Wake Up Call: Covid Hits Attorney Well-Being, Survey Says

In today’s column, Baker McKenzie said it hired three partners to expand its corporate presence in the United Arab Emirates; New York City’s law office got hit by a cyberattack; legal tech services company Factor launched a transaction-management service for law firms.

• Leading off, a new survey on mental health and substance abuse problems in the legal profession finds the pandemic caused a clear increase in reports of attorney depression and anxiety, in particular among attorneys of color. The survey, with over 3,200 respondents, found that 31% of Black lawyers said they have contemplated suicide during their professional career, compared with 19.6% of white respondents. (American Lawyer)
• Chicago-based Freeborn & Peters is “beta testing” a looser office-return policy after two earlier tries to get people into the office didn’t go as planned. (American Lawyer) Arent Fox is taking a flexible approach to its return-to-office plans, but it expects lawyers and staff to also be flexible. Meanwhile, Baker McKenzie’s approach is to strike “the right balance between individual needs and the interests of clients and the business,” the firm’s North America CEO says. (National Law Journal)
• Philadelphia-area based firms offering hybrid summer associate programs this year to allow people to participate remotely if they prefer are finding that “many” associates want to have in-person experience. (Legal Intelligencer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Big management-side worklaw firms that provide “union avoidance” services to big employers oppose a rule that would force corporations to disclose what they pay for legal advice on how to engage with employees. The American Bar Association and law firms, including Jones Day, Ogletree Deakins, Morgan Lewis, Littler, and Ballard Spahr, oppose the so-called persuader rule that was implemented late in the Obama administration then scuttled under Trump, this report says. (Jacobinmag.com)
• New York City’s 1,000-attorney law department had to go offline after getting hit with a cyberattack. (NBC New York) Carlton Fields was hit by a Florida-based circuit board manufacturer’s $10 million complaint alleging malpractice in a 2017 lawsuit. (Daily Business Review)
• Deal update: Paul Hastings advised Jefferies and Morgan Stanley in their roles as financial advisers to QTS Realty Trust in the data-center operator’s $10 billion deal to be acquired by Blackstone; Morrison & Foerster is advising Cambridge Quantum Computing on its joint venture with Honeywell Quantum Solutions, advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, to create what the companies call the world’s leading integrated quantum computing company. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. (PR Newswire)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Baker McKenzie said its United Arab Emirates office is expanding its M&A, private equity, and capital markets expertise getting Osama Audi and Adnan Doha from King & Spalding and Abeer Jarrar from Linklaters, with all three to join as partners in August; Goodwin Procter added Allen & Overy corporate lawyer Markus Käpplinger in Frankfurt, Germany, as a partner in its real estate practice. Goodwin grabbed Paul, Weiss private equity counsel Edwin Chan as a partner in Hong Kong. (GoodwinLaw.com)
• Cozen O’Connor expanded its commercial litigation practice in New York with a six-lawyer team from Anderson Kill. They include shareholder Jeremy E. Deutsch, of counsel Christian V. Cangiano, counsel, Elliot J. Coz, and three associates; Mayer Brown hired two insurance transactional and regulatory lawyers in New York: Yevgeniy (Yev) Markov joins from Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner, while associate Yuliya Feldman joins from McDermott Will & Emery; Stroock expanded its real estate practice, adding partner Michael Kosmas in Washington. He joins from Kelley Drye & Warren; Winston & Strawn hired veteran tax partner Dean Hinderliter from Thompson & Knight in Dallas. (Winston.com)
• Boston Scientific Corp. promoted its interim GC Vance Brown, a former Skadden corporate attorney who’s been at the medical device maker about two decades, to permanent general counsel, corporate secretary and senior vice president. He succeeds Desiree Ralls-Morrison, who left to become top lawyer at Chicago-based McDonald’s Corp. in late March.; a former McDonald’s senior counsel, Alex Green, joined Corcentric, a New Jersey-based business budget management software and services company, as its senior vice president and general counsel. (Corcentric.com)

Technology

• Factor, an alternative legal services provider, launched a tech-enabled transaction management service for law firms. (Artificial Lawyer)