Wake Up Call: Deloitte-Linked Firm Tops U.S. ‘Women in Law Scorecard’

• Around 60% of immigration firm Berry Appleman & Leiden’s 142 lawyers and partners were women in 2018. Those stats put the San Francisco-based firm atop the National Law Journal’s 2019 Women in Law Scorecard, which ranks the biggest U.S. firms on the shares that women make up in their lawyer headcounts. (National Law Journal) Last year Deloitte’s U.K. arm announced a U.S. alliance with Berry Appleman & Leiden and said it would also acquire that firm’s eight foreign offices, as the Big Four firm entered the U.S. legal services market. (BLB)

• Immigration and labor and employment firms tend to dominate the Women In Law scorecard, and most of the top 30 have fewer than 300 lawyers. But there are some Big Law exceptions. (National Law Journal)

• The scorecard draws on data from the new 2019 NLJ 500 survey of headcounts across the 500 biggest U.S.-focused law firms. The survey finds that lawyer headcount increased 2.5% across those firms in 2018, to reach 169,477, up from 1% headcount growth in 2017. (National Law Journal) Kirkland & Ellis added the most lawyers, 310, and Hogan Lovells lost the most, 49, for the year. But Clark Hill had biggest percentage gain in headcount, 45.01%, while McKool Smith lost the most, - 17.51%, percentage-wise. (National Law Journal)

• Major League Baseball’s top lawyer, Michael “Mike” Mellis, is moving in mid-July to the New York Yankees, where he’ll be executive vice president and chief counsel, according to a report. (Corporate Counsel)

• Most corporate law departments aren’t using key legal tech tools, such as eSignatures, and contract and document management tools, according to a new survey report. (BLAW via BLB)

• Baker McKenzie is representing FedEx Corp. in a lawsuit attacking the Trump administration’s China trade restrictions, which the company says have put it in Beijing’s crosshairs. (BN via BLAW) Baker McKenzie cut 46 staff jobs in London and could let go another 33. (American Lawyer)

• The Los Angeles Rams, advised by Dentons, will pay $24 million to former St. Louis ticketholders to resolve class claims the team misled them about plans to move to southern California, according to a settlement. (BLAW)

• The Kirkland & Ellis team that advised AbbVie Inc. in its $63 billion cash and stock purchase of Botox-maker Allergan Inc. was led by corporate partners Eric Schiele, Jonathan Davis, and Carlo Zenker and one associate. Kirkland got Schiele from Cravath Swaine & Moore in January 2018 and Davis from Cravath in 2016. Wachtell advised Allergan in the deal. (BLAW via BLB)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Stroock & Stroock & Lavan is getting Brown Rudnick corporate and bankruptcy attorney John Storz for its national financial restructuring group in New York. (BN via BLAW)

• Two Philadelphia-based litigators--a former senior partner at Cozen O’Connor and a founding member of a litigation boutique that offers alternative fee arrangements--have launched a new dispute resolution boutique in response to what they call an “outdated and flawed” traditional mediation system. (Mladr.com)

• The Mississippi Bar and Philadelphia Bar Association are the 2019 winners of the American Bar Association and The National Legal Aid and Defender Association Harrison Tweed award, given to state and local bar associations that develop or significantly expand projects or programs to increase access to civil legal services. The Philadelphia Bar said it has now won the award five times. (AmericanBar.org)

• The CEO of a 150-lawyer St. Louis firm died after getting hit by a pick-up truck while cycling on a highway, reports say. (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

Laterals, Moves, Promotions

• Morrison & Foerster added life sciences partner Bethany Hills as a partner in New York. She arrives from Mintz, where she was chair of the Food and Drug Administration practice. (MoFo.com)

• Sullivan (formerly Sullivan & Worcester) said tax lawyer Richard Kariss joined the firm’s New York City office as a partner, arriving from Alston & Bird. Sullivan also added real estate lawyer Jessica Graf as counsel in Boston. She arrives from Seyfarth Shaw. (SullivanLaw.com)

• Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough added corporate finance lawyer James W. “Jim” Bartling as a partner in Boston. He arrives from THL Credit, where he was a director and senior counsel, and previously spent time at Proskauer Rose as an associate. (NelsonMullins.com)

Legal Actions

• Pryor Cashman client SBE Hotel Licensing is suing the owner and operator of the SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino for allegedly unpaid licensing fees of at least $450,000 on hotel and restaurant brands. (Associated Press via LasVegasNow.com)