Wake Up Call: Brown Rudnick Leaves Paris After Partner Exits

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• Brown Rudnick reportedly closed its nine-year-old office in Paris after getting hit by several partner exits recently. The closing leaves Brown Rudnick, which recently made the news as Johnny Depp’s law firm, with London as its sole office outside the US. It closed its Dublin office in 2016. (Law.com International via American Lawyer)
• New Jersey-based Porzio, Bromberg & Newman said it sold its compliance-focused legal tech subsidiary Porzio Life Sciences to health-care tech provider RLDatix, a portfolio company of private equity firms Five Arrows, TA Associates, and Nordic Capital. Porzio said it got outside legal advice from Alston & Bird for the sale, which it described as an apparent “first of its kind” in the legal profession. (PBNlaw.com)
• Complying with a Justice Department demand, Sidley Austin registered its lobbying activity for the US subsidiary of Chinese video surveillance company Hikvision under a US foreign agents law. The Chicago-based firm, under a previous law, had previously disclosed that it has earned about $7.4 million in fees since 2018 lobbying for the company. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Twitter legal observers reacted to reports that an intellectual property litigator suing Kirkland & Ellis for discrimination and harassment left comments in her complaint flagging perceived weaknesses in her own arguments. (The Recorder)
• Law firms don’t yet have clients for their metaverse offices, but they’re keeping the virtual outposts anyway. (Legaltech News)
• Legal Innovators, an alternative legal services provider focused on talent management solutions, is collaborating with Seyfarth Shaw and aerospace and defense company Raytheon Technologies on a pilot program to improve diversity of new legal talent. The program aims to use a “cost-rational approach” to boost diversity for in-house and law firm junior legal talent, according to a statement. (PR Newswire)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Holland & Knight, pointing to an “incredible amount of M&A activity” in recent years, said it expects claims on representations and warranties insurance policies to peak in the next year or so. It added litigators Andrew Shapiro and Jason Dubner in Chicago to its RWI practice to represent insurers. They arrive from Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, where they were co-chairs of the RWI practice group. (HKLaw.com)
• Winston & Strawn brought in trial lawyer Jervonne Newsome as a litigation partner in Dallas. She arrives from Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann. (Winston)
• Baker McKenzie said fund formation lawyer Shusmita Chowdhury, a former executive at private equity firm Partners Group and later a senior associate at the law firm, returned as a partner in New York. She arrives after about two years as counsel at Pryor Cashman. (BakerMcKenzie.com)
• Employer-side worklaw firm Fisher Phillips said partner Kevin Hess returned in Columbus, Ohio, after he spent about 21 months at Steptoe & Johnson. (LinkedIn.com)
• Schulte Roth & Zabel snagged Jones Day worklaw partner Martin Schmelkin as an employment and employee benefits partner in New York. He earlier spent 15 years as managing director and associate general counsel at Goldman, Sachs & Co, focused on employment law. (SRZ.com)
• Online visibility platform Semrush hired tech in-house veteran David Mason as general counsel and secretary. A former Bingham McCutchen associate, Mason arrives recently after close to nine years as top lawyer at online insurance marketplace EverQuote and was earlier deputy GC at travel site Kayak. (Business Insider)

Legal Education

• The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School said it started looking for a successor to Dean Theodore Ruger, who plans to step down in June 2023 after eight years in the role. (Law.com)