Arberg said that the chief justice, who has presided over the court for two terms, received minor scrapes from the fall but that a "thorough neurological evaluation . . . revealed no cause for concern."

She said he experienced a similar event in 1993 but had no recurrence until Monday.

Seizures are any sudden, abnormal electrical activity in the brain. While some are focused in one part of the brain, others can be generalized. Not all seizures involve convulsions. Arberg's description of a benign idiopathic seizure indicates an episode whose origins are unknown.

Newsweek reported in November 2005 that Roberts suffered a seizure in January 1993 while golfing. "It was stunning and out of the blue and inexplicable," Larry Robbins, a Justice Department colleague, told the magazine. Robbins said Roberts was not allowed to drive for several months after the seizure and took the bus to work. The magazine quoted a senior White House aide as describing the episode as an "isolated, idiosyncratic seizure."

There is no record of any discussion of the 1993 seizure or of Roberts's health in general during his confirmation hearings. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who chaired the hearings, told CNN on Monday night that senators were told about the previous episode but did not find it serious enough to ask Roberts about. Roberts has no known history of major illness.

Roberts, the youngest member of the Supreme Court, took office as chief justice in September 2005 after being nominated by President Bush to replace the late William H. Rehnquist.

Roberts's seizure occurred around 2 p.m., Arberg said, when he was stepping off a boat after doing errands near his home on Hupper Island, which is about halfway up the Maine coast.

Hupper Island is part of the village of Port Clyde, which is contained in the town of St. George, according to Town Manager John M. Falla. He said that the island is not connected to the town by bridge, and that Roberts was brought by private boat to the mainland and taken by ambulance to the hospital, about 20 miles away.

St. George Fire Chief Tim Polky told the Associated Press that Roberts was "conscious and alert when they put him in the rescue [vehicle] and took him to Penobscot Bay Medical Center."

The chief justice was admitted by an emergency room doctor and seen by Judd Jensen, a staff neurologist, said Chris Burke, the hospital's director of marketing and communications.

He said Roberts was "aware and alert" when he arrived at the community medical facility, which is nestled among trees on the edge of Rockport, a picturesque Maine village about 90 miles northeast of Portland. He declined to say what the chief justice's full neurological evaluation entailed.

Burke said some of Roberts's aides had visited the hospital more than a year ago, when the chief justice bought the nearby vacation home. "Folks came by and checked out the facilities. That's a normal precaution for anyone in his position," he said.

Burke said he thinks doctors consulted with Roberts's regular physicians in the Washington area during the chief justice's evaluation.

Roberts was resting in a regular patient room on Monday night and had some friends with him, Burke said.

"Most seizures last from 30 seconds to two minutes and do not cause lasting harm," according to background information posted online by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. "However, it is a medical emergency if seizures last longer than 5 minutes or if a person has many seizures and does not wake up between them."

While seizures can be the result of a brain disorder such as epilepsy, the institute notes that they can also be a consequence of fevers, head injuries or even medication side effects.

Roberts and his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, bought the Hupper Island house last summer from Steve Thomas, former host of the PBS home-improvement series "This Old House."

The Bangor Daily News reported last year that the house is about 225 feet from shore, with a right of way to the beach and a water view toward Port Clyde General Store on the mainland. The island has 20 to 30 homes and more than a mile of shoreline.

When Roberts was confirmed by the Senate on Sept. 29, 2005, by a vote of 78 to 22, he became the youngest chief justice in more than 200 years and the third-youngest ever to assume the office.

Since the court adjourned in late June, Roberts has taught at a law school summer program in Europe and attended an international judicial conference in Paris. He was back in Washington last week, and on Friday left work early to attend a party celebrating his daughter's seventh birthday. The Robertses have two young children.

Roberts was originally nominated to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced in July 2005 that she was retiring. But upon Rehnquist's death, Bush decided to make Roberts his nominee for chief justice and later nominated Samuel A. Alito Jr. to replace O'Connor.

Although most of the megafirms in recent years have invested in hiring associate-development teams to help coordinate programs and address work-life issues, development director positions are new for many midsize regional firms. Law firm leaders and career professionals say that the jobs are becoming increasingly important as business for most law firms of all sizes remains strong and the pool of law school graduates stays stagnant.

Attrition problems, though on a smaller scale than those at giant firms, have prompted midsize law firms to hire development directors. But these firms also are bringing in career professionals because of another pressure from the market.

"Midsized firms don't want to lose associates who want the training they feel like they'd be getting" at bigger firms, said Marina Sirras, president of Marina Sirras & Associates, a legal recruiter in New York. One of the factors associates use to gauge the strength of a firm is whether it has someone dedicated to helping them climb the ladder to partner.

