Doughty Street launches in Manchester

By Katy Dowell

Doughty Street Chambers is to set up shop in Manchester after four barristers defected from Garden Court North Chambers to join the civil liberties set.

Chambers director Robin Jackson said the base would provide a platform from which the set will grow.
He added: "Manchester is a strategically important site. Some of our barristers are already doing work in Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool. This will give them a base."
In addition, he said, the set hoped to attract further interest from barristers based in the region.
"It's about looking at the fact that there are practitioners outside London who have accord with our ethos and values," Simpson continued. "Our aim is to promote access to law and civil liberties. Finding the right people means we're able to do that."
The set will open offices in Manchester tomorrow. It will be manned by  four former Garden Court North barristers: Nick Stanage, Paul Draycott, Farrhat Arshad and Erimnaz Mushtaq.
In April, 39 Essex Street announced its Manchester launch.
39 Essex Street chambers director Michael Meeson said the move would accommodate the greater flow of work stemming from outside of London.

Four More Prominent Partners Defect from Cooley

Posted by Brian Baxter

Cooley Godward Kronish is losing four more prominent partners to larger rivals, reports sibling publication The Recorder.

Corporate partners John Brockland and Jane Ross in Palo Alto are leaving the firm for Dewey & LeBoeuf. Both lawyers worked closely with a trio of Cooley lawyers--what many considered the cream of the firm's practice--that defected for Dewey two months ago.

Also leaving Cooley is Craig Waldman, the chair of the firm's antitrust practice in San Francisco, and antitrust partner Michael Knight in Washington, D.C. Both lawyers will be joining Jones Day.

According to Am Law 100 financial data, Jones Day had profits per equity partner of $810,000 in 2008. Dewey's PEP came in at $1.5 million last year, compared with $1.42 million for Cooley. With comparable compensation at Cooley for the Dewey defectors and Jones Day not matching up in the PEP column, what lies beneath the departures?

"[Cooley's] not an international platform," legal recruiter Carl Baier of Baier Legal Search in Silicon Valley told The Recorder. "And I think that has an effect on the people that are defecting."

Waldman seemed to indicate as much when he told The Recorder's Zusha Elinson that while he thinks "very highly of Cooley," the opportunity to join a Jones Day platform with "top-notch antitrust talent in every part of the world" was "too good to pass up."

In late July another corporate partner, James Donato, a former president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, left the firm for Shearman & Sterling.

Shearman Brussels left partnerless by Arnold & Porter hires

Shearman & Sterling's European network has been hit by the defection of two Brussels antitrust partners to Arnold & Porter.

Shearman's Brussels office has been left with no permanent partner presence with Annette Schild and Silvio Cappellari leaving to join Arnold & Porter. Counsel Stephanie Birmann has also joined Arnold & Porter.
Shearman's Brussels office now has just two associates, with competition partner Hans Jurgen Meyer-Lindemann splitting his time between Düsseldorf and Brussels.

A statement issued by the firm said: "Shearman & Sterling plans to maintain its competition law practice in Brussels, with partner Hans Jurgen Meyer-Lindemann covering from Düsseldorf, as he has done in the past, and partner Matthew Reading in London."

The departures come after Shearman's German practice suffered numerous departures. In January last year high-profile M&A star Rolf Koerfer left for Allen & Overy in Düsseldorf.
In April last year the firm's entire 30-lawyer Mannheim office splitting off to for an independent firm.
In September Munich-based partner Gottfried Breuninger, who was Shearman's co-head of tax, left for A&O along with local M&A partner Astrid Krüger.
Schild has played a prominent role in building up Shearman's Brussels office, advising on a number of high profile deals including acting for Siemens on its acquisition of Austrian company VA Tech in 2005.
Cappellari's practice focuses on energy, pharmaceuticals, transport and media industries. He advised CVC Capital Partners in its acquisition of DSI Holding.
Arnold & Porter chairman Clair Thomas Milch said: "Annette, Silvio and Stephanie will strengthen the breadth and depth of our competition practice in Europe for our clients who have complex and demanding international business needs."

Anonymous Lawyer

There's been some news recently about Kate, a 19-year-old heading to law school at Northwestern.

Much of the reaction on the Internet has been negative -- she doesn't have any life experience, she's too young to be deciding she wants to be a lawyer, she'll find it difficult to make friends....

I say good for her, and we'll save a place for her here at the Firm (assuming, of course, we're hiring again by 2012, and that we've already let the classes of 2009-2011 have their start dates). Getting someone in here whose mother is still making her lunch and picking out her clothes means it's like we're getting a free secretary along with her. Hiring someone without previous work experience means she won't realize working 24 hours a day is unusual. And, she's close enough to an age where spanking is appropriate that it'll be much easier for us to throw office supplies at her without getting an earful in return.

It'll also be easier for senior associates to order her around, since they'll actually be older than her, in contrast to the usual awkwardness of having chronological peers as your boss. And since she probably won't have many friends, she'll be fine with working nights and weekends, and won't have any social obligations pulling on her.

The downside is that (at least as a summer associate) she won't be old enough to drink, which means she'll have to find a new vice to take the edge off. I recommend anti-depressants, but that's just me.

We'd go as young as we can find law school graduates. Want to come work here at 13, 14, 15? Great. Young people have energy. They're still optimistic about the world. They adjust to difficult circumstances. They like to please adults. They're not jaded. They don't care about making a difference in the world. They have good computer skills. They take orders. They don't eat as much. They don't need quite so much salary. Better health-- means lower health insurance premiums. They (usually) don't get pregnant. They're good at text-messaging. They (usually) don't have sex with clients.

There are no drawbacks I can think of. We'd even hire an eight-year-old if she could do the work. Which, of course, most eight-years-old can.

Welcome to the firm, Kate!

Cobbetts starts flexi-working in bid to save jobs

Julia Berris

Cobbetts has introduced a four-day week across its transactional practice groups in a bid to avoid making and further job cuts.

Cobbetts managing partner Michael Shaw (pictured) confirmed that the measure had been introduced as well as flexible and part-time working and job sharing arrangements.
Both fee-earners and support staff in the firm's transactional practice groups will be affected by the new measures.

Shaw said: "We're doing this because we value those who work for us.

"There's not been the pick up in real estate and corporate and so we need to respond to this.
"We've implemented a number of measures across the transactional teams, but litigation remains healthy."
Shaw added that the firm will discuss the progress of the cost reduction initiatives at the end of each month and will carry out a full review at the end of October.
He said: "We're determined to emerge from the current global downturn as a strong and competitive business, and these types of decisions are a difficult but vital element in that process."
Cobbetts laid off 69 people in the last financial year.

Henderson Chambers helps BVC student win better grades from Cardiff Uni

Katy Dowell
London set Henderson Chambers has won a High Court battle for a law student who refused to accept the low marks Cardiff University gave her for the Bar Vocational Course (BVC).

Student Alice Clarke, who instructed Henderson barrister Patrick Green via the Bar Pro Bono Unit, took Cardiff University to the High Court to force it to accept the independent marking of two units of her barrister training course.
Clarke was originally given 40 per cent in the advanced criminal oral examination and 46 per cent in her negotiation paper.

However, an independent assessor improved the mark on the oral examination to 71 per cent. When Clarke was subsequently allowed to re-sit the second paper the mark was raised to 62 per cent.

Green argued that the university had awarded low marks to Clarke in 2005 because she had had disputes with two of her tutors. He added that the university should accept the independent marking as if it were the original result.
Mr Justice Wyn Williams upheld the argument.
Eversheds partner Wayne Davies instructed 11KBW's Clive Lewis QC to act on behalf of Cardiff University.