Matador Legal » Corporate law firm

Seyfarth adds partners in outsourcing group

Matador Legal — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:21:45 +0000

Seyfarth Shaw an AM LAW 10 legal firm has added a team of partners in the corporate technology and Outsourcing group in the Atlanta and Washington offices. The group brings with them deep capabilities in Outsourcing; technology and licensing; mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures and alliances; and privacy and security matters.

Pinsents outsources legal work to South Africa

Matador Legal — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:41:16 +0000

Pinsents Masons, a global 100 law firms with offices in UK, Asia pacific and gulf region has announced outsourcing of legal work to Exigent, in Cape Town, South Africa. Observers note that this is the first time that a UK based law firm has decided to outsource legal work usually done by lawyers in UK to a vendor based in another country.

Various law firms in UK have been in the news lately for outsourcing all but legal work. Simmons and Simmons is looking to outsource litigation and corporate due diligence, Clifford Chance has outsourced IT and paralegal work to India, Eversheds has also outsourced secretarial work to India.

Mayer Brown associates to work on client side

Matador Legal — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:06:55 +0000

Associates in Mayer Brown, have agreed to a pay cut of USD 100,000 in lieu of an extra year of job security. The associates will work directly with in house departments of corporate clients. They will receive an annual salary of USD 60,000. These jobs are guaranteed only for one year, with assurance of further employment.

Critics point out that there are inherent risks in this model of a scenario, where the associates do not deliver. We believe that Mayer Brown needs to be commended for a novel new approach, and we will leave it to them to execute this idea effectively.

Source:

http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2009/06/the-100000-paycut.html

Legal Spending to drop by nearly a fifth in second half of 2009

Matador Legal — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:51:51 +0000

Acritas, a leading provider of specialist research programmes to the professional, financial and public service sectors in the UK, Europe and the USA has in a recent survey predicted that legal spending is set to fall by nearly a fifth, in the second half of 2009, in Birmingham.

The practices to be hit the most are corporate finance and property legal services, while the most buoyant area is litigation followed by employment and regulation.

Acritas said that about 60% of corporate counsels expect a change in their legal strategy. A quarter of lawyers expect a discount on rates while another quarter of them propose to move to a fixed price model.

Source:

http://www.birminghampost.net/birmingham-business/birmingham-business-news/legal-business/2009/06/03/law-firms-in-for-a-tough-end-to-2009-65233-23772016/

Bankruptcy Judges start putting cap on legal fees

Matador Legal — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:31:27 +0000

In the chapter 7 protection for IndyMac, the court appointed monitor has capped the lawyer’s hourly billing t $600. The six corporate law firms representing IndyMac have appealed to the judge to overturn this cap.

The judge has declined to intervene. While, the trustees also have requested to reduce the hourly rates of a few lawyers, for the remainder of the case.

This trend started in February, when a bankruptcy judge in Delaware refused to approve a hourly rate of $1,10o requested by Sidney Austin in the Tribune Co. Bankruptcy. It was settled for $925. Generally, a decade back judges use to impose a cap on the hourly rate in bankruptcies.

Source:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202430605258