$200,000 BASE PAY

As a result, more and more are hiring full-time, highly qualified people to watch over their junior lawyers.

"They're willing to pay a lot of money -- $200,000 base pay -- because they want their expertise passed on to associates," she said.

In Zirm's case, he left his job as a partner at Cleveland's Walter & Haverfield, a 75-year-old firm, because the development director position at Ulmer tapped into what had become the favorite part of his job at his old firm: helping budding lawyers.

"I had a 10-year run of supervising litigation associates," Zirm said. "It was one-on-one coaching and mentoring."

Ulmer & Berne managing partner Kip Reader said that the key in filling the newly created position was to find an experienced attorney who could pass on to associates the lessons learned in ascending to partnership.

NALP, formerly the National Association for Law Placement, estimates that by the time associates at large law firms are in their fifth year of practice, about 80 percent have left their jobs. High associate attrition is occurring at the same time that law firms are reporting record revenues and law schools are churning out the same number of graduates -- about 40,000 -- each year.

"We've got our attrition issues like everybody else," Reader said. "Our associates need to know the firm is supportive and is willing to devote the resources."

The NALP employment Web site is replete with listings from law firms of all sizes looking for associate development directors, but a number of recent postings are from midsize law firms with newly created positions. Until recently, midsize firms that had formally addressed associate development needs did so mostly by bringing in consultants or handing off the responsibilities to attorneys or administrative employees busy with other duties, said Sirras, the recruiter. But now, even firms that hire fewer than 20 new associates each year are looking for full-time directors, she said.

CATCHING UP

Molly Peckman, director of professional development at 445-attorney Pepper Hamilton, based in Philadelphia, said she has noticed an increase in attorney-development jobs available at midsize firms. She has received calls from several headhunters, she said, seeking to fill newly created positions.

"The larger firms set the standards of professional development, and now the midsized firms are catching up to bringing people in-house," she said.

Phoenix-based Lewis and Roca is seeking its first professional-development director. The person whom the 200-attorney firm hires will work mainly with associates and nonequity partners, said managing partner Kenneth Van Winkle.

The decision to create the job was part of the firm's move two years ago to convert to a two-tier partnership structure, which included nonequity partners. The agreement among firm leaders to reconfigure the partnership structure included some "horse trading," Van Winkle said, in which he made the commitment that the firm would hire a development director to assist associates and nonequity partners in becoming full partners.

Lewis and Roca had in place a development strategy, he said, but without someone to handle it full time, it was not getting implemented. Partners would volunteer to do the job, but they would set aside the tasks in favor of client business.

"It's all sitting there waiting," he said. "We've provided the bones; we want someone who can put meat on the bones."

Whoever fills the job will be busy. Responsibilities include handling matters of mentoring, retention, training, career planning and counseling, succession planning, diversity initiatives and many more. The person will answer to Van Winkle, which he said is critical to the credibility and accountability of the position.

Delaware-based Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor had similar implementation challenges before it hired a development director. Two years ago, it was one of the first midsize law firms in Delaware to bring in a full-time director to work with the 10 to 15 associates it hires each year. The firm hired Patricia Widdoss, an associate at the time in the Wilmington, Del., office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Widdoss, who previously clerked for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also handles pro bono cases.

James Patton, managing partner of 102-attorney Young Conaway, said associate retention is "one of those business-side problems" that lawyers who practice full time are not good at solving.

Leigh Jones
The National Law Journal
July 19, 2007

Amy Cheng and Fredric "Ric" Cohen today announced the formation of Cheng Cohen, LLP, a Chicago-based firm specializing in corporate, franchise, technology and business litigation.

With more than 30 years of combined experience, the lawyers at Cheng Cohen work with companies of all sizes as dedicated outside general counsel or corporate counsel. Cheng Cohen creates legal strategies that protect clients without losing sight of the company's business objectives. The firm also handles all types of business and commercial litigation from simple contract disputes to complex class actions.

In addition, Amy Cheng and Ric Cohen's extensive franchise experience positions Cheng Cohen as one of the best franchise law firms in the Country. Both Cheng and Cohen have been named "legal eagles" by Franchise Times.

Amy Cheng concentrates her practice in domestic and international commercial transactions, general corporate, and franchise, licensing and distribution law.

Before forming Cheng Cohen, Cheng was a partner with DLA Piper US LLP and its predecessor firms for her entire career. She was a member of DLA's Commercial, Corporate and Franchise & Distribution Practice Groups.

