Wake Up Call: Dropping Merger Talks, Greenberg Traurig Acquires Four Laterals

• Days after halting merger talks with a London-based firm, Greenberg Traurig acquired four litigation partners from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft for its New York office, including Louis Solomon, co-chair of Cadwalader’s litigation department and chair of its commercial and international litigation groups. (American Lawyer)

• Female lawyers and other female legal professionals continue to face hurdles on equal pay,with median pay for full-time female lawyers at 77.4 percent of that earned by male counterparts, according to recently released 2014 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. (ABA Journal)

• Powered by some major lateral hires last year, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, whose fiscal year ends April 2, is projecting a 13.9 percent surge in gross revenue for 2015, in what would be the most profitable year in its history . (American Lawyer)

• The legal profession has been slow to embrace the benefits of legal technology, in part because lawyers are worried that software could eliminate their jobs. But recently promising innovative startups have taken off in such areas as legal marketplaces, dispute resolution, and lawyer time-management, among other solutions. (TechCrunch)

Legal Market

• Founded by 22 former partners of Schiff Hardin a few months ago, including its four name partners, the new firm Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila has grown to 41 lawyers and is preparing to open a New York office. (American Lawyer)

• Volkswagen AG is in talks with U.S. authorities to establish a national remediation fund administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and a separate one for California as part of a settlement of its liabilities for pollution from its cars after the automaker cheated on diesel-emissions tests, said people familiar with the matter. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg Business)

• Podcast: The American Lawyer’s Julie Triedman joins BLB editors to discuss K&L Gates, which recently lost 30 partners despite an announcement the firm would be receiving a $210 million contingency fee award. (Big Law Business)

• The recent trend of flat demand for legal services is likely here to stay, as corporate law departments expand, buyers get more sophisticated, and law firms face competition from alternative providers. In this context, the success of a law firm merger is likely to be determined by how effectively it is based on addressing client needs, and by extension results, writers the chairman of Seyfarth Shaw. (Big Law Business)

• China’s recent economic, legal and other trends have law firms rethinking whether having an office in China is worth the major effort and cost required, and some are leaving the country. But for some firms the market may be too big to ignore. (Law.com)

• The chairman of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Jim Rishwain, said cross-border IPO and M&A opportunities for its Silicon Valley office led the firm to start in China with an office in Shanghai in 2006 , rather than in Hong Kong, as part of its Chinese “hub” strategy. (The Lawyer)

SCOTUS

• Video: U.S. President Barack Obama urged Senate Republicans to fulfill their “constitutional duty” to give a fair hearing to Merrick Garland, his nominee to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, “and then an up-or-down” vote. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg News)

• If confirmed, Garland, who worked 10 years in Big Law at Washington firm Arnold & Porter, would be the second partner from that firm to sit on the Supreme Court . (National Law Journal)

• According to his most recent financial disclosure report , Garland reported no no gifts, financial agreements or financial liabilities, providing an interesting contrast with recent revelations about the luxury trip Scalia was on when he died. (National Law Journal)

• Democrats are acting “holier than thou” about the Supreme Court nomination, Utah Senator Orin Hatch said Thursday. (Politico)

Laterals and Moves

• BLB talks to Jeffrey Bleich, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia, about why he chose to leave Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he was longtime litigation partner in San Francisco, to join global giant Dentons , whose profits per partner in 2015 were a little more than one-third those of Munger. (Big Law Business)

• LeClairRyan announced Thursday it added a group of seven general commercial litigators to its Boston office, picking up the four partners and three associates from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough along with six professional staff members. (Big Law Business)

• Just months after his promotion to general counsel at Microsoft Corp., Horacio Gutierrez plans to leave to become GC at music streaming company Spotify.(The Lawyer)

• California-based entertainment company Participant Media said it has promoted Gabriel Brakin to general counsel and executive vice president for business affairs. Before joining Participant in 2008, Brakin was an entertainment and media transactions attorney in the Century City office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. (Participant Media)

Technology

• Chief executive officers from three leading contract management software providers offer advice on what companies should consider before investing in such tools, such as the tools’ capabilities, the vendor relationship and getting a personalized demonstration of what tools can do. (Legaltech News)

• Due to an error, federal authorities recently revealed that Edward Snowden was the target of a 2013 court order on secure email provider Lavabit, which was put out of business by the case. (Wired)

• Coming changes to European privacy and security law will among other things change the definition of “personal data,” which could potentially make more U.S.-based companies subject to the EU rules. (Information Week)

• The book “The Future of the Professions,” written by Richard Susskind and his son, raises interesting academic questions about how major technological advancements will affect the legal profession a few decades from now, but for now practicing lawyers have a responsibility to do a better job now, using the imperfect technology already available . (3 Geeks and a Law Blog)

• The new enterprise boss at Google, has an edict to build the company’s cloud unit , so it can compete with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, and is on the M&A hunt. (Re/code)

• The law firm Husch Blackwell, working with the compliance software provider Neota Logic, released an online software platform designed to help higher learning institutions comply with the Clery Act, the federal statute that requires reports on campus crimes.(Legaltech News)

Legal Education

• The successful fight to retire Harvard Law School’s controversial shield emblem, which has ties to a slaveholding benefactor, has also spawned plans for several other changes at the school,including bringing a visiting critical race theory professor to the school, hiring more diverse faculty and making school orientations more inclusive, among other things. (Big Law Business)

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