Wake Up Call: Baker McKenzie Raises Junior Lawyers’ Pay in UK

In today’s column, another federal court ruled that Covid-19 shutdowns are not “business interruptions” under insurance coverage; UK firm Simmons & Simmons’ per-lawyer profits topped 1 million pounds for the first time; and a Florida firm says it’s gotten some “nice paychecks” since accepting bitcoin as payment.

• Leading off, Baker McKenzie bumped its UK junior lawyers’ pay up by 5,000 pounds to 110,000 pounds ($131,138), in the latest example of London firms taking different approaches to legal talent as demand eases. Some firms, like Akin Gump, have offered bigger raises. Others, like Allen & Overy and Linklaters, have kept salaries flat. (Financial Times)
• Meanwhile, some UK law firms have also given staff cost-of-living raises. (Bloomberg News)
• Average profits per equity partner rose 2% at London-based Big Law firm Simmons & Simmons in fiscal 2021 to top 1 million pounds ($1.1 million) for the first time. (The Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A Massachusetts federal court, citing guidance in federal and state appeals courts, found that Covid-19 shutdown orders do not qualify as a “direct and physical loss to property” in a business interruption insurance policy. (Law.com)
• Dentons’ Gibson Dunn counsel told a California appeals court that a recent US Supreme Court decision should scuttle the legal argument of a former partner in a fight over a big contingency fee. (Reuters)
• A Pennsylvania attorney’s fight with his former firm over an $11 million legal fee is going to a county courtroom. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Seyfarth Shaw grabbed three government contracts attorneys from K&L Gates in Washington, led by partner Amy C. Hoang, who will be co-chair of Seyfarth’s national government contracts practice group. Also making the move are counsel Erica Bakies and associate Sarah Burgar. (Seyfarth.com)
• Goodwin hired corporate attorney Michele Maney, a former partner at Venable and Baker McKenzie, as partner in New York in its technology M&A practice; Thompson Hine snagged Dentons international tax partner Andrea Sharetta as a partner in New York. Litigation boutique Holwell Shuster & Goldberg said Priyanka Timblo, a former associate at the firm and recently counsel and investment manager at litigation finance firm Omni Bridgeway, rejoined as partner; Herrick Feinstein picked up longtime Kelley Drye & Warren trust and estates lawyers Carolyn Caufield and Christina Mason as partners in New York. Caufield will serve as chair of Herrick’s private client practice. (Herrick.com)
• DLA Piper added two white collar litigators in Puerto Rico. Former deputy white collar crime chief in the local US Attorney’s office Nereida Melendez-Rivera and former assistant US Attorney Sonia Torres-Pabon joined as partners in San Juan; Brown Rudnick recruited London-based corporate lawyer James Douglass as partner and co-chair of its global energy transition practice group. He was recently a partner at K&L Gates; Carlton Fields hired former Williams & Connolly litigator Ben Stoll in Washington as of counsel; Fox Rothschild hired wealth and tax-planning professional Adon J. Solomon in Atlanta as a partner; Eversheds Sutherland announced that Alston & Bird corporate partner Chris Rosselli joined it as counsel in Atlanta.
• Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough named Atlanta litigation partner Elisa Kodish to serve as its national pro bono partner; Lowenstein Sandler promoted its director of diversity, equity and inclusion, J. Danielle Carr, to chief officer of inclusion; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer appointed Paris-based employment law partner Gwen Senlanne as its new global head of its people & reward practice group, replacing Hamburg, Germany-based partner Boris Dzida, who will focus on his employment law practice. (Freshfields.com)
• Sullivan & Worcester elected capital markets lawyer Shu Wei to partner in Boston; Herndon, Virginia-based government services contractor Valiant Integrated Services hired tech industry in-house leader Sarah Lynn as general counsel and secretary. She was vice president and deputy GC for compliance at tech company Peraton. (OneValiant.com)

Technology

• A South Florida law firm said client requests motivated it to accept cryptocurrency as payment. (Daily Business Review)