Wake Up Call: Firms Eye Mergers to Add Talent in Tight Market

In today’s column, Littler is boosting its U.S. associates’ pay retroactively, a report says; Debevoise is advising French insurer Covéa on its $9.9 billion deal to acquire reinsurance firm PartnerRe from the family that founded Fiat; Latham promoted 44 lawyers to partner and 39 to counsel.

• Leading off, stymied by a tight lateral market for talent, several large firms are in merger talks as a possible avenue to boost head count, a report says. (American Lawyer)
• Management-side worklaw firm Littler announced raises for its U.S. associates ranging $5,000 to $25,000 based on market and year of seniority. The raises, retroactive to Jan. 1, don’t follow the Davis Polk scale, which runs from $205,000 to $365,000, depending on seniority, this report says. (Above The Law)
• Despite a big push to maintain some remote work flexibility post pandemic, it turns out that many junior attorneys actually want to work in office, a report says. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Debevoise & Plimpton said it is advising French insurance group Covéa on its deal to acquire reinsurance firm PartnerRe for around $9 billion (7.7 million euros) from the Agnelli family’s Exor NV. “Exor said it was advised by Italian firm Pedersoli Studio Legale. The deal is expected to close in mid-2022.”
• An assistant director and armorer from the Alex Baldwin movie set “Rust” have hired lawyers as investigation continues into Baldwin’s accidental fatal shooting of a cinematographer. (Deadline) Lawyers said civil litigation is highly likely and criminal charges possible in the New Mexico case. (CNBC) Insurance fallout is also expected. (Insurance Journal)
• Former Pillsbury and Greenburg Traurig structured finance lawyer Linda Grant Williams fell short in her 11-year-old New York state court antitrust lawsuit against three Wall Street banks. (Reuters) As college athletes look to cash in on new NCAA endorsement rules, law firms are posting up to assist. (Daily Report)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher said former acting U.S. Attorney for Texas’ Northern District Prerak Shah has returned to the firm in Houston as of counsel, focused on white collar criminal defense and investigations. Shah’s also a former chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz and was an associate at the firm previously before leaving to join the Texas attorney general’s office; in another Texas move, Womble Bond Dickinson hired veteran patent and intellectual property attorneys Sam Campbell and Eric Stephenson as of counsel in Houston; Shearman & Sterling grabbed Haynes and Boone litigators Thad Behrens and Dan Gold as partners in Dallas. (Shearman.com)
• Shearman also poached four corporate and finance partners from DLA Piper in Paris: Xavier Norlain, who was DLA’s France co-managing partner, Jeremy Scemama, Maud Manon, and Matthieu Lampel; Neal Gerber Eisenberg hired former Amazon corporate counsel Elliott Blanchard as a partner in New York. He joins from Schlam Stone & Dolan; Blank Rome said litigator Hilary F. Korman, a former consumer financial services associate at the firm, rejoined in New York as a senior attorney. She arrives from M&T Bank, where she was vice president, assistant general counsel, deposits; Akerman hired Foley & Lardner corporate lawyer Timothy Bramwell as a partner in Jacksonville. He advises on public finance and health care finance, including related securities and tax matters. (Akerman)
• Google litigation vice president Catherine Lacavera moved to health-care company Color as chief legal officer; on-demand expert consultation site JustAnswer hired former Pandora and Life360 general counsel Jeremy Liegl as chief legal officer; Latham & Watkins said its partnership elected 44 associates to partner and 39 to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2022, across its offices worldwide. (PR Newswire)

Legal Education

• Two Harvard Law grads, now running legal tech startup Evisort, are going back to the school to teach a reading group on startup entrepreneurship and innovations in legal technology. (Businesswire)  Boston College Law School announced a $10 million gift from Boston College Trustee and BC Law graduate Marianne Short and said it plans to name a deanship after her. (BC.edu)