TEWKSBURY, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, LLP, a proactive CPA and consulting firm, today
announced it has named as partners Pamela L. Sintros, CPA andJames H. Guarino,
CPA/PFS, CFP, MST.

"Both Pamela and Jim demonstrate tremendous commitment to client success with
professionalism, keen insight and responsiveness," said Carl J. Famiglietti,
Managing Partner at MFA. "We are confident that they will add immense value to
our leadership team with their talent, passion and experience."

Prior to joining MFA, Ms. Sintros spent a combined twelve years in the Assurance
and Business Advisory Services Practice of both Arthur Anderson, LLP and BDO
Seidman, LLP. Pam has extensive experience in the high technology, life
sciences, telecommunications, service and manufacturing industries. MFA clients
rely on Pam for her expertise in the areas of revenue recognition, stock-based
compensation, equity transactions and business combinations.

Prior to MFA, Mr. Guarino spent 19 years with the national CPA firm McGladrey,
where he served as Tax Director and headed up the firm`s wealth management
practice. At MFA, Jim provides strategic tax consulting, financial and business
planning guidance to individuals, family offices and closely held businesses.
Jim`s diverse knowledge as a tax and wealth management advisor has also enabled
him to serve as "Personal CFO" for a number of MFA`s high net worth clients,
orchestrating their various business, estate and tax planning transactions and
coordinating with their other advisors.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Kirkland & Ellis earlier today laid off more than 20 associates in its New York office, according to a person familiar with the matter. Associate layoffs also hit the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

The layoffs came at the end of the firm’s annual associate-review process. Associates deemed to have not been on track to make either equity partner or non-equity partner were asked to leave, the person familiar with the matter said. The numbers of associates asked to leave were higher than last year’s, partly due to the economy and partly due to a lack of attrition experienced by the firm throughout the year.

Kirkland is one of a handful of firms that has weathered the downturn in the economy without making dramatic salary cuts or deferring start-dates. The firm hasn’t instituted layoffs since this time last year. The firm recently made several dozen associates non-equity partners, and gave offers to a significant majority of this year’s summer-associate class.

The Legal Intelligencer reports that now that the firm has finished informing summer associates of their status and has made a firmwide announcement Tuesday morning regarding the decisions, Morgan Lewis & Bockius has provided more concrete numbers when it comes to offer rates.

Firmwide hiring partner Eric Kraeutler said there were 102 eligible 2Ls across the country in this year's summer program. Of that group, 28, or 27.5 percent, were given offers to start as first-year associates in the fall of 2011 -- a year later than would normally be the case given the deferrals of the 2009 first-year class until the fall of 2010.

In Philadelphia, the offer rate was slightly higher with seven of the 23 2Ls, or 30.4 percent, receiving offers. Morgan Lewis' offer rates are lower than some of the other local firms who have given offers. Blank Rome gave offers to about 50 percent of its class. Dechert said it gave offers to more than half of its firmwide class and is holding out on deciding whether to give offers to the rest of the class until after the new year.

According to The American Lawyer, as Tucson, Ariz.-based mining company Asarco nears the end of its four-year bankruptcy odyssey, lead debtors counsel Baker Botts submitted its 12th application for fees on Friday.

The filing put the firm past the $100 million mark in billable hours since Asarco filed for bankruptcy in August 2005 after getting hit with a series of asbestos and environmental pollution suits.

It pales in comparison to the $100 million in fees that Weil, Gotshal & Manges has racked up in just a year's worth of bankruptcy work for Lehman Brothers, but Baker Botts may have more work ahead.

"This is probably the middle of the end, and the end should certainly be in sight," Baker Botts bankruptcy and insolvency Chair Jack Kinzie says. "The final closing argument on the confirmation hearing was today and we expect a ruling from the judge on Monday."

According to The National Law Journal, at least four lawyers and law firms are among the top creditors of Masry & Vititoe, the personal injury law firm of "Erin Brokovich" fame that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 14.

The firm, based in Westlake Village, Calif., said in bankruptcy court papers that it has spent $3 million defending lawsuits filed by the family and estate of former name partner Edward Masry, who died in 2005.

"Not only did a number of litigants come forward alleging that Mr. Masry had promised them certain assets and cash from the firm, additionally, his own estate and heirs instituted claims which have caused the firm to spend its resources, in time and staff, defending such claims," the firm said in an Aug. 24 motion seeking cash collateral in order to keep operating.

According to the American Lawyer, it's complicated, it's happening all the way in Phoenix, and it involves the least popular of the nation's Big Four pro sports leagues, but the Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy case is shaping up to be the year's landmark sports law case. The big question hovering over the entire proceeding: Who ultimately has the authority to decide who can own a team and where that team plays--a professional sports league or a bankruptcy court judge?

The National Hockey League, represented by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, believes such power rests with the league, and it has taken the highly unusual step of submitting its own bid to purchase the Coyotes over a rival bidder who might relocate the franchise to Canada. Though the exact amount of the NHL's bid is undisclosed, it is widely assumed to be far less than the current high bidder--Jim Balsillie, a Canadian businessman and hockey fanatic who has long desired to buy a U.S.-based NHL team and move it to Hamilton, Ontario, about an hour north of Toronto. Balsillie, who owns the company behind the Blackberry, has bid $212.5 million for the Coyotes, an amount that would likely produce the best deal for the Coyotes' creditors. Phoenix-based Lewis & Roca is serving as Balsillie's bankruptcy counsel, but the firm recently retained Dewey & LeBeouf sports law heavyweight Jeffrey Kessler to depose high-ranking NHL officials, court records show.