Legal News

Mid-Day Law-Firm News Round-Up: Orrick Freezes; Heller Files

By Dan Slater

Action on the law firm front continues to reflect the tough market conditions. A couple quick items to note:

Heller Files: As expected, following its announcement in September that the firm would disband and dissolve, Heller Ehrman today announced it’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“This is not a result of the firm’s running out of money,” said Peter Benvenutti, chairman of Heller’s dissolution committee. “On the contrary, due to the positive responses received from hundreds of former clients, collection of accounts receivable over the past three months has been strong. And going forward, we expect collection of tens of millions of additional dollars. Nevertheless the Committee’s fiduciary obligations to all creditors required it to file a Chapter 11 Petition at this time.”

Orrick Freezes: A couple weeks ago we asked whether Latham & Watkins’ salary freeze could portend a legal ice age. Today, Orrick also froze over. In an e-mail to the firm, chairman Ralph Baxter said: “After careful consideration, we have decided that associates in the US and Europe, and associates, senior consultants and consultants in Asia, will receive the same salary in 2009 as you received in 2008. . . . We will ensure that our 2009 bonus program gives us additional flexibility to reward outstanding performance and remain competitive in the marketplace.

Last month, we noted a New York Law Journal report in which Baxter, whose firm had recently laid off 40 lawyers, called the current bonus system “not sustainable.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 29, 2008 (boomark / email).