Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell has rebranded to become RumbergerKirk, revealing a new, modern brand identity and website. In part, the refreshed brand is a result of the firm’s market research showing that clients and recruits respond favorably to more contemporary styles and shorter names. The new look and name reflects the regional litigation firm’s commitment to its core values of trust, mentorship, courage and diversity, while offering clients, colleagues and the community a more engaging, user-friendly experience across all of the firm’s communications channels.

The firm’s Director of Marketing, Marisa Eubanks, spearheaded the initiative working closely with the firm’s leadership team and Orlando-based creative agency Big Vision. Drawing upon insights from clients, colleagues and community partners, the new look is a dynamic visual representation of the firm’s personality and collaborative nature.

In addition to introducing a clean and minimal aesthetic, RumbergerKirk made significant enhancements to its website, which now offers an improved user experience. “Clients and recruits will be able to find the information they’re seeking easily —from attorney insights to details about the kind of work we do, and what recruits can expect from a career with us,” said Eubanks.

The brand exemplifies RumbergerKirk’s unique culture and commitment to the community, which has made it a trusted leader in the legal services industry for more than 40 years.

To experience the firm’s new brand identity and learn more about RumbergerKirk, please visit www.rumberger.com.

“The Biglaw firm of Dentons is facing a $25 million lawsuit alleging self dealing, conflict of interest, and gross overbilling. ” reports Kathryn Rubino in Above the Law’s BigLaw.

“The lawsuit alleges that both Dentons and partner Shane Stevenson told Venning that “within a short period of time” of the Regent Energy sale, Stevenson would come in-house at Venning Group. While that move never materialized, the complaint alleges that in anticipation of the move, Stevenson became involved as a shareholder or director in numerous of its companies.”

“Additionally, the complaint alleges that Stevenson has a substance abuse problem and that Dentons was aware of the issue and failed to provide proper supervision of his legal work. The allegations against Stevenson include ones that he provided legal advice under the influence of alcohol and cocaine and that Venning was not warned the legal work they got from Stevenson may be under the influence.”

Read the article.

Irell & Manella “announced to all attorneys that the firm was pursuing an ‘alternative business model.’ According to the email sent by partner Jonathan Kagan, they are ‘focus[ing] on areas where we have a clearly demonstrated record of success and excellence when compared to other firms.’” reports Kathryn Runbino in Above the Law’s BigLaw.

An email was sent to explain what this means. “We therefore plan to focus our future growth and investments in our litigation practice areas, particularly IP and complex business litigation. Although we will continue to have lawyers in other practice areas at the Firm (particularly in certain transactional areas), we do not anticipate making significant investments in non-core practice areas in the near future.”

Read the article.

“Before the calendar slips too far into the new year, I want to share five important emerging trends or steps for law firm leaders to consider in 2020, each of which will have significant short and long-term implications for your firm.  This little list is not about the macro level industry trends based on historical data with which we all generally agree.  Rather, these are quickly developing micro-trends that are not on many radar screens yet…but need to be,” provides Michael Short in LawVision’s INSIGHTS.

“For your changes to have an impact this year, you need to get your initiatives moving in Q1 and fully implemented before the end of Q2.”

Read the article.

“A former partner at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker has been suspended after an ethics panel concluded that he wrote himself checks from the law firm’s operating account and then lied about a gambling addiction,” reports the ABA Journal.

“Las Vegas lawyer Kym Cushing was suspended for nine months in a Jan. 31 opinion by the Nevada Supreme Court.”

“According to findings of fact in the case, Cushing wrote three checks from his law firm’s operating account and deposited them into his personal bank account. When the law firm confronted him about the checks, Cushing lied and said he was reimbursing himself for payments made to an expert witness.”

Read the ABA Journal article.

Sedgwick, the dissolved law firm, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court in San Francisco, reports the ABA Journal.

“The firm generally estimates its liabilities at up to $50 million and says in a declaration that there are about $32.6 million in claims from the termination of office leases as well as about $9.2 million owed in accounts payable. The firm had assets of about $1.56 million in cash and recoverable accounts receivable of about $1.5 million, the declaration says.”

“The firm is analyzing whether it has clawback claims against former partners.”

“Sedgwick had its best year in 2012 with $212 million in gross revenue … According to the bankruptcy declaration, Sedgwick ‘established a well-deserved reputation for high-end insurance work and as one of the pre-eminent product liability firms in the country.’”

Read the ABA Journal article.

Read the ABA Journal’s article.

Read the StamformAdvocate’s article.

“Latham & Watkins is a January bonus player who understands the pain of waiting while your peers at other firms celebrate holiday bonuses. So again this year, Latham is offering a sliding scale of bonuses that top the market base for most associates.” reports Joe Patrice in the Above The Law Biglaw.

According to a Latham memo providing the median and top bonuses by class year there was a bump for the big revenue firm. Bonus payments kicked in at a 1900-hour minimum.

Read the article.

“The beginning of a new year is the perfect time for busy lawyers to take stock of last year’s achievements and to establish plans for being SMART about business development in the coming months. To maximize your business development time, my question to you is: are you being SMART about it? SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Sensitive. A key benefit to the SMART framework is that you are concentrating time on the most essential areas of your business development activities. SMART provides you with focus, so you can actually achieve your goals.” advises Jason Levin in the Above the Law Career Center.

He briefly goes through the SMART framework.

Read the article.

