Wake Up Call: Corporate Lawyers Say Exhaustion Hits Their Work

In today’s column, four Big Law firms advised in a Saudi-led takeover of a major professional English soccer team; Steptoe took a four-lawyer international trade team away from Jones Day in Brussels; the federal judge who blocked Texas’ abortion law is familiar with controversy.

• Leading off, over half of 202 corporate lawyers responding to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc., said they’re exhausted because of their post-pandemic workloads and other pressures. Of the 20% of respondents who said they’re “highly exhausted,” most said they had frequently delayed or killed projects, and 68% said they want to leave their organizations. (Gartner)
• Dentons, and Reed Smith joined U.K. elite firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy advising in a 305 million pound ($416 million) takeover deal for England’s Newcastle United Football Club by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund and including PCP Capital Partners. (The Lawyer) (Law.com International)
• Some public interest lawyers and legal educators are hoping for school-debt relief from a recently announced overhaul of the government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Robert Pitman, the federal judge who this week blocked Texas’ controversial abortion law, is a life-long Texan who’s no stranger to controversy. For starters, he was the state’s first openly gay U.S. attorney and then its first openly gay federal judge, both times appointed by then-President Barack Obama. (Newsweek)
• Greenberg Traurig executive chairman Richard Rosenbaum and CEO Brian Duffy already did a cross-country RV trip to the firm’s U.S. offices. Now they’re touring the firm’s European offices in a VW van. (Law.com International via American Lawyer)
• Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, Quinn Emanuel, and Skadden, Arps top a recent ranking of the 39 firms most feared in litigation. (BTI Consulting)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Steptoe & Johnson LLP poached a four-lawyer international trade & regulatory compliance team from Jones Day in Brussels, including partners Eva Monard and Renato Antonini, who was head of Jones Day’s Brussels international trade practice, and two associates; Paul Hastings grabbed a four-lawyer litigation team from Dechert in Paris, led by trial, investigations, and securities partner Laurent Martinet; BakerHostetler got back a former associate at the firm, Ronald Baumgarten, who’s recently been deputy assistant U.S. trade representative, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, capping several years at the USTR. He returns as of counsel in Washington; White & Case got back private equity lawyers Ross Allardice, Mark Evans and Tony Brown from Dechert as partners in London. (Global Legal Post)
• Holland & Knight hired former Florida Solicitor General Amit Agarwal, who’s also a former federal prosecutor. He joins as a partner in Tallahassee; Reed Smith brought in executive compensation and employee benefits lawyer Daniel McClain as a partner in New York. He arrives from Baker Hostetler; Greenspoon Marder grabbed two corporate partners: John Babala arrives from Howard & Howard in Los Angeles and Julian A. Fortuna joins from Taylor English Duman in Atlanta; Manatt hired health care and civil litigation lawyer Megan Thibert-Ind as a partner in Chicago. She arrives after 15 years at McDermott Will & Emery; Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner added veteran antitrust litigator Charles Tompkins in Washington. He joins from Williams Montgomery & John, where he led the antitrust/competition practice and was a member of the executive committee. (BCLPLaw.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland hired Chevron U.S. in-house lawyer Andrew Duckworth in London as a partner in its global energy practice. Eversheds also hired James Cottrell, who joins from MFB Solicitors as energy practice legal director. Cottrell and Duckworth previously worked together at Reed Smith; the world’s biggest cannabis website, Seattle-based Leafly Holdings, Inc., which recently announced it’s going public, said veteran Big Law corporate attorney and in-house leader Kimberly Boler is its new general counsel. She’s worked at American International Group, Inc. and Aria Energy and arrives most recently from Patriarch Partners, LLC, where she was vice president corporate law; employment data platform Argyle hired tech company in-house leader Sidharth Uberoi as its new top lawyer, based in San Francisco. He was most recently head of legal at Envestnet. (Street Insider)

Technology

• Gartner released a market guide evaluating 17 legal tech tools for corporate matter management. It costs $1,295. (Gartner.com)