A new report warns law firms that they need to modernise or lose out as a major power shift is taking place in favour of the in-house client.  The report, which canvassed the opinions of 130 General Counsel and 80 law firm partners around the world, reveals that 78% believe that the recession will have a lasting impact on the profession, and that value and efficiency are now the non-negotiable attributes a client looks for in a legal partner.

The report – ‘Law firm of the 21st century – The clients’ revolution’ - commissioned by international law firm Eversheds, also reveals that the recession has had a major impact on how ‘magic circle’ law firms are viewed, with just over half (51%) of clients and 46% of partners citing the term as defunct.  When asked if this revision, to the traditional law firm hierarchy would be a welcome development for the market, an overwhelming 94% of clients and 81% of partners agreed. 

While the recession has proved to be a key catalyst for this change, the report also highlights several other factors that have contributed.  The primary factor identified by over a third (37%) of all respondents was globalisation, particularly the move to the East, with many international law firm leaders, as with other business sectors, considering moving their headquarters from the West to the East.

An additional driver for change is the increasing status and professionalism of the in-house lawyer (35%).  Three-quarters (74%) of General Counsel said they now occupied a far more senior commercial advisory role in their companies compared to before the recession, with 55% assuming more responsibility for corporate governance. 

Law firms are circling geothermal energy company Ormat Technologies, after a class action law suit was filed accusing the firm and its executives of knowlingly falsifying its accounts.

Pennsylvania firm Howard G Smith filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of investors, after Ormat revealed back in February that it would have to revise its accounts for the year up to December 2008.

Ormat announced on February 26 that it had reviewed its accounting procedures, and decided the way it had treated costs associated with discontinued geothermal projects had been “discontinued”.

The move will see its income for 2008 downgraded by $6.2 million.

The law suit has arisen since Ormat’s admission apparently led to its share value dropping by nearly 13%. The class action alleges that Ormat and its executives were liable for investors’ losses.

A number of law firms came out over the weekend, chasing Ormat investors with the offer of representing them in the class action suit. These include the Colorado-based Shuman Law Firm, Oklahoma City firm Federman & Sherwood, Connecticut-based Izard Nobel, Dallas firm Kendall Law Group and the New York-based Brualdi Law Firm.

The Bloomfield Hills law firm of Lipson, Neilson, Cole Seltzer & Garin, P.C. is holding a 25th anniversary celebration May 6 where it is giving 25 small businesses or entrepreneurs a half day of free legal and business counseling at Automation Alley in Troy.

Lipson Neilson was founded in 1985, at the cusp of an economic recovery beginning to develop 25 years ago. Since its modest beginnings with only three attorneys, Lipson Neilson has grown into a full-service law firm with four offices and 26 attorneys in two states.

To celebrate its silver anniversary, Lipson Neilson will be reaching out to entrepreneurs and emerging business owners who are charging down the same path that Lipson Neilson itself embarked upon 25 years ago.

“In 1985, after a period of some of the darkest days in Michigan’s economic history, the state began to come back with a vengeance," said the law firm's co-founder and managing partner Jeffrey Neilson. "We want to use our 25th anniversary to help inspire another rebirth for the companies that can most make a difference in our state’s economic future, the small business entrepreneurs.”

Lipson Neilson will host its free consulting event for 25 entrepreneurial companies selected from submissions to the firm. The event will be held in the Automation Alley atrium on May 6 from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Attorneys from the Lipson Neilson firm will cover a myriad of areas that most start-up and emerging businesses encounter, including company organization, structure, financing, and marketing.  The firm will provide a full complement of sound advice to help entrepreneurial companies negotiate these difficult times and help them develop a plan for success in the Michigan economy.

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a Nevada law that bars legal brothels that operate in some of the state's rural areas from advertising by newspaper, leaflets and billboards in Las Vegas, Reno and other places where prostitution is illegal.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto hailed the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco, while a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada promised to appeal.

The laws had been challenged by the ACLU, a Nye County brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch and two newspapers: the High Desert Advocate and Las Vegas City Life.

Prostitution is illegal in Clark and Washoe counties — which include Las Vegas and Reno — and three other Nevada counties. Ten Nevada counties authorize prostitution by local ordinance.

The 9th Circuit panel reversed a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan in Nevada that two 1979 state laws prohibiting brothel advertising in counties where prostitution is illegal were overly broad and unconstitutional.

The laws also prohibit brothel advertising in theaters and on streets and public highways.

The 9th Circuit noted in its ruling that Nevada was unique among states because it has a "nuanced boundary," rather than total criminalization of prostitution.

But the state still seeks to confine the sale of sex acts through licensing and advertising restrictions, the judges said.

A longtime municipal attorney is alleged to have stolen at least $1 million - and perhaps as much as $3 million - from the village of Calumet Park, where he grew up, according to prosecutors and others familiar with the matter.

Mark J. McCombs, of Chicago, worked for nine years as the village's special counsel for development and is accused of a fraudulent billing scheme meant to bolster his position at the Chicago law firm where he worked until Friday.

Village records show McCombs billed the village for tens of thousands of dollars each month for work that apparently never was done. He helped himself to property tax revenue that flowed into accounts of Calumet Park's tax increment financing districts.

"The billing was a joke. He didn't do any work," said Burt Odelson, the village attorney.

Cook County prosecutors Friday charged McCombs, 50, of the 1300 block of Flournoy Street, with one felony count of theft of government funds in excess of $100,000. McCombs, who faces six to 30 years in prison if convicted, pleaded innocent. Bail was set at $25,000.

McCombs was an attorney and shareholder with Greenberg Traurig, a global law firm that employs nearly 1,800 attorneys and has offices in the United States, Asia and Europe. He's accused of billing the village at least $1 million for work he never performed, but a village official pegged the number at closer to $3 million.

McCombs wired the cash to his law firm in a scheme designed to boost his reputation as a moneymaker and to give him greater visibility and a higher pay rate at the firm, Assistant State's Attorney John Mahoney said in court.

Greenberg Traurig fired McCombs on Friday afternoon after learning of the charges and had no previous knowledge of his alleged misdeeds, according to Jill Perry, managing director of the firm.