Suzie Scanlon Rabinowitz writes in the ABA Journal that “Both the perception of and reality for women attorneys is disheartening. According to the National Association for Law Placement, women accounted for 20% of equity law firm partners in 2018. That’s while women have constituted about half of law school graduates for the past 20 years, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on advancing women’s professional progress. By many other key metrics, the law is still male-dominated, especially at its highest levels.”

“In a profession where cultural change happens at a creeping pace, how can we change the perception—and the reality—that success for women at the upper echelons is the exception, rather than the rule? Just as important, how can we elevate the practice of law by fostering diversity in the profession?”

Read the article.

“Federal prosecutors allege that a former Morrison & Foerster office operations manager spent more than $400,000 on the firm’s credit card to make personal purchases and transfer money to his PayPal account.” reports Debra Cassens Weiss of the ABA Journal.

“The former employee, Andrew Robertson, faces a preliminary hearing at the end of the month in Washington, D.C., on a federal mail fraud charge.”

“Robertson is accused of spending money on personal purchases that included designer clothing, jewelry, home furnishings, groceries, his Verizon bill and storage units for his personal items.”

Read the article.

Time reports that Michael Avenatti is “being imprisoned in the same chilly cell that once held drug kingpin El Chapo, his lawyer said.”

“Avenatti was put in the most secure section of the federal facility under special administrative measures designed to cut off his communications with the outside world, Srebnick said. The special housing unit has held dozens of terrorism defendants over the past quarter century.”

“His cell, reportedly once occupied by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has an officer posted outside it around the clock and two cameras focused on him.”

Read the Time‘s article.

The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics will host Academies in 18 locations worldwide to help Deepen Your Compliance Expertise in 2020.

Learn to effectively manage a compliance and ethics program and mitigate risk at your organization at one of SCCE’s Basic Compliance & Ethics Academies. They are ideal for professionals who want to raise their knowledge level and help improve the effectiveness of their organization’s program.

While at the Academy, you can also take an optional Compliance Certification Board (CCB)®  exam. They offer the Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional (CCEP)® exam at US Academies and the Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional — International (CCEP-I)® exam outside of the US. Learn more about certification and the exam at SCCE to see if you meet the criteria and have the practical work experience it takes to become certified.

Register for the event or get details.

Of all the offerings from internet giant Google, a robust Google My Business account should be one of the first goals for any company or law firm that wants to make sure they can be found online by the right audience, advises Bruce Vincent of Muse Communications.

In the post on the Muse website, Vincent explains that the information provided on a Google My Business listing is used by Google along with other online information to create the “knowledge panel” that appears on the right side of a Google search results page when you search for a business name.

He explains how to set up the account in Google and how to update and monitor the account.

Read the article.

The 2020 Lateral Partner Satisfaction Survey, released by legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, reveals that the top reason for law firm partners to make lateral moves is lack of confidence in firm management and strategy.

“The next most-often cited reasons were a lack of support to build their practice (about 35%), dislike of their firm’s culture (about 31%) and compensation (about 31%). The lawyers were allowed to choose more than one factor,” reports the  ABA Journal.

The survey also shows that many partners are making life-changing decisions with very little due diligence.

Read the survey.

Read the  ABA Journal‘s report.

Above the Law reports that Reed Smith has announced a global Mental Health Task Force to help Reed Smith’s team address mental health issues as they arise.

Partner Kimberly Gold, inaugural chair of the task force, describes the firm’s plan:

“The mission of this task force is to ensure that our lawyers and professional staff have access to help whenever they or their family members experience or are at risk of experiencing mental health or substance use issues. We will also challenge the well-documented stigma surrounding these issues and cultivate a workplace culture that promotes psychological wellness and positive help-seeking behaviors.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Houston civil trial law boutique Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C., or AZA, has added five attorneys.

The new hires include:

• Samantha Brantley focused on corporate litigation
• H. Jared Doster focused on intellectual property law
• Louis Liao is an intellectual property attorney focused on patent litigation
• Luke Ott focused on commercial litigation
• Crystal V. Venning focused on complex commercial litigation including disputes arising from business contracts, government contracts and large construction projects

AZA is a trial firm working with high-stakes litigation for multinational companies, also representing individuals and mid-sized businesses with serious legal issues. The firm also manages company investigations, helping company boards, in-house counsel, and audit committees identify problems and ensure compliance before litigation ensues.

Read more about the new hires.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the law firm and legal services technology company Atrium plans to lay off an undisclosed number of in-house attorneys in a bid to restructure the San Francisco startup.

CEO Justin Kan posted in the company’s blog that Atrium “will keep a small group of partners in-house who will serve our clients with strategic services like financing and (mergers and acquisitions), as well as work with our network of vetted and trusted firms to deliver general corporate legal services.”

The company provides legal and business services to startups, charging them on a subscription basis, according to the Chronicle‘s Chase DiFeliciantonio.

Read the SF Chronicle article.

Bloomberg Law takes a look at the hundreds of Kirkland & Ellis hard-working, non-share partners who live in a sort of limbo—a solid step above associate status, but still well-short of achieving the coveted position of equity partner, where they are able to share in the firm’s largesse.

Bloomberg’s Roy Strom explains:

“It’s an exchange that helps fuel the bottom line at one of the world’s richest law firms: Kirkland gets non-share partners’ blood, sweat, and tears, and billable hours. And in return, non-share partners bank on the experience and contacts gained at Kirkland in hopes that despite the significant blow of not getting coveted Kirkland shares, they can land well elsewhere.”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.