The combination won't affect Stinson's Kansas City office, a spokeswoman said. That office has 197 attorneys and 276 staff members. The combination will be effective July 1, subject to due diligence and a review of potential client conflicts.

"We are always looking for what is best for our clients and providing them with the best service and expertise possible," Mark Foster, Stinson's managing partner, said in a release. "Blumenfeld Kaplan & Sandweiss is an excellent law firm with a top-notch team of lawyers. Our clients will benefit from the synergies created as a result this combination."

Stinson traces its heritage to 1878. The firm opened its St. Louis office in 1994. The firm's lawyers have extensive experience in real estate law, mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment, business litigation, financial services, health care, sports law and product liability.

Blumenfeld was established in St. Louis in 1950 by John Blumenfeld, a prominent real estate lawyer who continues to be active with the firm. Today, it ranks among the 15 largest law firms in St. Louis. Its main areas of practice include real estate, tax, estate planning, succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, immigration, labor and employment, intellectual property and litigation.

"The potential benefits for our clients created by this combination with Stinson Morrison Hecker are significant," Philip Kaplan, president of Blumenfeld, said in the release. "Our practice has continued to grow on the local, national and international stages, and this combination will allow us to provide additional talent that will expand and enhance the efficient delivery of legal services."

Stinson ranks No. 2 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of area law firms. Blumenfeld is tied at No. 15 with Lashly and Baer PC on the St. Louis Business Journal's list of area law firms.

On July 1, 2007, Richard Levin will join Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP as a partner to head the Firm's newly established restructuring and insolvency practice. Rich, who served as counsel to a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee from 1975 to 1978, was one of the principal authors of the Bankruptcy Code and the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. He has significant experience guiding debtor and non-debtor clients through insolvency restructuring or reorganization, structuring and negotiating complex deals involving bankrupt companies and, where necessary, directing litigation in support of the negotiations. Rich joins Cravath from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he was a partner in that firm’s corporate restructuring department.

The Morristown law firm McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter has acquired a 49 percent stake in the Hispanic-owned law firm Espinosa & Espinosa, in hopes of fostering greater diversity in New Jersey's legal community.

McElroy Deutsch, the seventh-largest law firm in the state by gross revenue, bought the ownership interest in the small, Weehawken-based firm last month for an undisclosed amount.

McElroy Deutsch, which grossed $76 million in revenue last year, according to the New Jersey Law Journal, will take a portion of Espinosa & Espinosa's profits and has agreed to upgrade the smaller firm's computer system, provide training for its staff and help in recruiting, said Edward B. Deutsch, managing partner of McElroy Deutsch, which employs 230 lawyers. Also, Espinosa & Espinosa can call upon the larger firm's lawyers to help on larger cases. Espinosa & Espinosa specializes in commercial transactions and commercial litigation.

"If substantial litigation comes in that needs 10 lawyers and they can provide five, we can provide the other five," Deutsch said. McElroy Deutsch has offices in Ridgewood and Newark, as well as Philadelphia, Denver and New York City.

Some major law firms, including Day Pitney in Florham Park, have formed loose strategic alliances with small, minority--owned firms to show their support for diversity.

Deutsch said he believes his firm is the first in New Jersey to take an equity stake in a minority-owned firm.

As Espinosa & Espinosa increases its staff in the coming years, "our participation will wane," Deutsch said.

Espinosa & Espinosa has served many small and medium-sized Hispanic--owned business in northern New Jersey since principal Juan Espinosa's Cuban emigre father launched the firm in 1975.

But like most minority-owned firms, Espinosa, with 11 attorneys, is too small on its own to be in the running for big contracts with Fortune 500 companies.

"You have to be big to get big cases," Espinosa said.

Nonetheless, opportunities for minority-owned firms to land big contracts have been on the rise since a document titled "Call to Action: Diversity in the Legal Profession" was circulated in 2004 by Rick Palmore, general counsel for Sara Lee Corp.

The document calls upon U.S. corporate legal departments to boost minority representation on their staffs and to use diversity as a criteria when hiring outside law firms.

More than 100 corporations have signed on.

A racy billboard proclaiming "Life's short. Get a divorce" caused enough of an uproar, city workers stripped it from its downtown perch after a week.

It wasn't so much about the partially clothed man and woman on the law firm's ad. It was the phrase that lawyers Corri Fetman and Kelly Garland chose that drew scores of complaints from neighbors and from other attorneys who said it reflected poorly on their profession.

