In recent months a number of US firms have been positioning themselves in anticipation of a potential fusillade of class actions across the Atlantic.

The first example came earlier this month, when DC-based plaintiffs firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll held a launch party for its long-awaited London outpost after starting operations there in May.

Small exodus hits Kirkland's LA office
Despite the firm-wide increase in head count, revenue and profits, Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis's LA office saw the number of lawyers reduced from 115 to about 90 attorneys.

Some of its leading lawyers chose to slow down, and about 20 attorneys - half of them partners - have left the LA office over the last half year, some for top competitors.

The flux leaves the LA office with roughly an equal number of partners and associates, according to the firm's website - an aberration for 1,300-lawyer Kirkland, where associates usually outnumber partners. The firm's 80-lawyer San Francisco office has around 30 partners.

Dewey continues hiring spree
New York-headquartered Dewey Ballantine has continued its hiring spree by taking on a new head of IP litigation and two partners from Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi.

Dewey has now hired 24 new partners since March. The firm has been hiring both in the US and in Europe since merger talks with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe broke down in January. The new hires mitigate the 10 partners who resigned ahead of the proposed merger.

The three new partners will join Dewey's 60-lawyer Washington DC office. Dirk Thomas will now head the firm's global IP litigation practice, while his Robins Kaplan colleagues Robert Auchter and Kenneth Freeling will join Dewey as partners.

Ballard Spahr chairman joins Morgan Lewis
Just a few months after losing white-collar rainmaker Michael Holston to client Hewlett-Packard, Morgan Lewis & Bockius is bringing on another major player in the white-collar defense bar.

Eric Sitarchuk, chairman of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll's white-collar litigation group, joined Morgan Lewis on Monday.

Prior to joining Ballard Spahr in 1996, Sitarchuk was an Assistant US Attorney in Philadelphia and a special Assistant US Attorney in Washington, DC.