Wake Up Call: Ex-NFL Raiders’ Top Lawyer Out as Interim Chief

In today’s column, the legal sector added 4,700 jobs in April; law firms are struggling to enforce their in-office policies for staff; German chemical giant BASF has expanded its diversity program for outside counsel to include global and regional firms.

• Leading off, the National Football League’s Las Vegas Raiders have fired interim president Dan Ventrelle, the team’s former top lawyer, less than a year after he stepped up to the role when the team’s former president left, according to reports. Ventrelle, previously the Raiders’ executive vice president and general counsel, reportedly said he was fired in retaliation for bringing concerns from multiple employees to the team’s owner, Mark Davis, about a “hostile work environment.” The Raiders hired longtime NFL in-house lawyer Kevin Manara to take Ventrelle’s spot as general counsel in October 2021. (NFL.com) (CNN.com)
• Attorneys said Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis may face a legal battle over Ventrelle’s ouster. (Sports Illustrated)
• The legal sector added 4,700 jobs from March to April 2022 to reach a seasonally adjusted 1,177,900, according to new U.S. government statistics. The sector has added 31,700 jobs since April 2021, according to the data. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 428,000 in April this year, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6%. That’s close to its level in February 2020, on the eve of the Covid pandemic, the government said. (BLS.gov)
• As law firms try to enforce their mandatory in-office policies for staff, the tight job market is keeping them from taking a hard line, a report says. (American Lawyer) After the pandemic forced many Big Law firms’ to make their summer associate programs virtual, many firms want this years’ program participants to come into the office most of the week. (Reuters) Neal Gerber Eisenberg said it’s adding a mental health care benefit for attorneys and staff through provider Spring Health to address a need highlighted by the pandemic. (Businesswire.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• With Shanghai under a strict Covid lockdown, Seattle-based Perkins Coie said it has appointed Los Angeles-based patent litigator and portfolio-management counselor Michael Wise, chair of the firm’s life sciences & health care industry group, to be office managing partner in the Chinese city. (PerkinsCoie.com)
• The 35-year-old son of a Brooklyn judge got an eight-month federal prison sentence for being among the first pro-Trump rioters to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (New York Law Journal)
• German chemical giant BASF’s expanded diversity program for outside counsel already has several Big Law firms participating. (Corporate Counsel)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Winston & Strawn snagged Kirkland & Ellis finance partner Sean Hilson as a corporate partner in Chicago; litigation funder Validity Finance added former Baker Botts intellectual property litigator Michelle Eber as portfolio investment counsel in Houston. Validity also hired real estate lawyer Abe Sutton as corporate counsel in New York. Veteran Big Law marketing pro John Neidecker joined as chief marketing officer; Honigman recruited former Justice Department trial attorney Denise Barnes as an investigations and white collar partner in Washington. (Honigman.com)
• Holland & Knight named new co-chairs of its appellate team. Tallahassee-based partner Amit Agarwal and Tampa-based partner Stacy D. Blank replace former Holland & Knight partner Laurie Webb Daniel; Steptoe & Johnson LLP grabbed Kelley Drye & Warren government contracts attorney Amba Datta as a partner in Washington. (Steptoe.com)
• Pryor Cashman recruited a former general counsel and president of Christie’s North and South America Patricia Hambrecht of counsel as an art and luxury goods transactional attorney in New York; FisherBroyles hired corporate and M&A attorney David Black as a partner in Houston. He arrives from Ulmer & Berne, where he was a partner and vice chair of its corporate group; K&L Gates brought in former North Carolina acting U.S. attorney Norman Acker as of health care counsel in Research Triangle Park; Quarles & Brady said commercial finance and real estate lawyer Amanda Morton joined the firm as a corporate partner in Indianapolis. She was at Ice Miller. (Quarles.com)