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Felix J. Kushnir Shareholder
Felix J. Kushnir Shareholder T 301-945-9298 F 301-230-2891 E [email protected] Felix Kushnir is a strategic business lawyer and advisor who represents private equity, venture capital and corporate clients in connection with mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, financings, technology transactions and joint ventures, as well as other transactional and securities matters. In 2019 and 2020, Felix advised clients in 26 M&A transactions representing over $980 million of enterprise value. Delivering more than just legal advice, Felix regularly provides introductions and guidance on partnerships and day to day business matters. As a result, he builds close relationships with his clients and is deeply involved in their businesses. In addition to mergers and acquisitions, Felix advises his clients in connection with venture capital financings, securities offerings, debt financings, recapitalizations and other strategic transactions, and he also serves as outside general counsel to industrial, government contracting, technology and emerging growth clients. One of his clients recently commented on his experience working with Felix, “Felix’s responsiveness and quick turnaround for our sensitive matter allowed us to accomplish our goals sooner than we expected and with a great result.” -client name withheld for confidentiality "We went into a sizeable M&A transaction knowing a whole lotta nothin’. Well, that’s not entirely true – we knew the legal work and negotiations were going to be complicated, labor-intensive, and stressful at times. The deal was all of those, but we realized quickly that we were in good hands with Felix Kushnir, and others on the M&A team at Shulman Rogers. -
Lessons Learned from Law Firm Failures
ALA San Francisco Chapter Lessons Learned from Law Firm Failures Kristin Stark Principal, Fairfax Associates July 2016 Page 0 About Fairfax Fairfax Associates provides strategy and management consulting to law firms Strategy & Performance & Governance & Merger Direction Compensation Management Strategy Development and Partner Performance and Governance and Merger Strategy Implementation Compensation Management Firm Performance and Operational Structures & Practice Strategy Merger Search Profitability Improvement Reviews Market and Sector Merger Negotiation and Pricing Partnership Structure Research Structure Client Research and Key Process Improvement Alternative Business Models Client Development Merger Integration Page 1 1 Topics for Discussion • Disruptive Change • Dissolution Trends • Symptoms of Struggle: What Causes Law Firms to Fail? • What Keeps Firms From Changing? • Managing for Stability Page 2 How Rapidly is the Legal Industry Changing? Today 10 Years 2004 Ago Number of US firms at $1 billion or 2327 4 more in revenue: Average gross revenue for Am Law $482$510 million $271 million 200: Median gross revenue for Am Law $310$328 million $193 million 200: NLJ 250 firms with single office 4 11 operations: Number of Am Law 200 lawyers 25,000 10,000 based outside US: Page 4 2 How Rapidly is the Legal Industry Changing? Changes to the Law Firm Business Model Underway • Convergence • Dramatic reduction • Disaggregation in costs • Increasing • Process Client commoditization Overhead improvement • New pricing Model efforts models • Outsourcing -
Bingham Mccutchen, LLP
Diversity is powerful. is Diversity bingham.com Attorney Advertising © 2013 Bingham McCutchen LLP One Federal Street, Boston MA 02110 T. 617.951.8000 Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Bingham McCutchen® Bingham McCutchen, LLP 2014 VAULT/MCCA LAW FIRM DIVERSITY SURVEY One Federal Street Boston, MA 02110 Phone: 617-951-8000 Fax: 617-951-8736 www.bingham.com LOCATIONS Boston, MA; Hartford, CT; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Orange County, CA; Lexington, KY; San Francisco, CA; Santa Monica, CA; Silicon Valley, CA; Washington, D.C.; Beijing, China; Frankfurt, Germany; Hong Kong, Hong Kong; London, England; Tokyo, Japan DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP Head(s) of Firm: Jay Zimmerman, Chairman and CEO; Steve Browne, Firm Managing Partner Diversity team leader(s): The Diversity Committee is chaired by 12 practicing partners. Focused on strategy, these partners comprise the Diversity Executive Committee, and its three working groups: Recruiting, Attorney Retention and Development, and Leadership and Business Development. The Diversity Executive Committee works with partner, associate and staff representatives - as well as leaders of various areas (such as Recruiting, Learning and Development and Marketing) - to implement our Diversity Action Plan. The Diversity Team Leaders are: Minita Shah-Mara, Director of Diversity and Inclusion; J. Bland, Diversity Executive Committee - Legal Recruiting; Ella Foley Gannon, Diversity Executive Committee - Legal Recruiting; Thurgood Marshall Jr., Diversity Executive Committee - Legal Recruiting; Julia Frost-Davies, -
Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure
