Friday, April 13, 2007 6:34 AM
Mark Herrmann at Jones Day and James Beck at Dechert may work at competitive law firms, but they saw no reason for that to stand in the way of collaborating to write Drug and Device Law.
As Mr. Herrmann suggested to me in a recent email, the blawgospohere contains many blawgs co-hosted by scholars at different law schools and fewer that are co-hosted by sole practitioners, both of which do not appear to be collaborations between direct competitors. There have also been collaborative efforts such as Between Lawyers, where five attorneys, ranging from solos to mid-size law firm counsel have joined together. Again, however, the lawyers participating in these joint efforts do not appear to work for law firms which are likely to be pitching the same clients.
With large firms like Jones Day and Dechert, it becomes difficult to reach the same conclusion. Jones Day has over 2200 lawyers worldwide, while Dechert fields 1000 across 17 offices. The two firms cover many the same cities, regions and countries in serving and seeking clients. The chances of these two firms pitching the same client somewhere is very likely, and probably happens on a regular basis.
I don't recall seeing another blawg co-authored by lawyers at direct competitors (if you know of one, please email me), but the idea is an interesting one. I will be watching to see if this is start of a growing trend or a simply a unique relationship.
If you would like to see for yourself, stop by Drug and Device Law; here are a couple recent posts to give you a flavor of the topics covered:
ALI Draft Would Abolish "Reasonable Degree of Professional Certainty" Requirement
Filing Fees Due After Severance For Misjoinder
Good stuff.