DLA Piper has snagged three more partners from Nixon Peabody, including two practice chairmen and one practice co-chairman. Litigation chairman Frank Ryan, China and Asia chairman Henry Liu, and privacy and data protection practice co-chairman Nicholas Papastavros are making the move to DLA Piper, the National Law Journal reported in an article published in New York Lawyer (reg. req.). This makes a total of seven Nixon Peabody partners in recent weeks to lateral over to DLA Piper, the National Law Journal said. Last month, American Lawyer's 2007 "Dealmaker of the Year" Peter White moved to DLA Piper along with two…

Robert Morris Morgenthau takes a seat at his desk, sipping coffee from the vacuum-insulated, stainless steel cup he carried in when he arrived moments earlier. After 35 years as district attorney for New York County (meaning Manhattan) he recently chose not to seek re-election. Morgenthau is now situated handsomely as of counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, the nation’s richest law firm. He is asked about his very long career, for which just the highlight reel is fuller than the entire lives of many accomplished lawyers. Leaning back and occasionally dipping forward for coffee, he…

A Florida appellate panel found a lower court didn't abuse its discretion when it held a defense lawyer in criminal contempt after contacting a juror excused for a medical reason. Wednesday's opinion upheld the sentence of five months and 29 days in jail for Richard Keith Alan II, an attorney in West Palm Beach, Fla. Alan represented a Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity member accused—with another fraternity member—of beating a pledge to the point that he had to be hospitalized, the National Law Journal reported in a story published in New York Lawyer (reg. req.). Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker excused the…

When BP's Texas City, Texas, oil refinery exploded in 2005, killing 15 workers and injuring hundreds, company officials came to know Brent Coon very well. Coon, who heads a Beaumont, Texas-based environment and personal injury practice, spearheaded the Texas civil litigation against BP following the accident, which the company eventually settled for more than $3 billion in damages. He now represents one of the survivors in last month's explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and has led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And he's gearing up to…

Have lawyer blogs really caught on among corporate counsel who could throw work your way? Twenty-seven percent of 164 in-house counsel who responded to a survey (PDF) indicated that reading blogs published by lawyers on relevant topics was one of their most important activities for researching outside counsel for a potential hire. The survey was conducted by Greentarget Strategic Communications, ALM Legal Intelligence, and Zeughauser Group. (Still carrying more weight that legal blogs: recommendations from trusted sources, a lawyer's articles and speeches, and law firm website bios.) "Blogs have arrived in the in-house legal world," Corporate Counsel says. Half of…

A San Francisco lawyer has been fined $1,500 for producing and distributing a DVD containing deposition testimony a judge had ordered sealed in a highly charged racial discrimination suit against a suburban police department. Christopher Dolan, a prominent personal injury attorney, is also being investigated for possible misconduct by the State Bar of California, according to a report Thursday in the San Jose Mercury News. Dolan represents seven high-ranking black police officers in a racial discrimination suit against the Richmond, Calif., Police Department and Police Chief Chris Magnus and others. The suit alleges that Magnus discriminated against the seven officers,…