Wake Up Call: Covid Gets Am Law 200 Its First Virtual Firm

In today’s column, the second hundred biggest law firms in the country, Nos. 101-200, performed surprisingly well in a pandemic year, a new report says; the Trump Organization is now facing two criminal investigations in New York, one by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and a new one announced by the state; Jones Day’s D.C chief Noel Francisco reportedly wants the office’s lawyers back in person starting May 24.

• Leading off, as pandemic-hit 2020 saw most law firms switch to remote work, FisherBroyles became the first virtual firm to make it into American Lawyer’s latest ranking of the second hundred biggest U.S. law firms. FisherBroyles, which prefers to be called a “distributed” firm, had $113 million in 2020 gross revenues, including $105 million in total fee revenues, up 14% from 2019. That was enough to squeak in as the ranking’s No. 198. FisherBroyles said that, in the last 12 months, it added 51 new partners, almost all from major firms. (FisherBroyles)
• Firms in the latest Am Law 200 report had overall revenues up 1.1%, far below the Am Law 100’s 6.6% growth. But the second 200 came closer to matching big firms in the key areas of revenue per lawyer, up 3%, and profits per equity partner, up 8.8%. Some “elite” Am Law 100 firms firms did especially well; Meanwhile, a difficult pandemic year spurred smaller and some bigger firms to expand digital practices. (American Lawyer)
• A memo attributed to Jones Day’s D.C. partner-in-charge, Noel Francisco, the former U.S. solicitor general, says “I would like to encourage all lawyers, who are able to do so, to begin returning to working from the office starting Monday, May 24th.” (Above the Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• New York state courts are keeping mask mandates for all, including vaccinated people, despite the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidance clearing fully vaccinated people to go maskless. (New York Law Journal); The Maryland-based Council on Legal Education Opportunity Inc., a nonprofit that aims to diversify the legal profession, said it will permanently work remotely. (Inside Higher Ed)
• New York Attorney General Letitia James said her investigation of the Trump Organization, which had been civil, is now also a criminal probe. (Bloomberg News)
• The private equity industry’s $2 trillion of capital to invest has made it a big source of work for major law firms, according to a report. (Law.com International)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Former Army Acting General Counsel Michele Pearce joined Covington & Burling as of counsel in its public policy practice in Washington; O’Melveny & Myers recruited a former top official at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, William “Tim” Fink, as head of its patent office practice. Fink was vice chief judge at PTAB and most recently was senior legal adviser to the USPTO director; Mayer Brown hired antitrust veteran Gail Levine, a former deputy director in the Federal Trade Commission’s competition bureau, as a partner in Washington, where she’ll be a co-leader in the firm’s global antitrust & competition practice. (Mayer Brown)
• Holland & Knight is the latest firm adding to its cybercrime practice, getting former Pennsylvania federal prosecutor Shardul Desai as a partner in Washington; veteran litigator David Straite, a former Big Law antitrust attorney with experience in cybersecurity, data privacy, securities, and corporate governance, joined DiCello Levitt Gutzler; Jones Walker got former federal and state prosecutor David Weinstein as a partner in Miami on its corporate compliance and white collar defense team. He arrives from Hinshaw & Culbertson; Seyfarth Shaw grabbed DLA Piper litigation partner Andrew Escobar as a partner in Seattle. (Seyarth.com)
• Fenwick & West got capital markets lawyer Aman Singh as a partner in New York. He arrives after 11 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges; DLA Piper’s corporate practice added former health-care industry in-house top lawyer Renée Delphin-Rodriguez as a partner. She focuses on health-care M&A and SPACs and arrives from Crowell & Moring. (DLAPiper.com)
• Stem, Inc., a California-based provider of artificial intelligence-driven clean energy storage services, hired former Schlumberger in-house leader Saul Laureles, earlier a Mayer Brown corporate lawyer, to be its chief legal officer and corporate secretary. (Business Wire)