McGrigors bulks up in Belfast with local merger

Julia Berris

Edinburgh-headquartered firm McGrigors has merged with Irish firm L'Estrange & Brett, its second merger in a year.

McGrigors, which has had a Belfast office since 2000, will combine with L'Estrange on 1 October with the Scottish firm's Belfast lawyers moving into L'Estrange's office at that point.
The move comes after McGrigors last year strengthened its City presence after buying out West End litigation boutique Reid Minty (4 August 2008).
Speaking about the Belfast merger, McGrigors managing partner Richard Master said: "We wanted to strengthen our market position and gain critical mass. This deal achieves that in one stroke."
L'Estrange will take on the McGrigors brand when the merger goes through and the two firms will become financially integrated.
L'Estrange senior partner Brian Henderson said: "We see it as an important strategic move, which will also help us build on existing business gains in the UK and Ireland."

Anonymous Lawyer

Above The Law writes about a legal organization that asks for a family photo along with a resume.

We tried that.

We stopped.

Most of the people we hire? I don't want to see a picture. Have you looked around law school recently? Sitting in front of a computer all day doesn't exactly do wonders for the physical appearance. I don't want to have nightmares. The less I look at the people around here, the better.

And their families? That's the last picture I want. I don't want to know what your kids look like as I'm forcing you to cancel your family vacation. I don't want to know what your wife looks like as I'm telling you to stay late on her birthday. I don't want to know what your dog looks like as I'm forbidding you to go home and feed her even though you had no reason to think you'd be here all weekend and there's no one with a key to your apartment who can go in and give her some food. I don't want to know what you look like in casual clothes. I don't want to know what you look like when you smile. No one smiles here. I haven't seen a smile since 1993. I don't want to see it in a picture.

The only picture I want with an application is a picture of your acceptance letter from a top-10 law school.

Baker Botts Hits $100 Million Mark in Asarco Bankruptcy

Posted by Brian Baxter

As Tucson-based mining company Asarco nears the end of its four-year bankruptcy odyssey, lead debtors counsel Baker Botts submitted its twelfth application for fees on Friday.

The filing put the firm past the $100 million mark in billable hours since Asarco filed for bankruptcy in August 2005 after getting hit with a series of asbestos and environmental pollution suits.

It pales in comparison to the $100 million in fees that Weil, Gotshal & Manges has racked up in just a year's worth of bankruptcy work for Lehman Brothers, but Baker Botts may have more work ahead.

"This is probably the middle of the end, and the end should certainly be in sight," Baker Botts bankruptcy and insolvency chair Jack Kinzie says. "The final closing argument on the confirmation hearing was today and we expect a ruling from the judge on Monday."

Two companies are competing to acquire Asarco and bring the company out of bankruptcy. The first plan is proposed by Asarco's parent, Grupo Mexico, which lost control of Asarco in Chapter 11. The second plan is a proposed sale of Asarco to Mumbai-based Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of London-based mining concern Vedanta Resources.

Asarco favors a sale to Sterlite, Kenzie says, but Grupo Mexico is trying to scuttle that deal with its own exit plan to retain control of Asarco.

To say the relationship between Asarco and its parent Grupo Mexico is contentious would be an understatement. Earlier this year Baker Botts trial lawyer G. Irvin Terrell won a breach of fiduciary duty case in an adversary proceeding against Grupo Mexico, which was represented by Haynes and Boone's Brian Antweil.

Haynes and Boone bankruptcy partner Charles Beckham Jr., is representing Grupo Mexico in the bankruptcy case along with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy global financial restructuring partner Robert Moore.

Asarco retained Baker Botts in March 2004 to develop a prepackaged bankruptcy plan for the company's subsidiaries. The subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in April 2005. When its union went on strike that July, Asarco filed for Chapter 11 a month later. (The union, represented by Richard Seltzer's from New York's Cohen, Weiss and Simon, is backing Sterlite's bankruptcy bid for Asarco.)

Since then, Baker Botts has been well compensated for its efforts. Bankruptcy court filings show the firm has billed Asarco for $101.8 million in fees and $5.5 million in expenses, including discounts. In Baker Bott's filing on Friday, the firm trimmed $120,000 from its fee request of $12.5 million for work completed between March 1 and June 30.

Shelby Jordan from Corpus Christi's Jordan, Hyden, Womble, Culbreth & Holzer is serving as local debtors counsel. Court records show the firm has submitted bills for $437,742 in fees and expenses.

Litigator of the Week: Thomas Golden of Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Posted by Andrew Longstreth
As journalists, we're supposed to be objective, but when it comes to Freedom of Information Act litigation, it's hard to hide our biases. And so for our Litigator of the Week honors, we're giving the nod to Willkie Farr & Gallagher's Tom Golden, who scored a big win for the public's right to know this week.
Golden represents media company Bloomberg, where two journalists filed a FOIA request seeking records on actions taken by the Federal Reserve last year during the financial crisis. Among other things, they wanted to know which companies participated in the government's emergency lending program, how much they borrowed, and what collateral they put up. After the Fed refused to give up the goods, Bloomberg went to court last fall. In its summary judgment motion, the Fed argued in part, that if the information was disclosed, it would cause financial damage to the borrowers and therefore should fall under FOIA exemptions.
But in a 47-page opinion issued on Monday, Manhattan federal district court judge Loretta Preska sided with Golden, who argued in Bloomberg's summary judgment motion that the Fed's claims are "based on wispy speculation, lack evidentiary support, and are contradicted by economic theory."
Golden's victory is all the more impressive considering that last month, Manhattan federal district court judge Alvin Hellerstein denied a similar FOIA request by Fox News Network. Golden declined to discuss the case with us, but we'll likely hear from him again, at least at the Second Circuit. The Fed has asked Judge Preska to stay her order pending an appeal.

Are Lawyers Creditors?

The American Bar Association is done waiting to see if the Federal Trade Commission will exempt lawyers from a new law requiring creditors to take certain internal measures against identity theft. The ABA filed a federal suit Thursday against the FTC, claiming the agency has wrongly classified lawyers as creditors and asking a federal judge to block the law from applying to attorneys when it goes into effect--if it ever does actually go into effect, according to the The National Law Journal, an Am Law Daily sibling publication.
The law requires organizations that act as creditors to establish internal policies and programs designed to fight identity theft. The FTC, which will govern enforcement of the law, has initially classified lawyers as creditors because firms provide services before they bill for those services--something akin to the extension of credit, according to the FTC and our colleagues at the NLJ.
The ABA says that classification is wrong, and raised the specter in its lawsuit of increasing legal costs should the FTC apply the legislation to law firms. The ABA turned to Proskauer Rose for representation in the case, the NLJ says.
The law is scheduled to go into effect Nov. 1, though the FTC has pushed back the start date three times already, according to the NLJ.