Wake Up Call: Cybersecurity Startup’s GC Exits Amid 198 Layoffs

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• Cybersecurity startup Snyk Ltd. said it’s laying off 198 workers and that its chief legal officer Karyn Smith is leaving the company, which she joined 10 months ago. Smith was previously at cloud communications platform Twilio Inc., where she was top lawyer. Snyk CEO Peter McKay said in a blog post that his company’s legal team will now report to chief financial officer Ken MacAskill. (CRN)
• The founding partner of Edelson PC, the plaintiffs side tech/privacy class-action firm, said first-year associates received a $35,000 raise to $225,000. That beats the Cravath scale for associate pay which many Big Law firms matched. (Above The Law)
• A Virginia federal judge disqualified Baker McKenzie from representing Russia’s VUZ Bank in potential international criminal proceedings, ruling that the law firm had a conflict of interest. (Law.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Fortune 500 companies are hiring major law firms with GOP relationships in anticipation of a Republican-controlled House. (Axios)
• Mayer Brown announced it received final approval from Singapore’s legal profession regulator to enter a joint law venture with a local firm that will advise on Singapore court litigation and related matters. Mayer Brown’s 11-year-old office in the city, with over 25 lawyers, is already able to advise on cross-border transactions, projects, and disputes across Southeast Asia. (MayerBrown.com) Paris has a new private equity boutique, Duroc Partners. The nine-lawyer firm was launched by two partners, including one who spent 10 years at Mayer Brown. (Law.com International)
• Big UK firm Shoosmiths will assess lawyers a 200 pound ($231) “fine” when they travel to business meetings via airplane in a measure aimed at reducing the firm’s carbon footprint. The levy, which actually comes out of the firm’s travel budget, will go to an environmental fund, a report says. (London Times)
• Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers told a jury that their client actually had “transactional sex” with the women accusing him of sexual assault and that was accepted behavior before the #MeToo movement changed things. (Daily Wire)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Tax specialist Mike Evans, former Democrat chief counsel and deputy staff director for the Senate Finance Committee, is back at K&L Gates as a partner. (Politico)
• Holland & Knight hired energy M&A and private equity partner Nancy Bostic in Houston. She arrives from Gray Reed, where she was partner and practice group leader for M&A and private Equity. (HKLaw.com)
• Latham & Watkins recruited two health care partners with transactions and regulatory experience from McDermott Will & Emery. Kevin Miller joins Latham in Chicago in its private equity and mergers & acquisitions practices, and Jason B. Caron joins in Washington in its health care and life sciences practice. (LW.com)
• Greenberg Traurig said a former corporate and securities associate at the firm, Yejee Marilyn Kim, is returning as of counsel in the firm’s Orange County and Los Angeles offices. She arrives from Edwards Lifesciences, where she was a senior director and counsel advising on regulatory compliance and corporate governance matters. (GTLaw.com)
• Wilson Elser announced three partner hires. It got trial attorney Riki Ghosh in its medical malpractice and health-care practice in New York. Transportation attorneys Asir Fiola and Celeena Pompeo joined in Orange County, California. (WilsonElser.com)
• Cole Schotz P.C. hired former Honeywell engineer and Weil Gotshal associate Christopher Evans as a intellectual property member in Dallas, Texas. He was recently at his own firm. (ColeSchotz.com)