Scholarship Repository University of Minnesota Law School Articles Faculty Scholarship 2013 Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure Edward S. Adams University of Minnesota Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Edward S. Adams, Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure, 78 MO. L. REV. 777 (2013), available at https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/90. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in the Faculty Scholarship collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure EdwardS. Adams 1. INTRODUCTION The recent bankruptcy of large law firms has energized the debate over the viability of the traditional partnership model. Dewey & LeBeouf filed for bankruptcy in May 2012, becoming the largest law firm bankruptcy in U.S. history.' At its peak, Dewey employed 1,400 lawyers in several offices across the globe, causing some to ask whether Dewey's collapse was an iso- lated product of poor management or a symptom of greater systemic prob- lems. 2 But Dewey's bankruptcy was not the first to result in the dissolution of a large firm. The financial downturn of 2008 deeply affected the legal profession, and several firms went under. Many have already questioned the traditional business structure of the law firm in light of these bankruptcies and the manner in which they oc- curred.4 Partner defections and limited capital place criticism squarely on the partnership model as a major factor in these bankruptcies. -
March 2, 2009 Roger P. Joseph Bingham Mccutchen
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON. D.C. 20549 DIVISION OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT March 2, 2009 Roger P. Joseph Bingham McCutchen LLP One Federal Street Boston, MA 02110-1726 Re: Master Portfolio Trust-Liquid Reserves Portfolio (File No. 811-10407) and Legg Mason Partners Money Market Trust-Western Asset Money Market Fund (File No. 811-04052) Dear Mr. Joseph: Your letter ofFebruary 24,2009 requests our assurance that we would not recommend that the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") take any enforcement action under Sections 17(a)(1i, 17(di and 12(d)(3)3 ofthe Investment Company Act of 1940 (the "Act"), and the rules thereunder, ifMaster Portfolio Trust and Legg Mason Partners Money Market Trust (each, a "Trust," and collectively, the "Trusts"), each ofwhich is registered with the Commission as an open-end investment company under the Act, amend the agreements and letter of credit summarized below and more fully described in the letter. Liquid Reserves Portfolio is a series ofthe Master Portfolio Trust, and the Western Asset Money Market Fund is a series ofLegg Mason Partners Money Market Trust (each a "Fund," and collectively, the "Funds"). Liquid Reserves Portfolio is a master fund in a master/feeder Section l7(a)(1) generally makes it unlawful for any affiliated person of a registered investment company, or an affiliated person of such person, acting as principal, to knowingly sell any security or other property to the registered investment company. 2 Section l7(d) generally makes it unlawful for any affiliated person ofa registered investment company, or any affiliated person of such a person, acting as principal, to effect any transaction in which the registered investment company is a joint or joint and several participant with such person in contravention ofrules and regulations adopted by the Commission. -
Beazley Brief Update Risk Management Insights for Law Firms from Beazley
Beazley Brief Update Risk management insights for law firms from Beazley Finishing Some “Unfinished Business”— California And In the February 2012 and July 2012 issues of the Beazley Brief, we reported on how the “unfinished business” doctrine New York Courts Reject - based on the California Court of Appeals decision in Jewel v. Boxer (156 Cal. App. 3d 171 (1984) - had spawned a rash of “Unfinished Business” Claims suits by dissolving law firms against departing partners and their new firms for taking the old firm’s “unfinished business,” Involving Dissolved Law Firms or pending client matters, with them to their new firms. By Kevin S. Rosen, Christopher Chorba, and Peter Bach-y-Rita Fortunately, the tide has begun to turn against this troubling - Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP trend. Recent decisions by courts in California and New York have determined that dissolved law firms do not have a One of the most troubling trends in recent years has been the property interest in pending hourly unfinished business rise in trustee litigation following the dissolution of several matters. This Beazley Brief Update addresses these major international law firms. Bankruptcy trustees have significant rulings. brought claims to recover profits on “unfinished business” on behalf of defunct firms, asserting an entitlement to fees We are again pleased that Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partners earned on matters handled by new firms that hired partners of Kevin S. Rosen and Christopher Chorba and associate Peter the dissolved firm. In these cases, trustees and debtors of the Bach-y-Rita have graciously agreed to prepare this update. dissolved firms have sued both the former partners and their Kevin is in the firm’s Los Angeles office and chair of the firm’s new firms, relying on the California Court of Appeal decision Law Firm Defense Practice Group. -
Legal Malpractice
