Why are many women lawyers choosing to leave big law, and starting their own law firms, even after they make partner? In the first of a two-episode podcast series, Big Law Business's Josh Block explores that question with Stephanie Russell-Kraft, who recently reported on the topic, and Nicole Galli, a former partner at Pepper Hamilton, who now has her own small firm. Subscribe to On The Merits on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Megaphone, or Audible. Podcast Sponsors: DMX htt...
Sep 18, 2017•30 min
There’s some good news if you’re an equity partner at a large law firm. Based on the findings of a survey of firms released by Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Legal Specialty Group, equity partners should see “healthy levels of profit” this year, according to Joe Mendola, a senior director of sales with the group. However, Mendola also warned that this continues to be “a challenging time” for many firms in the second hundred of the Am Law 200, and we should expect consolidation to continue in the com...
Sep 01, 2017•20 min
Women represent private parties in civil litigation just 18.5% of the time in New York according to a New York State Bar Association report released earlier this month. Judge Shira Scheindlin backed up those findings during a recent podcast recording: “what I witnessed in the courtroom was a great gender disparity in privately retained counsel.” Judge Scheindlin, a former Federal District Court Judge, was one of the members of the task force that prepared the report. Last week she also published...
Aug 17, 2017•34 min
Kasowitz Benson Torres has been representing Donald Trump, in various matters, for more than 15 years. In May, when the firm’s founding partner Marc Kasowitz was chosen to represent the president in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the lawyer and firm were thrust into the spotlight. In this episode we take a deep dive on Kasowitz Benson. Josh Block talks with Bob Van Voris of Bloomberg News, and New York Law Journal’s Christine Simmons. Big Law Business https://bol.bna.c...
Jul 14, 2017•26 min
Leaders from Venable, Latham & Watkins, Morgan Stanley, and Capital One talk about the state of the legal industry. This episode was recorded live at the Big Law Business Summit, and moderated by Bloomberg Businessweek’s Megan Murphy. Topics include talent management, how corporations choose law firms, automation in the legal industry, pressure on the law firm economic model, whether law firms are doing enough to achieve diversity, the millennial generation, and how the business of law is ch...
May 31, 2017•44 min
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff thinks increased competition has had an impact on law firms, for the worse. “It is to the point that the professional ethics and the professional responsibilities of the firms have been affected,” Rakoff told Big Law Business, explaining that firms, in order to keep clients, are willing to endorse risky behavior. In the podcast interview with Big Law Business’s Casey Sullivan, Rakoff laid out his concerns about how attorneys in his courtroom have placated clients, ...
May 03, 2017•50 min
For the latest episode of the Big Law Business podcast, Josh Block and Casey Sullivan let the leaders of two top grossing law firms take over. This is the full-length audio version of our "Chairs on Chairs" series featuring Kim Koopersmith, of Akin Gump, and Steve Immelt, of Hogan Lovells, interviewing each other about the business of law. Topics include: the Trump administration and travel ban, Brexit’s impact on the industry, diversity and inclusion at large law firms, running a large law firm...
Apr 28, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Jones Day's connection to Donald Trump has landed at least 14 of their lawyers positions in the administration. But the law firm stood out long before the Trump relationship. Jones Day has the most total lawyers working in the United States, according to the most recent ranking. In 2015, they hired 10 U.S. Supreme Court law clerks. And, perhaps most unique by today's standards, they have a management structure that gives almost all decision making authority to their managing partner, including d...
Mar 17, 2017•32 min
It’s not often that lawyers from Big Law firms are arrested by the FBI, in disguise, accused of selling a whistleblower complaint. When our colleagues at Bloomberg News broke the news early yesterday, we knew we had a story that was about to blow-up in legal circles and beyond. On a day that shut down cities across the Northeast, Casey Sullivan trudged into our NYC studio to record this podcast and learn more about the arrest from Jef Feeley, one of the trio of reporters who broke the story. Big...
Feb 09, 2017•15 min
Is another megafirm about to get even bigger? Yesterday, Norton Rose Fulbright and New York-based Chadbourne & Parke both confirmed that they were in discussions to merge. The combined law firm would have nearly 4,000 lawyers and about $2 billion in revenue. Josh Block and Casey Sullivan discuss the likely first candidate for biggest law firm merger of 2017. Sponsored by Bloomberg Law: www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Subscribe to the Big Law Business podcast on iTunes: itunes.appl...
Feb 03, 2017•12 min
Alfred Dewayne Brown was sent to death row in 2005 for a crime he didn’t commit. The dedication of a Big Law associate, Brian Stolarz, to his pro bono representation of Brown helped exonerate him. The price Stolarz paid for the hours he put into the case cost him bonuses and the path to partnership. Stolarz, who wrote a book about his experience, Grace and Justice on Death Row, joins Josh Block and Casey Sullivan on the Big Law Business podcast. Sponsored by Bloomberg Law: www.bna.com/bloombergl...
