First-year lawyers are looking to earn up to $125,000 to start among Delaware law firms – and other firms elsewhere are catching on.

Now that the lazy days of summer are over, attorneys are on the move. Law school students are busy securing top-paying jobs at local firms, recruiting directors are hunting for new associates and experienced practitioners are surveying their options.

In hopes of attracting the best and the brightest from the crop of law students who will graduate in 2005, numerous Delaware firms have announced that they will offer new grads $115,000, or even $125,000, per year to start.

And announcing new hires earlier this month, firm officials at Buchanan Ingersoll and McCarter & English said they are growing their Delaware offices and will continue adding lawyers to their folds.

Partner Mark Gundersen and associate John Taylor III have joined McCarter & English’s corporate department, while partner William Sullivan has brought his bankruptcy and commercial litigation experience to Buchanan Ingersoll.

To allow for expansion, Buchanan Ingersoll also recently signed a seven-year lease for space in downtown Wilmington’s Nemours Building, partner David Wilks said. Wilks, who heads the firm’s Delaware office, said that Buchanan Ingersoll will hire not only additional bankruptcy practitioners, but also general litigation, transactional and real estate attorneys to increase its Delaware presence.

Seven lawyers currently practice in Buchanan Ingersoll’s Delaware office, according to the firm’s Web site.

After a relatively slow summer, Delaware firms are concentrating on increasing their ranks during the remainder of 2004 and into 2005, Brenda Thompson of legal recruiting firm Thompson Search Consultants said.

Thompson told the Delaware Law Weekly that firms have been seeking not just seasoned lawyers, but also associates with one to three years of practice experience.

Judging from new entry-level salaries, it seems that some of Delaware’s heavy hitters should have no trouble attracting new talent.

Recently, several Philadelphia firms announced that they will also raise first-year salaries. Effective Jan. 1, Pepper Hamilton, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, Reed Smith and Duane Morris will offer first-year associates $115,000, firm leaders said.

John Reed, who heads Duane Morris’ Wilmington office, said that the increase will not apply in Delaware because that office already pays $115,000 to start. The increases at Pepper Hamilton, Reed Smith and Ballard Spahr will take effect in Wilmington as well as Philadelphia, firm officials said.


One of First Convictions in Country for Exporting National Security …

One of First Convictions in Country for Exporting National Security Items to Iran

SAN JOSE – LAWFUEL – Law News Network – United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan announced that Super Micro Computer Inc. pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony charge of unlawfully exporting computer components to Iran in 2001 and 2002. Export of the computer components was banned at the time for reasons of national security under export commodity control number 4A003.b. This guilty plea is the result of an investigation by agents of the Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement, of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which regulates exports, and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.

Super Micro, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., was charged in an information filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on September 1, 2006. The company was charged with one count of knowingly exporting items subject to export regulations without obtaining a license, in violation of Title 50, United States Code, section 1705(b). Under the terms of the plea agreement, the company agreed to plead guilty and pay a $150,000 fine. Pursuant to the agreement, Judge Ronald M. Whyte imposed the sentence on the same day the company pleaded guilty. According to the plea agreement, as a result of the investigation the company implemented a new export control program in February 2004. Since the initiation of that program, the government has been monitoring Super Micro’s exports and has found no evidence of further export violations. Remedial actions taken by the company were taken into account for sentencing purposes.

In pleading guilty, the company admitted that between December 28, 2001, and January 29, 2002, the company sold 300 of the company’s P4SBA+ Motherboards to a company named Super Net in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, knowing that the items were to be transhipped to Iran. Super Net paid $27,600 for the items. At the time of the export the items were controlled for reasons of national security, and exporting them to Iran without a license was illegal. The motherboards at issue are no longer controlled for export.

According to Department of Commerce records, this case is one of the first criminal convictions in the nation for exporting items controlled for national security reasons to Iran.

Gary G. Fry is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Legal Technician Tracey Andersen.

Further Information:

Case #: CR 06-00597 RMW

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay@usdoj.gov.

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