Wake Up Call: Big Firms Join Effort to Help Ukrainians in U.S.

In today’s column, some law firms are using clawback clauses to discourage partners from leaving; Covington, Orrick, and Munger Tolles posted double-digit revenue and profit gains for 2021; FTI Consulting hired from UnitedLex and PwC to co-lead legal operations.

• Leading off, close to 2,000 lawyers at more than 100 law firms and companies are contributing to a pro bono effort to help Ukrainians living in the United States remain in the country. The effort, organized by Kirkland & Ellis and the non-profit Lawyers for Good Government, has several other Big Law firms participating. (Reuters) Ukraine hired Quinn Emanuel as counsel at the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of Human Rights in the country’s complaint about Russia’s invasion. (The Lawyer)
• As the war for legal talent flames on, some Big Law firms are using clawback clauses in partner agreements and other measures to try to keep partners from leaving. (The American Lawyer)
• New York Law School launched a revamped evening division it says aims to address needs of working professionals post-pandemic. (NYLS.edu) The American Bar Association is a planning a three-day, in-person malpractice conference in Austin, Texas, in April. (AmericanBar.org)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Covington & Burling credits its diverse practice mix and “collaborative business model” for its more than tenfold growth in 25 years. The Washington-founded firm posted revenues up 14% to $1.5 billion in 2021. Its average profits per equity partner jumped 21% to about $2.3 million. (National Law Journal) Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe had a “stellar year” in 2021, with revenues rising 14.2% to about $1.32 billion on the strength of its work for tech, energy and infrastructure, and finance sector clients. The San Francisco-headquartered firm’s average PEP soared 21.8% to $3.07 million. (The Recorder)
• High demand for crisis litigation helped Munger, Tolles & Olson’s revenues rebound from a down year to rise 13.5% to a record $321.6 million in 2021. Its average PEP galloped 18.2% to about $2.1 million, also a record. (The Recorder)
• Douglas Development, a Washington-area real estate development firm, said Barnes & Thornburg, Greenberg Traurig, and Labaton Sucharow are the latest Big Law firms to sign leases for its 18-story office development in PNC Bank Center in Wilmington, DE. ( DouglasDevelopment.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Schulte Roth & Zabel grabbed Dentons finance & derivatives partner Martin Sharkey in London; Davis Wright Tremaine picked up Katten Muchin antitrust, competition, and commercial litigation attorney Yonaton “Yoni” Rosenzweig as a partner in Los Angeles; Quarles & Brady got veteran commercial real estate attorney Jerry Morgan as a partner in Phoenix; Jones Walker said maritime attorney Kassandra “Kassie” Doyle Taylor joined its Miami office as special counsel and a member of its maritime litigation, arbitration, and dispute resolution team; alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS recruited retired California U.S. magistrate judge and L.A. Superior Court judge Anne Jones to its Los Angeles panel; JAMS also said retired Minnesota district court judge Jerome Abrams, who earlier spent 27 years as a trial lawyer, joined its Minneapolis panel. (JAMSADR.com)
• FTI Consulting hired two legal operations and technology focused attorneys as senior managing directors in the firm’s technology segment and co-leaders of its corporate legal operations practice. Meredith Brown joins from UnitedLex, where she was senior vice president and legal ops and compliance leader. Wafik Guirgis joins from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was managing director in legal business solutions; tech industry industry in-house leader Alissa Kaplan, a former Cleary capital markets and securities attorney, took a job as general counsel at Accruent, an Austin, Texas-based provider of resource-management software. Kaplan was most recently global deputy GC at LivePerson, Inc., an artificial intelligence-powered conversational cloud for marketing; Cambridge, Mass.-based Biotech company Surface Oncology hired veteran biopharma and medical industry in-house leader Theresa Boni as general counsel and senior vice president. (SurfaceOncology.com) French banking giant BNP Paribas booted its London head of legal, accused of using insulting nicknames for co-workers. (Above The Law)

Technology

• U.K.-based Apperio said it updated its legal spend analytics and matter-management platform; law firms’ interest in social media auditing is increasing. (Legaltech News)