Wake Up Call: Big Law Attorney Turned Bank Robber Gets Prison

In today’s column, Big Law firms have resumed PAC donations to Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, a report says; Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s junior lawyers next year will have to bill for more hours to get bonuses; several more firms matched the Davis Polk year-end bonus scale for associates.

• Leading off, former Greenberg Traurig associate Aaron Honaker was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for his convictions for a series of five bank robberies in Florida. (Daily Business Review)
• Transatlantic firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s new bonus system, which takes effect starting Jan. 1, 2022, hikes billing-hour requirements for associates and trainees to get bonuses. For U.S. associates it’s rising from 1,900 hours up to 2,000. For the firm’s U.K. associates it’s rising from 1,600 hours to 1,700 hours, a report says. (The Lawyer)
• Cleary Gottlieb, the first firm to match Cravath’s year-end bonus scale of up $115,000 in November has now matched Davis Polk special bonus scale, which runs up to $23,000, depending on year of seniority. Weil, Gotshal & Manges matched the Davis Polk scale overall. Ropes & Gray is matching the scale and offering extra money for its most senior associates; Dechert is matching the scale, with extra money for top billers. (Above the Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Immediately after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots some Big Law firms vowed they would not make political donations to any of the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. Rolling Stone magazine, citing its research with Protect Democracy and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, says several firms have resumed making those donations through their in-house political action committees. (Rolling Stone)
• The Financial Times surveyed law firms’ pro bono efforts to fight systemic racial inequities. It ranges from Latham & Watkins’ representation of plaintiffs in a win to force the Trump administration to keep processing Census data to Kirkland & Ellis’ work for historically black colleges and universities trying to get funding in Maryland, among other examples. (Financial Times)
• Since its founding 25 years ago, Cooper & Kirk has become an “influential firm” in Washington. In January, co-founder Chuck Cooper will argue at the U.S. Supreme Court, representing former associate Ted Cruz, in FEC v. Ted Cruz. (National Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• K&L Gates recruited emerging growth and venture capital partner Jason Putnam Gordon from Polsinelli in San Francisco; Perkins Coie hired intellectual property veteran James Go as a partner in Seattle; Carlton Fields hired litigator Ellyn S. Garofalo in Los Angeles as a shareholder. She joins from Venable, where she was a partner; Faegre Drinker promoted five attorneys to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2022; Buchalter promoted nine attorneys to shareholder across its California and Arizona offices. (Buchalter.com)
• London-based Big Law firm Mishcon de Reya poached WilmerHale white collar crime and investigations counsel Alison Geary as a partner in London; Squire Patton Boggs recruited former Federal Communications Commission official Gardner Foster as communications of counsel in Washington. He was most recently principal for satellite policy at SpaceX and earlier senior counsel at Sprint. (SquirePattonBoggs.com)
• Insurance giant American International Group said it promoted veteran in-house leader Rose Marie Glazer, since March 2017 AIG’s senior vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary, to executive vice president and chief human resources officer; Liberty Mutual Insurance promoted its EVP and deputy chief legal officer Damon Hart to executive vice president and chief legal officer, effective Jan. 1, 2022. Hart, a diversity advocate, is a former shareholder at Littler Mendelson and Ogletree and spent 11 years as a Holland & Knight partner. (PR Newswire)

Legal Education

• Ohio-headquartered Thomson Hine and Taft Law are participating in a University of Dayton School of Law program that aims to find and recruit underrepresented and underserved students to go to law school. (FlyerNews.com)