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At last count, a mere 5.4 percent of partners at U.S. law firms were members of minority groups. For women of color, the figure was fewer than 1.7 percent. But those numbers represent an amazing group of people and a payoff for the firms, law schools and corporations that invested in diversity. through readers' nominations as well as its own research, compiled the top 50 most influential minority lawyers in the United States who made an impact during the past five years.
Contracts have to be "signed, sealed and delivered" to be deemed effective. E-mail, however, has radically altered how those formalities are fulfilled. As a number of recent decisions make clear, parties now can conclude a contract, or amend an existing one, via e-mail.
Law firms have an interest in controlling and expiring stale information that no longer serves a business purpose or that is not subject to a regulatory or legal hold obligation to preserve. Consultants Lee McCallister and Arup Das raise special concerns when dumping stale ESI.
Sensitive metatdata in a sex discrimination case against General Electric was recovered from redacted digital documents downloaded from the federal court filing system, PACER. This breach underscores the need for software and know-how to ensure sealed data stays concealed.
The job market got a bit colder this week when word broke that Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal had laid off 37 lawyers as well as dozens of staff. Those lawyers will join a job market that recruiters say is requiring more patience from laterals. Recruiters also say the market is worst for junior associates. Although they previously had an easier time finding jobs than senior associates, now firms are hiring associates with more experience.
Same-sex couples excited by the California Supreme Court's two-week-old decision declaring their right to wed are already booking dates to get licenses. But what will happen to those marriages if voters approve a proposed constitutional amendment in November that would restrict marriage to the union of a man and a woman? There is no clear answer, but attorneys on both sides of the issue have staked out their positions and are ready for a fight.
In a split decision Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court upheld an Austin appeals court's mandamus decision ordering the children who were removed from a polygamist compound to be returned to their parents. A lawyer in the case says the justices' ruling will apply to all of the more than 450 children who are in state custody and will allow them to be reunited with their parents. A lower court had granted the state temporary custody of some of the children.
The proposed megamerger between French energy giants Gaz de France and Suez has cleared yet another obstacle now that a council of French labor unions has issued a long-awaited opinion on the deal. Nine law firms -- from Britain, France and the U.S. -- have their hands in the $157.5 billion transaction that, if completed, will create one of Europe's largest natural gas producers and the world's third-largest utility.
Clifford Chance has become the first Magic Circle firm to post its financial results for the 2007-2008 financial year, with the firm seeing an 11 percent hike in revenue. Profits per equity partner increased by a similar amount, jumping by 13 percent. The firm said it saw particularly strong growth in Asia, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe.
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