The National Law Journal reports that Brown Rudnick is shelving deferred start dates for 11 first-year associates, saying it needs to tackle a surge in bankruptcy and litigation work.

Under the plan, first reported by the Boston Business Journal, the firm will have the associates start on Sept. 14 instead of Nov. 30.

The original class included 27 first-years. Three will remain deferred until Nov. 30. Another dozen remain deferred until 2010. One more has taken a job in Singapore, said firm CEO Joe Ryan, who is also a senior partner in the firm's bankruptcy & finance practice group.

"The good news is since we made that decision [to defer] we've become very busy and it certainly looks like that's going to be sustained," Ryan said.

According to The New York Law Journal, seven of Manhattan's elite law firms took the rare step of signing on to a single letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission to voice their opinion on how the agency should implement a proposal to allow shareholders to nominate company directors.

Lawyers involved in drafting the letter, submitted Monday, acknowledge it was rare for one letter to come from all the firms, which included Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

At least four of the firms also sent separate letters addressing concerns with the policy direction the SEC is taking.

According to The American Lawyer, we may have to scan the dockets of the largest bankruptcies in recent US history to see if any of them produced so much legal work as quickly as the Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 has since the bank filed for bankruptcy almost exactly 11 months ago.

To wit: Weil, Gotshal & Manges filed its second application for legal fees and expenses late Monday, and, if approved, the firm will have crossed the $100 million mark in total billings if one includes so-called hold back payments the court will distribute at a later date.

The second application covers four months -- Feb. 1 through May 31-- and it comes just a few days after Judge James Peck of federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan approved Weil's initial request for about $55 million in fees and expenses for the period of Sept. 15, 2008 through January of this year. As the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, that application got the approval of not only Peck, but also a special fee committee headed up by Kenneth Feinberg (the Obama administration's pay czar).

According to their website, 19 Jones Day lawyers are included in Law & Politics magazine's lists of Northern California Super Lawyers and Rising Stars. Those lawyers are listed on their website.

Super Lawyers are the top attorneys in their respective practice areas, selected by their peers and verified by the attorney-led research staff at Law & Politics.

2009 marks the inaugural year for Northern California Rising Stars, who must be 40 years old or younger, or in practice 10 years or fewer. The selection process includes nominations by Northern California Super Lawyers and evaluation by Law & Politics' research department.

The selection of the 2009 Northern California Super Lawyers & Rising Stars is based on surveys of more than 48,500 lawyers across northern California. Each lawyer was given a score based on the number of votes received and the source of those votes.

Law & Politics, a publication of Key Professional Media, Inc., has been publishing legal magazines since 1990 and Super Lawyers since 1991.

According to The American Lawyer, Baker & McKenzie reported Friday that global revenue declined 3 percent to $2.11 billion and profits per partner fell a more significant 17 percent to $992,000 in fiscal year 2009, bringing an end to a four-year period over which the firm experienced consecutive double-digit revenue growth and an 85 percent increase in profits.

While Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie, which generated 66 percent of its fees outside the United States, highlighted the role currency exchange rates played in the falling benchmarks for fiscal year 2009, management admitted the economic downturn negatively impacted the firm's financial performance.

"The financial crisis progressed into an economic recession that has been very challenging for our clients, for all law firms and for us," said John Conroy, chairman of the firm's executive committee. According to Conroy, the impact of the economic downturn has been muted by the firm's proactive efforts, beginning more than eight months ago, to engage clients and adjust to their legal needs. This has included expanding the firm's restructuring practice.

Other practice areas helped hold up the firm's bottom line. Labor and employment, intellectual property and tax remained resilient throughout the downturn, Conroy says.

The Recorder reports that Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has reached into its core for its new chief executive.

The firm announced Tuesday that corporate rainmaker Steven Bochner would be taking over from partner John Roos, who was confirmed as US ambassador to Japan last week. The partnership voted unanimously Monday.

Observers say it's a natural pick.

"The soul of what the firm does is corporate," San Francisco recruiter Gary Davis said. "Steven happens to be one of the more beloved partners, accomplished in his own regard."