Wake Up Call: 2 Boutiques Led by Women Outdo Cravath on Year-end Bonuses

• Two boutiques founded by former Paul Ewing partners, Washington-based Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz and New York-based Kaplan Hecker & Fink, announced year-end associate bonuses that top the scale that Cravath, Swaine & Moore announced earlier this week. Beth Wilkinson and Alexandra Walsh started their firm, with former Munger partner Sean Eskovitz, in 2016. Roberta Kaplan started her firm on leaving Paul Weiss after 25 years in 2017. (American Lawyer) (Above The Law)

• New York-based Milbank said it will match Cravath’s bonus scale, as did commercial litigation boutique Holwell Shuster & Goldberg. The Cravath scale ranges from first-year associates getting $15,000 to class-of-2010 senior associates getting $100,000. (Above The Law)

• Trump Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker earned $900,000 (the Washington Post has it at $1.2 million) from his role as executive director of a right-wing nonprofit, according to his disclosure form released yesterday. Whitaker also reported getting $15,000 from CNN for media appearances and consulting fees and $1,875 in legal fees from a Florida company that U.S. regulators have accused of bilking consumers out of millions of dollars. (Bloomberg via BLB)

• Shearman & Sterling is advising medical device company Boston Scientific in its acquisition of London-based BTG Plc for 3.3 billion pounds ($4.2 billion), with Allen & Overy advising BTG, according to reports. (The Lawyer) (Bloomberg) (Vascular News)

• DLA Piper is advising INEOS Enterprises, a London-based manufacturer of chemicals and oil products, in its proposed $1.1 billion acquisition of Kentucky-based Ashland Global Holdings’ composites business. Squire Patton Boggs advised Ashland. (Plastics News) (Chemicals Technology) (DLAPiper.com)

• Willkie advised New York-based financial services firm Cowen in its acquisition, for $75 million up front plus $40 million in “contingent consideration” payments for performance, of Quarton International, a global financial advisory company that has North American headquarters in Birmingham, Michigan. Debevoise & Plimpton advised Quarton International. (Crain’s Detroit Business) (Cowen.com)

• Mayer Brown promoted 34 lawyers to partner, including 14 women. It promoted 16 lawyers to counsel, including nine women. (MayerBrown.com)

• There’s an interesting plot twist to this week’s bust in Tokyo of auto industry leader Carlos Ghosn for alleged financial improprieties. The Financial Times reports that Ghosn, who is CEO of Renault and chairman of Nissan, was planning to merge the two companies. The Japanese carmaker board strongly objected to the plan and was looking for ways to block it, and so had Ghosn investigated. (Financial Times)

• The Department of Education kept secret a 2017 audit that found questionable practices at controversial student loan servicing company Navient, even as that company faced federal and state lawsuits that accuse it of boosting profits by steering borrowers into high-cost payment plans, the AP reports. (Associated Press)

Lawyers, Law Firms, Laterals

• Chicago-based firm Neal Gerber Eisenberg said IP litigator Ian J. Block joined the firm as a partner in its intellectual property practice group. Block arrives from Kirkland & Ellis, where he was a partner. (NGE.com)

• Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr said veteran patent attorneys N. Scott Pierce and Mary K. Murray joined the firm as partners in Boston in its IP and life sciences practices. Both arrive from IP law firm Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C., based in Concord, Massachusetts. (Saul.com)

• Offshore law firm Appleby said it promoted finance, banking, and insolvency attorney Gemma Whale to senior associate in its corporate practice, in the firm’s office on the British Channel island of Jersey. (ApplebyGlobal.com)

• Barnes & Thornburg said IP and trademark attorney Bradley Walz joined the firm’s corporate department as a partner in Minneapolis. He was previously a shareholder at Winthrop & Weinstine. (BTLaw.com)

• Seyfarth Shaw announced an employee well-being initiative, called “The Inspiration Project,” under which it will pick two partners, two non-partner attorneys, and two professional staff members to receive $4,000 scholarships to pursue projects focused on health, wellness, lifelong learning, or community impact. Scholarship recipients, to be announced in early 2019, will share photos, videos, stories, and testimonials from projects as they’re completed, the firm said. (Seyfarth.com)

Legal Actions

• A challenge by Paul Hastings-clients Google and LG Electronics Inc. to a mobile device location information service patent must go back to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a federal appeals court ruled. Ascenda Law Group PC represented Conversant Wireless. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• Another appeals court ruled that a jury must decide whether greeting card company Drape Creative Inc. unlawfully infringed on a trademarked phrase from Christopher Gordon’s Honey Badger comedy videos. Sedgwick represent Drape Creative. Krane & Smith represent Gordon. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• TechnologyPerkins Coie discovery attorney Simon Joassin, based in Chicago, takes a look at the lawyers and other pros who do the work that powers the e-discovery market. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Molly Ward.