Cozen O’Connor talking merger; two out at Duane Morris

Jeff Blumenthal of Philadelphia Business Journal reports:

“Cozen O’Connor is in merger talks with Chicago-based Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
“Meckler Bulger is a commercial litigation firm with more than 70 lawyers and additional offices in San Francisco and Phoenix, the latter where 575-lawyer Cozen does not have a location. The firm was founded in 1994 by a small group of lawyers from large firms. Its website describes it as one of the 35 largest law firms in Illinois and lists litigation practice areas such as white-collar criminal defense, insurance, labor and employment, commercial litigation and legal fee disputes.
Michael Heller

“Cozen O’Connor President and CEO Michael Heller declined comment when reached Sunday. Meckler Bulger would be a major addition in a key legal market for Cozen, which firm opened a Chicago office in 2000. The site now has 15 lawyers largely focused on domestic and international insurance and reinsurance practices such as product liability and tort defense, first and third-party coverage and subrogation and recovery. So Meckler Bulger would bring a more diverse commercial litigation practice.”
Blumenthal also reports today on two resignations at Duane Morris:
The head of the corporate department at Philadelphia-based Duane Morris has resigned from the firm along with another partner just weeks after they were named in a malpractice lawsuit from a high heel shoe insert inventor.
The Baltimore Business Journal first reported Friday that Baltimore-based George Nemphos Jay Cohen resigned from the high-profile international law firm effective Thursday. Nemphos had been managing partner of Duane Morris’ Baltimore office and chair of the entire firm’s global corporate practice group — its second-largest practice group. Cohen was a partner based in Baltimore.
George Nemphos

and

The two attorneys helped launch Duane Morris’ Baltimore office at the end of 2006, leaving DLA Piper along with two others. Nemphos became chair of the firm’s corporate practice in 2010.
When reached by the Philadelphia Business Journal on Friday, Duane Morris spokesman Joshua Peck would only say Nemphos and Cohen were no longer with the firm and that Chicago-based Brian P. Kerwin was the new head of its corporate practice and Robert Hopkins would become the new managing partner of its Baltimore office.

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Inquirer examines Christie's ‘scaled-back eco-policies’

Gov's office door - Chris Christie - Newsworks photo

Asked by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Maddie Hanna about Gov. Chris Christie’s environmental record, Administration spokesman Kevin Roberts said Christie had
”restored  funding for beach replenishment, opposed offshore drilling, authorized loans for water and sewer projects, and pledged to bar any new coal-fired power plants, among other actions.”

On the other side of the green ledger, environmental groups charge him with withdrawing New Jersey from RGGI, a regional cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions and generate funds for energy conservation and savings, failing to act on climate change, tapping the brakes on the development of offshore wind energy, and failing to restore the Barnegat Bay ecosystem, among other things. Environmentalists accuse Christie of seeking to weaken the DEP, noting s decline in enforcement actions. Penalties collected  have fallen since Christie took office, from more than $13 million a year in 2008 to $4.9 million in 2014. DEP officials counter with the argument that their ‘more persona and proactive approach’ of working directly with  businesses to find a way to approve permits and projects while still safeguarding the environment has resulted in an environmental compliance rate that has climbed from 74.2 percent in 2006 to 81.7 percent in 2004  And so it goes. Like environmental tennis, the serves and returns go back and forth. Read the entire story here.

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Assembly bill gives DEP final say on Meadowlands projects

Liberty State Park – Credit Tripadvisor
The New Jersey State Assembly approved a bill on Thursday (3/26) updating the disputed law overhauling the Meadowlands district by adding language to give final authority of development decisions to the head of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Dustin Racioppi reports for the The Record that:

"The new language is viewed by open-space and environmental advocates as crucial to maintaining control of Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The sprawling park along the Hudson River has long been eyed for development projects, and Governor Christie hired consultants last year to develop plans and attract private interests there.

 
"The original bill – called the Hackensack Meadowlands Agency Consolidation Act – was fast-tracked in the Legislature late last year and signed by Christie last month. It gave development power to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, an organization with no experience running a park, sparking outcry by groups and park advocates who saw the measure as an opening to private development there.
"Language in the new bill says that any plans for Liberty State Park approved by the newly created Meadowlands Regional Commission are subject to one public hearing and the “approval or disapproval by the Commissioner of Environmental Protection.”
 
The bill passed the Assembly by a vote of 55 – 15 and was sent to the Senate where an identical bill is pending.
 
 
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Weidner to split into two separate law schools in DE, PA

In a move that has been in the works since Dean Linda Rod Smola dean of Widener University Delaware Law SchoolAmmons stepped

Rod Smolla will serve as dean of the Widener
University Delaware Law School, in Wilmington

down last spring, Widener University’s application to split its law school into two separate schools has been approved by the American Bar Association,
Jeff Blumenthal reports in Philadelphia Business Journal.

"The law school has long had campuses in Harrisburg, Pa. and Wilmington, Del. They will now operate independently of each other and be led by separate deans, but remain part of the university.
"Rod Smolla will serve as dean of Widener University Delaware Law School, the name for the school in Wilmington. And Christian A. Johnson will be dean of Widener University Commonwealth Law School, the name for the school in Harrisburg.
"The name and status changes will take effect July 1, when both deans begin their tenures. New websites for the schools debuted today at harrisburglaw.widener.edu  and delawarelaw.widener.edu."
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New leadership for NY's largest engineering firm, CHA

Raymond L. Rudolph –  Photo:Donna Abbott-VlahosABR

Engineering firm CHA — based in Albany, New York and one of the largest in the nation — is making leadership changes at the top, including hiring a new president and CEO.

Michael DiMasi reports in Albany Business Review:

"Michael Carroll is succeeding Raymond L. Rudolph as president and CEO.
"Rudolph, who has led the firm since January 2012, was elevated to the position of executive chairman in which he will lead the firm’s corporate and business development activities and serve as chief client officer.
Carroll has 22 years of experience with global, multi-billion dollar engineering and consulting firms, including serving as executive vice president of AECOM and CEO of ARCADIS in the United Kingdom.
"CHA, based in downtown Albany, has grown rapidly in recent years through acquisitions and now has more than 1,000 employees in a dozen offices in the United States and abroad. Billings totaled $253.2 million in 2013."

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Three competing routes to open space funds in NJ


The discussion on how to spend money from an open-space ballot question approved last November is growing more contentious, Tom Johnson writes today in NJ Spotlight.
"The Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee narrowly approved on Thursday its own version of a plan to divvy up the money, but it differs in many ways from a bill now moving through the Senate — as well as from the Christie administration’s proposal in its budget for next year.
"But it’s not just legislators and the administration that are divided on how to split a smaller amount of money (at least $71million a year compared to as much as $200 million in past years); the environmental community also is at odds as to where the funds should be directed.
"The version (A-4206) approved by the Assembly committee provides more money for farmland preservation than has been traditionally allocated, less money for stewardship of public lands for nonprofit groups, and not enough money for capital expenditures at state parks, according to critics"
 
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