The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Law Firm’s App Tackles Data Breach Issues

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

In an era when data breaches and their inherent legal ramifications are a growing concern for corporate America, law firms have been organizing practice groups and task forces to best advice clients on the issue.

Now one firm is using technology to help clients navigate this tech-laden problem area.

Scott L. Vernick, a partner with Fox Rothschild and chairman of the firm’s privacy and data security practice group, has developed Data Breach 411, a free iPhone app that companies affected by a breach can use to navigate the various applicable state rules and regulations.

The app provides up-to-date, state-specific information regarding data breach notifications, HIPAA/HITECH and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act laws, as well as additional resources aimed at helping clients dealing with data theft, the firm said.

“Data breaches can severely impact a company's reputation and have debilitating consequences to businesses big and small,” Vernick said in a statement.

“Our app is a ‘one-stop shop’ for in-house counsel and privacy officers to instantly access the relevant state-specific details on what they need to do, who they need to notify, when and how,” Vernick added.

Fox Rothschild said there are currently 46 states that have laws in place addressing how organizations should prepare for and respond to the loss or theft of data.

Along with the various statutes that can be found on the app, it also includes links to credit agencies, credit-monitoring services and the FTC website, the firm said.

This isn’t the first app Fox Rothschild has developed. In June, the firm launched an app created by New Jersey-based attorneys that focuses on New Jersey family law.

Buchanan Ingersoll Names New General Counsel

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney has named a new general counsel.

The firm announced today that labor and employment co-chairman and shareholder Gregory A. Miller will serve as its newest general counsel.

Miller is taking over for John Leathers, who served as the firm’s general counsel for almost 10 years. Sue C. Friedberg and Darice McNelis will continue to serve as associate general counsel to the firm.

All four of the attorneys are based in Buchanan Ingersoll’s Pittsburgh headquarters.

“Much of the experience I’ve gained during my career will be useful in advancing the firm’s goals as inside counsel,” Miller said in a statement.

Jack Barbour, the firm’s CEO, added, “Given Greg’s excellent legal skills and analytical abilities, combined with his historical knowledge of the firm, he is an ideal fit for this role.”

Miller's practice has encompassed a range of employer counseling and employment litigation issues. In addition to co-chairing the labor and employment section, he has previously served in a number of leadership positions with the firm and on its board.

Woodcock Washburn, Baker & Hostetler Complete Merger

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

The new year brought a new firm to Pennsylvania with the merger of Philadelphia-based intellectual property boutique Woodcock Washburn into Am Law 100 firm Baker & Hostetler. The two firms first confirmed to The Legal in late November reports of their intent to combine. The firms’ respective partnerships voted on the merger in early December and it went into effect yesterday.

“We are pleased at how seamlessly our two firms came together to complete our combination, and excited by the substantial range of scientific and technology knowledge and experience that Woodcock Washburn has collectively brought into the firm,” Baker & Hostetler Chairman Steven Kestner said in a statement. “The combination will also help us better serve clients in several key markets nationally.”

All but two of the 68 lawyers of Woodcock Washburn, with offices in Philadelphia, Seattle and Atlanta, merged into Baker & Hostetler, creating a combined firm of about 900 lawyers with 14 offices across the country. Of the two attorneys who didn’t join, one retired and one was of counsel at Woodcock Washburn’s Seattle office.

Woodcock Washburn policy committee member Joseph Lucci became partner in charge of the Baker & Hostetler Philadelphia office and his partner Steven Rocci took a seat on the new firm’s policy committee.

Bankruptcy Attorney Margery Reed Dies at 59

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Margery Reed, a prominent bankruptcy attorney at Duane Morris, has died at 59 after a long illness that started with thyroid cancer four years ago.

Reed died Monday. She remained active in her practice until November of this year, the firm said.

“Margie faced her illness in an upbeat and matter-of-fact way, that was so very characteristic of her as both a person and a lawyer,” Duane Morris Chairman and CEO John Soroko said in a statement to the firm. “Even while at home, she continued to work on client and firm-related matters into and through last month, until she started a period of hospice care just a few days ago.”

Reed started her career as a lawyer as a summer associate with Duane Morris. She began as an associate with the firm in 1982 and became a partner in the firm in 1990. She served for many years as a member of Duane Morris’ partners board. She practiced her entire career in the firm’s bankruptcy and business reorganization group.

