Boutique law firm

DLA Piper has acquired the 10 lawyers who worked for the California boutique law firm Stevens, O’Connell & Jacobs, including two former U.S. attorneys.The Sacramento boutique firm is closing and all of its lawyers are joining DLA Piper, according to the Sacramento Bee. A press release has details on the lawyers making the move, including former U.S. Attorneys Charles Stevens and George O’Connell.The boutique firm’s third name partner, Matthew Jacobs, jumped there from DLA Piper in 2008 and is now returning to his former law firm.Lawyers from the smaller firm will join DLA’s litigation practice in Sacramento, bringing to 24 the number of lawyers in the office. “We get to stay in Sacramento and maintain a small office’s collegiality,” Stevens told the Sacramento Bee in an email. At the same time, the lawyers will be able to handle more big cases because of DLA’s international platform and corporate-client base, he said.Last month, DLA … [Read more...] about DLA Piper Acquires Lawyers from California Boutique Law Firm

A boutique law firm in the small town of Warrenton, Va., has developed a lucrative specialty: It advises groups that want to influence elections without disclosing their contributors.The firm, Holtzman Vogel Josefiak, is housed in a brick building that has “emerged as a nexus of Republican secret money and power,” Bloomberg News reports. Its clients include the super PAC tied to Karl Rove, American Crossroads, as well as Americans for Prosperity, a political nonprofit funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch.Nonprofits able to hide the source of their funds spent unprecedented amounts trying to influence the 2012 elections, the story says. They have Holtzman Vogel Josefiak to thank. The law firm has argued in regulatory filings and in the courts that the groups have a constitutional right to participate in elections without revealing their donors. The firm has also represented clients that “created byzantine layers of nonprofits to protect the identities of their … [Read more...] about Boutique Law Firm Has Expertise in Shielding Campaign Donations from Public Disclosure

They were a group of seven lawyers at a large firm who concentrated on a specific area of law. But they wanted autonomy and flexibility and to be free of the constraints of a large firm.And after going out on their own, lawyers at Deeth Williams Wall LLP celebrated 20 years as an intellectual property and technology boutique law firm in February.“We all decided that we wanted to do things differently,” says Amy-Lynne Williams, who had been a partner at Blake Cassels & Graydon working with the six others in the firm’s technology and intellectual property group.“We thought there had to be a better way to practise law.”She says as friends and colleagues, they found what they were looking for in the boutique they formed. Six of the seven founding partners remain in the firm, which now has 22 lawyers. And the focus is the same.But because boutiques have a specific focus, they can’t cater to all of their clients’ legal needs. While Williams and … [Read more...] about Law Times at 25: The rise of the boutique law firm

The London-based law firm Clyde & Co is opening offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., that will be staffed by 10 partners and other lawyers from Troutman Sanders.The partners handle insurance disputes and litigation, according to a press release and a story by the Am Law Daily (sub. req.). Among those making the move is Eileen Bower, who was managing partner of Troutman Sanders’ Chicago office.The chairman of Troutman Sanders’ insurance practice, Tony Jones, said in a statement that the firm still has “a very strong team of more than 25 insurance lawyers” in five offices, including Chicago and Washington, D.C.The Clyde & Co announcement comes about six months after the law firm opened a Miami office through a merger with a litigation boutique. The firm now has eight offices in the United States, staffed by nearly 50 partners and 200 legal professionals.Former Clyde & Co senior partner James Burns, is overseeing the firm’s expansion into the … [Read more...] about 10 Troutman Sanders partners in Chicago and DC jump to UK-based law firm

A Washington, D.C, law firm is asking applicants for an associate position to demonstrate their “expositional prowess” by submitting an essay that requires some literary knowledge.Intellectual property boutique Fisch Sigler says it’s looking for “an artisan of prose” who is “versed in the very best writing, from the present and antiquity.” Candidates should submit three legal writing samples, and are invited to go further by providing an essay. The description of the optional essay is on the firm’s LinkedIn page:“The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction recognizes many of the greatest stories found between bound covers. But the Pulitzer Board has also passed over some well-known literary works. In 750 words or less, please make the case why the Board should or should not have awarded a Pulitzer Prize to one of the following novels: The Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, or The Handmaid’s Tale.”It’s not the first time that the law … [Read more...] about Boutique law firm seeking ‘artisan of prose’ invites essays that make case for Pulitzer Prize losers