Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that the firm's chairman of the executive committee, Guy N. Halgren, has been re-elected to a fourth consecutive, three-year term leading the firm.  Halgren was first elected to this management role in 2001.  Halgren is the first Sheppard Mullin chairman to hold this position for four terms.  

"Our partnership is very fortunate to have Guy at the helm for another term.  He's smart, fair and forward-thinking," said Benjamin R. Mulcahy, New York-based partner and member of the executive committee.  "Guy has been instrumental in growing the firm in terms of size, locations, and practice areas, while preserving Sheppard Mullin's tradition of collegiality and entrepreneurship."  

Sheppard Mullin has experienced significant growth in the past nine years.  The number of attorneys is now more than 500, which is more than 70% greater than the firm's attorney headcount in 2001.  During the same time period, the firm has geographically grown from a California firm, to a national firm with locations in New York and Washington, D.C., to an international firm with an office in Shanghai.  The firm currently has a total of eleven offices, having significantly expanded from four locations in 2001.

Comparing 2001 to 2009, gross revenue has climbed from $149 million to $361 million.  Practice area growth has occurred in a number of ways, including the establishment of an institutional entertainment and media practice in 2003, the significant growth of the firm's Intellectual Property practice group in recent years, and the strengthening of signature practices: Antitrust, Corporate, Finance & Bankruptcy, Government Contracts, Labor & Employment, Litigation, Real Estate/Land Use and Tax.  

Additionally, Sheppard Mullin's Business Trial practice group co-chair, Robert S. Beall, has been re-elected as the firm's managing partner for another three-year term.  He has held this firm management position since 2005.  Beall, based in the firm's Orange County office, has also been re-elected to the firm's executive committee for another three-year term. 

The Law Review Staff of the Phoenix School of Law wanted to find a way to publish a law journal, and recognize the Centennial Anniversary of the writing of Arizona’s Constitution at the same time.  The result was the printing of The Arizona Government Book, a compilation of articles written by prominent judges, attorneys and legal minds within and around Arizona Government, including the Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, Rebecca White Berch,  Nick Dranias of the Goldwater Institute, and more.  The theme of the book is “The Past, Present and Future of Arizona Government.”

“Because we’re a new law school, it was difficult to solicit articles for our law journal,” says Editor-In-Chief Anthony Tsontakis.  “But we persisted, and the results were submissions of extraordinary articles from Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch (Arizona Supreme Court) and many prominent government attorneys – some of whom argued cases before the Arizona Supreme Court.”

A Symposium / Reception to celebrate the publishing of The Arizona Government Book will be held on Tuesday, April 27th from 5:00 PM-7:00 PM at the Phoenix School of Law, Room D-110.  Speakers include Vice Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court Andrew Hurwitz and Arizona Senate President Robert Burns.  

Hors d'oeuvres will be served.  CLE credit may be earned for this event.   The event is free, but RSVP is required by registering at www.phoenixlaw.edu.

WEALTH ADVISORS

The independent multi-family investment company said it hired Christopher Smith as a principal. Smith was a director of the corporate client group at RBC Capital Markets.

LEGAL & GENERAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

Chicago-based investment manager Legal & General Investment Management America said it hired Aaron Meder in a new role as head of U.S. pension solutions. Meder was a managing director and head of asset-liability investment solutions at UBS Global Asset Management.

MAYER BROWN

The law firm said it hired Dallas Parker from Thompson & Knight as a partner in its corporate and securities practice in Houston.

BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH (BAC.N)

Merrill Lynch appointed Giles Hutson as Managing Director of its EMEA debt capital markets team. Hutson joins Merrill Lynch after a 11-year stint at Morgan Stanley (MS.N) where he was co-head of EMEA debt capital markets.

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON INVESTMENTS

The investment company named Adam Gorlyn vice president of its sovereign funds and supranationals group. Gorlyn worked as a portfolio specialist with the Franklin Templeton Fixed Income group.

KNIGHT CAPITAL GROUP INC (NITE.O)

The firm named Didier Bankole vice president of sales for its electronic trading group (ETG) in Europe. Bankole joins Knight from NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) where he was in charge of global account management.

LASALLE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

LaSalle Investment Management appointed Andy Watson to the newly created role of head of core funds and separate accounts, continental Europe. Watson previously worked as international director in the company's Paris office.

EMIRATES NBD ENBD.DU

The head of retail banking at Emirates NBD is to step down, three people familiar with the matter said, in the second major departure from the lender. [ID:nLDE63B08J]

T. ROWE PRICE GROUP (TROW.O)

The investment management firm named Michael Joehr as a client service executive focused on southern Europe and Switzerland. Most recently Joehr was senior relationship manager with Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH.

QUILTER

The investment management services provider named Gillian Bailey as an investment manager at its Glasgow office. Bailey joins the firm from Cornelian Asset Managers in Edinburgh, where she was associate director. (Compiled by Arnika Thakur in Bangalore and Elinor Comlay in New York. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

Harvard University announced yesterday that William F. Lee, a nationally known Boston lawyer with deep roots in the university, has been elected to the Harvard Corporation, the institution’s principal governing body.

Lee, who is co-managing partner of the Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr law firm that employs 1,000 lawyers, will join the seven-member Harvard Corporation July 1, when James R. Houghton, 73, its longest-serving member, steps down after 15 years of service.

Lee, twice named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal, graduated from Harvard in 1972 and taught courses at Harvard Law School for about five years. He served for six years on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the 30-member consultative body elected by university alumni.

In a phone interview yesterday, Lee noted that as a Board of Overseers member he served on two joint committees with the corporation — the audit committee and the presidential search committee that chose Drew Gilpin Faust to succeed Lawrence Summers in 2007 — so he has worked with the seven current members of the corporation, which is led by Faust and picks new members when vacancies occur.

Lee said his overriding priority will be to keep all the institutions that make up Harvard innovative.

“Harvard is the most unique and extraordinary institution in the world,’’ he said, “but . . . there’s also a lot of inertia that comes from age and traditions.’’

Lee said his years of focus on intellectual property legal issues have made clear to him “there is nothing more important than the area of science and technology,’’ and he would work to make sure that Harvard is at the forefront of both those fields.

A lawyer opened a sex discrimination trial Thursday by accusing the U.S. arm of Swiss drug company Novartis of discriminating against 5,600 female sales representatives, saying they are denied promotions and equal pay and sometimes face a hostile workplace.

Attorney Katherine Kimpel acknowledged to the jury in federal court in Manhattan that the company has extensive written materials warning against discrimination but accused it of "saying one thing on paper but another thing in real life."

She said women hired since 2002 entered a company that disrespects and undermines its female workers, resulting in lower pay, fewer promotions and sometimes a hostile workplace dominated by an "old boys network."

She said the discrimination was especially severe for women who became pregnant. Sometimes, she said, they faced managers who fished through their work looking for ways to spoil their careers or pressured them to take shorter leaves or to work while they were on leave.

Novartis attorney Richard Schnadig said the company does not discriminate against women and there was no glass ceiling.

"This is a fair, decent, responsive company that has been sensitive to women's' needs," he said. "We don't discriminate. ... the company makes no claims that we're perfect."

Schnadig said 70 percent of its sales managers are men because the demographics of the workplace have not yet recovered from the days when fewer women entered the work force. He said the company has 14,000 U.S. employees with significant numbers of senior positions held by women, some of whom will testify at the trial.