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Average law firm partner billing rates rose 5.4% in 2023, higher than any other year in the last decade, with the largest law firms hiking prices the most, according to a report released Tuesday by LexisNexis' CounselLink.
A proposed class action against troubled Houston law firm MMA Law Firm, a former partner and others accused of participating in an illegal scheme to scare up profitable litigation following a hurricane doesn't offer enough evidence for certification and didn't meet a filing deadline, the ex-partner told a Texas federal judge.
The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill put forth by a bipartisan group of lawmakers that would transition 10 previously temporary district court judgeships in 10 states to permanent posts, including in Texas, California and Florida.
Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry announced Monday that it had tapped a shareholder with more than a decade at the tax-focused firm to helm its growing San Antonio location in the Lone Star State.
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP has added a top financial executive to its leadership team from Perkins Coie LLP, where he served as chief financial officer for the past seven years, the firm said Monday.
Fewer recent law school graduates were unemployed in March than in the previous year, as the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic further recede into memory, according to data released Monday by the American Bar Association.
The State Bar of Texas board of directors on Friday greenlit a 10% increase in membership dues, its first since 1991, citing inflation that has growth in expenses outpacing that of revenue.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has protested a move by a man suing Elon Musk for defamation to sanction partner Alex Spiro for his conduct during a deposition of Musk, telling a Texas state court Spiro was simply speaking up to protect Musk's interests and that the plaintiff was taking part in "school-yard antics."
An attorney who spent more than a decade developing a niche practice specializing in tax credit financing has moved her practice to Polsinelli PC's Dallas office after five years at Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must face the State Bar of Texas' ethics lawsuit over his attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election since the suit is against Paxton in his personal capacity and does not violate the separation of powers, a Texas appellate court has ruled.
A former Houston lawyer whose conviction in connection with an $18 million tax scheme was overturned told a federal judge Friday that not testifying in his 2019 trial was "one of the worst mistakes" of his life as he was sentenced to a year of supervised release as part of a plea deal.
A longtime litigator and co-founder of Dallas boutique law firm Stafford Moore PLLC was selected Friday by the State Bar of Texas board of directors to be its next chair.
The legal industry had another busy week with more lateral hires, partner promotions, new practice group launches, in-house moves and the passing of a trailblazing former Connecticut Supreme Court chief justice. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
As in-house legal departments see increases in work and demand while dealing with persistent budget constraints, general counsel are looking to invest in technology and delegate more work to the legal operations role, a new survey found.
Winston & Strawn LLP and attorney Richard Reinthaler lead this week's U.S. Supreme Court-dominated edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the high court ruled that a corporation's failure to disclose certain information about its future business risks cannot, under certain circumstances, be the basis of a private securities fraud claim.
Like their counterparts on the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices on some state high courts are working in the shadows when issuing certain decisions, raising fears that their time-saving measures are not worth the cost in transparency.
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP and Locke Lord LLP are in merger talks to create a combined firm with more than 1,600 attorneys and nearly $1.6 billion in revenue, in what appears to be an effort to lock in both firms' leadership in six industry sectors.
A former Houston attorney set to be sentenced Friday for his role in an $18 million offshore tax scheme is trying to limit the government's ability to collect $2.5 million in restitution he promised to pay in a plea agreement last year, prosecutors told a Texas federal court Thursday.
Labor and employment firm Constangy Brooks Smith & Prophete LLP has named a longtime partner with over 25 years of experience representing employers as the new co-leader of its diversity, equity and inclusion practice.
BigLaw saw a significant uptick in reporting data breaches, while law firms of all sizes continue to be prime targets for cybercriminals, according to data compiled by Law360 Pulse via extensive public record requests.
Embattled Trump attorney Sidney Powell has dodged sanctions from the Texas state bar's disciplinary wing, with a state appellate court ruling Thursday that the Commission for Lawyer Discipline didn't bring enough solid arguments to the table to merit a redo of the case.
A judicial ethics panel has concluded that recusal isn't automatically required for the Fifth Circuit judge whose financial disclosures have fueled calls for his disqualification from litigation challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule.
Porter Hedges LLP is expanding its Texas team, bringing in a Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC real estate pro as a partner in its Houston office.
Norton Rose Fulbright announced that it has hired an experienced attorney who has spent the last 20 years with Nossaman LLP as the firm's new co-head of its U.S. and North American infrastructure teams.
Litigators from a pair of Lone Star State boutique firms will be vying Friday to be selected as the next chair of the State Bar of Texas board of directors, with each candidate bringing extensive experience and promising to approach the position with a spirit of collaboration.
Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work?Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.
Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.
With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.
With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.
The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly?Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.
Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.
In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.
Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage?Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.
Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.
ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.
Opinion
We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court HeadwindsThough the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.
Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.