Cheng currently co-chairs the Chicago Chapter of the International Franchise Association's (IFA) Women's Franchise Network and previously co- chaired the Chicago Chapter of the IFA's Franchise Business Network. She has also spoken at and moderated roundtables for conferences and seminars sponsored by the American Bar Association Forum on Franchising and the International Franchise Association.

Ric Cohen is a seasoned litigator, trial lawyer and appellate advocate, who represents clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country and in alternative dispute resolution forums such as arbitration and mediation. Cohen has extensive commercial litigation experience in areas that include contract disputes, antitrust, technology, intellectual property, valuation, and securities actions.

For nearly two decades, Cohen has represented many of the nation's most prominent franchise, licensing and distribution companies in a wide variety of lawsuits from complex multi-forum class action litigation to standard enforcement actions and everything in between.

Before forming Cheng Cohen, Cohen was a partner with DLA Piper US LLP and its predecessor firms for nearly his entire career. He was a member of DLA Piper's Litigation and Franchise & Distribution practice groups, co-chaired the firm's Franchise Litigation practice group, and was the firm's hiring partner.

Cohen has been named to The Best Lawyers in America(R) and The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and has been selected as a Super Lawyer(R) by "Law & Politics" and "Chicago" magazines, and by his peers as an Illinois Leading Lawyer(R). Cohen is a member of the bars of the United States Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals for the First, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, and numerous federal district courts across the country, as well as of the Illinois Supreme Court.

The law firm practices in several areas, with a focus on federal criminal defense, environmental and regulatory law and civil litigation, according to a news release.

Callaghan has been mentioned in political circles across the state as a potential candidate for West Virginia Attorney General or state Supreme Court justice in 2008.

Regarding these rumors, Callaghan commented, "It's flattering to have people holding you in high enough regard to be considered as a potential candidate for those positions. Truth be told, my focus right now is just building my law practice. So, that's what I see in my future for the time being."

Neely and Callaghan have both been media fixtures throughout their careers, given their histories of public service. They hope to capitalize on their experience with civil and criminal cases and plan on working on a deliberately small caseload to help give their clients a very high level of personal attention.

"I look forward to this new phase of my life," Neely said. "Mike and I plan to organize our practice around a small number of difficult cases that clients believe justify the personal attention of senior, experienced lawyers from start to finish."

One of Northern Kentucky's most active community leaders is leaving his law firm for an executive position. A.J. Schaeffer will become principal of Union-based Drug Enhancement Co. of America (DECA) July 31, according to a news release from Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald PLLC.

Schaeffer has been a member of the Covington-based law firm since graduating from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1999. Among his civic activities, he serves as co-chairman of Northern Kentucky's Vision 2015 community planning process.

DECA, a client of Greenebaum, develops health care technologies for treatment of various diseases and disorders. It was founded by Roger Griggs, an entrepreneur who has started several Northern Kentucky-based firms, including Richwood Pharmaceuticals and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals.

Jeffrey McKenzie, chairman and CEO of Greenebaum, said that although the firm is saddened by Schaeffer's departure, "his extensive participation in the community, coupled with his enthusiasm for serving his clients, is a combination which emulates the Greenebaum culture."

A Business Courier Forty Under 40 winner, Schaeffer is past president of Legacy, a Northern Kentucky civic group for young professionals, and is a frequent public speaker.

Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald operates offices in Covington; Cincinnati; Frankfort; Lexington; Louisville; Washington, D.C.; and Nashville, Tenn.

As an attorney in private practice, White said he intends to reach out to people in the black community.

"One of my goals will be to use the experience and resources of this firm to ensure access to high-quality legal representation to people with serious cases who otherwise might not be able to afford it," White said in a statement appearing on the firm’s Web site.

The law firm said White will focus on civil trials, appeals and business litigation representing investors, shareholders and small-business owners.

Former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronnie White said Monday that he is joining the law firm of Holloran, White & Schwartz LLP as a partner.

The Missouri Supreme Court announced in May that White planned to retire from the bench July 6.

White served from 2003 to 2005 as the state's first African-American chief justice. He was appointed to the court in October 1995. He previously served as a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District.

Partner Thomas Schwartz said in a statement, "Judge White will focus his practice on civil trials, appeals, and business litigation representing investors, shareholders and small business owners. As a former judge on both the Missouri Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court, his experience will make him a formidable advocate on the appellate level."

In addition to White, the firm is said it hired Justin Guerra as an associate. Guerra is a graduate of Saint Louis University School of Law and will focus on personal injury cases, including toxic tort, medical malpractice, workplace injuries and serious traffic accidents.

The firm also announced its recently moved to a new location at 2000 S. 8th in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis.