspect of more than 50 percent of the transactions involving non-performing loans in China, Allan said. Its competitors are other Chinese firms and American-trained lawyers such as Howard Chao, the head of O'Melveny & Myers' Asia practice.
But Chao said he wasn't familiar with Alpha, and dismissed the importance of a non-performing-loan practice for firms like his.
"The NPL practice in China has not blossomed the way some people thought it would," he said "The market for those deals has been decidedly smaller and local, domestic. There haven't been large-sized transactions anymore."
Chao attributes that, in part, to the policy of the Chinese government that encourages smaller, domestic bidders. There's so much liquidity in the Chinese domestic market that they don't need foreign investors in that sector, he said.
But, within China, Alpha & Leader is known as the go-to counsel on NPL portfolios, said Jinshu "John" Zhang, the head of the China practice at Greenberg Traurig, a firm that has sponsored Alpha attorneys to work in its L.A. office for a summer.
"In connection with the sale of NPL portfolios, they have worked with quite a few major I-banking houses," Zhang added. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Law Firm to Investigate MN Bridge Collapse
Breaking Legal News |
2007/12/21 09:23
|
The state legislature has hired a Minneapolis law firm to help in an investigation of the 35W bridge collapse, according to media reports.
The members of a joint bipartisan bridge investigation committee retained Minneapolis-based Gray Plant Mooty to serve as special counsel. The firm, which is being paid $500,000 to conduct its review, plans to issue a report of its finding in March.
Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, told Minnesota Pulic Radio Wednesday that the investigation aims to uncover why the bridge collapsed, and also how to prevent future transportation problems.
In addition to this and the official investigation from the The National Transportation Safety Board, a private firm is also examining the state's bridge inspection program, and the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor is scrutinizing MnDOT and its expenses. There are also several law firms that have launched similar investigations, MPR reported.
MnDOT is paying a Chicago-based firm that is working with the NTSB's probe $2 million to look into the collapse. Gov. Pawlenty has said that the firm would provide another set of eyes on the investigation.
However, the Star Tribune quoted state Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, who serves as Minority Leader, as saying the legislature's move would duplicate other investigations. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blackwell Sanders to Merge with Husch
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 09:22
|
Two of Missouri’s biggest law firms have agreed to merge, creating a 630-lawyer powerhouse that will rank among the top 100 in the country in size and revenue.
Partners at Kansas City-based Blackwell Sanders and St. Louis-based Husch & Eppenberger approved the combination over the weekend. The electronic vote in favor of the union was nearly unanimous, according to Blackwell Chairman David Fenley.
“The whole notion of achieving a great deal more depth and more expertise is very attractive to clients and to people who may become our clients,” he said.
The merger is expected to close in January. A name for the combined firm has yet to be chosen.
Blackwell has about 330 attorneys and grossed $116.5 million in 2006, according to The American Lawyer, a legal publication. About half the firm’s attorneys are based in the Kansas City area.
Husch, which has a 40-attorney office in downtown Kansas City, has about 300 attorneys overall. The firm tallied $124 million in revenues in 2006.
The firms said they expected to generate combined revenues in 2008 of more than $275 million.
The marriage of the two firms dwarfs any previous law firm combination in Missouri, creating the state’s second-biggest legal shop. The biggest firm headquartered in Missouri is St. Louis-based Bryan Cave, which has about 800 attorneys.
“This will really differentiate them from other firms in the market,” said Lisa Smith of Hildebrandt International, a provider of consulting services to law firms. “And it gives them the platform to expand regionally.”
Smith, who advised Blackwell and Husch on the merger, said the union would give the new firm the kind of beefed-up resources that clients are increasingly demanding.
“Clients aren’t looking for size so much as practice depth,” she said. “This gives them additional depth in all of their practices. It really combines complementary practices because the relative strengths of each firm are a little different.”
Blackwell is best known for its corporate, transactional, real estate, and labor and employment practices. Husch is best known for its litigation, commercial finance, environmental and bankruptcy practices.
The last major cross-state merger of law firms took place 3 ½ years ago when Kansas City-based Polsinelli Shalton & Welte merged with St. Louis-based Suelthaus PC, creating a 190-lawyer firm with 70 lawyers in St. Louis. The firm, now called Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus, currently has close to 300 attorneys.
