Celia Cohen

May 23, 2000 | Law.com

Perhaps something really is out of whack when a first-year associate is paid more than the Delaware chief justice. Mega-firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is giving law school graduates $140,000 a year to start in its Wilmington office. Delaware is paying Chief Justice E. Norman Veasey $133,000 for the year. It's enough to make a partner wince.

By Celia Cohen

7 minute read

April 13, 1999 | Law.com

Legalistic matchmaking couldn't have worked out better for bankruptcy specialists at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor of Wilmington. They married prepackaged bankruptcy to asbestos liability, and the result of this union was that Fuller-Austin Co.'s reorganization plan was resolved in a fast-paced four months from its filing to confirmation in late December.

By Celia Cohen

8 minute read

July 07, 1999 | Law.com

Delaware's magnetism for big-bucks business bankruptcies experienced a rare reversal of fortune when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the state sent two cases, including one of the largest filed here this year, to the home states where the debtor companies have their operations. TransTexas Gas Corp. and DeGeorge Financial Corp. were the sorts of cases that had litigators speculating Delaware could be in the midst of a record-setting year for bankruptcy filings, based on their volume and size.

By Celia Cohen

8 minute read

November 10, 2000 | Law.com

When Louis L. Redding joined the Delaware bar in 1929, the most persistent legal adversary the state's first African-American lawyer faced was Jim Crow. Jim Crow -- symbolizing the customs and laws of racial segregation -- was everywhere. Redding's time was described in an insightful inaugural lecture by Leland Ware as the University of Delaware's first Louis L. Redding professor.

By Celia Cohen

4 minute read

May 24, 2001 | Law.com

In a hiring coup for Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith, former U.S. Sen. William V. Roth Jr. will join the firm and expects to tap into the contacts he amassed in taxes, trade, financial services and foreign policy in more than three decades representing the state of Delaware in Congress. Roth, who lost his re-election bid last November, will work in Reed Smith's Wilmington and Washington, D.C., offices.

By Celia Cohen

4 minute read

March 26, 2001 | Law.com

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is visiting Delaware in May as the keynote speaker for the Saint Thomas More Society, a local assembly of attorneys and judges who promote ethical principles in the law. Scalia is the fourth member of the current court with recent public appearances here, a streak begun in 1998 by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

By Celia Cohen

4 minute read

March 29, 2001 | Law.com

Even the Delaware Supreme Court has figured out that sex sells. The five justices are doing some circuit riding, coming to Widener University School of Law to hear oral arguments today. The idea behind the travel is educational, to give law students and the public a chance to see the court in action. So what matters are on tap to draw a crowd? Frederick's of Hollywood and a sex offender's appeal.

By Celia Cohen

3 minute read

June 30, 1999 | Law.com

Special-education advocates Marilyn Arons and Ruth Watson accompany parents of disabled children to hearings held by the Delaware Education Department. They're lay advocates in lawyers clothing making statements, doing direct and cross-examinations and submitting documents. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel regards what Arons and Watson do as the unauthorized practice of law and has petitioned to have them stopped. The hearing last week before the Delaware Supreme Court Board was anthing but humdrum.

By Celia Cohen

5 minute read

November 21, 2000 | Law.com

While scads and scads of lawyers descended on Florida to thrash out the presidential vote in the courts, a contrary voice arose from some Delaware attorneys, "Hell no, we won't go!" This lonely protest came from LAPEL -- Lawyers Against Presidential Election Litigation, which believes that elections are to be resolved as a matter of politics, not litigation.

By Celia Cohen

5 minute read

November 27, 2001 | Law.com

Bonnie L. Metz, a partner at the Wilmington, Del., office of Pittsburgh's Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling, is moving on to Verizon Delaware as a vice president for government affairs, a newly created post at the telecommunications company she represented as outside counsel on regulatory matters. The move means leaving the familiar culture of the private firm, but also puts Metz in a position to make a name for herself.

By Celia Cohen

5 minute read