Wake Up Call: Cleary, Simpson Thacher Land Mattress Deal Roles

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

• At least three law firms are advising in global bedding company Tempur Sealy International, Inc.’s proposed deal to acquire Mattress Firm Group Inc., a mattress speciality retailer, in a transaction valued at around $4 billion. Cleary Gottlieb is advising Tempur Sealy while Simpson Thacher is advising Mattress Firm on the transaction, which is expected to close in 2024’s second half. (PR Newswire)
• Cleary said its M&A team advising Tempur Sealy includes partners Paul Shim and Kim Spoerri and senior attorney Michael Saliba. It also includes Tempur Sealy’s general counsel Mohammad Vakil. Fried Frank said via email that it is counseling JP Morgan Securities, which is financial advisor to Tempur Sealy, with a team led by partners Roy Tannenbaum and Philip Richter and associate Daniel He.
• Leasing in the US law firm sector bounced back from pandemic lows to set a new record in 2022 and continued to boom in 2023’s first quarter. (American Lawyer)
• Intellectual property firm Finnegan LLP saw revenue decline 9.4% in 2022 to $316.36 million. The firm’s managing partner said fewer cases went to trial, partly because its litigators won summary judgments and that had an impact on revenue. Finnegan’s average profits per equity partner dove 28.1% to $1.244 million. (National Law Journal)
• In-house attorneys who graduated from a Top 50 law school and whose work history includes a top 50 law firm earn far more than those who don’t have those lines on their CVs, according to a report. (Corporate Counsel)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A Washington federal judge is set to hear arguments today over whether Covington & Burling must turn over to the Securities and Exchange Commission the names of hundreds of clients who may have been exposed in a cyber attack. (National Law Journal)
• Private equity firm Silver Lake has raked in $19 billion for its latest flagship fund, Fund VII, for which it plans to keep raising money until the end of the year. (Buyouts)
• Kyu Song Cho, an immigration attorney at Texas-based boutique Porter Legal Group, was one of the victims of the recent mall mass shooting in Allen, Texas. (Associated Press) (NBC News)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Washington-based tax law boutique Ivins Phillips & Barker said former Treasury assistant secretary Eric Solomon, who held the agency’s highest tax policy position from 2006 to 2009, joined the firm as partner in Washington. Solomon, who also led the corporate tax division in the Internal Revenue Service’s chief counsel’s office, arrives recently from Steptoe & Johnson (DC). (IPBTax.com)
• Lowenstein Sandler brought in trust and estate planning attorney Beth Kaufman, a former Treasury tax policy counsel, as partner in Washington and national chair of its private client services group. She arrives after close to 22 years at Caplin & Drysdale with partner Megan Wernke and two associates. (Lowenstein.com)
• Sheppard Mullin snagged Loeb & Loeb’s New York employment & labor chair Ian Carleton Schaefer as partner in New York. (SheppardMullin.com)
• Employer-side worklaw firm Fisher Phillips added litigator Shane Kagan as of counsel in New Jersey. He arrives from Jackson Lewis PC. (FisherPhillips.com)
• Minneapolis-based investment and development company United Properties promoted vice president and corporate counsel Laura Rogers to general counsel, senior VP. (UProperties.com)
• Stockholm, Sweden-based steel company SSAB hired in-house veteran Lars Sjöbring, a former US-based top lawyer and executive for automotive tech company Veoneer and auto safety system provider Autoliv, to be its executive VP, head of legal affairs and general counsel, effective May 15. (SSAB.com)