Around The Firms

Early this month, Thacher Proffitt & Wood moved into new office space at Two World Financial Center. This relocation comes 2 years after the September 11 attacks destroyed the firm's old space, located at The World Trade Center's South Tower. Thatcher Proffitt had been at the previous location since 1985, and its new home overlooks the area. Chairman Paul Tvetenstrandt is very happy to be able to remain in the downtown area, and explained that the firm, which is more than 150 years old, has spent a lifetime in the downtown area. However, other firms do not share Thacher Proffitt's enthusiasm about remaining downtown. Just last year another former trade center firm, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, settled into space in the midtown area.

Firm Loses Associates, but Gains Profits and New Office

Dechert's corporate department has lost four Philadelphia-based associates, and although officials will not comment, familiar sources have various opinions as to what took place. Some have said that even though the associates implied that they faced layoffs, specific selection was have occurred. Another source said that the citywide slackening of work in the corporate department left the associates in anticipation of something happening, and so they planned accordingly by examining other possibilities. Since 2000's economic downturn, according to still another source, Dechert has been involved in rearranging corporate associates' practice areas. This person emphasized that sometimes a lack of sufficient work resulted in associates being culled or laid off. In fact, a legal recruiter was not surprised to hear of the departures because he knew that some first-year corporate associates mostly had been tending to litigation matters instead, and that this allowed the associates to stay employed for the time being.

Chief Marketing Officer Nancy Lasersohn spoke on the firm's behalf, and while she said that it is Dechert's policy not to comment, she acknowledged that the firm has shifted associates to different practice areas based on need. She also said that in recent months, corporate practice has had a marked increase – not only at Dechert, but also industrywide.

Late last year, there were Dechert layoffs involving 10 associates in the financial services practices group. The affected offices were in Washington, DC, and Newport Beach, CA, with nine of the associates having come from the DC office. However, sources say this is unrelated to the corporate practice departures. At the time of the December layoffs, Chairman Barton Winokur gave a combination of the financial services practice slowing down in terms of growth and entry-level hirings estimated incorrectly as the reason.

Happily for Dechert, the series of departures has not prevented the firm from achieving financial success this past year. In addition to the firm's 2002 profits per equity partner reaching $880,000 – an all-time high for Dechert – several weeks ago it established a Palo Alto, CA office; which is comprised of 30 lawyers from Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, a Minnesota-based firm.

Paul, Hastings Adds in Asia

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker has opened an office in Shanghai, the firm's fourth outpost in Asia. The office is led by Mitch Dudek, formerly partner-in-charge of the Shanghai office of Jones Day. Also joining the office is attorney Gregory Wells from Morgan Stanley in Asia.

Jones Day Beefs Up German Office

Cleveland-based Jones Day has named another partner to its 44-attorney office in Frankfurt, Germany. Insolvency and restructuring specialist Volker Kammel moved from Clifford Chance to become the 11th partner in the Frankfurt office. Jones Day opened a branch office in Munich in January.

Landing by the Golden Gate

After years of flying high as an associate general counsel with Fort Worth-headquartered American Airlines, George “Trey” Nicoud III has landed in the San Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

On June 15 Nicoud signed on with the Los Angeles-based firm, as of counsel, in its antitrust and trade regulation practice group. Although the move meant relocating, the antitrust work is familiar territory for the 46-year-old Dallas native.

Nicoud began his antitrust career as an associate at the Los Angeles office of Sidley & Austin. He moved to American in 1996, and helped keep the company clear of legal turbulence, handling antitrust matters such as joint ventures, acquisitions, Internet ticket distribution, and class action lawsuits.

Having met several Gibson, Dunn attorneys while working at the airline – American is a major client – Nicoud eventually decided to join the firm. He was especially attracted to Gibson, Dunn's active criminal antitrust practice, an area he wants to pursue.

Now that he's back in the law firm environment, Nicoud says that his years of in-house lawyering help remind him what really matters to clients. “It's important to have quality analysis,” he says, “but maybe not as important to create long, expansive memoranda.”

Work aside, Nicoud need only peer out his office window to remember that he's not in Texas anymore: “There's the beauty of the San Francisco Bay mountains nearby and a lot of opportunity for outdoor activities.” Texas, he says generously, “has a very different geography.”

Judge Sends Lawyer Back to School

Stephen Orlofsky, a U.S. District Court judge, gave Marlton, NJ, attorney Frank Branella an unusual penalty for concluding a time-barred medical malpractice case as one of federal RICO and civil rights. (Balthazar v. Atlantic City Medical Center, 02-1136) Instead of depriving the attorney of payments, Judge Orlofsky decreed that Branella needs to attend courses in order to acquaint himself with ethics and professionalism. The judge said he imposed the sanction after giving Branella a written warning of his possible violation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 (b)(2), which requires an assertion regarding the factual and legal circumstances of their claims. Branella had a state court medical malpractice case was dismissed by Atlantic Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee in 2001. The Balthazar federal suit was opened by Branella in 2000, and it charged a hospital and three doctors with falsification, concealment of negligence and federal and state RICO law violations. Although the federal suit was dismissed, Branella was granted leave to amend his complaint. However, the judge was not happy with the revision, claming that, along other things, it was often beyond comprehension. The attorney must take the courses within the next 12 months, and then he needs to file a court affidavit to affirm his successful completion. No comment was made by Branella except that he plans to appeal both the case's dismissal and the sanctions' imposition.