The biggest law firm merger in Kansas City occurred more than five years ago when two of the city’s largest and oldest firms — Stinson Mag & Fizzell and Morrison & Hecker — combined to create a 342-lawyer practice. That firm is now known as Stinson Morrison Hecker.
The union of Blackwell and Husch will give the combined firm 16 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and London. The firms have overlapping offices in three cities — Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield.
Fenley said the merged firm will address lease issues in those cities “as soon as we can, but we’re going to accomplish physical integration irrespective of having two offices in the same cities.”
Blackwell has 13 years remaining on its lease in the Plaza Colonnade, located at Main Street and Ward Parkway overlooking the Country Club Plaza. The firm moved in three years ago and occupies about 120,000 square feet on four floors. Husch occupies three floors downtown at 1200 Main St. and has nine years to run on its lease. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mayer Brown Merges with Hong Kongs JSM
Law Firm News |
2007/12/21 09:21
|
US-based international law firm Mayer Brown and Hong Kong’s Johnson, Stokes and Master are merging in a move that will create the world’s tenth-largest law firm by revenue.
The rare trans-pacific merger reflects the increasingly global operations of large businesses. It brings together two firms founded in the 19th century which are both largely focused on commercial transactions and litigation.
The combined entity, which will be known in Asia as Mayer Brown JSM, will have an annual revenue of $1.3bn and around 1800 lawyers. Jim Holzhauer, Mayer Brown chairman, will chair the global firm’s central policy and planning committee, and Elaine Lo, chairwoman of JSM’s partnership board, will head the combined entity’s Asia board.
The firms expect to grow substantially after the merger. Mr Holzhauer projects annual revenue to hit $2bn ”very quickly” and Ms Lo predicts earnings of $4bn within two to three years. ”This kind of growth cannot be obtained by just organic growth alone,” said Ms Lo.
Up to now, Mayer Brown’s Asia presence has been limited to one office in Hong Kong and a representative office in Beijing. JSM, whose clients include HSBC, Bank of China and Cathay Pacific, has 200 lawyers in mainland China, but none outside Asia.
That has meant that both firms had to find outside partners when handling cases that involve elements outside the firms’ home regions, such as cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
”The synergies will come from the clients,” said Paul Maher, Mayer Brown vice-chairman. ”Many of the major banks or industries we represent have transactions that will have both a European and Asian component, for example, and we will soon be able to do both within one firm.”
The merger comes nearly six years after the trans-atlantic tie-up between the US’s Mayer, Brown & Platt and the UK firm of Rowe & Maw to create Mayer Brown. The firm has suffered a tumultuous year, most recently with partner Joseph Collins being indicted in Manhattan on fraud charges related to the collapse of trading firm Refco in 2005. Mr Collins has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Ms Lo said the merger brings together JSM’s knowledge of the Chinese market with Mayer Brown’s global reach and experience in sophisticated commercial transactions. ”The world is becoming more globalised,” she said. ”Chinese companies are encouraged by the central government to expand overseas and they are just poised to grow out of China.” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. appellate court overturns state murder conviction
Law Center |
2007/12/20 07:06
|
| A federal appeals court overturned a Santa Rosa woman's murder conviction Wednesday for killing a man during an attempted carjacking in 1996, saying she had been forced to go to trial with a lawyer she wanted to replace. Nicole Bradley was 18 when she and two juveniles were arrested for the fatal shooting of James Strickler Jr., 19, of Santa Rosa. The court said Bradley had shot Strickler unintentionally, but she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for a homicide committed in the course of another felony. Bradley's lawyer quit before the trial, and a Sonoma County judge appointed a replacement in a hearing from which Bradley and her chosen lawyer were excluded. When Bradley sought to dismiss the new lawyer because of conflicts, Superior Court Judge Knoel Owen refused, saying the trial had already been delayed by almost two years and it wasn't clear Bradley could pay for her own lawyer. In Wednesday's 9-2 ruling granting Bradley a new trial, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said nearly all the pretrial delays were the results of judges' decisions, not Bradley's. Noting that Bradley's trial lawyer disagreed with her on a possible plea agreement and on whether she should testify, the court said the trial judge's decision had created an adversary relationship between lawyer and client. Defense lawyer Dennis Riordan praised the ruling and said a new trial could result in a lesser conviction, for second-degree murder or manslaughter. Deputy Attorney General Gregory Ott, who represented the prosecution, said the court disregarded a federal law that requires federal judges to defer to state court rulings unless they are clearly wrong. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. judge approves $3.2 bln in Tyco settlements
