Another Day, Another Round of Pandemic-Driven Big Law Layoffs

The Business & Practice First Move will not publish Sept. 7 in observance of Labor Day. We will resume Sept. 8.

Announcements Thursday of new job cuts at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Nixon Peabody marked the second-straight day that Big Law players laid off employees. More moves may be on the way as economic uncertainty posed by the pandemic lingers and the holiday weekend approaches.

Cuts Continue: Skadden is cutting 4% of its professional staff across the country, while Nixon Peabody is making some temporary furloughs permanent layoffs. The moves follow similar announcements from Baker McKenzie and Davis Wright Tremaine.

Rollbacks, Too: Meanwhile, some firms are rolling back certain pay cuts made early in response to Covid-19.

Meghan Tribe has the story.

DAILY BRIEF

Law Firms

Reed Smith Partner Flies Solo After Two Decades in Big Law
Reed Smith partner Regina Speed-Bost is fulfilling a decades-long dream of opening her own shop in Washington, D.C.

Kelley Drye Latest Firm to Roll Back Some Virus-Related Cuts
Kelley, Drye & Warren is the latest law firm to roll back some of the pay cuts it introduced in the spring to counteract the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Business of Law

Paul Weiss, Wachtell Advise on Roark’s Maintenance Business Buy
Paul Weiss and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz played lead roles in Roark Capital Group’s $1.55 billion acquisition of ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc.'s residential and commercial cleaning and restoration businesses.

Ethics

D.C. Bar Law Firm Ownership Rules May Be In For More Changes
The pandemic hasn’t slowed the District of Columbia Bar committee weighing whether to loosen its law firm ownership rules by giving nonlaywers more prominent roles in legal services operations.

Law School Grads Can’t Skip Florida Bar Exam, Court Says
The Florida Supreme Court shot down a proposal that would allow recent law school graduates to substitute training for taking the bar exam.

Also in the News

EEOC Limits Power to Bring ‘Pattern or Practice’ Bias Claims
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doesn’t have authority to sue employers over sweeping job patterns or practices that allegedly lead to workplace bias without first going through procedural steps laid out by federal law, the agency said in an opinion letter released Thursday.

Follow Bloomberg Law’s global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic on our Coronavirus Outbreak channel, and track the latest changes in the federal court operations with our interactive map.

WAKE-UP CALL

Wake Up Call: Squire Starts Talks to Cut U.K. Staffer Jobs
In today’s column, Skadden Arps laid off about 4% of its U.S. professional staff and Nixon Peabody converted furloughs to permanent layoffs in new moves by firms trying to protect their finances amid the Covid-19 crisis; a Florida firm said it’s getting a big response for its drive-thru services; Arnold & Porter won a $200,000 settlement in which Trump Administration officials admitted to lying in court; and Saint Louis-based Armstrong Teasdale picked up seven attorneys, including four partners, from a closing Kansas City firm.

PRACTITIONER INSIGHTS

INSIGHT: The Family Office as Private Equity Investor
Norton Rose Fulbright attorneys examine the pros and cons of taking the direct private equity plunge, including the potential for great rewards. They predict the trend among the largest family offices will continue toward actively-managed, direct private equity investing.

INSIGHT: Mandatory NCAA Covid Policy for Practice, Competition a Must
Randy Aliment, a partner at Lewis Brisbois, and Dr. Rod Walters, president of Walters Inc.—Consultants in Sports Medicine, discuss the importance for the NCAA to develop, implement, and enforce a uniform Covid-19 policy, including resumption of training and conditioning plans, to ensure the health and safety of student athletes.

INSIGHT: Interoperability and Patient Access Rule Poses HIPAA Issues
The CMS’s interoperability and patient access rule is designed to provide patients more access to their health information, but it also creates additional obligations to notify patients and health plan members of any changes in privacy practices. In Part 2 of a two-part series outlining implementation considerations for the coming interoperability and information blocking laws, Bradley attorneys examine what the CMS rules require, best practices for advancing interoperability secure
ly, and initial steps for health-care organizations and health plans to get started.

WORKFLOWS

Fox Rothschild has named Michael Sweet, a partner in the San Francisco office, as chair of the Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy Department | Cozen O’Connor added eight attorneys as members to its Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring Practice from Fox Rothschild; Brian L. Shaw, Ira Bodenstein, Robert M. Fishman, Peter J. Roberts, David R. Doyle, Allen J. Guon and Mark L. Radtke will reside in Chicago, and Thomas Horan will reside in Wilmington, DE | Eckert Seamans announced that Renée Martin-Nagle, former chief legal officer of Airbus Americas, has joined the Pittsburgh office as special counsel | Covington has appointed Daniel P. Cooper as its new Data Privacy Practice Co-Chair in Brussels | Former WilmerHale partner Yung-Hoon “Sam” Ha has joined patent litigation boutique Desmarais as head of its Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice | Brian Benczkowski, former assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, has rejoined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in the Government, Regulatory and Internal Investigations practice group | Armstrong Teasdale grabbed seven attorneys and 13 staff members from Martin Leigh to the Kansas City and St. Louis, MO offices; they include partners Thomas Fritzlen, Beverly Weber, Amy Ryan and Gregory Todd, and of counsel Melinda Maune, Aaron Othmer and Pamela Putnam | Meyers Nave announced its merger with San Diego-based Brown Law Group.

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