Dallas law firm  Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, LLP is expanding its corporate transactions and corporate securities practice with the addition of attorney  Henry Exall IV. Exall joins the firm with more than two decades of corporate and legal experience. He will assist clients with corporate transactions and negotiations, as well as matters involving financial and operational issues. Mr. Exall previously worked as a managing director at a merchant banking corporation where he was responsible for all in-house legal matters, including contracting, capital raising and corporate structuring.

Many industry watchers expect corporate trasactions and securities cases to be legal industry bright spots in 2010. Law 360, among many others, reports an expected uptick in litigation in the coming year:
With U.S. stocks rising and jobless claims down, legal industry experts are cautiously optimistic that a return to normal levels of business activity will translate to a modest increase in litigation spending after more than a 10 percent dip in 2009.
"Our research shows that litigation spending is going to go up only slightly," said Michael B. Rynowecer, president of BTI Consulting Group Inc. "That's good news, because it was down last year."
Overall, spending on corporate litigation could increase by about 2.3 percent this year, according to data on corporate litigation spending compiled in BTI's Premium Practices Forecast 2010, and litigation attorneys would welcome such results.