LOS ANGELES- 200 members of the Los Angeles legal community are expected to attend the Employment Law Forum, a nonprofit legal education event in Los Angeles.

The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (GLA ALA) will host its Annual Employment Law Forum Saturday, January 23 from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Autry National Center of the American West in Griffith Park, located at 4700 Western Heritage Way in Los Angeles.

The event will offer an annual update on new 2010 employment laws with speaker Laura Petroff, managing partner of Winston & Strawn’s Los Angeles office.

Marsha Petrie Sue, MBA, CSP will present the lunch keynote  “The Reactor Factor: How to Respond Positively to Negative Situations at Work.”

Three breakout sessions following lunch will feature the speakers Marsh Petrie Sue on the topic of how to Decontaminate Toxic People, Fred Griffin, partner of Burke Williams & Sorenson, on the topic of Navigating California Leaves and John LeCrone, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, on the topic of Social Media in the Workplace.

An exhibit hall with over 40 business partners who support the legal industry will be in attendance.

Price to attend for ALA members is $50 for the morning session or $75 for the all day seminar and for non-ALA members is $75 for the morning session and $100 for the all day seminar.

For more information, contact GLA ALA President-Elect Mary McDonnell at mmcdonnell@entertainmentpartners.com. For media requests, contact Jess Block, media relations, at JessBlockPR@gmail.com or at 909.706.8525.

ABOUT GLA ALA:

The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (GLA ALA) is a 385-person nonprofit membership organization that provides educational opportunities, community service, and exchange of information to improve the quality and professionalism of management in legal services organizations. For more information, visit www.glaala.org.

Photos from the GLA ALA Employment Law Forum will be available after the event.

Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding LLP has secured a $350 million arbitration award against Mexico’s national oil company.

King & Spalding represents Commisa, a subsidiary of U.S.-based KBR Inc. Commisa signed an agreement in 1997, with PEP, a subsidiary of Mexico’s national oil company, to build two large offshore natural gas platforms and other structures in the Bay of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico, according to a King & Spalding news release.

Commisa claimed PEP delayed and disrupted the construction and refused to pay for change orders.

The International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce awarded Commisa $350 million in damages, fees, expenses and interest, according to the news release.

King & Spalding partners Robert Meadows in Houston and Charles Correll, Jr. in San Francisco represented Commisa.

Enid Public Schools will be represented by the law firm Rosenstein, Fist & Ringold in a suit filed by the father of a boy who said school officials failed to prevent assaults and harassment against his son.

John Kevin Bradshaw, of Yukon, has named Enid Public Schools, school officials and coaches in the lawsuit seeking more than $40,000 in damages.

Amber Graham Fitzgerald, director of school and community relations, said Rosenstein, Fist & Ringold will represent the district in the lawsuit and those named in the suit who were acting in an official capacity for the district.

“While I cannot comment specifically on this situation, generally EPS employees have the opportunity to be represented by the district’s attorney for claims made while they are fulfilling du-ties in an official school capacity,” she said. “Representation is not provided when a claim is made against them as an individual.”

She said the district does had liability insurance, which addresses this type of situation.

She said school officials could not comment on pending litigation.

Four law firms have been included in this year's Workplace Equality Index compiled by gay rights charity Stonewall.

The index, which ranks the top 100 gay-friendly employers in the UK, included Simmons & Simmons as the highest-ranked law firm in 15th place, up from 31st place last year.

Elsewhere, Pinsent Masons ranks 36th, up from 50 in 2009, Herbert Smith moves from 77th to 56th position and Eversheds has risen to 85th up from 100 last year.

In total, 24 law firms submitted entries to Stonewall this year.

Computing giant IBM topped the rankings for the second time in four years, replacing last year's winner Lloyds TSB.

The process sees companies nominate themselves to participate through an online survey giving evidence of their policies. An anonymous staff survey is then carried out, which this year saw 7,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual participants. The top 20 finalists are then separately audited.

Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill said: "We received more entries than any previous year from employers who understand and have benefited from Stonewall's research which found that gay people are far more likely to buy goods or services from companies they know are gay-friendly."

Last year, law firms chose to buckle down and manage their expenses instead of expanding their businesses with mergers and acquisitions, according to recently released data.

In 2009 there were 53 new law firm mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. That was down 24 percent over 2008’s total, according to a report from legal research firm Altman Weil MergerLine.

About 79 percent of 2009’s deals involved the acquisition of small law firms with 20 or fewer lawyers, per the report.

“This reflects law firms’ cautious approach last year, as most firms spent 2009 focused on internal issues of cost cutting, layoffs, and compensation adjustments in response to the Great Recession,” said Altman Weil principal Ward Bower, in a statement. “But we expect to see an uptick in 2010 as deals currently on hold pending 2009 year-end results are finalized.”

One of the big exceptions to that, which was cited in the report, involved Boston-based Bingham McCutchen, which acquired McKee Nelson, a 120-attorney firm, in August. Another big deal saw K&L Gates, which has a large presence in Boston, acquire Bell Boyd and Lloyd in January.

The biggest deal, per the report, was the merger of the U.K.’s Lovells LLP with Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson. When that deal is ultimately finalized in May of 2010, it will be the second largest law firm merger ever accomplished, forming a 2,500-lawyer firm, according to Altman Weil.

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