Although the pandemic has thrown ice water on the red-hot law firm merger market, combinations are still happening and Indiana, a state often absent from the list of merger activity, recorded two separate combinations just as the COVID-19 crisis was taking hold.
A federal case in Indiana seeking to end a fraudulent N95 price-gouging scheme involving the promise of billions of nonexistent respirators has been resolved in federal court with the help of several Hoosier attorneys from one of the state’s largest law firms.
New lawyers preparing to launch their fledgling legal careers in 2020 look similar to the generations that came before them, but some things set millennial lawyers apart. Their ever-evolving professional aspirations and career trajectories appear less traditional than the routes taken by their predecessors in decades past.
In its complaint, filed Thursday in the Indianapolis division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, 3M accuses Reno, Nevada-based Zenger LLC and its agent, Zachary Puznak, of contacting high-ranking Indiana officials and offering to sell them up to 100 million N95 respirators on behalf of 3M.
Cases handled by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office continue to be rescheduled or continued as the Indianapolis courts adjust operations in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Indiana legal community is taking precautions and ramping up efforts to stay healthy as the coronavirus spreads. Meanwhile, Faegre Drinker announced Wednesday that it had reopened most of its offices Wednesday, including its Indianapolis location. The firm had closed all 22 of its global offices Tuesday after a person who attend a firm event in Washington, D.C., tested positive for COVID-19.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath closed all 22 of its global offices Tuesday due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Attorneys worked remotely after concerns that employees in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office had potentially been exposed a day prior.
Plans and updates from the 2020 Indiana General Assembly were hot topics of discussion at the Lawyer-Legislator Luncheon on February 25. More than 20 key players in this year’s session spoke about important pending legislation and answered questions from fellow IndyBar members and lawyers.
To elevate Indiana women in the traditionally male-dominated white-collar defense bar, the Indianapolis chapter of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association was founded in 2015. The primary goal of the group is to build a referral network so female lawyers are likelier to get handed a case or asked to represent a client.
Law firms with offices and law schools with programs in China have been proactive in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. For example, Dentons has temporarily closed its office in Wuhan and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP told Indiana Lawyer it has closed some offices in China. Law schools in the state have suspended all staff and faculty travel to China.
The Baker & Daniels name which has been listed among Indiana law firms since 1889 was erased Feb. 1, 2020, as the historic legal entity transformed into Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath and is now one of the 50 largest firms in the country.
The year 2020 will go down in the Indiana legal history books as the time when big law came to the Hoosier state. Firm leaders say the growth is driven primarily by client demands for varied legal services.
Faegre Baker Daniels is being sued by a former client in the cryptocurrency industry who claims the law firm provided erroneous advice that led to allegations of federal security laws violations and a $200,000 fine by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The year 2019 broke the record for U.S. law firm mergers and acquisitions with 115 combinations announced, including Indianapolis offices in some of the biggest deals unveiled.
Faegre Baker Daniels and Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath have officially announced the combination of their law firms following an affirmative vote by the partnerships of both organizations. The announcement comes about a month after murmurs began that such a move was underway.
A former mayor of Evansville is the second Democrat seeking to unseat embattled Republican Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, setting up potential convention fights for the nomination next year in both political parties.
Talks of a combination are underway between Minneapolis-based Faegre Baker Daniels and Philadelphia-based law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath, Indiana Lawyer confirmed Wednesday. A possible deal would mark the third since the beginning of the year among the top six law firms in the Indianapolis market.
A Fort Wayne attorney has taken the helm of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce as the leader of its board of directors. The partner in Faegre Baker Daniels’ Fort Wayne office will serve a one-year volunteer term.
The fight over Michigan’s redistricting, litigated in part by a team from the Indianapolis office of Faegre Baker Daniels, ended Monday with an order from the U.S. Supreme Court vacating a lower court’s ruling that gerrymandering based on political affiliation violates the Constitution.
When Faegre Baker Daniels attorney Blayre Marley heard about the pro bono work her colleague Matt Albaugh and Kerry Hyatt Bennett of the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence were doing for survivors at the appellate level, she jumped at the opportunity to join them.