Leading Questions: Bryan Cave’s Wesley Fields Works It Out

Wesley Fields, the office managing partner for Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Kansas City, Mo., has been balancing his roles as a lawyer and a dad in the age of work from home. He spoke to Bloomberg Law in the latest edition of Leading Questions.

Client Needs: Fields, who focuses on corporate transactions and public finance, has seen the “entire gamut” of issues come up in his practice since the pandemic began. To keep his cool during this busy time, he’s relied on a solid routine and plenty of exercise. It helps as during the school year he also doubled as a seventh-grade teacher in quarantine to his daughter.

Dad Duty: Fields recalls one instance when his daughter’s homework deadline overlapped with a long and complicated work conference call. “She kept coming into my office to determine when my call would conclude,” he said. “Eventually, she made poster signs with algebra problems to get my attention that were followed with the question: ‘Is this right Dad…I kind of need to know.’” Mary Ellen Egan has the story.

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DAILY BRIEF

Law Firms

Jones Day Women Get Nationwide 2012–18 Pay, Performance Data
Jones Day must provide six female lawyers suing for alleged nationwide sex discrimination in pay and other decision-making with data concerning all associates who worked in any of its U.S. offices between 2012 and 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in an oral ruling Thursday.

In-House

Misfits Market Snags Warby Parker Lawyer
A subscription box company selling “ugly” fruits and vegetables hired its first in-house counsel from online glasses retailer Warby Parker as food delivery surges due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Business of Law

Willkie, Simpson Thacher Advise KKR on $4 Billion Insurer Deal
Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised KKR & Co. on its agreement to buy insurer Global Atlantic Financial Group in a deal that would more than double the alternative-investment manager’s position in the $30 trillion insurance market, according to the firms.

Ethics

Suspension for New York Lawyer Who Had Affair With Client
A New York lawyer who began a sexual relationship with a client after she hired him for a domestic relations matter was suspended for 18 months by a state appeals court.

Judiciary

Public Defenders Rebuke N.Y. Courts Return to In-Person Work
New York courts should delay requiring in-person proceedings, six public defender groups said in a letter to the state’s top administrative judge.

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

Dentons Delays Opening of Dublin Office, Citing Covid
In today’s column, some Georgia courthouses are shutting down again after judges and employees tested positive for Covid-19; Pennsylvania and Kentucky are the latest jurisdictions to replace in-person bar exams with online tests because of the pandemic; despite Hong Kong’s political unrest, it was still Asia’s top lateral market last year; a former Big Law associate’s Turbo Tax-like tool is helping young immigrants with filings needed to avoid deportation; Cleary advised Sony on a $250 million investment into Epic Games.

PRACTITIONER INSIGHTS

INSIGHT: The SEC Survives Liu, but the FTC Is on Deck
The Federal Trade Commission has been a keen observer of the Liu v. SEC Supreme Court case, with former FTC officials filing an amicus brief against the curtailment of its enforcement authority. Sullivan & Cromwell attorneys say the FTC may expect this decision to have a profound impact on what it described as “one of its most important and effective enforcement tools”—restitution and disgorgement.

INSIGHT: Limits on Appeals From the PTAB After Thryv
Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein LLP attorneys examine how the Supreme Court’s Thryv decision, which held that time-bar determinations by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board are not reviewable by appellate courts, is being applied by the Federal Circuit and what issues have been left open.

INSIGHT: 13 Steps for Protecting Trade Secrets During Remote Work
Having a remote workforce means companies need to safeguard their trade secrets from risks from increased use of personal devices and unsecured networks, overloaded company systems, and unknowns in the home environment. Amy Candido, partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, outlines steps companies may use to demonstrate they are taking “reasonable measures” to protect trade secrets.

INSIGHT: Tech and Black Lives—Firms Can Mitigate Discrimination in Tech
Tech companies that want to lead the Black Lives Matter movement should look beyond the standard company responses and proactively identify and seek to mitigate any unintentional disparate impact that their technologies may have on the basis of race, color, or another protected characteristic, Orrick attorneys say.

INSIGHT: BigLaw Diversity—Career Support During the Pandemic
Women and people of color consistently report more difficulty gaining access to the type of mentorship and sponsorship that can enhance their careers. In the second part of a two-part series, Russell M. Franklin, partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, examines how BigLaw can improve on diversity and inclusion efforts, even amid remote work and the pandemic.

WORKFLOWS

Dentons hired partners Thomas Dörmer and Tim Heitling, associate Annekathrin Markert, and counsel Daniel Neudecker in Berlin from Baker McKenzie | Mintz said that communications law attorneys Scott Thompson and Daniel Reing joined the TechComm section as members in Washington from Davis Wright Tremaine; Thompson will chair the section’s communications infrastructure litigation practice | McDermott Will & Emery added a five-lawyer group from Katten to its Restructuring and Insolvency practice in Dallas, led by partner Charles “Chuck” Gibbs; counsels Mark Patterson and Eric Seitz and associates Jane Gerber and Shelby Perry also join | Michael Best announced that healthcare executives Tamara Quiram, Kimberly Allen and Chase Braden have all joined Michael Best Strategies’ Business and Community Solutions team | Bryan Cave’s Frankfurt, Germany office hired Dr. Julia Schweitzer as a partner who will lead BCLP’s Employment Law Practice in Germany (from JUSTEM Rechtsanwälte), and Janine Weber, who will join as an associate effective Aug. 1 | Kramer Levin added partner Alexandre Omaggio to the Corporate department in Paris from FTPA. He was previously at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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