Wake Up Call: Boies Bills $1,950 Per Hour in Google Litigation

In today’s column, DC-based Wiley Rein announced associate pay hikes matching the Cravath standard; controversial constitutional law scholar Ilya Shapiro said he won’t join Georgetown Law after all; Toyota North America promoted its chief legal officer giving her more responsibilities.

• Leading off, litigator David Boies, founder of Boies Schiller Flexner, is billing $1,950 an hour in a case alleging privacy violations against Alphabet Inc’s Google LLC, according to a report citing a court filing. (Reuters)
• Washington-based Wiley Rein announced associate pay hikes matching the Cravath standard, effective June 1. (Above The Law)
• The district attorney supervising a criminal investigation into the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has asked at least four current and former prosecutors from elsewhere in the state for help. (Houston Chronicle) Public defenders representing Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz asked to withdraw from his death penalty trial. (Associated Press)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Toyota North America said it’s promoting Sandra Phillips Rogers, its group vice president, chief legal officer, general counsel and chief diversity officer, to a newly created position of senior vice president, corporate resources and general counsel. The promotion, effective June 20, was among several leadership and legal department changes the company announced Monday. The new position gives Phillips Rogers, a former Morgan Lewis & Bockius partner, additional responsibilities for corporate shared services, Toyota de Mexico. She continues leading teams from legal, sustainability and regulatory affairs, and social innovation, Toyota said. (PR Newswire)
• Intellectual property law firm Merchant & Gould is the latest firm to launch a consulting arm to advise companies on protecting their brands, including in the space for non-fungible tokens. (American Lawyer)
• A court ordered a mental health evaluation for a Connecticut attorney who was disbarred after accusing a judge of favoring Jewish people. (CT Insider)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• In Silicon Valley, Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett grabbed capital markets attorney Heidi Mayon from Goodwin Procter as a partner. She’s been partner at Gunderson Dettmer and Pillsbury Winthrop, where she spent 12 years; Allen & Overy hired M&A attorney Jesse Debban as a partner in its San Francisco office. He arrives after 12 years at Farella Braun + Martel, where he was partner and chair of the business transactions group; in Los Angeles, Paul Hastings poached Latham & Watkins real estate finance and transactions lawyer Pablo Clarke as a partner; BakerHostetler snagged L.A.-based securities and consumer protection litigator Phillip Eskenazi as a partner from Hunton Andrews Kurth; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer said it “officially opened” its new Silicon Valley office space, which has grown to nearly 40 lawyers, including 10 partners. (Freshfields.us)
• Sidley Austin added two cybersecurity partners in Washington, getting Jennifer Seale and Jonathan Wilan from Baker McKenzie; Blank Rome picked up Brown Rudnick trial attorney and sports law adviser David A. Moreno, Jr. as a partner in New York; Massachusetts-based Nutter added Mintz trial and appellate attorney Christopher Sullivan as a litigation partner in its new New York office; in Vancouver, Canada, Cozen O’Connor recruited the litigation manager of the British Columbia Securities Commission, Jeremy Gellis, as a white collar member; Proskauer Rose’s London office hired longtime Clifford Chance restructuring and bankruptcy attorney Adrian Cohen as partner. (Proskauer.com)
• Fintech company EarnUp hired veteran in-house leader for tech, financial services, and health care companies Aileen Casanave as general counsel; San Francisco-based crypto investment firm Paradigm hired crypto and fintech in-house veteran Katie Biber as CLO. She worked on Utah Republican Senator Mitch Romney’s unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign and was recently CLO at credit card startup Brex Inc. (The Block)

Legal Education

• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner announced a new summer placement program in Europe for students in a double degree program for English and French law, offered by the Queen Mary University of London and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. (BCLP.com)
• Constitutional law scholar Ilya Shapiro said he’s quitting as executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution before he even starts. He made the announcement days after Georgetown Law cleared him to start the job despite his controversial “lesser Black woman” tweet. (New York Times)