Wake Up Call: Faegre Drinker Revenues Down, Profits Flat

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

• Three years after its merger, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath’s revenues shrank 3.3% to almost $955 million in 2022 as it got less corporate and transactional work but more business and intellectual property litigation. The firm’s average profits per equity partner eked up 0.6% to $990,000 despite increased travel and other costs as its equity partnership contracted 9.3%, to 351, according to a report based on early data. Executive partner Gina Kastel is due to take over as firm chair April 1 after her election last year. (American Lawyer)
• Cleveland-founded BakerHostetler had its 17th-straight year year of revenue gains in 2022, getting an 8% gain to $902.8 million mainly due to an average 10% rate increase across its practices, but its average profits per equity partner was sapped by rising costs, falling 1.4% to $1.76 million, according to a report. (American Lawyer)
• Heads of several Big Law firms told the Financial Times that they have corporate clients asking for write-downs on their legal bills or requesting to delay their payments until later in the year. (Financial Times)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Mayer Brown named construction transactions partner Joanna Horsnail managing partner of the firm’s approximately 400-lawyer Chicago office. (MayerBrown.com) Norton Rose Fulbright hired Japanese-law qualified banking and finance partner Akihiko Takamatsu in Tokyo. He arrives after 15 years at Clifford Chance. The firm said the hire allows it to offer Japanese law advice for the first time operating as a foreign law joint enterprise in the country. Norton Rose Fulbright also appointed Houston, Texas-based partner Susan Feigin Harris as US co-head of health care. St. Louis partner Stacey Murphy is the other co-head. (NortonRoseFulbright.com)
• Two shareholder class-action firms each earned more than $1 billion in fees last year. (Reuters)
• Insurers got another win in the fight over Covid-19 business interruption coverage. (Law.com)
• The Nevada state bar is considering replacing public reprimands with private admonitions in attorney ethics cases. (Law.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Computer chip company SiFive hired former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati corporate, securities, and M&A partner Adam Dolinko as chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development. Dolinko, a tech industry in-house veteran, was recently general counsel at self-driving vehicle tech company Ouster Inc. (SiFive.com)
• Simpson Thacher brought in former Federal Trade Commission competition lawyer Karen Kazmerzak as partner in Washington to work with the firm’s M&A practice. She arrives after 10 years at Sidley Austin. (SimpsonThacher.com)
• Cozen O’Connor announced two hires in Boston. It recruited former Massachusetts assistant attorney general, human trafficking division, Jeffrey Bourgeois as counsel in its institutional response group. Big Law veteran Shannon Warren, recently a partner and vice president at insurance subrogation captive law firm Uehlein & Associates, joined Cozen as a member in its subrogation and recovery department. (Cozen.com)
• Climate data disclosure and management company Persefoni promoted senior vice president and deputy general counsel Kristina Wyatt to chief sustainability officer, advising on evolving ESG disclosure requirements. Wyatt joined the company a year ago from the US Securities and Exchange Commission where as a senior counsel she advised on climate and environmental and social governance matters. (PR Newswire)
• Massachusetts-based Akoya Biosciences, Inc. hired biotech and technology in-house veteran Jennifer Kamocsay as general counsel. A former Skadden corporate and M&A attorney, she was recently GC at Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. (AkoyaBio.com)

Technology

• Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law launched an online tool that tracks and analyzes health-care litigation in the US. (ONeill.Law.Georgetown.edu)