Law.com's weekly US Briefing brings you the pick of this week’s news, analysis and comment from the States
Bonovitz steps down as Duane Morris chairman
The Legal Intelligencer
After 10 years at the helm of Duane Morris, Sheldon Bonovitz has stepped down as chairman and handed over the reins to vice chairman and litigation department head John Soroko. The switch was effective Thursday (3 January) and will start a new chapter in a firm that has tripled in size since Bonovitz, 70, took over as chairman at the beginning of 1998.
Duane Morris went from little more than 200 lawyers then to more than 650 now. Soroko, 56, said the firm was well-known in the mid-Atlantic area in 1998, but now has offices across the country and in London, Singapore and Vietnam. Revenues have increased in the last 10 years from $70m to $375m for 2007.
Malpractice suit filed against Weil Gotshal and two partners
Texas Lawyer
A Dallas businessman has sued Weil, Gotshal & Manges, alleging that the firm and two of its partners took advantage of him as a client by lessening his interest in a deal while he was undergoing treatment for cancer.
In David Radman et al v Richard Boyd et al, Radman - individually and as trustee of the DMR Trust - and CU Commercial Services allege that the firm and two of its Dallas partners, Michael Saslaw and Robert Feldman, conspired with Radman's then-business partner and others to reduce Radman's interest in a proposed acquisition of a Dallas-based credit union subsidiary.
In a petition filed on 12 December in the 160th District Court in Dallas, Radman also names as defendants his business partner, Richard Boyd; Dallas-based Texans Credit Union (TCU); TCU's president and chief executive, David Addison; Texans Commercial Capital; and Credit Union Liquidity Services.
Boston firm's year-end profits pay-out put on hold during dispute With ex-Partners
The National Law Journal
A Massachusetts Superior Court ordered US law firm Donovan Hatem not to make a 2007 profit pay-out to partners while a financial dispute between nine former partners and the Boston-based firm awaits arbitration.
The former partners brought claims of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, economic waste, mismanagement and self-dealing against the firm's living name partner David Hatem and the firm. They seek $241,175 in unpaid compensation, a return of about $445,225 in capital contributions, a share of $7m in accounts receivables and current earnings, more than $1m in unpaid services performed during the firm's early months and $371,947 recorded as prepaid rent in 2006 books and withheld as income from partners.
The former partners left Donovan Hatem in July to form LeClair Ryan's Boston office.
Law firm fight escalates to criminal charges against former partner
The National Law Journal
A law firm dispute over the division of profits has spawned an 11-count indictment against Boston attorney Philip Giordano for alleged larceny and making false entries into corporate books.
A Suffolk County district attorney statement said there's evidence suggesting that Giordano allegedly stole at least $150,000 from his former firm Giordano Champa & Powers between January 2002 and September 2004.
Also, it is alleged that Giordano paid himself thousands of dollars worth of compensation checks and used a debit card linked to the firm's account to withdraw money and pay personal expenses.
11th Circuit wrestles with sentencing
Fulton County Daily Report
To many, the justices from the US Supreme Court last month sent a simple message to appeals courts around the country: when reviewing the sentencing decisions of trial judges, back off. But last week a judge on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals signaled that he's not rolling over.
Judge Joel Dubina's response to the high court came in a case in which federal prosecutors in Florida had challenged as too lenient a seven-year sentence for a distributor of child pornography. The sentence was more than five years under the sentencing range outlined in the federal sentencing guidelines but over Dubina's dissent, two other judges affirmed the seven-year term.
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