Legal Malpractice Professional Liability Claims, Litigation Strategies, and Attorney Disciplinary Procedures Friday, March 24, 2017 Friday, March 10, 2017 New York City | Live & Webcast Westchester | Live Program Friday, March 24, 2017 Friday, March 17, 2017 Albany | Live Program Rochester | Live Program Friday, March 31, 2017 Long Island | Live Program 4.0 MCLE Credits 3.0 Ethics | 1.0 Law Practice Management Interactive Video Conference Formats are approved for MCLE Credit for all attorneys, including newly admitted. www.nysba.org/LegalMalpractice2017Materials Sponsored by the Law Practice Management Committee, the Torts, Insurance & Compensation Law Section and the Trial Lawyers Section of the New York State Bar Association. This program is offered for educational purposes. The views and opinions of the faculty expressed during this program are those of the presenters and authors of the materials. Further, the statements made by the faculty during this program do not constitute legal advice. Copyright © 2017 All Rights Reserved New York State Bar Association Program Description Lawsuits against lawyers arising from errors and/or omissions in the performance of legal services are on the rise. It is now an integral part of a law firm’s business practice to evaluate its legal risk and malpractice insurance needs. This program is designed to educate attorneys on how to prosecute and/or defend a legal malpractice action. In addition, this program will educate attorneys about their legal malpractice exposures, what they should do in the event that a lawsuit is filed against them, and what they should do when situations arise that indicate that a legal malpractice claim is likely. -
Tech Savvy Pg 7.Pmd
The BTI Tech-Savvy Team for Law Firms 2003 Published by The BTI Consulting Group, Inc. 167 Milk Street, Suite 340 Boston, MA 02109 (617) 439-0333 Best of the Best Jones Day Leaders Cooley Godward Howrey Simon Arnold & White Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Sidley Austin Brown & Wood Honorable Mentions Bingham McCutchen Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich Clifford Chance Holland & Hart Cravath, Swaine & Moore Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw Crowell & Moring Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Dewey Ballantine Rader, Fishman & Grauer Foley & Lardner Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Law Firms also Cited by Clients as Most Tech-Savvy Adams and Reese Merchant & Gould Allen & Overy Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius Alston & Bird Morrison & Foerster Andrews & Kurth Myers and Hulse Armstrong Teasdale Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Arnold & Porter Palmer & Dodge Covington & Burling Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler Faegre & Benson Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner Proskauer Rose Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Greenberg Traurig Ryley Carlock & Applewhite Hogan & Hartson Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold Holland & Knight Shook, Hardy & Bacon Hughes & Luce Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Hunton & Williams Stroock & Stroock & Lavan Johnson, Finkel, DeLuca & Kennedy Sutherland Asbill & Brennan Jorden Burt Venture Law Group Kirkland & Ellis Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear Warner Norcross & Judd Linklaters Weil, Gotshal & Manges Littler Mendelson Wiley Rein & Fielding McDermott, Will & Emery Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering McguireWoods Winston & Strawn This article reprinted with permission from The BTI Consulting Group, Inc. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. Source: The BTI Tech-Savvy Team for Law Firms © The BTI Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved The BTI Tech-Savvy Team for Law Firms 617-439-0333 · www.bticonsulting.com. -
Strategist ®
The Bankruptcy LAW JOURNAL ® NEWSLETTERS Strategist Volume 31, Number 11 • September 2014 Law Firm Clients Defeat Bankruptcy Trustees in New York Court of Appeals By Michael L. Cook represent them, a major inconvenience for the ness.” 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81087, at *18. clients and a practical restriction on a client’s A law firm only owns unpaid compensa- The New York Court of Appeals, on July right to choose counsel.” Id. at *20. In addi- tion for legal services already provided with 1, 2014, in response to questions certified by tion, “clients might worry that their hourly fee respect to a client matter. In the words of the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Cir- matters are not getting as much attention as New York court, “a client’s legal matter be- cuit, held that “pending hourly fee matters are they deserve if the [new] law firm is prevent- longs to the client, not the lawyer.” Id. at *15. not [a dissolved law firm’s] ‘property’ or ‘un- ed from profiting from its work on them.” Id. The Thelen and Coudert trustees’ litigation finished business’” under New York’s Partner- More important, New York has a “strong pub- will now return to the Second Circuit for dis- ship Law. In re Thelen LLP, _________ N.Y.3d lic policy encouraging client choice and, con- position. Because of this final ruling on appli- _________, 2014 N.Y. LEXIS 1577, *1 (July 1, comitantly, attorney mobility.” Id. at *21. Quot- cable New York Law, the court should direct 2014). -
When Law Firms Go Bankrupt — What Secured Lenders Can Learn from the Dewey Bankruptcy
