Three years after opening up an office in Chicago, Fox Rothschild is doubling its presence in the Windy City through the acquisition of Shaw Fishman Glantz & Towbin, the American Lawyer reported. Philadelphia-based Fox Rothschild could already boast 18 attorneys in Chicago, up from four when it announced the office in April 2015. But according to chairman Mark Silow, the size of the Chicago legal market demanded that the firm expand further. The 23 Shaw Fishman attorneys will officially link up with Fox Rothschild on June 11. That tally also includes two bankruptcy lawyers in Wilmington, Delaware, who will also be part of the merger. Shaw Fishman, founded in 1988, is focused on bankruptcy, commercial litigation and real estate. Silow said the bankruptcy practices of the two firms were especially compatible. While the two firms will consolidate their Wilmington operations, they will initially continue to operate two separate Chicago offices for the next nine or 10 months, until Shaw Fishman’s lease expires. Shaw Fishman name partner Robert Fishman called Fox Rothschild a “superb fit.”
As Relativity Media LLC presses forward with its second bankruptcy in as many years, a government watchdog has asked a judge to bring the Hollywood studio’s first chaotic chapter 11 case to a close, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. During a hearing yesterday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, Relativity won continued access to financing critical to advancing its latest bankruptcy, but future hearings are likely to present the company with a long list of challenges. In an objection filed on Friday, a lawyer for U.S. Trustee William Harrington, the government watchdog, asked Judge Michael Wiles either to convert Relativity’s first bankruptcy to a chapter 7 liquidation or to dismiss the case entirely. Relativity has “materially defaulted” on the terms of its first chapter 11 plan and “unequivocally repudiated their commitment to pay claims,” the lawyer, Greg Zipes, said in court papers. A hearing on the matter is set for June 28.
