The 700-lawyer firm has now named a new head of corporate and a new head of the Baltimore offices - roles filled by George Nemphos until recently. He and fellow corporate partner Jay Cohen left DLA Piper in 2006 to found the Baltimore office of Duane Morris.

Bankruptcy

The suit has been filed by Angela Singleton, a business client and inventor of an insert into high heel shoes. She claims that the two told her, in 2010, to start paying her monthly Duane Morris $6,500 retainer to a company called Smeyne Ross. Smeyne and Ross are the maiden names of the wives of Messrs Nemphos and Cohen. She also claims that her business went downhill and into bankruptcy in 2014 after the two lawyers advised her to transfer her intellectual property rights into vehicles through which her control was watered down. She claims that Smeyne Ross also took a three per cent share in her company without making any payment for it. Source: ABA