PLACE PDF @ 88% REPRINTED FROM THE NOV/DEC 2012 ISSUE, VOL. 10, NO. 8 BANKRUPTCY UPDATE When Law Firms Go Bankrupt — What Secured Lenders Can Learn From the Dewey Bankruptcy BY JEFFREY A. WURST, ESQ When law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf filed for Chapter 11 protection, it was obligated to its secured creditors, among many others, led by JP Morgan on a $75 million line of credit facility. Jeffrey Wurst explains what led to Dewey’s collapse and offers advice regarding key indicators of a potential creditor’s fiscal irresponsibility. ictims of bankruptcy come in many forms. Dewey filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy They include the debtors themselves, as well Court for the Southern District of New York. Many theo- V as their secured and unsecured creditors. When ries abound as to the causes of Dewey’s collapse, but, law firms fall into bankruptcy, the secured lenders are essentially, the crux appears to be that Dewey guaran- often among the hardest hit. Typically, these secured teed an unsustainable amount of compensation to both lenders take security interests in all assets of the law newly acquired and longstanding partners. Hoping to firm when funding operations. The assets with the generate enormous fees off these highly compensated most value tend to be the cash and cash equivalents partners, Dewey subsequently took on debt to fund the and the accounts receivable. The problem with many failing business. However, the economic impact of the recent law firm bankruptcies is that cash on hand is recession forced Dewey to consolidate its debt. Further JEFFREY A. -
Law School Record, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Fall 2001) Law School Record Editors
University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound The nivU ersity of Chicago Law School Record Law School Publications Fall 9-1-2001 Law School Record, vol. 48, no. 1 (Fall 2001) Law School Record Editors Follow this and additional works at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/lawschoolrecord Recommended Citation Law School Record Editors, "Law School Record, vol. 48, no. 1 (Fall 2001)" (2001). The University of Chicago Law School Record. Book 85. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/lawschoolrecord/85 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Publications at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in The University of Chicago Law School Record by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE U N V E R S T Y 0 F R E c o R D Fall 2001 The University of Chicago Law School Saul Levmore Dean and William B. Graham Professor of Law Jonathan S. Stern Associate Dean for External Affairs Editors Deborah Franczek, '71 2 Kyle Holtan Kathy Schichtel Senior Writer Gerald de Jaager Contributing Writers and Editors Richard Badger, '68; Douglas Baird; Ellen Cosgrove, '91; Nichole Crist; Roberta Dempsey; Diane Downs; Richard Epstein; Marsha Ferziger, '95; Kay Kersch Kirkpatrick; Abner Mikva, '51; Martha Nussbaum; Peter Schuler Class Correspondents Affable Alumni 38 6 Design and Production VisuaLingo Fran Gregory Chief Photographer Michelle Litvin Supporting Photographers Cheri Eisenberg Bruce Powell Publisher The University of Chicago Law School Office of External Affairs ibc 1111 East 60th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 Telephone: 773-702-9486 Facsimile: 773-702-0356 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.law.uchicago.edu The University of Chicago Law School Record (lSSN 0529-097X) is published for alumni, faculty, and friends of the Law School. -
The New Yorker
A NNALS OF LAW THE COLLAPSE How a top legalfirm destroyed itse(f BY JAMES B. STEWART n an April morning in Manhattan A group of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP part in his briefcase, and walked to the eleva last year, Steven Davis, the former ners has asked the New York district attor tor. He never returned. O ney to bring c(iminal charges against the chairman ofthe law firm ofD ewey & Le chairman of the totrering firm, which could A month later, on May 28, 2012, Boeuf, reached for his ringing cell phone. dose its doors as early as next week, a source Dewey & LeBoeuf.filed for bankruptcy. He was sitting in the back seat of a taxi, familiar with the matter said Thursday. The Times called it the largest law-firm The source told Law360 that an un on the way downtown to renew his pass disclosed number of partners from Dewey collapse in United States history. The port. Dewey & LeBoeuf, which was often asked the New York County district attorney firm embodied a business strategy that referred to in the press as a global "super to charge the chairman, Steven H. Davis, has begun to supplant the traditional part with embezzlement, wire fraud, mail fraud finn," was largely his creation. In 2007, he and other criminal activity. nership values of loyalty and collegiality had engineered the merger ofa profitable with an insistence upon expansion: by but staid midsized specialty firm- Le Davis immediately returned to his merging with another firm (and a Boeuf, Lamb, Greene &MacRae-with office, on the forty-third floor of a sky different culture) or by offering unwieldy a less profitable but much better- known scraper on Sixth Avenue near Fifty-sec financial packages to lure partners from firm, Dewey Ballantine.