Wake Up Call: Cravath No. 1, Skadden New No. 2 in 2021 Vault Rankings

In today’s column, several major insurance companies recently hired new general counsel as they face a wave of litigation over Covid-19 and other big disasters; King & Spalding hired two veteran international worklaw lawyers away from Seyfarth to boost the firm’s ability to advise clients during the pandemic; a former special assistant to President Trump joined Holland & Knight in Philadelphia; Alston & Bird opened an office in Fort Worth, Texas; a lawyer who settled her $50 million gender discrimination lawsuit against Proskauer a few years ago left her current firm to go solo; the U.K.'s legal profession regulator is bringing in forensic and anti-money laundering investigators for its “complex” probe of a prestigious London law firm.

• Leading off, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which regularly establishes the U.S. scale for associate pay, stayed No. 1 for a fifth straight year in Vault.com’s latest rankings of what the business intelligence company calls the 100 most prestigious U.S. law firms. Skadden Arps jumped past Wachtell Lipton to take second place. (Vault.com)

• Vault says its annual prestige rankings of law firms are based on an anonymous survey of over 20,000 U.S.-based associates asked to rate firms other than their own, on a scale of 1 to 10. Associates assign points for national and local prestige and for the strongest firms in their practice areas. Vault’s senior law editor, Mary Kate Sheridan, said Cravath was the only firm to achieve a prestige score above ‘9’ this year. She said associates at peer firms recognized Cravath for “consistent leadership when it comes to industry practices and standards, such as associate compensation and training.” (Vault.com)

• Cravath continues to top prestige rankings in the esteem of associates, but the elite firm still has “zero” black partners, a legal blogger wrote. (AbovetheLaw) (American Lawyer)

• For the Big Law associate class of 2020, this fall has turned out to be a big letdown, as their expectations of a stable start to their careers have been upended by the pandemic. (BLAW)

• Several major insurance companies recently brought in new general counsel to help handle a wave of litigation over Covid-19 conditions and related regulation, as well as natural disasters. (Corporate Counsel)

• Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart is the latest firm to walk back austerity measures it made to protect its cash flow in the early days of the pandemic crisis. The Atlanta-based labor and employment firm said its business has recently improved, so its dropping all salary cuts it made earlier this year for lawyers and staff. (BLAW)

• A so-called diploma privilege group yesterday urged the California Supreme Court to drop plans for an online bar exam and instead allow the state’s law school grads to become licensed without taking the test. (BLAW)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• President Trump’s latest expanded list of potential Supreme Court justice candidates includes three Republican senators. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)

• The American Bar Association said a Jones Day associate picked by Trump for a Florida federal district court spot doesn’t have enough experience for the job. (BLAW)

• The U.K.'s competition and markets authority said it is assessing the legal profession’s progress on implementing recommendations it made after its 2016 market study of the sector for England and Wales found lack of pricing transparency and other problems. (Gov.co.uk)

• The U.K.'s legal profession regulator is investigating London law firm Mishcon de Reya in a “forensic” probe growing out of earlier tax evasion allegations connected to transfers of Premier League soccer players, a report says. (The Guardian)

• Cleary Gottlieb said it represented long-time client The Republic of Argentina on its recent restructuring of $63.4 billion of debt. (Bloomberg News)

Pro Bono

• Alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS said it’s launching a nationwide pro bono program to help mediate landlord-tenant disputes growing out of the pandemic. (JAMSadr.com)

Laterals, Moves

• A former special assistant to President Trump, James D. Schultz, left Cozen O’Connor to join Holland & Knight’s two-year-old office in Philadelphia as a partner in the firm’s public policy & regulation practice group and to lead the Florida-founded firm’s northeast government advocacy team. Schultz, who was general counsel to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, rejoined Cozen in 2017 after about a year in the White House. At Cozen he was chair of the government and regulatory practice. (HKLaw.com)

• King & Spalding grabbed veteran Seyfarth & Shaw international worklaw partners Darren Gardner and Amanda Sonneborn to boost the firm’s ability to advise clients on global workplace issues stemming from the pandemic. (American Lawyer)

• Jenner & Block named former Chicago federal prosecutor Reid Schar to co-chair its nearly 400 lawyer litigation department. Schar, who joined the firm in 2012, is known for his work on “Bridgegate” and prosecuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (BLAW)

• In Texas, Alston & Bird grabbed a six-lawyer team from Thomson & Knight, including three partners. Five lawyers are going to its new office in Fort Worth and one partner is headed for its Dallas office. The team includes litigators and corporate lawyers with experience in the oil and gas industry. (Alston.com)

• Distributed firm FisherBroyles got Ogletree partner Bob Ellerbrock, whose practice focuses on employee benefits and executive compensation, in Washington as a partner. (FisherBroyles.com)

• White & Case hired Fish & Richardson trial lawyer Jonathan Lamberson as a partner in Silicon Valley to expand its global intellectual property practice. (WhiteCase.com)

• Hogan Lovells shipping and energy partner Kevin Keenan moved to Reed Smith in Houston as a partner. (ReedSmith.com)

• Eversheds Sutherland added two tax partners. Breen Schiller joined in Chicago from Horwood Marcus & Berk, where she was chair of the state and local tax practice group. Nikki Dobay is joining in Sacramento from the Council On State Taxation, where she was senior tax counsel. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)

• Washington-based labor and employment lawyer Connie Bertram, who settled her $50 million gender discrimination lawsuit against her former firm Proskauer in 2018, is leaving her current firm, Polsinelli, to start her own shop. (BLAW)

• Phoenix-headquartered Snell & Wilmer hired a new director of diversity, inclusion and community outreach, getting Joann Thach, who’d previously been at Fenwick & West. (SWLaw.com)

Technology

• Legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa launched a “network” that gathers its podcasts on legal talent in a single location. (Yahoo! Finance)