“Margie was an outstanding lawyer. She was consistently rated as one of the very top bankruptcy and business reorganization lawyers in the U.S., and was elected a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy,” Soroko said.

Reed was chair of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference.

“She had an expertise in insurance companies that led to her being appointed as a director of the Attorneys’ Liability Assurance Society (ALAS), the preeminent legal attorney liability insurance co-operative providing coverage to the firm and many other leading firms around the U.S. within the Am Law 200,” Soroko said. “Margie served in that role with distinction and with her typical dedication, and I often heard from other directors of ALAS about how Margie stood out even in a group of some of the most accomplished lawyers in the U.S.”

Soroko said Reed always put her colleagues and the firm first and focused at the end of her active practice on ensuring a smooth transition of all her matters.

“She was the embodiment of the true lawyer who, in all things, asks only, ‘What is best for the client?’ And she was the embodiment of the true partner who, in all things, asks only, ‘What is best for the firm?’” Soroko said.

Rudolph “Skip” Di Massa Jr., head of the Duane Morris’ business reorganization and financial restructuring practice group, called Reed “a terrific partner, a wonderful friend, and one of the best mentors we have. She really took an interest in our young associates and, although she was demanding, she took the time to nurture and teach.”

Judge Marjorie Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said of Reed: “To say that Margie had a positive attitude in everything she did—in sickness and in health—would be an understatement. I can only picture her—whether working on cases at the firm or more recently chatting over dinner—with a smile on her face and laughter about something bizarre that had happened. I will remember her always as the consummate professional and friend. She was a mentor to many and an inspiration to all. As difficult as her illness was, she never complained and, when you were with her, it was never about her.”

Reed represented Fortune 100 clients and others, including financial institutions, insurance companies and other creditors in bankruptcy cases, debt restructurings and secured transactions.

She was a 1982 graduate of Villanova University School of Law and a 1976 graduate of Vassar College.

Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at Beth David Reform Congregation, 1130 Vaughan Lane, Gladwyne, Pa., 19035. Interment is set for Haym Salomon Memorial Park. Shiva is set to be observed at 7 p.m. Thursday and Saturday at the Reed residence. Contributions in her memory can be made to the Thyroid Cancer Research Fund (Perelman School of Medicine) at Penn Medicine or to Beth David Reform Congregation.

 

DLA Piper Phila. Partners Take on New Leadership Roles

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

The elevation of Carl Hittinger in DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office to a national leadership role in the firm has resulted in his partner Carl Buchholz taking on more duties in the Philadelphia office.

Hittinger was recently named as co-chairman of DLA Piper’s U.S. antitrust and trade regulation group. That left open the position Hittinger formerly held, chairman of the firm’s Philadelphia litigation group, which Buchholz will now fill.

Buchholz joined DLA Piper in late 2012 from Blank Rome, where he served as managing partner and CEO from 2006 to 2010. Since joining DLA Piper, Buchholz has concentrated his practice on complex litigation, including insurance insolvency, bankruptcy and commercial disputes. Hittinger joined the firm in 2006, and has concentrated his practice on complex litigation, with an emphasis on antitrust and unfair competition matters.

“These developments speak volumes about the contributions, past and expected of these two partners. Both have substantially contributed to the profile of the firm’s litigation group and Philadelphia office while admirably developing relationships, serving clients and mentoring our professionals,” Jim Brogan, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office, said in a statement. “We expect they will continue to grow our practice, while working collaboratively with the immensely talented lawyers throughout the firm.”

Drexel Law School Drops Mack Name to Pursue Fundraising

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law is dropping Earle Mack from its name in an effort to get donations from other benefactors to help the school’s fundraising efforts, the university said.

“We write to inform you that ambassador Earle Mack has graciously stepped aside as naming benefactor of Drexel’s law school,” university President John A. Fry and board of trustees chairman Richard A. Greenawalt said in a joint letter to the Drexel community. “This decision will clear the way for us to seek additional benefactors to further advance the school in what has become a very challenging legal education climate.”

Until a new benefactor is named, the law school will be known as the Drexel University School of Law.

Fry and Greenawalt said Mack helped establish the first law school to be founded by a major research university in more than 30 years when the school opened in 2006. In the six years since Mack made his donation, the school achieved full accreditation.

