Legally Speaking – Legal Recruiter Blog

Every day we make decisions; we choose a path…a course of action. Some are simple and take little thought, such as “What should I wear? What should I have for breakfast? Should I take the train or carpool? Should I grab takeout for dinner or make a quick stop at the grocers on the way home?” Not life-and-death choices, are they?

Unlike these decisions, sometimes we’re faced with heavyweight choices and those are often career and/or life-altering. Thomas J. Stanley, author of the book The Millionaire Mind wrote: “It is only when you exercise your right to choose, that you exercise your right to change.” As you, no doubt, have noted with technology, anything that isn’t consistently changing tends to fall by the wayside. For instance, the iPhone 4 was quickly abandoned when the “new and improved” iPhone 5 was unveiled. The same is true with your practice, and with the economy back on the rise, you must prepare yourself so you are not caught off guard. Below, I have compiled a list of thoughts you may need to consider if you are not quickly adapting to the new economic dynamics and getting ahead of the game:

1. While others are firing up their engines, anyone who is not adapting to the new economy will be left far behind. Although more cautiously than before, companies are still spending money when they see it’s a worthwhile investment. Are you that fresh opportunity?
2. How far behind are you now that the recovery is moving full-steam ahead? Will you be able to quickly adapt to the new landscape that is occurring? Or, will you be one of the many partners scrambling to regain your footing?
3. Perhaps your firm decided to freeze salaries and table bonuses this year. Don’t be surprised if the firm winds up investing that money (and then some) to replace those “valued” rainmakers who no longer feel appreciated by or connected to your organization.
4. Are your clients investigating innovative new programs and/or alternative means to meet their needs? If they took a close look at your practice, would they see the inventive ideas they are looking for, or are they left wanting?

So what is it going to be? Will you choose to stand in place and hope the winds of change don’t blow you away, or will you use the wind to help your practice move forward more swiftly? It’s all about the combination of the right timing and the right opportunity. At GLI, we’re always working on pivotal open positions in a wide variety of practice areas. We are creative, which gives us the ability to think differently and work outside of the boxes which constrain solutions for so many others. Our creativity allows us to see things others have not seen and thus show new directions and new possibilities to both clients and candidates alike. The most important question we can ask you is: “What if …?”

So, get the most out of 2013!  Enhance your performance with our tips. Check them out for free below.  

By Andrew Lu on June 21, 2012 5:02 AM

Solo practitioners in Oregon have it worst, while 11-20 person firms in New York had it among the best in terms of getting paid for legal hours worked. This according to a new survey on attorney billing efficiency.

The survey looked only at small to medium sized firms with less than 50 lawyers. So the big firms with endless resources were not included. Though you can probably bet those firms milk every last penny out of their clients (and their attorneys).

The survey looks at attorney billing efficiency for firms, reports The Wall Street Journal. Billing efficiency means how much time you are actually paid relative to the amount you put in. So if you work nine hours, but only get paid for six, your billing efficiency would be 66%.

Not surprisingly, solo practitioners and two-person firms were the lowest on the efficiency scale nationally. What is surprising, is just how inefficient solo and two-person firms are, billing only at a 39% rate. Solos are expected to perform a lot of non-billable work like marketing, rainmaking, and administrative duties, so this may explain the low number. Additionally, solos probably don’t have enough resources to hire secretaries and assistants to perform the unbillable work. But getting paid for only half your time seems ridiculous. Perhaps this should motivate you to hire some help.

Sadly for attorneys in Oregon, all attorneys who responded to the survey only billed at a 40% efficiency rate, reports the Journal. If all attorneys in Oregon are only billing at a 40% rate, one can only imagine what a poor solo in Oregon gets.

On the opposite spectrum, lawyers in Delaware billed at 94% of hours worked. New York, Colorado, Utah, Louisiana, and Mississippi also ranked high on the list, reports the Journal.

Attorney billing efficiency varies wildly from state to state and among different sized firms. The fact that lawyers in Oregon bill less than half what their peers in Delaware do is shocking. If you’re a small firm attorney, you should consider hiring assistants. This may be a case where spending some money, will help you make a lot more.

Article originally appeared in:

Brian Baxter

The Am Law Daily

06-19-2012

A trio of financial services transactions announced this month have boosted the corporate practices of several leading law firms.

New York–based private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced Monday its purchase of Prisma Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on hedge funds. Reuters reports that the money management unit of Dutch financial services giant Aegon, which helped set up Prisma in 2004, will sell its minority stake in Prisma but remain a significant investor in Prisma’s funds.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction has yielded roles for two Am Law 100 firms that are no strangers to private equity and hedge fund work.

