The Washington law firm Arent Fox said Monday that it has named longtime partner Mark M. Katz as its new chairman, a leadership change that comes as the legal sector copes with an economic downturn that has curtailed business and prompted layoffs.

Katz, 52, succeeds Marc L. Fleischaker, who served as chairman of the firm's executive committee for 14 years. Fleischaker will remain at the firm, concentrating on antitrust and civil rights cases.

Like many of its counterparts, Arent Fox has faced declining revenue as corporate clients cut back on legal work, particularly in commercial real estate and finance, Katz said Monday in an interview. Although the firm cut 13 associates and 15 staff members and is in the early stages of restructuring how it bills clients, Katz said Arent Fox wasn't hurt as deeply by the recession because it decided to grow more cautiously during the boom.

"Some of the firms that grew very rapidly and worked on a mega-international platform seem to be running into difficulties," he said. "We've grown on a patient pace, and that's helped us."

As of 2008, the latest year for which statistics from the economic development group Greater Washington Initiative are available, more than 40,000 lawyers worked in the Washington region, second only to the New York area. Nearly 64,000 people work in the legal profession in the Washington region, which employs more people in that sector on a per-capita basis than any U.S. metropolitan area.

Indianapolis-based Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman P.C. has merged with a law firm in Cleveland. The deal brings Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP into the Indianapolis market after establishing offices in Columbus, Ohio, New York state, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Shanghai. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports the combined firm will be know as Benesch/Dann Pecar in Indianapolis.

Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman P.C. was founded in 1911 and the Indianapolis office has 26 attorneys.

The Berenstein, Moore, Heffernan, Moeller & Johnson L.L.P. law firm announce that Karrie R. Hruska has become a partner in the Sioux City firm. Hruska joined the firm in November 2008 after 10 years in private practice in Sioux City.

She concentrates her practice in the areas of probate law, estate planning, litigation, business and family law. Hruska earned her undergraduate degree from the University of South Dakota and her Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Iowa College of Law.

While at Iowa she was selected to be a member of the Stephenson Trial Advocacy Team. She is currently licensed to practice law in Iowa and South Dakota, and is a member of the Iowa Bar Association, the South Dakota Bar Association and the Woodbury County Bar Association.

She also has served on the executive board of the Young Lawyers Division of the Iowa State Bar Association and has served on the Mock Trial Committee of the Iowa State Bar Association since 2000.

Boardman Law Firm announced that Andrew Hebl has joined the firm as an associate. Andrew will work with the firm’s insurance litigation team.

“We are excited to add Andrew to our trial team,” comments Boardman litigation attorney Claude Covelli. “He’s smart, personable, and a hard worker–a great combination.”

Andrew received his J.D. from Michigan State University in May, 2008, and received his undergraduate education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prior to joining Boardman, Andrew was Judicial Law Clerk to Justice Patience Drake Roggensack. He is fluent in German and Portuguese.

Boardman’s insurance litigation attorneys work with corporate and claims counsel to resolve a variety of insurance issues, and have argued appeals before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court.

Boardman Suhr Curry & Field is one of the largest and oldest law firms based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Boardman’s attorneys provide services to individuals, businesses and organizations in a variety of areas, including estate planning, family law, banking, labor and employment, litigation, real estate, taxation, and more.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Nick Sayers  | Boardman Law Firm
608-283-7577
nsayers@boardmanlawfirm.com
www.boardmanlawfirm.com

http://www.insiderexclusive.com/show-titles/122-us-vs-fieger-a-johnson-bring-it-on-

In mid-August of 2007, the Detroit Free Press printed a huge headline, FIEGER VS. U.S. At the time, they got it wrong; the US Government had actually indicted Geoffrey Fieger, one of the nation’s most successful trial lawyers, and his partner, Ven Johnson, for violating campaign finance laws.

But on June 2, 2008, after a 20-day trial, with Fieger represented by famed defense attorney Gerry Spence, jurors unanimously rejected the government’s felony charges – and acquitted and vindicated Geoff Fieger and Ven Johnson, because prosecutors failed to prove that they illegally channeled money to the failed 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards.

