Wake Up Call: Few Big Firms Plan to Require Vaccines, for Now

In today’s column, Hogan Lovells and Sidley are leading in Autodesk’s $1 billion deal to buy a water infrastructure software company; Reed Smith and other big firms posted strong 2020 results despite the pandemic; Locke Lord said women partners are leading all its Texas offices.

• Leading off, few Big Law firms, for now, plan to require their attorneys and staff to get Covid-19 vaccines to return to the office. But that could change. (American Lawyer)
• The Mexican legal profession is criticizing the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, after his comments accusing Mexican lawyers who represent foreign companies of committing “treason against the country.” (Law.com International) (El Financiero)
• Hogan Lovells said it is advising AutoCAD software maker Autodesk Inc on its $1 billion deal to buy water infrastructure software provider Innovyze Inc. Sidley Austin said it is advising the seller, EQT Partners. (Autodesk.com)
• Reed Smith posted a 5.1% increase in global revenues to $1.31 billion for 2020, in a tough pandemic year that saw the firm cut pay for associates, staff and partners, and make some layoffs. The Pittsburgh-headquartered firm, which restored pay by the end of the year, had 15.9% growth in average profits per equity partner, to $1.53 million. (American Lawyer)
• Citing Covid-related problems with mail and paper checks, Boies Schiller Flexner and a Denver nonprofit law firm asked a federal judge to let them adapt the way claims are paid out in a $65.5 million settlement they reached in 2019 on behalf of au pairs in a pay case. (AM Law Litigation Daily)
• California’s court system is facing pressure from state lawmakers over a backlog of cases that has piled up during the pandemic. (The Recorder)
• O’Melveny & Myers star litigation partner and trial practice chair Dan Petrocelli says he expects a “helter skelter” year of “colliding cases” for Big Law litigators as courts work through a huge backlog. (American Lawyer)

Biden Administration, Election Litigation, Fallout From Capitol Riots

• The investigation into former President Donald Trump’s finances looms over an eight candidate field vying to become Manhattan’s top prosecutor. (NYT)
• Politico reports that antitrust crusader and Columbia Law professor Tim Wu, who is said to have coined the term “net neutrality,” is likely to join the White House National Economic Council. (Politico)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Kansas City, Mo.-headquartered Husch Blackwell said its financial services & capital markets and labor & employment practices powered 9.7% growth in its gross revenues for 2020 to a record of about $417 million. The firm said that’s its the highest organic growth in a decade. (HuschBlackwell.com)
• Atlanta-based Morris, Manning & Martin’s gross revenues rose 2.7% to $152.84 million in 2020. The firm attributed its 23.5% increase in net income to lower expenses, flat head count, and high productivity. Meanwhile, its average PEP rose a more modest 8.3% to $1.414 million, reflecting its promotion of six lawyers to equity partner during the year. (Daily Report)
• Kansas City-based Stinson’s revenues shrank 1.1% to about $266.2 million in 2020, but cost cuts and high productive helped its average PEP jump 14.8% to $801,000. (American Lawyer)
• K&L Gates said it launched a Chinese trademarks agency—the K&L Gates IP Agency—that will enable it to file and prosecute trademark applications directly with the China National Intellectual Property Administration, without relying on local firms. (KLGates.com)
• U.K. insurance provider Thomas Miller launched a litigation finance company with access to $1 billion in capital after acquiring litigation insurance provider TheJudge Group. (BLAW)
• Texas is seeing a seeing a surge of storm-related lawsuits but lawyers say cases against utilities could face big hurdles. (Texas Lawyer)
• South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said he won’t resign despite facing articles of impeachment and the governor’s call for him to step down because he faces misdemeanor criminal charges for killing a man with his car. (Argus Leader)

Diversity & Inclusion

• Management-side worklaw firm Littler said it launched a solution that combines technology and attorney insights to help companies develop compliant affirmative action plans and promote workplace diversity and inclusion. (Littler.com)
• Locke Lord said all three of its Texas offices are led by women for the first time in its history. It named partner and affordable housing chair Cynthia Bast as Austin office managing partner and named partner and environmental section chair Elizabeth Mack Dallas office managing partner. Partner and corporate trust practice chair Laura Edrington has since January 2018 been its Houston office managing partner. All three are on the firm’s board of directors. (LockeLord.com)
• Baker Botts elected 12 lawyers (seven women) to partner. (BakerBotts.com)

Laterals, Moves

• After a private equity firm bought CDI Corp., an international engineering, information technology, and staffing services company, CDI’s general counsel Brian Short is joining Ballard Spahr as a partner in Philadelphia and co-leader of the firm’s securities and capital markets practice. Earlier in his career, Short was a partner at Dechert. (BallardSpahr.com)
• O’Melveny & Myers said it got back former Justice Department antitrust counsel Julia Schiller, who rejoined the firm as a partner in Washington in its antitrust & competition practice. (OMM.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland added Ballard Spahr corporate finance partner Steve B. Park in Atlanta. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)
• Morgan, Lewis & Bockius recruited Sidley Austin finance counsel Luis Herrero as a partner in Chicago. (MorganLewis.com)
• Hinshaw & Culbertson hired insurance partner Erin Parkinson in New Orleans. She arrives after about 30 years at McGlinchey Stafford, most recently as a member. (Hinshawlaw.com)
• Allen & Overy poached a CMO from U.K. elite firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer getting Lucy Murphy as its new London-based global chief marketing and communications officer. (AllenOvery.com)
• Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck said litigator Christopher E. Brown joined the firm as a partner in its health care/managed care practice in Orlando. He arrives from Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer. (KDVLaw.com)

In-House

• With business surging, fantasy sports rivals FanDuel Inc. and DraftKings Inc. are turning to Big Law firms for new in-house legal hires and outside counsel. (BLAW)
• Elanco Animal Health Inc. general counsel and corporate secretary Michael-Bryant Hicks is leaving the company to join Apria Healthcare Group, Inc., as executive vice president and general counsel. (BLAW)
• Furniture company La-Z-Boy Incorporated said it’s promoting Raphael Richmond, senior director of corporate compliance and employment law, to vice president and general counsel, effective April 25. Richmond, who earlier spent over 22 years in-house at Ford Motor Company, also continues as chief compliance officer at La-Z-Boy. She will succeed Stephen Krull, who is retiring. (Corporate Secretary)
• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation hired retirement benefits in-house veteran Russell Dempsey, most recently associate GC at insurance giant AIG, to be its new general counsel, based in Houston. (ASPPA)

Technology

• Silicon Valley-based Wilson Sonsini’s new deal with Morgan Stanley will give the investment bank access to proprietary software the firm created that manages startup finances. (BLAW)
• The pandemic hit solo law firms especially hard but solo firms that used online payment, client portals, and client intake tools did better than their peers that didn’t, according to a new survey from Clio. (Clio.com)
• In a new Dechert podcast, Brenda Sharton, co-chair of the firm’s global privacy and cybersecurity practice, talks with industry specialists about managing cybersecurity risks in private equity transactions. (Dechert.com)