Breaking Legal News |
2007/12/20 07:03
|
| A federal judge on Wednesday approved settlements worth $3.2 billion for investors who sued Tyco International Ltd following an accounting scandal that led to the imprisonment of ex-chief Dennis Kozlowski. Also approved was about $464 million in legal fees and $28.9 million in expense reimbursement for the plaintiffs' lawyers. It is believed to be the biggest-ever fee award for attorneys in a securities class-action settlement. The lawyers' payments, which when proposed had attracted criticism from some institutional investors as being too hefty, will be drawn from the settlement fund. "In summary, I find that the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate," U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro wrote in the ruling. Tyco agreed in May to pay $2.975 billion to settle several long-running class-action lawsuits. Another defendant, former Tyco auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said in July it would pay $225 million to resolve the litigation. Kozlowski and former Tyco finance chief Mark Swartz were found guilty in June 2005 of stealing millions from the conglomerate, a case that became infamous amid revelations that Kozlowski had used company funds to pay for a $15,000 umbrella stand and a $6,000 shower curtain. Kozlowski and Swartz are now serving sentences of up to 25 years apiece in New York state prison. Plaintiffs in the shareholder lawsuit contended that from December 1999 through June 2002, Tyco and others misrepresented the value of acquisitions and misled investors about Tyco's financial health. The settlements were reached before the case ever went to trial. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court reinstates ski resort lawsuit
Court Watch |
2007/12/20 06:56
|
| Skiing is full of risks, and skiers assume the potential for injury when they try to navigate a course down a steep mountainside. But not all the risks are necessarily inherent ones, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday while reinstating a lawsuit filed by a man who slammed into a poorly marked retaining wall of stacked railroad ties. The high court overturned a lower court ruling that said Snowbird Corp. was protected from a lawsuit because of two waivers skier William Rothstein signed to get a season pass at the popular resort near Salt Lake City. Rothstein suffered severe internal injuries when he skied into the wall at Snowbird in February 2003. Rothstein sued, claiming negligence, but a state District Court ruled in favor of Snowbird, citing the releases Rothstein signed. The Supreme Court's 3-2 decision Tuesday restores Rothstein's lawsuit and clarifies state law. "What it will do is to encourage ski resorts to be more careful in their operations," said Jesse Trentadue, a lawyer representing Rothstein. Snowbird attorneys Gordon Strachan and Kevin Simon did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Peter Rietz, a Colorado lawyer who is special counsel to the National Ski Areas Association, said the ruling applies only to Utah resorts. Snowbird maintained Rothstein skied off a connecting trail to an area that was marked off by rope. But the rope had a gap, which Rothstein mistook for an entrance to an open trail. The wall Rothstein hit had a light covering of snow and couldn't be seen. Rothstein survived broken ribs, a kidney injury, liver damage and a collapsed lung. Snowbird won the earlier ruling on two releases Rothstein had signed, assuming all risks and specifically mentioning cases "including the negligence of Snowbird, its employees and agents." But the Supreme Court decided that the releases go against a state law, which was written to protect resorts by keeping liability insurance rates affordable. Resorts are covered by the state's Inherent Risks of Skiing Act, saying skiers assume some risks every time they swoosh down a steep mountainside or trail lined with trees. The law is designed to keep insurance rates affordable for the resorts, not shield them from liability all together. Resorts are responsible to insure themselves non-inherent risks, the high court said. The releases Rothstein signed for Snowbird "are contrary to the public policy of this state and are, therefore, unenforceable," the ruling said. Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins, who cast one of the two dissenting votes, noted that nothing in the state law says ski resorts can't shield themselves from lawsuits for non-inherent risks. "In fact, the text is silent about whether an individual may or may not sue a ski area operator on some other basis," Wilkins wrote. Speaking from Dillon, Colo., Rietz said there are trade-offs when a skier gets a season pass. "Part of the consideration when you get a discounted pass is you have to sign a waiver that provides some additional protection for the resort," he said. "If you don't want to release liability you can buy a day ticket."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
Law Firm Directory
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