ALM Exec Joins Marketing Group

Boston-based Robert Ambrogi, who headed up American Lawyer Media's affiliate publication the National Law Journal, has become the new vice president of editorial services for Jaffe Associates, a law firm marketing and business consultant group. Ambrogi also has become director of the group's WritersForLawyers.com, a service which helps to shape such works as articles, case studies and biographies.

Former Trade Center Firm Stays Downtown

Early this month, Thacher Proffitt & Wood moved into new office space at Two World Financial Center. This relocation comes 2 years after the September 11 attacks destroyed the firm's old space, located at The World Trade Center's South Tower. Thatcher Proffitt had been at the previous location since 1985, and its new home overlooks the area. Chairman Paul Tvetenstrandt is very happy to be able to remain in the downtown area, and explained that the firm, which is more than 150 years old, has spent a lifetime in the downtown area. However, other firms do not share Thacher Proffitt's enthusiasm about remaining downtown. Just last year another former trade center firm, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, settled into space in the midtown area.

Firm Loses Associates, but Gains Profits and New Office

Dechert's corporate department has lost four Philadelphia-based associates, and although officials will not comment, familiar sources have various opinions as to what took place. Some have said that even though the associates implied that they faced layoffs, specific selection was have occurred. Another source said that the citywide slackening of work in the corporate department left the associates in anticipation of something happening, and so they planned accordingly by examining other possibilities. Since 2000's economic downturn, according to still another source, Dechert has been involved in rearranging corporate associates' practice areas. This person emphasized that sometimes a lack of sufficient work resulted in associates being culled or laid off. In fact, a legal recruiter was not surprised to hear of the departures because he knew that some first-year corporate associates mostly had been tending to litigation matters instead, and that this allowed the associates to stay employed for the time being.

Chief Marketing Officer Nancy Lasersohn spoke on the firm's behalf, and while she said that it is Dechert's policy not to comment, she acknowledged that the firm has shifted associates to different practice areas based on need. She also said that in recent months, corporate practice has had a marked increase – not only at Dechert, but also industrywide.

Late last year, there were Dechert layoffs involving 10 associates in the financial services practices group. The affected offices were in Washington, DC, and Newport Beach, CA, with nine of the associates having come from the DC office. However, sources say this is unrelated to the corporate practice departures. At the time of the December layoffs, Chairman Barton Winokur gave a combination of the financial services practice slowing down in terms of growth and entry-level hirings estimated incorrectly as the reason.

Happily for Dechert, the series of departures has not prevented the firm from achieving financial success this past year. In addition to the firm's 2002 profits per equity partner reaching $880,000 – an all-time high for Dechert – several weeks ago it established a Palo Alto, CA office; which is comprised of 30 lawyers from Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, a Minnesota-based firm.

Paul, Hastings Adds in Asia

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker has opened an office in Shanghai, the firm's fourth outpost in Asia. The office is led by Mitch Dudek, formerly partner-in-charge of the Shanghai office of Jones Day. Also joining the office is attorney Gregory Wells from Morgan Stanley in Asia.

Jones Day Beefs Up German Office

Cleveland-based Jones Day has named another partner to its 44-attorney office in Frankfurt, Germany. Insolvency and restructuring specialist Volker Kammel moved from Clifford Chance to become the 11th partner in the Frankfurt office. Jones Day opened a branch office in Munich in January.

Landing by the Golden Gate

After years of flying high as an associate general counsel with Fort Worth-headquartered American Airlines, George “Trey” Nicoud III has landed in the San Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

On June 15 Nicoud signed on with the Los Angeles-based firm, as of counsel, in its antitrust and trade regulation practice group. Although the move meant relocating, the antitrust work is familiar territory for the 46-year-old Dallas native.

Nicoud began his antitrust career as an associate at the Los Angeles office of Sidley & Austin. He moved to American in 1996, and helped keep the company clear of legal turbulence, handling antitrust matters such as joint ventures, acquisitions, Internet ticket distribution, and class action lawsuits.

Having met several Gibson, Dunn attorneys while working at the airline – American is a major client – Nicoud eventually decided to join the firm. He was especially attracted to Gibson, Dunn's active criminal antitrust practice, an area he wants to pursue.

Now that he's back in the law firm environment, Nicoud says that his years of in-house lawyering help remind him what really matters to clients. “It's important to have quality analysis,” he says, “but maybe not as important to create long, expansive memoranda.”

Work aside, Nicoud need only peer out his office window to remember that he's not in Texas anymore: “There's the beauty of the San Francisco Bay mountains nearby and a lot of opportunity for outdoor activities.” Texas, he says generously, “has a very different geography.”