Lorie Almon and Blake Hornick Quoted in the Law360
"Nervous Lawyers See Opportunities In Crisis"

Lorie Almon and Blake Hornick were quoted in the September 29, 2008 editions of Law360 publications in the article, "Nervous Lawyers See Opportunities In Crisis." The article, published in all of the group's publications, highlighted attorneys across various firms and specialties to gauge their opinion of the financial crisis from a legal perspective. 

According to Blake: "The current credit and financial crisis will affect the legal world in many ways, some of which cannot be completely foreseen. Clients will be placing a greater emphasis on due diligence, traditional lending documentation and processes and taking the necessary time to perform the legal job properly. Complicated structured securitized instruments will remain in disfavor for many years. The public markets and traditional middle market M&A work will remain slow until confidence in the capital markets is restored."

While Lorie noted that "Looking back, there is a pattern of people turning more frequently to litigation during tumultuous periods in our nation's history. The crisis on Wall Street has made many people understandably insecure about their employment situations. It seems likely that an increasing number of people will question the legality of their employers' practices, sometimes because of legitimate concerns and sometimes because they feel that they have little to lose. It is reasonable to predict that the shakeout on Wall Street will have a far reaching impact, and that layoffs are bound to follow around the nation. While many people may initially seek legal counsel for purposes of reviewing separation agreements following group layoffs, it is almost inevitable that some will walk out of their attorneys' offices with the plan of challenging the employer's pay practices and employment policies on a classwide basis.