And, on that same day, the Detroit Free Press finally got it right and printed another huge headline, FIEGER IS CLEARED IN CAMPAIGN FUND CASE.

Today, The Insider Exclusive takes you behind the scenes of the indictment, the Bush Administration’s selective political prosecution of Geoffrey Fieger, the winning legal strategies employed by Gerry Spence and Steve Fishman to decisively defeat and crush the government at a Waterloo of their own making.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.That fact is as valid oday, as it was when it was written in 1870 by Sir John Acton, who reminded Pope Pius IX that he was a mere mortal man! Today, Geoff Fieger walks taller and more resolute than ever before, for having taken on “Absolute Power” and won – a victory of the power of truth and justice. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “We acquire the strength we have overcome.” Geoff has overcome that strength, and today, he uses it for all those in need of justice.

Geoffrey Fieger devotes himself to getting justice for his clients. He is a tireless and fearless champion for those whose rights have been violated. He was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of the State of Michigan in 1998, and the Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University recently named its school for the education of trial lawyers The Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute. In June 2008 after almost three years, Geoffrey, represented by the legendary Gerry Spence in his final trial, won his own court battle against the Gonzales/Rove/Bush Justice Department when he was acquitted on all counts of alleged illegal campaign donations. Geoffrey has two degrees from the University of Michigan (B.A., 1974; M.A.,1976) and received his law degree from the Detroit College of Law-Michigan State University (J.D., 1979). He is a member of the Michigan and Florida Bar Associations.

Ven Johnson was named a partner at Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux in 2001 after working six years at the firm. Since joining the firm in 1995 he has worked on a number of high-profile cases and obtained numerous multimillion-dollar verdicts. He specializes in the areas of civil litigation, product liability, medical malpractice, automobile negligence and police misconduct. Ven earned his undergraduate degree at Kalamazoo College with athletic honors in basketball and tennis. He received his Juris Doctor at the University of Detroit School of Law, served as a law clerk for a sports and entertainment law firm in Detroit, and was an intern to the late Michigan Court of Appeals Judge John Shephard. Ven has also lectured on relevant legal issues for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the National Business Institute and the Straker Bar Association. He has assisted law students with mock trial preparation at the University of Detroit Mercy Law School.

Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux was founded over 50 years ago by Geoffrey’s father, Bernard Fieger, in a small house which still stands as the cornerstone of Fieger Law. Today, FFKJG is a 40,000-square-foot elegant edifice with 60 employees occupying a quarter mile of land in Southfield, Michigan—a near suburb of Detroit. Today, the Fieger Law Firm is the top personal injury firm in the country. People turn to Geoffrey Fieger and the other attorneys at the firm for help when they have been the victims of injustice, medical malpractice or personal injury.

David J. Tigges may be the youngest attorney to lead the McNair Law Firm, but don’t look for an iconoclast in this Hilton Head Island resident.

The real estate, banking and hospitality industry lawyer has a deep reverence for the traditions of the firm, founded in 1971 by the late former Gov. Robert E. McNair. Tigges, 47, is the third partner in the firm to hold the CEO post, after William Youngblood and Wayne Corley, since a reorganization of the firm in 1988 created the position.

“Everyone brings a little different view,” Tigges said. “I would not characterize this as a generational change. The legal community as a whole is undergoing a transformation.”

Tigges said he plans no sweeping changes in the firm’s direction.

“We want to grow when opportunity presents itself,” Tigges said, “but we are not looking to grow just for growth’s sake.”

Much of Tigges’ first six months in the post will be focused on moving the firm’s headquarters from Columbia’s Wilbur Smith Building to a new office tower half a block from the Statehouse on Main Street.

David J. Tigges has been elected managing shareholder/CEO of the McNair Law Firm. He succeeds Bill Youngblood, who had led the 126-lawyer, nine-office firm since 2003.

The firm is the Midlands' third largest. Tigges was with Bethea, Jordan & Griffin in Hilton Head Island when he negotiated the firm's merger with McNair in 2004. Tigges headed two offices in Beaufort County while specializing in business and tax law.

Tigges will spend about three days a week at the firm's Columbia headquarters. The firm will move this summer to the new Main & Gervais office building from the Tower at 1301 Gervais, its home for more than 30 years.