Schulte Roth & Zabel, a firm known for its top-tier hedge fund and investment management practice, is advising Aegon and Prisma on the deal with a team led by M&A partners Andre Weiss and Christopher Harrison, tax partner Philippe Benedict, investment management partner Jennifer Dunn, and employee benefits partner Holly Weiss. Anne Wynne has served as general counsel and chief compliance officer for New York–based Prisma since June 2010.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is advising longtime client KKR on the acquisition. Corporate partner Gary Horowitz, investment funds partner Jason Herman, tax chair Steven Todrys, tax partner Katharine Moir, employee benefits partner Andrea Wahlquist, and corporate counsel Lisa Klar are leading a team from the firm working on the matter.

KKR has long been one of Simpson Thacher’s largest clients. In 2011 alone, the firm advised KKR on its $7.2 billion acquisition of oil and gas company Samson, its $2.38 billion buy of Pfizer’s Capsugel division, its sale of a stake in Web domain name provider Go Daddy Group, and the purchase of stakes in Academy Sports + Outdoors and Vietnam’s Masan Group.

David Sorkin, a former Simpson Thacher partner and member of the firm’s executive committee, has served as general counsel of KKR since 2007. Documents disclosed as a result of KKR’s $2 billion initial public offering in 2010 revealed Sorkin’s annual compensation to be nearly $7 million. (Simpson Thacher handled the IPO work for KKR.)

Also on Monday, billionaire Nelson Peltz disclosed that he had amassed a 5.1 percent stake in investment boutique Lazard through his Trian Fund Management. Peltz, whose hedge fund is now Lazard’s largest outside shareholder, has thrown his support behind a strategic plan outlined earlier this year by Lazard management to increase its business and boost shareholder value.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has traditionally handled transactions for Peltz, such as the activist investor’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Wendy’s International in 2008 and the $130 million sale of its majority stake in the Arby’s restaurant business last year. A Paul Weiss spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the Lazard matter.

Lazard’s longtime outside legal counsel of choice has been Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Bruce Wasserstein, a former lawyer at the firm who served as chairman and CEO of Lazard, eventually prevailed in a fierce internal battle to take the investment bank public in 2005. (Wasserstein, who died in 2009 at 61, once owned The American Lawyer and parent company ALM before selling both to London-based Incisive Media in 2007 for $630 million.)

Two spokeswomen for Cravath did not respond to requests for comment on whether Lazard turned to the firm for counsel on the stake taken by Peltz, nor did corporate partner and longtime Lazard lawyer Erik Tavzel. Scott Hoffman, another former Cravath lawyer who serves as managing director and general counsel of Lazard, did not respond to a request for comment on the bank’s legal advisers for the transaction.

Last week, Lazard elected former Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler partner Richard Parsons, who also served as chairman of Citigroup and CEO of Time Warner, to its board of directors. Other members of Lazard’s board include Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld senior counsel Vernon Jordan Jr. and former U.S. Supreme Court clerk Hal Scott, a Harvard Law School graduate who serves as director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent and nonpartisan research organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Several prominent Am Law 100 alums also work at Lazard. Last year the former managing partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Mark Walker, left after 45 years at the firm to join Lazard’s sovereign advisory group, where he has played a prominent role over the past year advising the Greek government. Lazard also employs Timothy Pohl, the former cohead of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s corporate restructuring practice, who joined the bank in January 2009.

In another major deal announced earlier this month, London-based Norton Rose, which in recent years has put a premium on explosive international growth, took the lead for Absa Bank, a South African subsidiary of Barclays, on its $1.2 billion purchase of the retail credit card business of African department store chain Edcon.

A team of Norton Rose lawyers in South Africa and Abu Dhabi led by corporate partners Kevin Cron and Alan Bainbridge are advising Johannesburg-based Absa Bank on the deal, the biggest in its history. With roughly 700 branches and nearly 9,300 ATMs throughout South Africa, Absa Bank is one of the largest retail and mortgage lenders in the country

Leah Eadens, pictured left, has become an invaluable member of the GLI team. Leah joined GLI in December 2011 as a co-op student from Warren East   High School in Bowling Green, KY, where she is a graduating senior. Leah’s interpersonal skills are remarkable. She is great with her team members and her communication and work ethic are always high-level, professional and efficient. Leah’s energy and enthusiasm are a welcome addition to GLI.

GLI established a cooperative education program with local high schools and colleges 5 years ago in an effort to help better prepare students for work in a professional environment by helping them to:
• Build job qualifications for future employment
• Increase self-confidence
• Reaffirm career choices
• Obtain experience in managing financial responsibility
• Gain professional skills which will translate into any career field

GLI is committed to identifying the social issues that are most relevant to our business and most pressing to our community and to working in partnership with our community to leverage our combined expertise for mutual benefit.            

Job #5098-MH1054
Job Title: Energy Litigation
Location: Chicago, IL

Click here to apply

Energy Litigation Attorneys

Top tier firm seeks Energy Litigation attorneys with a minimum of 4 years of energy practice experience, including substantial state and federal regulatory litigation experience, and key energy industry transactional experience. A combination of energy/environmental experience would be ideal, especially in the areas of natural resource and energy regulation, generation, transportation and refining. Stellar academics and large law firm experience are preferred. Ideal applicants will be licensed to practice inIllinois.