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Kathleen Brown, who has a long track record in financial services and government and once resigned from the Countrywide Financial board, will advise banking and other companies as a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles.
September 16 -
Paul Aguggia is resigning from a large law firm to take the helm at Clifton Savings Bancorp in New Jersey, joining the company in advance of an anticipated second-step conversion.
September 5
One of the top law firms in bank M&A is doing some merging of its own.
Stinson Morrison Hecker in Kansas City, Mo., announced Monday it would join forces with Leonard, Street and Deinhard, in Minneapolis. The combined firm will have 525 attorneys in 14 cities and is expected to be the 75th largest law firm in the country, the two sides said. It will operate as Stinson Leonard Street beginning on Jan. 1.
Both firms count financial institutions M&A among their specialties. SNL Financial ranked Stinson as the top legal advisor by number of whole-bank deals (14) last year. A midsummer report from SNL
Meanwhile, Leonard produces a blog devoted to the Dodd-Frank Act and even managed to snag the web address
The firms said in a press release that the merger will give them "substantial coverage of the Midwest, a meaningful presence in the Mountain West and Southwest, and an office in Washington, D.C."
Mark Hinderks, the current managing partner of Stinson, and Lowell Stortz, the current president of Leonard, will serve as co-managing partners of the combined firm. Allison Murdock, the current deputy managing partner of Stinson, will retain her title.
