Wake Up Call: Big Law Advises in Intuit, Credit Karma Deals

In today’s column, several more law firms matched the Cravath standard for year-end bonuses; a new study advises law firms to avoid diversity programs that suggest female lawyers require special treatment; three Big Law firms are advising on ViacomCBS’s $2.175 billion sale of publishing business Simon & Schuster to Germany’s Bertelsmann.

• Leading off, several firms advised in a divestiture deal that allowed Intuit Inc., the Latham & Watkins-client software company behind TurboTax, to win U.S. antitrust approval for its $7.1 billion takeover of personal finance website Credit Karma Inc. The Justice Department on Wednesday said it was clearing the deal, first announced in February, after Credit Karma agreed to sell its tax business to Square Inc. for $50 million to resolve government concerns over competition in do-it-yourself tax products. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• Fenwick & West and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Square, a financial and merchant services, and mobile payment company, on its purchase of Credit Karma Tax. Skadden Arps and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised Credit Karma on the deal, expected to close before the end of 2020. (Businesswire.com)
• Debevoise & Plimpton, Clifford Chance, and Ropes & Gray on Wednesday stepped up as the latest firms to join Big Law’s end-of-year associate bonus competition, indicating they will match the standard set earlier in the week by Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and matched by Paul Weiss, with a pair of bonuses that could add up to as much as $140,000, depending on seniority. (BLAW)
• Baker McKenzie on Nov. 11 announced a fall associate bonus scale ranging $15,000 to $100,000, depending on seniority. Cravath this week matched that scale, and also said it will match the mark that Davis Polk & Wardwell set in September for special Covid-appreciation bonuses. Those range from $7,500 to $40,000, depending on year, which makes up to $140,000 the amount senior associate could get in total. Several other firms have matched that scale, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. (Above the Law) (American Lawyer)
• Some firms earlier matched Davis Polk’s scale for Covid bonuses, but have not yet announced year-end bonuses. Baker McKenzie, by contrast, announced year-end bonuses but hasn’t matched Davis Polk on Covid bonuses. Baker McKenzie, Morgan Lewis, Ropes & Gray, Skadden stipulated minimum hourly thresholds, which varied by firm and bonus type. (Above the Law)
• Elite U.K. firms, which compete with U.S. giants for legal talent, face a tough choice over whether or not to join the bonus wars. (Financial News)
• Washington-based intellectual property firm Finnegan said this week that, after ending its Covid pay reductions in October, it has committed to fully reimburse pay that lawyers and staff lost to the cuts, which, like many other firms, it implemented early in the pandemic crisis to protect its cash flow. (American Lawyer)
• As Covid health concerns and remote work push Big Law firms to reconsider their office space, U.K. firm Taylor Wessing is sub-letting part of its London headquarters to McGuireWoods. (Law.com International)
• It looks like Covid health concerns will keep in-person jury trials in patent infringement suits paused into January and maybe later than that. (Law.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• BLAW introduced “five fresh faces to know in bankruptcy,” as part of its series “They’ve Got Next” on up-and-coming young lawyers. (BLAW)
• President Donald Trump said he has pardoned Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser, who had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. (Bloomberg News via BLAW) Flynn has recently been represented by lawyer Sydney Powell, who was dumped by Trump’s campaign last week. (NYT)
• Women-only networks and reverse mentoring programs premised on the idea that female lawyers are different from male lawyers could backfire on firms trying to improve gender diversity, a new study says. (Global Legal Post)
• The U.K. legal profession continues to make significant progress on diversity and inclusion, but senior levels of law firms and courts continue to be less diverse than the industry average, according to a new report. (LegalCheek.com)
• German media giant Bertelsmann SE, advised by Davis Polk & Wardell and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, agreed to buy the Simon & Schuster book-publishing business from ViacomCBS Inc. for $2.18 billion. Shearman & Sterling advised ViacomCBS. (Reuters)

Pro Bono

• The State Bar of Wisconsin launched a new online portal to recruit pro bono attorneys to help Wisconites with legal programs, many of them stemming from the pandemic. (WSAW.com)

Laterals, Moves

• Eversheds Sutherland recruited Paris-based White & Case corporate lawyer Aurélien Loric as counsel to start its restructuring & insolvency practice in France, as part of its global finance & restructuring practice. Loric has earlier been a corporate associate at Orrick and Freshfields. He’s joined from White & Case by corporate and private equity lawyer Francois Wyon, who arrives as senior associate and who earlier spent time at Gibson Dunn, and at Ashurst. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)
• Dentons said it hired real estate lawyer Andrew Muckian as a partner in its new Dublin office. He arrives from William Fry in Ireland, where he was head of real estate. (Dentons.com)
• Dykema added corporate finance lawyer Ryan S. Alexander as a member in Los Angeles. He joins from Lewis Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith, where he was a partner. (Dykema.com)

In-House

• Libra Networks, a subsidiary of a digital currency network that includes Facebook Inc. and other top technology companies, named former Credit Suisse executive Saumya Bhavsar as its new general counsel. Bhavsar, a former counsel in Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of Currency, has also been a UBS managing director and assistant general counsel at Euroclear Bank. (BLAW)
• National Public Radio Inc. named longtime in-house lawyer Michelle Shanahan interim general counsel following the resignation of its legal chief last month. (BLAW)
• The former general counsel for Five Hole LLC, which operates merchant capital advance businesses under the name Pearl Capital, dropped his Delaware lawsuit against its chief financial officer and recanted his allegations. (BLAW)

Promotions

• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett said it promoted 20 attorneys (six women) to partner across five cities in three countries, effective Jan. 1, 2021. (STBLaw.com)

Technology

• Legaltech firm Precily, backed by Palo Alto-based law firm Inventus Law, among others, is looking to market its artificial intelligence-powered tools to Indian law firms, which have been reluctant to use automated solutions. (Inc42.com)

Legal Education

• This year’s Skadden Foundation class of public-interest fellows is dominated by students from Harvard Law and other high-ranked schools, but it also includes, for the first time ever, a fellow from the University of Kansas School of Law. (Law.com)