We snapped Joe showing us his hundred year-old firm’s founding partners, one of whom, Vorys, was the chief architect of Taft’s presidential campaign. Nowadays, Joe’s firm serves as counsel to some of the Midwest’s largest companies, including Goodyear, The Limited Brands (Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body), Bob Evans, Scott’s Miracle Grow, and Abercrombie & Fitch. Between Vorys' new digs and the Hoyas' dramatic weekend comeback against rival UConn, 2010 is already shaping up to be Joe's kinda year.

We sat next to Miller & Chevalier exec director Pamela Bernstein and her husband David Saturday night at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, where we watched a legendary investigative journalist (Bob Woodward) interview an iconic actor (Ralph Fiennes) about how films like Schindler’s List inform our understanding of evil. Pamela tells us her 100-lawyer firm’s non-leveraged staffing model contributed to a better-than-expected 2009, and that prioritizing client service and efficiency over profit-maximization has helped her firm weather the recession.   

We caught up with Ray Mullady just before his office welcome party Friday at Blank Rome’s top-floor Watergate complex; he joined the firm’s litigation practice as partner. Formerly the head of Orrick’s DC litigation team, Ray tells us he’s looking forward to working on “bet-the-company” life sciences and product liability cases and that the firm’s geography and client roster make that possible. He thinks there will be more litigation activity in 2010, as the plaintiff’s bar gets more access to capital, especially mass torts relating to US-made products with sub-standard foreign components.