Wake Up Call: Coke Gets New International GC From Facebook

In today’s column, Big Law firms are helping their lawyers and staff get food and supplies in Covid locked-down Shanghai; Mintz revenues expanded 17.2% in 2021, its seventh-straight year of growth; Sullivan & Cromwell matched the Cravath scale for associate pay.

• Leading off, Facebook’s head of legal for its Messenger app, Willie Hernandez, announced on LinkedIn that he took a job as Coca Cola’s new general counsel for international. Hernandez’ LinkedIn profile says he has earlier been at Hewlett Packard Enterprise as vice president and deputy general counsel, and at Amazon.com and IBM as senior counsel. (LinkedIn.com)
• With Shanghai’s rigid Covid lockdown making it difficult for city residents to get food, Big Law firms Baker McKenzie, Herbert Smith Freehills, and King & Wood Mallesons have been arranging deliveries of supplies to their lawyers and staff in the city. (Law.com International)
• Some U.K.-based general counsel are complaining about big fee increases at their outside law firms, in some cases more than double last year’s rates. (Law.com International)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo said its work private equity, life sciences and litigation helped fuel a 17.2% jump in its gross revenues in 2021, to $588.5 million, it’s seventh-straight yearly gain. The Boston-based firm’s average profits per equity partner rose 11.7% to $2.1 million, its first time past $2 million. (American Lawyer)
• Sullivan & Cromwell matched the Cravath scale for associate pay in March but the news is only getting out now. (Above The Law)
• Kentucky’s governor vetoed a bill recently passed by the state’s legislature that would have authorized attorneys to carry guns into courtrooms. (Courier Journal) A once prominent New York real estate attorney was disbarred after pleading guilty to charges related to a $14.6 million fraud. (New York Law Journal)
• Norton Rose Fulbright has earned $1.6 million from Houston to date for defending the Texas city against a lawsuit by the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund. (Community Impact Newspaper)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Several firms hired intellectual property litigators. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher poached Ropes & Gray patent litigator Charlotte Jacobsen as a partner in New York. Her practice focuses on life sciences, pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent and licensing disputes; Dentons got Dykema IP litigator Victor Johnson as a partner in Dallas; Stroock & Stroock & Lavan hired IP attorney Alesha Dominique from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp as a partner in Los Angeles and head of its trademark group; Loeb & Loeb picked up veteran commercial and IP litigator Tim Warnock as a partner in Nashville. (Loeb.com)
• Skadden Arps grabbed White & Case M&A attorney Raymond Bogenrief as a corporate and private equity partner in Chicago. According to his LinkedIn profile, Bogenrief’s earlier been a partner at Greenberg Traurig, Vedder Price, and Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins snagged private equity and M&A attorney Scott Miller from Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a corporate partner in Houston; business support services provider Williams Lea hired former Big Law associate Erin Wiggins as general counsel. He was recently general counsel of auto parts maker TS Tech Americas, Inc. (PR Newswire)
• Troutman Pepper added health-care data privacy attorney Jonathan Ishee as a partner in Washington in its health sciences transactional department. He joins from McGuireWoods’ Houston office; Akerman brought in Jackson Lewis labor and employment trial attorney Phillip Harris as a partner in Tampa; management side worklaw firm FordHarrison said JetBlue Airlines vice president for labor relations Christopher Lewless joined the firm and its consulting arm, F&H Solutions Group, as a consultant; Hinshaw & Culbertson said consumer financial services lawyer Bonnie Dye joined as a partner in New Orleans. She arrives after close to eight years at McGlinchey Stafford. (HinshawLaw.com)

Legal Education

• The Insurance Education Association, a provider of professional training programs, said it is launching a program to teach lawyers about workers’ compensation law. (Insurance Business Magazine)