Dec 07, 2016•33 min
Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer, after months of talks, announced today that they will merge effective January 1, 2017. The new firm will have roughly 1,000 lawyers and will be called Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. Josh Block and Casey Sullivan discuss the largest law firm merger (so far) of 2016. Sponsored by Bloomberg Law: www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Subscribe to the Big Law Business podcast on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-l…d1074067483?mt=2
Nov 10, 2016•18 min
Former United States Solicitors General Paul Clement and Donald Verrilli are among the “top tier” of Supreme Court advocates, according to Greg Stohr who covers the Court for Bloomberg News. So, it’s big news that both announced in September that they are joining Big Law firms. In Clement’s case, he’s taking his whole boutique appellate firm, Bancroft, with him to Kirkland & Ellis. While, in Verrilli’s case, his return to Big Law was not quite as unexpected. The firm he joined however, Munge...
Oct 04, 2016•32 min
It’s cliche to say, in today’s legal market, that only law firms that do “bet the ranch” litigation can charge top rates. Gibson Dunn isn’t just one of those “bet the ranch” type of firms. As Bloomberg Businessweek’s Paul Barrett notes, the firm has been called on by clients to replace both Jones Day and Skadden Arps: “when things kind of go bad and you need to be rescued, you call on Gibson Dunn to come up with some type of innovative strategy to get you out of the soup.” Once again we’re takin...
Aug 17, 2016•41 min
Jeremy Hodges, of Bloomberg News, joins Casey Sullivan to discuss how Britain's vote to leave the European Union is affecting the business of law in the UK. Hodges provides an overview of the London legal market, the work (or lack thereof) that is coming to the biggest law firms as a result of Brexit, and big law mergers past and present. Brought to you by: Bloomberg Law www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Subscribe to the Big Law Business podcast on iTunes. itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bi...
Jul 15, 2016•34 min
2007. George W. Bush was President, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone, Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood, and across the legal industry, Big Law firms raised the base salary of their first-year associates to $160,000 from $145,000. It would be the last such raise until this month. Probably no other legal news site has covered the associate salary raises of 2016 as extensively as Above the Law, so we invited one of their editors, Joe Patrice to talk with Josh Block about t...
Jul 08, 2016•37 min
The former editor-in-chief of The American Lawyer, Aric Press joins Josh Block and Casey Sullivan to discuss his career, law firm rankings, and what he's learned about the legal industry since becoming a law firm consultant. Brought to you by: Bloomberg Law www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Subscribe to the Big Law Business podcast on iTunes. itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-l…d1074067483?mt=2 Discussed in this episode: What is the Value of Law Firm Rankings? https://bol.bna.com/what-is-...
Jun 20, 2016•1 hr 11 min
Peter Lattman, formerly of The New York Times, joins Josh Block and Casey Sullivan to discuss covering the business of law at the Times and his stint as the first lead writer for The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. Lattman talks about his career, from his start as a big law associate at Kramer Levin, to his latest move, just last week, to Emerson Collective, the organization started by the widow of Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs. Brought to you by Bloomberg Law http://www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?p...
Apr 07, 2016•44 min
The American Lawyer’s Julie Triedman joins Josh Block and Casey Sullivan to discuss K&L Gates. Thirty partners recently left the law firm, but that was after an announcement that the firm would be receiving a $210 million contingency fee award. In light of the settlement, why are partners choosing to leave now, and what is the firm’s outspoken chairman, Peter Kalis saying about the departures? Brought to you by: Bloomberg Law http://www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Subscribe to the...
Mar 17, 2016•26 min
Josh Block and Casey Sullivan discuss deferred prosecution agreements in the Dewey & LeBoeuf criminal case, the end of Dickstein Shapiro, Justice Scalia's Big Law associate days, Richard Susskind's new book and op-ed video, and the one year anniversary of the launch of the Big Law Business website. Brought to you by: Bloomberg Law http://www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Discussed in this episode: Ex-Dewey Client-Relations Manager Strikes Deal to Avoid Trial https://bol.bna.com/ex-d...
Mar 01, 2016•23 min
Josh Block and Casey Sullivan discuss the impending departure of 22 partners from Schiff Hardin, both Rudy Giuliani's move to Greenberg Traurig and the confirmation that the firm is in preliminary merger talks with a large British firm, Berwin Leighton Paisner. Will Dickstein Shapiro have a new merger partner? And what do the layoffs at Reed Smith mean for Big Law? Brought to you by: Bloomberg Law http://www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW Subscribe to the Big Law Business podcast on iTun...
Feb 09, 2016•22 min
Josh Block and Casey Sullivan discuss the recent deferred prosecution agreement in the Dewey & LeBoeuf criminal case, the failed merger talks between Bryan Cave and Dickstein Shapiro, Kenyon & Kenyon and the IP firm blues, Sidley's growth in Boston, and a dinner party (at Per Se!) for female law firm leaders. (CORRECTION: In this podcast we say that Dewey’s former chair Steve Davis accepted a plea deal. In fact, the deal was a deferred prosecution agreement.) Brought to you by: Bloomberg...
Jan 20, 2016•16 min
In this teaser episode of the Big Law Business podcast, Josh Block and Casey Sullivan discuss the biggest business of law stories of 2015; the extreme growth of Dentons, and the criminal trial of three former Dewey & LeBoeuf executives for their role in the firm's collapse. Brought to you by: Bloomberg Law http://www.bna.com/bloomberglaw?promocode=BLBBLAW
Jan 03, 2016•15 min
