Law Firm

A class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday against JPMorgan Chase on behalf of investors accusing the bank of misleading shareholders about the $2 billion in trading losses that have roiled the company this week. Lawyers said the bank did not fully disclose the risky nature of JPMorgan's trades. The lawsuit alleges the bank falsely told shareholders that its bets on financial instruments known as derivatives were "hedges" that would help the firm offset overall risk in its portfolio.

AMSTERDAM — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court — the permanent war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands — says she has received a complaint about Israel's 2010 raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza, and she will open a preliminary investigation. The complaint comes from the tiny African state of Comoros, a member of the court, though Israel is not. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she met Tuesday with lawyers from a Turkish law firm that is...

Samuel Drakulich earned a Bronze Star for drawing enemy fire away from a wounded soldier during World War II. He parachuted behind German lines to organize the resistance and went on to serve in the CIA. But by his mid-80s, a stroke put the war hero in a wheelchair. Jeanne, his wife, had dementia. Their McLean home was in disarray and bills went unpaid. A dispute between the couple's children led the courts to decide that the Drakuliches needed a third-party caretaker. A judge...

President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in July 2010, hailing it as an overhaul to prevent the kind of crisis that hit the world economy in 2008 and one of the signature achievements of his first term. Almost three years later, much of the big stuff the law calls for is on hold, under legal and legislative assault, or still working its way through the regulatory intestines. According to a law firm that tracks the legislation, only 38 percent of the 398...

A lobbyist hears from "very credible sources" that the White House is going to reverse a major health-care proposal. He tells a client in an e-mail, and that person then tells his own clients in a research note. It sounds like the game of telephone that lobbyists, government officials and even reporters are drawn into every day in Washington. Except in this case, the chain of information may have triggered a spike in trades on Wall Street — and has now led to a government investigation into...

Big law in Washington isn't getting much bigger, but if the latest round of law firm promotions is any indication, the region's largest firms are focusing internal growth in key areas: intellectual property litigation and international practices. Eight of the District's 10 largest firms have announced attorney promotions for 2012 — which include associates who make partner, counsel who make partner, and associates who are promoted to counsel. At most firms, counsel or "of counsel" are senior-level...

New York law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is shaking up its management structure after the recent departure of nearly 40 of its 300-plus partners — including the managing partner of its Washington office. Dewey will go from having a sole chairman to a five-partner "office of the chairman" that includes leaders of the firm's most profitable practice groups: head of Dewey's D.C. lobbying practice Charles Landgraf, three practice group leaders in New York and chairman Steven Davis. Davis will relocate from New York to London to focus...

Quietly and unceremoniously, another venerable Washington law firm went out of business last week. It's official name was Howrey, reflecting the new fashion in legal marketing that favors a single name, much like rock stars and supermodels. Many of us still remember it as the old Howrey & Simon, although that was before the firm embarked on the merger and expansion binge that would eventually lead to its demise. As recently as two years ago, Howrey appeared to the outside world to be a thriving global...

Perry C. Ausbrook, 80, a lawyer with an expertise in franchise law who retired in 2002 as a partner in the law firm now known as DLA Piper, died Jan. 10 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. He had pneumonia. A son, J. Keith Ausbrook, confirmed the death. Mr. Ausbrook began his legal career in the early 1960s with the U.S. Development Loan Fund, a primary source of American aid to foreign countries. He later entered private practice and, in 1969, became a founding partner of the Washington law firm of...

Bruder, Gentile & Marcoux, a small Washington law firm that represents Pepco, Dominion and other regional gas and electric utilities in energy regulatory matters, has been absorbed by mid-size Chicago firm Schiff Hardin, the firms announced last week. The combination doubles the size of Schiff Hardin's energy practice to 20 lawyers from 10 in Washington, and is the latest reshuffling in the legal industry as law firms look to bulk up their energy practices to capture work from electricity, gas and oil companies bracing for more...

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who has been leading an inquiry into "political intelligence" firms, said this week that he is not seeking to dismantle such firms or vilify the actions of Capitol Hill staffers who have communicated with them. These firms hire armies of consultants to scour Washington for bits of information on federal actions that could influence the financial markets, and then sell the information to Wall Street investors. The industry was thrust into the...

A lobbyist hears from "very credible sources" that the White House is going to reverse a major health-care proposal. He tells a client in an e-mail, and that person then tells his own clients in a research note. It sounds like the game of telephone that lobbyists, government officials and even reporters are drawn into every day in Washington. Except in this case, the chain of information may have triggered a spike in trades on Wall Street — and has now led to a...

I dropped by a presentation on the health of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District recently to hear an update on the area's ongoing resurgence. The business leaders had plenty to say about their successes, of course, patting themselves on the back for snagging this restaurant and celebrating that anniversary. But they also were not shy about discussing their challenges, displaying a kind of candor I don't often encounter at this sort of event. A chief...

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the Denver-based law firm that houses one of Washington's fastest-growing lobby shops, was one of only two of the region's 10 biggest firms to post revenue growth in 2012 . Part of that growth is tied to the firm's "EB-5 team," a group of lawyers and public policy experts spread across several cities, including Washington, where partners David Cohen and Al Mottur are leading lobbying efforts to make EB-5 visas...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued subpoenas to a firm and individuals in connection with the leak last month of a federal funding decision that appeared to cause a surge in stock trading of several major health companies. The move deepens the government's scrutiny of the growing "political intelligence" industry, which has been thriving on delivering valuable information from Washington to investors. This relatively new breed of companies capitalizes on the fact that decisions made in...

A wealthy investment banker has donated $100,000 to D.C. Council member David A. Catania's controversial private fund to help finance outside legal advice on education policy. The contribution by Emanuel J. Friedman, a Kalorama resident who manages a multibillion-dollar investment fund, is the first to Catania's effort. Friedman, 67, did not return calls seeking comment. Friedman's donation brings the fund a third of the way toward its goal of $300,000. The money would pay...

James M. Verner, 94, founder of the powerful Washington law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, died of heart disease Oct. 6 at his Arlington County home. Mr. Verner started the firm in 1960 with Berl Bernhard. The enterprise, originally specializing in transportation law, gradually added partners and established offices in Houston, Miami and Honolulu, employing 191 lawyers and lobbyists in 2001. Known for hiring "rock stars" -- lawyers and public officials after their turn in the national political spotlight...

The Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis, an international law firm with 200 attorneys in the District, is pairing with the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia and Friendship Baptist Church to offer free legal services from the church's building in Southwest Washington. The clinic, which opened last week, is the first of its kind for the law firm, the legal services provider and the church. And it comes at a time when many law firms and businesses in the Washington area are experimenting with new pro bono models that...

Company: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner. Location: Offices in Washington and Reston. Employees: 761 locally; 974 nationwide. For many prospective students, the decision to go to law school means taking on a hefty burden of debt. But not for future attorneys at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, a law firm that specializes in patent and trademark work. Finnegan has a generous reimbursement program that covers 100 percent of staffers' law school tuition.