The VLW Blog

I was walking down Main Street in Richmond one sunny lunchtime about a week ago. It was one of those Richmond-in-June days…humid, temp around 80, not bad but you know it’s going to get ugly before long.
Standing in line to get cart food were two guys in their mid to late 20s. Both were in [...]

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A legal assistant who stole thousands from a judge’s account has now admitted stealing even more from the Abingdon law firm where she worked.
Anna Howell, 43, pleaded guilty today to money laundering and mail fraud in the theft of at least $31,000 from the firm of Jessee & Read.  There was no plea deal, according [...]

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A Norfolk grand jury has indicted Kentucky lawyer Erick A. Bowman on charges of stealing from the firm of Kalfus & Nachman where he worked until last year.
The Virginian-Pilot reports Bowman has been involved in a legal dispute with the Kalfus firm since he left in May 2008.
Posted by Peter Vieth

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Georgia-based Troutman Sanders is looking for opportunity north of the border.  The firm has announced formation of a 19-member “Canadian practice team” to be led by Virginia Beach partner Tom Rose.
Apparently, no Canadian office is planned, but Troutman hopes to represent Canadian businesses  in the areas of securities and corporate governance; mergers and acquisitions; immigration; [...]

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Talk about signs of the times. Here’s an item that has more strands of current stuff than you thought imaginable. Take the economy. Add law firms. Make that law firms that need to cut staff and/or lawyers. Add general paranoia about the above. Add the Web and the instant news cycle created by bloggers. What [...]

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A former assistant to Washington County Circuit Judge Randall Lowe, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to stealing more than $16,000 from the judge’s office, now has been indicted on charges of stealing from a law firm.
Anna Laura Howell, 43, is accused in a two-count federal indictment with money laundering and mail fraud.  Neither the federal [...]

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McGuireWoods LLP will get a London presence by absorbing the 36-lawyer firm of Grundberg Mocatta Rakison LLP on May 1.
“This is a great day in the history of McGuirewoods,” said McGuireWoods Chairman Richard Cullen. He said the firm has sought for some time to expand its overseas reach with a London office.
McGuireWoods has about [...]

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The third annual Legal Food Frenzy will run from March 30 through April 10 with a goal of raising 1.5 million pounds of food to be distributed through the state’s regional food banks.
Firms interested in participating can register online at the event’s Web site.
The first Food Frenzy generated 679,000 pounds of food, and law firms [...]

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The freeze in salaries at one Virginia law firm will mean cuts in starting pay for new associates in the fall.  McGuireWoods confirms that it will cut first-year pay by 10 percent this year to ensure a pay gap between the new hires and last year’s new associates.
A source close to firm management indicates the [...]

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Megafirm DLA Piper US LLP is laying off 180 employees nationwide.
“Given market conditions, we have concluded with deep regret that we must reduce our US workforce by approximately 80 associates and 100 staff,” wrote DLA Piper spokesman Jason Costa in a statement provided to our sister paper, The Daily Record in Baltimore.
The firm has over 4,000 [...]

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