Meredith Hobbs

October 26, 2007 | National Law Journal

Atlanta-based Fisher & Phillips has launched a worldwide immigration practice to assist companies that are expanding their foreign operations in response to U.S. visa restrictions. To broaden out from 190-attorney Fisher & Phillips' traditional business immigration work, which helps companies bring foreign workers into the United States, the firm has recruited Ian Macdonald. "Restrictions on U.S. immigration have made companies look elsewhere," he says. "We are aggressively going after that market."

By Meredith Hobbs

4 minute read

April 06, 2010 | Law.com

A recent survey reports an almost 5 percent drop in hours billed and a 4 percent drop in revenue last year for the 87 participating Am Law 100 firms. That compared to a steady 4 percent increase in work every year from 2001 to 2007 for large firms. Atlanta firms expected a tough year and budgeted accordingly, after work dried up in the last quarter of 2008 following the September collapse of Lehman Brothers. Of Atlanta's largest 12 firms, only four reported significant revenue increases.

By Meredith Hobbs

9 minute read

June 25, 2007 | The Legal Intelligencer

Two Alston & Bird associates have started their own plaintiffs firm after convincing former Fulton Superior Court Judge M. Gino Brogdon to leave a partnership at Alston & Bird to join them. The firm, Brogdon Davis & Adams, opened June 1 in Decatur, Ga.

By Meredith Hobbs

6 minute read

July 30, 2010 | Law.com

Gary S. Freed has left Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin after seven years to return to his small-firm roots. Freed joined Robbins-Law last week, and the Atlanta firm changed its name to Robbins Freed & Ross. Firm co-founder Alexa R. Ross said the seven-lawyer firm will be adding counsel and associates, citing Freed's "substantial practice" as one reason why. Freed, who handles business and probate disputes, also is involved in a high-profile divorce case that led to the resignation of a judge.

By Meredith Hobbs

5 minute read

May 05, 2010 | Law.com

Two new firms have spun off from larger Atlanta firms. IP boutique, McKeon Meunier Carlin & Curfman, opened two weeks ago with five lawyers and two patent agents from Fish & Richardson and Ballard Spahr. A week earlier, 10 lawyers from Hall Booth Smith & Slover broke off to form Bendin, Sumrall & Ladner, which will predominantly focus on medical malpractice defense. "We're trying to put together a small firm with an elite team of people -- our dream team," said McKeon Meunier's Tina W. McKeon.

By Meredith Hobbs

7 minute read

January 23, 2007 | Law.com

At the end of this month, Marc Gary will be leaving his post as general counsel for BellSouth Corp., which became a division of AT&T after the two companies completed their merger on Dec. 29. "With the AT&T takeover, the position of GC for AT&T is already taken," Gary said. He added that the new general counsel at AT&T Southeast -- as BellSouth is known now -- will have a more regional focus, noting, "The nature of the job changes dramatically when you become a subsidiary."

By Meredith Hobbs

4 minute read

January 20, 2009 | Law.com

The new year has finalized an amicable split that started this fall at Atlanta's Taylor Busch Slipakoff & Duma in reaction to the firm's rapid growth. Its two founders, along with three other partners, left to start six-lawyer Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh with another attorney, because they felt Taylor Busch was getting too big. Meanwhile, the Taylor Busch firm has renamed itself Taylor English & Duma and has brought in law firm futurist Michael H. Trotter as a partner to help with the firm's planned expansion.

By Meredith Hobbs

7 minute read

October 26, 2007 | Corporate Counsel

Atlanta-based Fisher & Phillips has launched a worldwide immigration practice to assist companies that are expanding their foreign operations in response to U.S. visa restrictions. To broaden out from 190-attorney Fisher & Phillips' traditional business immigration work, which helps companies bring foreign workers into the United States, the firm has recruited Ian Macdonald. "Restrictions on U.S. immigration have made companies look elsewhere," he says. "We are aggressively going after that market."

By Meredith Hobbs

4 minute read

June 18, 2007 | Law.com

Hunton & Williams has snagged two intellectual property partners, Robert H. G. Lockwood and Eric J. Hanson, from Smith, Gambrell & Russell as part of a push to expand its Atlanta intellectual property team. The addition of Lockwood and Hanson increases the number of IP lawyers in Hunton's Atlanta office to 11. The firm would like to double that number in the next year, said William M. Ragland Jr., the senior member of the group.

By Meredith Hobbs

3 minute read

March 27, 2006 | New Jersey Law Journal

Cary Wiggins, lawyer with the boyish looks, good manners and perfectly pressed shirt of someone who was raised right, has persuaded the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Georgia's obscenity law, which forbids materials of "prurient interest," including so-called sex toys.

By Meredith Hobbs

6 minute read