Wake Up Call: Diverse Big Law Firm Hiring Took a Big Hit in 2023

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

• Big Law firms hired fewer ethnic minority candidates in 2023 than the year before, as they contended with challenges to their diversity efforts. Leopard Solutions found the number of diverse entry-level hires in the top 200 US firms dropped from 2,371 in 2022 to 2,049 last year, while DEI initiatives “became fraught in legal and political contexts.” (Financial Times)
• WilmerHale partner William Lee could face an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general over whether Harvard University was right to pay his firm almost $42 million between 2011 and 2022, when Lee served on the school’s governing board. WilmerHale was Harvard’s outside counsel in the landmark affirmative action case “Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard,” filed in 2014. (New York Post)
• Fourth-quarter leasing by US law firms “surged” to its highest quarterly levels since before the pandemic, as 7.8 million square feet of office space was leased by firms, the highest annual total since 2019, when 8.4 million square feet was taken. As post-pandemic law firm workplace strategies become clearer, “they are making long-term decisions with more and more confidence,” said Savills vice chairman Thomas Fulcher. (Commercial Property Executive)
• Gibson Dunn partner Orin Snyder is thick in the middle of a behind-the-scenes legal battle among Bravo TV stars that’s “getting as heated as a ‘Real Housewives’ reunion.” In a “fiery” letter on behalf of client Andy Cohen, the gossipy talk show host, Snyder says the suit from “Real Housewives of New York City” star Leah McSweeney, which alleged that Cohen likes to ingest cocaine with “Housewives” stars, is “littered with false, offensive, and defamatory statements.” (Page Six)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Katherine A. Fillmore has joined Michael Best as a partner with the litigation practice group in Austin.
• John Monahon and Todd Wade have joined Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as partners in the corporate practice group in Atlanta.
• Gregg Stevens has joined the consumer financial services practice at Hinshaw & Culbertson in Dallas. He formerly practiced at McGlinchey Stafford.
• Nikolas S. Komyati has joined Fox Rothschild as a partner in the litigation department in Morristown, N.J. He previously served at Bressler Amery & Ross, P.C.
• Brian J. Lohan and Maja Zerjal Fink have joined Clifford Chance as partners in the global restructuring and insolvency team in New York.
• Zachary Kobrin has joined Saul Ewing as a partner in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He served as vice president and general counsel for Trulieve Cannabis Corp. and as general counsel and chief compliance officer for Cansortium Holdings LLC.
• David Broderick has joined Paul Hastings as a partner in New York.
• Carlos Renato Vieira has been appointed to tax partner at TozziniFreire Advogados.