Law Firms

Law firms have now morphed from facilitators of wealth into grief counselors for the financially stricken or confused. Overnight, it seems, firms are handing out handkerchiefs and setting up virtual information booths to help clients track the latest developments on the financial crisis and bailout. Akin Gump, Bracewell & Giuliani, Fried Frank, Gibson Dunn & […]

While Yale Law School recently lost several big-name professors, its rival in Cambridge has been expanding aggressively — often directly at Yale’s expense. Harvard’s latest appointments are part of a host of changes under the deanship of Elena Kagan targeted at dispelling stereotypes about Harvard Law School’s low quality of life, large class sizes and

In a downturn, business people like to point out, some truths are laid bare. “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out,” Warren Buffett famously told investors in a 2002 letter. Which is why, after the 2000 dot-com crash, it was the United Kingdom’s elite law firms that were found

Less than a week before its October term is set to begin, the US Supreme Court became a spectacle of sound and fury on Wednesday over a landmark decision handed down three months ago declaring that the death penalty for child rapists is cruel and unusual punishment. At issue was whether the high court would

The Jones Day law firm is suing an Internet site for mentioning the firm without permisson — a case that rankles First Amendment experts and challenges an underpinning of the World Wide Web. The Cleveland-based firm claims BlockShopper.com violated trademark law by reporting that two Jones Day lawyers had bought condos in Chicago. BlockShopper can’t

Heller Ehrman appeared on the brink of dissolution Wednesday, with some partners already looking to move with what amounted to tacit approval from firm management. In office meetings on Wednesday, partners were told that dissolution is one of several options facing the 119-year-old firm, a Heller partner said. As a result, management said it was

The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. faced the prospect of liquidation, and Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be sold to Bank of America Corp. The U.S. government, which bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a week ago and orchestrated the sale of Bear Stearns

Cravath Swaine & Moore and Davis Polk & Wardwell have won places advising on the creation of the $70 Billion liquidity facility set up by leading investment banks in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ collapse. Cravath is representing JP Morgan Chase as administrative agent and collateral agent for the facility, which will be made available

Mondays better not get any more manic than this. Wall Street expected to spend today trying to contain the damage from a bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers (LEH) after the fourth-largest investment bank failed to find a buyer for its broken balance sheet over the weekend. And that’s not all. There’s the distressed sale of