Wake Up Call: Hack Possibly Compromised Data, Firm Says

In today’s column, Venable last week announced a very flexible office-return policy for lawyers and staff, as well as modest bonuses; a report finds legal tech companies are lukewarm to going public via deals with so-called blank check companies; Thompson & Knight lost more partners in Dallas.

• Leading off, plaintiffs-side litigation firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is the latest law firm to get hit by hackers. The Washington-based firm, which has around 100 lawyers, said on its website that it’s “notifying individuals” that it was hit by a cyber breach on Jan. 23 that may have compromised the security of some information. (CohenMilstein.com)
• Venable last week announced a very flexible office return plan for its lawyers and staff, and it also announced “modest but heart-felt thank you” bonuses. (Above the Law) New York’s court system required all judges and court staff to return to full in-person work starting Monday. (New York Law Journal)
• Minneapolis-based Robins Kaplan said it has redirected many of its litigators to insurance work after seeing a surge in pandemic-related insurance claims last year. (American Lawyer) Fox Rothschild made good use of remote working during the pandemic, finding it’s a quick way to add scope. But Fox Chairman Mark Silo says the Philadelphia-based firm is still considering adding physical offices, in particular in Kansas City and Boston. (Kansas City Business Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Georgia-based biotech company MiMedx Group Inc. failed to recover more than $40 million in legal fees and other costs following the conviction of two former executives for scheming to inflate the medical device maker’s revenue. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• Holland & Knight, represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and four partners are getting sued for over $400 million in damages by a Florida surgeon alleging malpractice. (American Lawyer)
• U.S. immigration courts are moving closer to offering automatic legal representation for asylum seekers, though those advisers might not be lawyers. (Border Report)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Thompson & Knight has been hit by several partner exits since news broke that it is mulling a merger with Holland & Knight. In the latest, Sidley Austin grabbed energy transactional partner Holt Foster, who was head of Thompson & Knight’s Dallas office and on its management committee. He joins Sidley as a partner in the same city and co-leader of its global energy practice team; also in Dallas, Thompson Knight lost technology-focused attorney Craig Carpenter, who joined BakerHostetler as a partner in its digital assets and data management practice group in the privacy governance and technology transactions team. (BakerLaw.com)
• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner lost a 13-lawyer private client team, including 11 partners, to Chicago-based estate planning specialist firm Harrison & Held, which said the new attorneys will be located in several of its offices around the U.S.; Hughes Hubbard & Reed got aviation finance lawyer Thomas Healey as a partner in Washington. He joins after over 19 years at Katten Muchin Rosenman; Shearman & Sterling poached Winston Strawn’s M&A co-chair Chris Zochowski, who also played a leading role on Winston’s SPAC and permanent capital practice. He arrives with partner Brad Noojin on Shearman’s U.S. private equity team based in Washington. (Shearman.com)
• Holland & Knight added trial lawyer and commercial litigator Kenneth Racowski as a partner in Philadelphia. He arrives from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, where he was co-chair of the class action litigation practice; former California Central District federal prosecutor, criminal appeals section chief, L. Ashley Aull returned to Munger, Tolles & Olson as a white collar, investigations partner in Los Angeles; London-headquartered HFW added global insurance and reinsurance partner Amanda J. Kujda in Houston; K&L Gates said it brought in finance lawyer Eugene Yeung as a partner in Hong Kong, from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; White & Case hired capital markets lawyer Rahul Guptan as a partner in Singapore. He arrives from Clifford Chance, where he was a partner and co-head of the global India group. (WhiteCase.com)

Technology

• Legal tech companies are skeptical about the prospect of going public via mergers with so-called special purpose acquisition companies. However, SPACs, also known as blank-check companies, can still be useful driving up competition between private equity suitors for tech startups, Business Insider reports; Clifford Chance released a suite of automation tools to help startups. (Artificial Lawyer)