A city alderman who lives nearby found a technical reason to jettison the sign.

"I called the building inspector and told him to do his job and he did," said Alderman Burton Natarus. "It has nothing to do with content or anything else. They did not have a permit and they were ordered to take it down."

Fetman and Garland say they're upset the sign was removed.

"They ripped our billboard down without due process," Fetman said. "We own that art. I feel violated."

Despite its brief run, the sign apparently was good for business. Since it went up last week, the two women said calls to their law firm have gone up dramatically.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that Eric M. Feuerstein is joining the firm as partner in New York.  Previously a partner with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Feuerstein has a practice that focuses on high-end, capital-market driven real estate transactions.

"We're delighted to have Eric join the firm," said Ken Doran, Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn.  "A rising star in New York's real estate bar, he will significantly help us expand our national and international real estate practice."

"Eric is highly regarded not only by the New York real estate bar, but also by brokers, owners, developers and bankers," said Steven Shoemate, Partner in Charge of the New York office.  "Eric is a talented and experienced lawyer, who will be a dynamic addition to the firm.  We look forward to working with him as we continue to expand our presence and build on our success in New York."

"I'm very excited about the opportunity that Gibson Dunn has extended to me," Feuerstein said. "My practice fits in nicely with the firm’s real estate practice in New York, nationally and internationally, and I look forward to working together with my new colleagues."

About Eric M. Feuerstein

Feuerstein's real estate practice focuses on acquisitions, joint ventures, leasing, development and financing.  His clients have included landlords, developers and institutional investors.

He recently represented Jamestown Properties in the $1.5 billion sale of its 1121 6th Avenue property (the Fox News building), as well as the $300 million sale of 620 6th Avenue (the Bed, Bath and Beyond building in Chelsea) and in the sale of its condominium interest in the Random House building to The Witkoff Group for $510 million.  He has also recently represented Apollo and Vantage in purchasing $1 billion of residential properties in New York City.

He received his law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1995 and his bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Cornell University in 1991.

About Gibson Dunn’s Real Estate Practice

Gibson Dunn’s Real Estate Group represents, in the United States and Europe, a variety of sophisticated participants in real estate, including institutional debt and equity providers, public companies and privately held entrepreneurial developers, owners and operators.

The lawyers in the Real Estate Group are skilled in a broad spectrum of real estate matters including, among others:

Real estate debt and equity finance
Development
Sales and acquisitions
Land use and environmental
Leasing
Workout transactions
The firm's unique expertise in specialized areas of real estate transactions is supplemented with a full scope of related legal capabilities, including tax, corporate, bankruptcy, environmental and litigation.

http://gibsondunn.com

Attorney Judson A. Waltman of The Lanier Law Firm represented plaintiff George Coley along with co-lead counsel Chris Carver of Lubbock, Texas-based Gibson Carver, L.L.P.

Mr. Coley, 51, was severely injured on Dec. 31, 2003, when he was struck by an 800-pound casing pipe that had fallen from 30 feet above. The impact crushed his left elbow and caused multiple fractures in his left arm. Doctors say Mr. Coley will have limited use of the arm for the rest of his life.

Witnesses testified during trial that the pipe came loose from a nubbin that was being used to lift the pipe before striking Mr. Coley, a subcontractor employed by Lewis Casing Crews of Odessa, Texas.

In the lawsuit against Big Dog Drilling and Endeavor Energy Resources, Mr. Coley's attorneys said that managers with the two Midland, Texas, companies ignored Mr. Coley's concerns about the condition of the nubbin and told him to go back to work.

"This jury sent a clear message that worker safety comes first," says Mr. Waltman of The Lanier Law Firm. "The first response from the drilling company was to get the drilling operation restarted before caring for Mr. Coley's injuries. That kind of attitude is unacceptable in any work environment, and the jury felt compelled to react accordingly."

The verdict was reached on May 1 before state district judge Jay Gibson in Wood County. The award includes $1.58 million in actual damages and $4.92 million in punitive damages. Jurors assessed $420,000 in punitive damages against Big Dog Drilling and $4.5 million against Endeavor Energy.

With offices in Houston and New York, The Lanier Law Firm is committed to addressing client concerns with effective and innovative solutions. The firm is composed of outstanding trial attorneys with decades of experience handling cases involving pharmaceutical liability, asbestos exposure, business fraud, serious personal injuries, product liability, and toxic exposure.

Lanier Law Firm

CONTACT: Kevin Roberts of Lanier Law Firm, +1-713-659-5200