“That period of rapid growth, however, coincided with the extended global financial crisis and the related downturn in the number of applicants to American law schools,” the two said in the letter. “We are confident that our school, with its unique experiential focus and its innovative faculty and leadership, will continue to thrive in this new environment. The Earle I. Mack Foundation and Drexel jointly concluded that this will require an economic foundation beyond what was established by his gift and the university’s matching funds. The termination of the naming agreement frees Drexel to build that foundation.”

The law school declined to comment beyond the letter.

The law school made a decision in 2010 not to grow its class size over the ensuing five or so years in the face of declining law school applicants and a shrinking job market. As of 2013, the school had 411 full-time students, according to Legal sibling publication PaLaw 2013 magazine. While Duquesne University School of Law and Widener University School of Law’s Harrisburg campus have smaller law school class sizes, the bulk of area schools are in the range of 500 to 700 full-time students, according to the magazine.

In April, Drexel’s law school announced a two-year J.D. program set to start in the summer of 2014. The "Fast Forward" program is a two-year J.D. that costs the same and requires the same amount of credits as its three-year program. The benefit, the school says, is that those in the accelerated program get to join the workforce a year sooner and live off of student loans one less year.

Gina Passarella can be reached at [email protected] or 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter @gpassarellaTLI.

Proponents of Marrying Procurement and Legal Services

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

In Tuesday’s Legal, I wrote about the interplay between procurement and legal departments and whether the two could work together in hiring outside counsel. The GCs I spoke to were skeptical at best about the idea, while a consultant to law departments praised the concept but said he found it lacking in the marketplace.

Since the article ran, we have received some feedback from those who are proponents of procurement taking a more active role in the purchase of outside legal services and say it’s already happening with increasing frequency. I thought I’d share some of their points.

Silvia Hodges Silverstein, a Columbia Law School lecturer who studies procurement’s influence on the purchase of legal services, said more and more GCs are not even asked "whether" they want to work with procurement—they just have to, as it is a top management mandate.

“GCs are often former law firm partners and are hardly the ones wanting to rock the boat,” Silverstein said. “Like anyone being forced to give up control over their budget and choice, they resist that development.”

Silverstein said the market isn’t the same as it was a decade ago, the time period during which those who spoke to The Legal first considered the legal and procurement departments working together. She said more data is available. It’s no longer unknown how much firms charge or how long they take for matters, for example.

“Law firms not being able to put a price tag on their services or legal departments not knowing how much they pay today shows negligence,” Silverstein said.

While it might not be the corporate procurement department selecting outside counsel, Silverstein said hardly any sizable legal department operates without a legal operations department staffed with quantitative business people helping the GCs make good business decisions.

Silverstein said paying less doesn’t equate to lower quality in a world when law firms are embracing project management and alternative fee arrangements.

Silverstein took issue with the argument that legal services are too unique to be included in a typical procurement process.

“My legal procurement research last year showed that about 20 percent of legal procurement professionals are, in fact, lawyers,” Silverstein said. “So the argument that the widget and pencil-ordering department ‘dares’ to buy legal services simply doesn't hold true.”

Silverstein pointed to GlaxoSmithKline’s use of online reverse auctions for any matter worth more than $250,000 as an example of how some legal departments have taken procurement beyond commodity work to other matters as well.

In the end, Silverstein echoed a sentiment the GCs had—that procurement can’t take over the entire process of selecting outside counsel.

“It is not procurement's job to pick the suppliers,” Silverstein said. “It is procurement's job to improve the process of sourcing and make better/more objective choices for the company on a total cost basis, not on the lowest price.”

Dave Sampsell’s company, BanyanRFP, looked to address some of the same concerns GCs expressed regarding their argument that legal services aren’t widgets that can be run through a sourcing department.

The Minneapolis-based company provides a cloud-based RFP application for legal departments. Sampsell said he often hears from GCs that they are hesitant to work with procurement departments or don’t like the applications procurement departments use to purchase legal services. Sampsell said that, in constructing his RFP process, he took into account that there needs to be a qualitative as well as quantitative aspect to purchasing legal services.

Gina Passarella can be reached at [email protected] or 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter @gpassarellaTLI.

Morgan Lewis Hires Former Coventry Health Care GC

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

The former general counsel to Coventry Health Care has joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius’ Philadelphia office.

Thomas Zielinski, who served as executive vice president and general counsel at Coventry since 2001, joined Morgan Lewis’ litigation practice as a partner.

