Wake Up Call: Cravath Sidesteps Big Partner Promotion Trend

In today’s column, Mayer Brown, Willkie, Barnes & Thornburg, and Steptoe & Johnson LLP also announced 2022 promotion rounds; five Chicago intellectual property firms will allow lawyers and other IP professionals to count at least 25 hours of diversity and inclusion work toward their billable-hour targets; Pryor Cashman dodged a celebrity chef’s $150 million lawsuit.

• Leading off, Cravath, Swaine & Moore said it’s promoting five men and one woman to partner for its 2022 class. After elevating a record 11 lawyers last year, Cravath’s latest round is closer to its five-year average. (American Lawyer)
• In a fierce market for young legal talent, Big Law firms have been “handing out partnership offers like candy”; for example, Kirkland & Ellis promoted a record 151 lawyers in October. But Cravath is bucking that trend, making one observer wonder if that could impact the coming bonus season. (Above The Law)
• In new promotions effective Jan. 1, 2022, Mayer Brown says it’s promoting 39 lawyers to partner and 26 to of counsel, across 11 practice areas and 16 offices; Willkie Farr & Gallagher said it elected 31 lawyers to partner in its Chicago, Frankfurt, Houston, London, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, San Francisco, and Washington offices; Barnes & Thornburg elected 27 to partner across nine U.S. offices; Steptoe & Johnson LLP said it promoted six lawyers to partner and six to of counsel. It also elevated four non-equity partners to equity status. (Steptoe.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Five “prominent” Chicago intellectual property firms will allow lawyers, patent agents, technical specialists, and other IP professionals to get billable hours credit for at least 25 hours of diversity, equity and inclusion work per year. The commitment grows out of an effort by the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago. (World Trademark Review)
• Florida law firms’ revenue and profit growth lagged national averages in the third quarter but firms in the state also had lower attorney compensation costs and a 12% increase in inventory, Wells Fargo data show. (Daily Business Review)
• A New York state judge threw out a celebrity vegan chef’s $150 million fraud lawsuit against Pryor Cashman. (Reuters)
• Most of the recent $345 million EpiPen settlement with Pfizer Inc. and its affiliates will go to insurers and lawyers, a report says. (Allergic Living)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft grabbed veteran Skadden, Arps executive compensation and benefits lawyer Michael Bergmann as a partner in Washington; DLA Piper recruited Christian Ford, a veteran attorney in the U.S. Justice and Defense departments, as a litigation partner in Washington. Ford, who was at Baker McKenzie early in his career, was most recently deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s office of legal policy; Baker Donelson lost a six-lawyer health-care regulation team in Washington to Bass, Berry & Sims, which also added a health-care lawyer in the firm’s hometown of Nashville. (BassBerry.com)
• Goodwin Procter hired Foley & Lardner life sciences and commercial transactions partner Beni Surpin as a partner in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley; Arnold & Porter got lobbyist and attorney Katherine Pettibone as a policy adviser in Sacramento, California, in its legislative and public policy practice group; FisherBroyles hired international arbitration attorney Yine Rodríguez Pérez in Miami as a partner; Jackson Lewis picked up FordHarrison worklaw litigation partner Reynaldo Velazquez as a principal in Miami; Fox Rothschild brought in family law attorney Jenna Shapiro as a partner in its Princeton, N.J., office. According to her LinkedIn profile, she was previously a shareholder at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer. (FoxRothschild.com)
• Food ingredient company Ingredion Inc. said former Whirlpool Corporation deputy general counsel and compliance chief Tanya Jaeger de Foras will be its senior vice president, chief legal officer, corporate secretary, and chief compliance officer, effective Nov. 29. Ingredion’s previous top lawyer, former Dell Technologies senior in-house counsel Janet Bawcom, left Ingredion in July and is now general counsel at Filtration Group. (GlobeNewswire)