Wake Up Call: Firms Mull Office Returns and Remote Hires

In today’s column, Shook, Hardy & Bacon acquired a five-lawyer virtual firm specialized in tech transactions; Dechert launched an innovation program with a design company; Loeb & Loeb announced market-matching special bonuses for associates.

• Leading off, encouraged by the success of work-from-home arrangements for lawyers and staff during the pandemic, a growing number of Big Law firms are hiring associates to work remote. Perkins Coie has made offers for remote hires in several states and Goodwin Procter has a list of “out-of-footprint” locations where the firm is looking to hire remote associates, according to a report. Husch Blackwell, which launched a virtual office in July 2020 and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, which is working on policies for a virtual office, already have lawyers working remotely. (American Lawyer)
• Meanwhile, the first Big Law announcements on plans for bringing lawyers and staff back into office after a over a year of working from home have raised concerns about fairness, and clarity; and as lawyers and staff return to the office, even as many plan to keep working remote at least part of the time, one big question is how much physical space people, and firms, really need. (Daily Report) Munger, Tolles & Olson said its on-site childcare center reopened. (MTO.com)
• Shook, Hardy & Bacon took another approach to strengthening its remote work capacity, acquiring Seattle-based virtual firm Ragen Swan. It’s getting five technology transactions and intellectual property lawyers, including some former Microsoft in-house lawyers, and several paralegals. Founder Amy Levin Ragen will lead Shook Hardy’s new technology transactions practice. (The Recorder)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Dechert said it’s launching an innovation program with innovation and design company, IDEO, aimed at driving systemic improvements to the firm’s business model. (Dechert.com)
• Loeb & Loeb is the latest Big Law firm to announce special bonuses that match the Davis Polk scale, which run up to $64,000 depending on year of seniority. (Above the Law)
• A federal judge sentenced the founder and managing partner of the $1 billion Marble Ridge Capital LP fund, former Simpson Thacher lawyer Daniel Kamensky, to six months in prison after he pled guilty to bankruptcy fraud. (Bloomberg News via BLAW) Miami-based Holland & Knight operations and finance partner Douglas Wright died of apparent cardiac arrest while swimming in Clearwater, Fl., according to a report. (Reuters) The trial of disbarred environmental lawyer Stephen Donziger started in New York. (Bloomberg News)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Willkie Farr & Gallagher poached McDermott Will & Emery’s global head of privacy & cybersecurity, Laura Jehl, as a partner and co-chair of its cybersecurity & privacy practice group; K&L Gates added former Washington state assistant attorney general Jason (Jake) Bernstein as a privacy partner in Seattle in its technology transactions practice group; FisherBroyles got employee benefits partner Kyle Flaherty, who joins in New York after 27 years at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. (FisherBroyles.com)
• White & Case grabbed Kirkland & Ellis restructuring partner Greg Pesce as a partner in Chicago; Mayer Brown recruited tax controversy lawyer Jenny Austin as a partner in Chicago. She was at at Baker McKenzie over 13 years, including as a partner, and arrives most recently from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Akin Gump hired away Cravath, Swaine & Moore M&A lawyer Brittain Rogers in New York as a corporate partner; Delta Capital Partners Management LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm specializing in litigation and legal finance, hired DLA Piper financial services litigation partner Jonathan Sablone as the firm’s managing director and global director of originations. (PR Newswire)
• Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough added a six-partner trial team in Baltimore and Nashville; DLA Piper‘s San Juan, Puerto Rico, office got Margarita Mercado-Echegaray, former solicitor general of the commonwealth, as litigation and regulatory partner; Fox Rothschild got Womble Bond Dickinson litigator John Hawk as a partner in Denver. He focuses on consumer finance and insurance; Morrison & Foerster recruited former Japanese judge Takahiro Nonaka as a partner in Tokyo in its litigation department. He arrives most recently from DLA Piper. (Morrison & Foerster)

Technology

• Corporate legal, risk and compliance software provider Mitratech bought a second legal tech company in a week, this time getting lifecycle management platform ContractRoom. (Legaltech News)