At Coventry, Zielinski focused on health care transactions, regulatory matters, provider reimbursement and litigation matters. Coventry was acquired by Aetna Inc. effective May 2013.

Prior to joining Coventry, Zielinski had spent several years at Cozen O’Connor and before that served two years as an assistant district attorney in Berks County.

"Tom's extensive litigation experience, coupled with the health care regulatory expertise he developed during his time at Coventry, will prove invaluable to our clients in and beyond the health care industry," Morgan Lewis Chairman Francis M. Milone said in a statement. "I have worked with Tom on a case previously, and can say from experience that he is an outstanding, ethical and zealous advocate for his clients.”

In his practice, Zielinski will advise health insurers, health care providers and specialty insurers on matters involving fraud and abuse litigation, negotiations with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service and other regulatory issues with state and federal agencies.

Gina Passarella is the senior reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted by email at [email protected] or phone at 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter at @GPassarellaTLI.

U.S. Lawmakers Back Out of Cozen Same-Sex Marriage Case

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Paul D. Clement and his firm have withdrawn their client from an Eastern District of Pennsylvania case that raised questions of the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act.

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling finding unconstitutional DOMA’s limitation of marriage to between one man and one woman, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives has requested to withdraw as intervenor in Cozen O’Connor v. Tobits.

The House, represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Clement and other attorneys at Bancroft PLLC, had intervened in suits across the country to argue in support of DOMA given the Department of Justice had declined to defend the law.

“The Supreme Court recently resolved the issue of DOMA Section 3’s constitutionality,” Clement said in the filing on behalf of BLAG, referring to the high court’s June 26 ruling in U.S. v. Windsor. “Accordingly, the House no longer has a role to play in this litigation and now seeks to withdraw as a party defendant.”

The Tobits case was placed on the suspense docket by U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in September 2012 while the court awaited the outcome of other relevant decisions. When the Supreme Court ruled on the DOMA case last month, the parties in Tobits said they hoped that would jumpstart their case toward a resolution. Other than BLAG’s filing Monday seeking to withdraw as intervenor, there has been no movement on the docket since the high court’s ruling.

Cozen O’Connor filed the interpleader action in January 2011, asking the court to decide whether the parents or wife of a deceased female partner are entitled to the partner’s profit-sharing plan benefits. While both the parents and the partner’s wife, Jennifer Tobits, have argued the court doesn’t need to reach the issue of the constitutionality of DOMA, the parents argued their daughter’s marriage is not recognized under any applicable law in the case.

Read here to see how attorneys expect the Supreme Court’s decisions to impact the Tobits case.

Gina Passarella is the senior reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted by email at [email protected] or phone at 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter at @GPassarellaTLI.

Griesing Law Hires Former HUD Counsel

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Barbara A. Potts has joined Griesing Law as senior counsel after three years with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Potts spent 10 years as a financial services partner with Blank Rome in Philadelphia before being appointed to HUD in 2010. While at HUD, Potts first served as deputy regional counsel for Region III, which includes all of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. In early 2013, Potts accepted a detail to HUD’s headquarters in Washington to provide specialized legal counsel on a variety of issues related to the administration of Federal Housing Administration health care loan insurance programs.

At Griesing Law, Potts will focus on real estate and transactional matters. Her representations while in private practice have included real estate development and finance matters; advising clients with respect to procurement and contracts matters, construction and insurance issues; and structuring and negotiating public-private partnerships and equal opportunity plans for private and public sector development projects.

While at Blank Rome, Potts served as the outside general counsel for a municipal waste hauling company, Griesing Law said. Before joining Blank Rome in 2000, Potts served for eight years in the City of Philadelphia Law Department. She began in that department as a deputy city solicitor and ended as a first deputy city solicitor. In addition, she served as the Law Department’s representative on the City of Philadelphia’s Board of Pensions and Retirement.

Potts’ governmental experience also includes serving as real estate section chief for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Atlanta from 1991 to 1993. In addition, she was pro bono counsel to the African American Museum in Philadelphia for more than 17 years.

“We are proud and delighted to have such an impressive lawyer as Barbara Potts join our firm,” Griesing Law founder Francine Griesing said in a statement. “Barbara brings a wealth of experience that expands our growing transactional capabilities.”

Gina Passarella is the senior reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted by email at [email protected] or phone at 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter at @GPassarellaTLI.