New York insurance law firm Anderson Kill & Olick, has named Larry Kill as chair of its Corpor ate & Commercial Litigation practice.

Kill has represented clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on antitrust counseling and litigation, class action treble damage cases, trademark litigation and corporate person of interest criminal investigations.

Kill, a name shareholder who joined the firm in 1972, returns to the firm after a two-year hiatus at Reed Smith, where he has been a partner in the Antitrust and Competition practice.

Anastasia Kelly, the former top in-house lawyer for American International Group Inc. who resigned Dec. 30 over compensation issues, has joined DLA Piper's Washington office, the firm announced today.

Kelly joins DLA Piper as of counsel. "She has a well earned reputation as the go-to counsel for companies in difficult circumstances and she will be a tremendous asset for our clients as they navigate this volatile market and these challenging times," DLA Piper Global Chairman Francis Burch said in a statement.

Frank "Rusty" Conner, the managing partner of DLA Piper's Washington office, said via e-mail that Kelly has worked at DLA Piper before. Kelly was not immediately available for comment. She joined AIG in 2006, and was named a vice chairman of the company in January 2009, after the insurance giant received a public bailout during the financial crisis. Before going to AIG, she was an executive vice president and general counsel of MCI/WorldCom, another company that faced the aftermath of an accounting scandal. She was a partner at the firm then known as Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.
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K&L Gates LLP, Pittsburgh’s largest law firm, said Monday it has established an office in Warsaw, marking its 36th location and third new site so far this year. It is the first Pittsburgh-based firm to open an office in the Polish city.

The office is expected to open March 15. K&L Gates hired a team of lawyers from Hogan & Hartson Jamka, the Warsaw office of Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson LLP, to staff it. Maciej Jamka will serve as administrative partner of K&L Gates’ Warsaw office which K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter Kalis said via e-mail will include “approximately 30 lawyers.”

Kalis said Warsaw is a strategic location. “Poland is a Top 20 global economy and one that has withstood the challenges of the global financial crisis,” Kalis said in a prepared statement.

In January, K&L Gates opened offices in Tokyo and Moscow. It employs roughly 2,000 lawyers, including 237 in Pittsburgh, and topped $1 billion in 2009 revenue.

K&L Gates expects to move into new offices in Downtown Pittsburgh in One Oliver Plaza, a few blocks from its present home in the Henry W. Oliver Building, later this month. The date has not been disclosed publicly.

At the law firm of Adorno & Yoss, diversity is not an afterthought, nor is it a marketing ploy to gain new business.

No, diversity -- doing business with and hiring minorities -- is front and center at Adorno & Yoss, the largest minority-owned law firm in the nation. With about 300 lawyers in 20 offices around the country, and a Fortune 200 client list, the Florida-based law firm has emerged as one of the premier law offices in the nation. The company, which has two offices in Latin America, is also a member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

"We are seeing what is happening with the population in this country," said Florida-based Henry Adorno, CEO and co-founder of Adorno & Yoss. "Being able to understand that and being able to communicate with our clients gives us the competitive advantage."

About 25 law firms seeking class action status for lawsuits filed against Toyota Motor Corp. in more than 20 states have formed a consortium, an attorney coordinating the group said Thursday.

Approximately 20 other lawsuits seeking class action status on behalf of consumers also have been filed against the automaker because of accelerator problems that have led to the recall of more than 8 million automobiles.

Those 40 suits do not include individual personal injury claims that consumers have filed against Toyota.

Tim Howard, coordinator of the Attorneys Toyota Action Consortium, said a court hearing on whether all the class action cases will be consolidated is expected March 25 before a multidistrict panel in U.S. District Court in San Diego.

Mr. Howard is a professor of law and policy at Northeastern University and an attorney at Howard Associates P.A. in Tallahassee, Fla.

The lawsuits seeking class action status share common allegations that consumers lost value in and the use of their cars because of defective parts that sparked the recall.

Gov. Bob Riley's gambling task force won another victory Thursday when the Alabama Supreme Court tossed out a court order blocking a raid on the state's largest casino.

In a 7-2 decision, the court said a Macon County judge lacked jurisdiction to halt the pre-dawn raid Jan. 29.

"This is another victory for the rule of law," Gov. Bob Riley said Thursday night.

VictoryLand, 15 miles east of Montgomery, closed its casino Monday night. Shortly before the Supreme Court's ruling came out Thursday, the company closed all other facilities, including its dog track, restaurants and new luxury hotel. The closure was designed to keep the Governor's Task Force on Illegal Gambling from returning without getting a judge to approve a search warrant.

Task force commander John Tyson said last week a search warrant was not needed for the thwarted raid because the casino was open and undercover officers were inside observing the gambling machines. He declined to reveal his next step Thursday night, but said he was reviewing the complete closure of VictoryLand.