Baker McKenzie’s Colin Murray Gets It All Done Working From Home

Baker McKenzie’s North America CEO Colin Murray has had a lot to juggle during lockdown at home with his wife, two teenagers, and three rescue dogs. He told Bloomberg Law how he gets it all done in the latest edition of Leading Questions.

Drawn Out: Murray said his days working from home have been filled with consecutive virtual meetings, though he also sets aside time to ponder bigger questions about the firm and its work, drawing “sketches” of complex issues to better think them through. He’s also enjoying family dinner, tinkering in the garden with a beer in hand, and a workout routine—albeit one that’s needed some modifications.

Diving In: “I exercise every day and love to swim,” said Murray, “But with the closing of athletic facilities including swimming pools, I have to be creative which includes swimming in the San Francisco Bay. I haven’t seen any sharks yet, but I know they’re out there….”

Mary Ellen Egan has the story.

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DAILY BRIEF

Law Firms

Ice Cube’s Basketball League Says Quinn Emanuel Spied for Qatar
Ice Cube’s Big3 Basketball league has sued Quinn Emanuel in New York state court alleging the law firm acted as a “spy” for Qatar’s business interests while representing the nascent league in a dispute with a former executive.

Morrison & Foerster Adds Another Freshfields Partner in New York
Morrison & Foerster has hired Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity and M&A lawyer Omar Pringle in New York, on the heels of Freshfields former U.S. deal leader Mitchell Presser’s arrival at MoFo earlier this year.

Cooley Life Sciences Corporate Partner Jumps to Sidley
California corporate attorney Frank Rahmani has jumped from his longtime home at Cooley to Sidley Austin to join the 2,000-lawyer firm’s corporate and global life sciences practices.

In-House

‘Star Wars’ Lawyer Transcends Sci-Fi to Join Real SpaceX Launch
A lawyer who helped move imaginary spacecraft across the universe is now part of the executive team at Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. that hopes to put a pair of real NASA astronauts in orbit.

Business of Law

NY Bar Reports Tiny Increase in Women Leading Court Arguments
Women have made only minute progress since 2017 in winning the coveted lead role in legal matters in courtrooms across New York State, according to a new report by the state bar.

California Says OK to Counsel Clients on State Marijuana Laws
California, the nation’s largest bar and the world’s largest cannabis market, is now giving guidance to attorneys who advise marijuana businesses on how to represent their clients and protect their licenses. The combined influence of having the most lawyers and the greatest market could easily make the state’s decision influential elsewhere.

Jim Beam’s Pucker Vodka Trademark Win Affirmed by Ninth Circuit
Jim Beam Brands Co.'s win against a company that accused it of infringing trademarks by using a similar pair of lips to advertise vodka was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit in an unpublished opinion.

Ethics

Lawyer Suspended for Plotting to Help Woman Avoid Testifying
An Ohio lawyer found to have taken cash as part of a plan to help a woman leave town so she wouldn’t have to testify against one of his clients was indefinitely suspended by the state’s highest court.

Judiciary

Graham Asks Older Appellate Judges to Make Room for Younger Ones
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham called on older appeals court judges to step aside and make room for younger nominees, applying new pressure to get more conservatives into the confirmation pipeline in the final months of President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

U.S. Court in Seattle May Not Hold Jury Trials Until 2021
The federal court covering Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., is not likely to hold criminal jury trials until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a judge said in citing an inability to keep trials socially distant and the potential difficulty of assembling a jury.

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

Covid Slows Lateral Market but ‘Unicorns’ Still in Demand
In today’s column, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced remote-working lawyers to get creative in ways to stay in touch with clients; Asian American enrollment in law school fell 28% in the decade through 2019, a study says; a $2.4 million fee win by a Florida plaintiffs lawyer is inspiring other lawyers battling tobacco giants; at least two law schools have started virtual programs to replace Big Law summer associate programs canceled or curtailed because of the virus; Twitter upped the ante in its labeling fight with President Trump.

PRACTITIONER INSIGHTS

INSIGHT: ‘Bridgegate’ Decision Impact ‘Varsity Blues’ Prosecutions
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the ‘Bridgegate’ case, which significantly narrows the scope of all mail and wire fraud charges, has the potential to impact the current prosecutions in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, writes Steven D. Gordon, a partner at Holland & Knight. He says the case should discourage prosecutors from bringing charges where the property interests at stake is only a minor part of an alleged fraudulent scheme.

INSIGHT: Covid-19 Pandemic Highlights the Need for Privacy Legislation
The Covid-19 pandemic and the use of big data to track, understand, research, and identify impacted areas highlight why a federal privacy law is essential, writes Paula Bruening, founder of Casentino Strategies LLC and former global director of privacy policy at Intel. It must hold companies accountable for decisions they make about the processing of big data for research.

INSIGHT: Out-of-Court Restructuring Alternatives for Distressed Bonds
Companies are facing an unprecedented rate of downgrades in the bond markets during the pandemic. Proskauer attorneys look at liability management tools companies may use to restructure distressed bonds out of court, including the repurchasing of bonds on the open market, consent solicitations, and debt exchange offers.

INSIGHT: Customedia Decision Yields Lessons for Software-Aided Patents
A recent decision by the Federal Circuit involving the patentability of computer-implemented inventions provides several valuable lessons to patent owners of the inventions, and conversely to third parties seeking to challenge the patents, writes Steven H. Slater, of Slater Matsil.

INSIGHT: The Lawyer’s Role in Protecting Cybersecurity in the Courts
Courts are turning to remote hearings and technology to continue working on cases, and lawyers need to embrace their role in protecting the courts from cybersecurity breaches and upholding the rule of law. Houston-based attorney Rachel V. Rose, who specializes in cybersecurity and teaches bioethics at Baylor College of Medicine, looks at the duties of lawyers and offers ideas for conducting safe video meetings.

WORKFLOWS

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Washington office poached Williams & Connolly patent litigation co-chair Kevin Hardy | Morrison & Foerster hired Omar Pringle as a partner in its Mergers + Acquisitions and Private Equity Investments + Buyouts practices in New York | Sidley Austin added Frank Rahmani as a partner in its Corporate practice and Global Life Sciences practice in Palo Alto, CA from Cooley.

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