Wake Up Call: Four Firms Guide Deal Creating $1.5 Trillion Asset Manager

In today’s column, Russia is back on the hook for a $50 billion arbitration ruling won by ex-owners of Yukos Oil, which are Shearman clients; Sidley Austin is advising Boy Scouts of America on its bankruptcy filing in Delaware; Saul Ewing posted revenue and PEP gains in 2019; and Hogan Lovells and Davis Polk advised on Dell’s $2.08 billion sale of a cybersecurity unit.

• Leading off, asset management pioneer Franklin Resources, advised by Willkie Farr & Gallagher, agreed to acquire its rival Legg Mason Inc. in a deal to create a global investment manager with a combined $1.5 trillion in assets. (Bloomberg News) Weil, Gotshal & Manges served as lead counsel and Skadden Arps served as special counsel to Legg Mason. Dechert advised alternative asset management company EnTrust Global in a related transaction. (Investors.FranklinResources.com)

• Russia may have to pay a record $50 billion arbitration ruling after a Dutch appeals court found in favor of the former owners of Yukos Oil Co, which Shearman & Sterling is representing. (BN)

• Weighed down by falling membership and sex abuse claims, Boy Scouts of America had its Sidley Austin lawyers file for bankruptcy in Delaware. Latham & Watkins is representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Dorsey & Whitney is representing Girl Scouts of the United States of America in the case. (American Lawyer)

• Littler Mendelson, the management-side labor and employment firm, said it is expanding into Austria, as three-lawyer Vienna-based worklaw firm Gerlach Rechtsanwälte joined its Littler Global network. Littler says it now has over 1,500 attorneys across 21 countries, including a presence in eight countries in Europe. (Littler.com)

• Philadelphia-based Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr said expansion in the Midwest allowed it to grow gross revenue 5.2%, to $239.1 million, in 2019. It said it boosted rates about 3% on average, while average profits per equity partner increased 2.3% to $616,000. (Legal Intelligencer)

• King & Spalding added two governments contracts lawyers based in Washington and Northern Virginia. The founder and former chair of Morrison & Foerster’s government contracts & public procurement practice, Rick Vacura, and former McKinsey & Company in-house leader Steve Cave join King & Spalding as partners. (KSLaw.com)

• President Trump yesterday pardoned or commuted the sentences of several white collar criminals. (NYT)

• Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer in his criminal sex assault case got a stern warning from the judge after writing an Op-Ed about the case. (BN via BLAW)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Electric car startup Faraday & Future Inc.'s Troutman Sanders lawyers told a federal court that the company can’t be sued in New York over allegations it lured a Mayer Brown partner to become its general counsel in California under false pretenses. (BLAW)

• The U.S. attorney appointed by Attorney General William Barr to review the prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is former Husch Blackwell partner Jeff Jensen. (National Law Journal)

• Federal judges said they will hold an “emergency meeting” regarding Barr’s intervention in the Roger Stone case. (National Law Journal)

• BakerHostetler added a former top DOJ antitrust official, Ann O’Brien, as a partner in the firm’s Washington and Philadelphia offices. (BakerLaw.com)

• Gupta Wessler, the D.C. plaintiff-side boutique founded by a former senior appellate litigator at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is opening an office in San Francisco. (BLAW)

• New York-based Kleinberg Kaplan, which represents hedge funds and investors, announced new Manhattan office and a brand refresh. (KKWC.com)

Deals

• Hogan Lovells client Dell Technologies Inc. sold one of its cybersecurity units, RSA, for $2.08 billion, to a consortium advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell and led by Symphony Technology Group. (BN) (Yahoo! Finance)

• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., advised by Proskauer Rose, is selling its online personalized gift unit PersonalizationMall.com for $252 million to 1-800-Flowers.com, which got advice from Cahill Gordon, Reindel. (BN via BLAW)

Laterals, Moves

• Foley & Lardner hired securities enforcement lawyer Thomas Krysa, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official, in Denver as a partner. He arrives frome Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. (Foley.com)

• Skadden Arps poached Food and Drug Administration veteran William McConagha from Sidley Austin, where he’d been since 2012. He joined Skadden’s health care litigation and enforcement practice as a partner in Washington. (American Lawyer)

• The L.A. office of transatlantic firm Withers hired two partners and a special counsel with expertise including intellectual property, corporate compliance, securities, and employment law, and international transactions, among other areas. (Financial Advisor Magazine)

• Carlton Fields added construction litigator Leslie King as a shareholder in Hartford, Connecticut. As a partner at Murtha Cullina, King won high-profile victories on behalf of the city of Hartford in disputes involving its minor league baseball stadium. (CarltonFields.com)

Promotions

• Sheppard Mullin, Richter & Hampton promoted 21 attorneys (eight women) to partner firmwide. (SheppardMullin.com)

• Greenspoon Marder promoted cannabis law senior counsel Robert Finkle to partner. He’s based in Dublin, California. (GMLaw.com)

Legal Actions, Bankruptcies, Decisions

• Dykema won a defense jury verdict for Kia Motors America Inc. in a product liability suit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking $87 milllion in damages. (L.A. Daily News) (Dykema)

• A California federal judge rejected a motion for sanctions against Tesla and its Sheppard Mullin lawyer over their handling of discovery in a discrimination case. (The Recorder)

• Pier 1 Imports Inc., advised by Kirkland & Ellis, got a bankruptcy court’s permission to begin a bidding process to find a buyer and sell its assets. (BN via BLAW)

• Sanofi-Aventis US LLC, represented by Shook Hardy & Bacon, defeated a woman’s bid to upend a defense verdict in the first federal test trial over claims the cancer drug Taxotere caused permanent hair loss. (BLAW)

• Proskauer is advising Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. and several of its mining and energy subsidiaries on a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing this month in the Southern District of Ohio. (Birmingham Business Journal)

Legal Education

• Nationwide first-time pass rate among graduates from American Bar Association-accredited law schools rose to nearly 80% in 2019, up from 75% in 2019, new ABA data show. (Law.com)

• The ABA said almost 90% graduates of accredited law schools passed a bar exam within two years of graduation. (BLAW)