Pillsbury Winthrop has recruited Thelen’s entire 20-lawyer China practice, adding four partners to the firm, including a new managing partner in Shanghai.
The team focuses on corporate and securities for public companies and foreign direct investment transactions. The group is expected to join Pillsbury around 20 October.
Half of the 20-lawyer group will be based in Shanghai, with the rest in Washington DC and San Francisco.
The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day’s posts; and more
Moviegoers beware: the popcorn you munch during the show probably will not be perfectly popped. A Manhattan civil court judge offered that warning last week as he ruled that an insurance broker who broke a tooth on an unpopped kernel while watching a movie could not recoup $1,250 in dental costs from the theater. The judge found that the plaintiff’s expectations that the theater “remove the offending kernels … or at least notify patrons of the dangers of encountering them” were unreasonable.
Thelen’s 20-attorney China practice has joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. The team is led by partners Thomas Shoesmith, head of Thelen’s Shanghai office; Mary Utterback; Joseph Tiano Jr.; and Louis Bevilacqua. The team includes three of counsel and 13 associates working out of offices in Shanghai, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. The loss of the practice comes amid widespread rumors that Thelen’s merger talks with Nixon Peabody have been called off.
In a boon for the mortgage lending industry, the 7th Circuit has ruled that the Truth in Lending Act does not allow for rescission of mortgages on a class action basis. The court said the “personal character of the [rescission] remedy makes it procedurally and substantively unsuited to” class actions. An attorney for defendant Chevy Chase Bank noted that although the circuits are consistent in disallowing class action status for rescissions, district court judges nationwide have recently split on the issue.
A former high-ranking CIA official has pleaded guilty to abusing his influence within the agency to direct lucrative contracts toward an old friend who showered him with tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts. Kyle “Dusty” Foggo struck a deal in federal court, pleading guilty to a single count of wire fraud for “depriving the United States and its citizens of their right to his honest services.” Prosecutors dropped 27 other counts and agreed to seek a prison term no longer than three years and a month.
New Jersey Judge F. Michael Giles judge has been reprimanded for directing profanity-laced invective at lawyers and litigants on multiple occasions. The state Supreme Court followed the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct’s recommendation that Giles not be suspended, based on findings that he was suffering from health problems and personal family tragedies at the time his outbursts occurred. Giles did not contest the presentment and waived his right to a hearing before the court.
Facebook has hired a GOP insider as its new GC, surprising scores of Silicon Valley lawyers who’d been vying for the hottest in-house gig in town. The social networking site announced Monday that its legal department will be led by Theodore Ullyot, a Kirkland & Ellis partner who has worked in the Bush White House […]
Williams & Connolly is arguably the most exclusive club in the nation. You basically have to be born at its front door to be admitted to partnership. But the firm just made an exception for Kannon Shanmugam, a former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general and now Williams & Connolly’s first lateral partner hire in 22 years. So how did Shanmugam make the cut?