Latest news with #Chicago-founded
AU Financial Review
11 hours ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
‘Kirklandisation' of big law pushes firms to launch salaried partnerships
London and New York | Decades ago, long before it was a private-equity powerhouse, the law firm Kirkland & Ellis was a pioneer of a model that overturned a long-standing norm in the legal industry. The Chicago-founded firm started promoting lawyers to partner without granting them the very thing that defined partnership: an ownership stake in the firm. It was partnership in name only. Financial Times
Reuters
05-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US law firm Seyfarth to exit Shanghai in latest China market retreat
June 5 (Reuters) - Law firm Seyfarth Shaw is planning to close its Shanghai office later this year, as major U.S. law firms continue to reduce their footprints in the Chinese legal market. The Chicago-founded firm, which has about 900 lawyers globally and is known for its labor and employment work, will continue to serve clients in the region by consolidating its presence in Hong Kong, a firm spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday. Seyfarth's website lists six lawyers in Shanghai, where it opened in 2013, and several of the lawyers are co-located in Hong Kong or elsewhere. The team advises clients on cross-border transactions, among other areas such as real estate and employment, according to the website. Large U.S. law firms for more than two years have been shuttering offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong amid muted deal activity, geopolitical tensions and growing pressures on foreign businesses in the country. Earlier this year, firms including Wilson Sonsini, Cleary Gottlieb and Winston & Strawn have said they would close offices in at least one of those locations. The United States and China struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since President Donald Trump's January inauguration. Though stocks rallied, the temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship. Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday agreed to further talks between the countries to hash out differences on tariffs. The highly anticipated call came amid accusations between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks over "rare earths" minerals in a dispute that threatens to tear up the fragile truce in the trade war between the two biggest economies.
Reuters
28-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US law firm Jenner asks court to permanently bar Trump executive order
April 28 (Reuters) - U.S. law firm Jenner & Block will ask a judge on Monday to permanently bar U.S. President Donald Trump 's executive order punishing the firm for its affiliation with a prosecutor who investigated ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia. The firm will urge Republican-appointee U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington to reject the entirety of Trump's March 25 order. The hearing, set to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT), marks the latest legal clash in the Republican president's pressure campaign against prominent law firms whose lawyers or cases he opposes. Trump's order against Chicago-founded Jenner cited its past employment of Andrew Weissmann, a top federal prosecutor in U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has described the Russia investigation as a "hoax" and "witch hunt." The executive order sought to restrict Jenner's lawyers from accessing federal buildings and officials and to end government contracts held by its clients. Jenner sued, calling the order a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech and Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process, a requirement for the government to use a fair legal process. Three other firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey — have sued the administration to permanently block the executive orders he issued against them. Judges in all four lawsuits against the administration issued temporary rulings that blocked key provisions of the White House orders. Nine law firms, including Jenner rivals Paul Weiss, Milbank, Simpson Thacher and Skadden Arps, have pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to causes the White House supports and made other concessions to avoid being targeted by Trump. Jenner is one of more than a dozen law firms that are currently suing the Trump administration over its efforts to curb transgender rights and to freeze federal spending at many agencies.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US law firm Jenner asks court to permanently bar Trump executive order
By Mike Scarcella (Reuters) -U.S. law firm Jenner & Block will ask a judge on Monday to permanently bar U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order punishing the firm for its affiliation with a prosecutor who investigated ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia. The firm will urge Republican-appointee U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington to reject the entirety of Trump's March 25 order. The hearing, set to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT), marks the latest legal clash in the Republican president's pressure campaign against prominent law firms whose lawyers or cases he opposes. Trump's order against Chicago-founded Jenner cited its past employment of Andrew Weissmann, a top federal prosecutor in U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has described the Russia investigation as a "hoax" and "witch hunt." The executive order sought to restrict Jenner's lawyers from accessing federal buildings and officials and to end government contracts held by its clients. Jenner sued, calling the order a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech and Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process, a requirement for the government to use a fair legal process. Three other firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey — have sued the administration to permanently block the executive orders he issued against them. Judges in all four lawsuits against the administration issued temporary rulings that blocked key provisions of the White House orders. Nine law firms, including Jenner rivals Paul Weiss, Milbank, Simpson Thacher and Skadden Arps, have pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to causes the White House supports and made other concessions to avoid being targeted by Trump. Jenner is one of more than a dozen law firms that are currently suing the Trump administration over its efforts to curb transgender rights and to freeze federal spending at many agencies.
Reuters
29-01-2025
- Business
- Reuters
DOJ criminal fraud, appeals chief under Biden joins law firm Sidley
Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. law firm Sidley Austin said Tuesday it has hired a longtime federal prosecutor who served as the third highest-ranking member of Justice Department's criminal division during the Democratic Biden administration. Lisa Miller will join Chicago-founded Sidley on Feb. 19 as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office, the firm said. Miller was appointed deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ's criminal division in 2021, overseeing the division's fraud and appellate sections. Miller's move reunites her with Kenneth Polite, who led the criminal division before resigning in August 2023. Miller, part of a wave of Biden political appointees who have left Justice Department roles since Republican President Donald Trump took office, said she was eager to work in private practice with Polite and Kristin Koehler, managing partner of Sidley's Washington office. Miller became the first woman to lead the DOJ's market integrity unit in 2020, at a time the team was moving to use data more creatively to spot marketplace misconduct. Those efforts led to cases against traders who spoofed commodities markets, corporate executives who used corporate trading plans to illegally trade on nonpublic information and to the indictment of a high-profile short seller over allegations of market manipulation. Miller also helped draft new policies to claw back compensation from executives involved in misconduct. Top law firms have moved quickly to hire lawyers leaving federal agencies after Trump's election. Miller resigned from government service on inauguration day, Jan. 20. Government lawyers in other offices have taken positions at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; King & Spalding; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, among other firms.
