Wake Up Call: Fox Rothschild Gets Mintz Group for Boston Office

In today’s column, new ABA data show a widening gap in bar passage rates for Black and white exam takers; New York City fired a lawyer for alleged “misrepresentations” in George Floyd civil litigation; insurers have chalked up recent wins in pandemic-related business interruption litigation.

• Leading off, Fox Rothschild opened an office in Boston with a life sciences-focused group of patent attorneys and professionals grabbed from Mintz Levin. The group is led by partner Peter Corless. It includes counsel Nicholas Zachariades, associate Joohee Lee, and patent agent Michael Mattoni. Massachusetts-based worklaw partner Kirsten White, who’s been working for Philadelphia-headquartered Fox remotely since 2021, will also be attached to the office. (FoxRothschild.com)
• New American Bar Association data show the gap in first-time pass rates between white and Black law graduates continued to grow last year, reaching 24 percentage points. (Reuters)
• Insurers fighting litigation filed by companies claiming business interruptions stemming from the pandemic have won favorable rulings in recent weeks in federal appeals and state courts. (Law.com) But one federal judge asked the Maryland Court of Appeals for its opinion on whether the Covid-19 virus caused a company’s physical loss or damage. (Law.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• New York City’s law department fired a lawyer over her handling of George Floyd protesters’ civil rights lawsuits, accusing her of “misrepresentations” in a court filing and communications with the protesters’ lawyers, the Times reports. (NYT) Another report said the fired lawyer, Dara Weiss, has been “sanctioned five times in recent months over the police department’s failing to turn over evidence.” (Hell Gate)
• A New York City lawyer who was also a special counsel to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and who pled guilty to involvement in a nearly $2.2 million kickback scheme was disbarred. (New York Law Journal)
• The city of Chicago has paid nearly $200 million to outside law firms in five years, mostly for defending lawsuits filed against the city’s police department, a report says. (ABC Chicago)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Squire Patton Boggs said it added three attorneys as partner in France and Italy to its European private equity practice. Corporate attorney Anthony Guillaume joined as partner from DLA Piper and financial services attorney Benjamin Marché joined as partner from Shearman & Sterling in Paris. Corporate attorney Sara Belotti joined as partner from Baker McKenzie in Milan; King & Spalding grabbed Kirkland & Ellis finance partner Mary Liz Brady in Chicago; Mayer Brown brought in private investment funds attorney Kristin Rice-Gonzalez as a partner in Chicago from Baker McKenzie; Seyfarth Shaw picked up tech- and IP-focused corporate partner Arnold Brown in San Francisco. (Seyfarth.com)
• Katten Muchin hired former JPMorgan Chase & Co. in-house attorney Christopher Isaacs as a partner in its mergers and acquisitions/private equity practice in New York. Isaacs arrives from Goodwin Procter; Orrick said tech litigation partner Ben Au joined in Santa Monica from Durie Tangri; Hogan Lovells said its global products law group lead Lauren Colton, a longtime life sciences partner at the firm, took over as office managing partner for Baltimore effective May 1 from commercial litigation partner Steve Barley; Troutman Pepper named five new office managing partners, including four women, for its Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Princeton, and San Francisco offices, effective May 1. (Troutman.com)
• Panera Bread Co. named former Bacardi North America general counsel and vice president Marlene Gordon as senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary. She was recently SVP, chief administrative officer, general counsel and board member at Del Monte Fresh Produce Company; former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deputy general counsel William Chang joined UpStream Healthcare as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. He’s a former Crowell & Moring partner and was recently CLO and executive at health information technology and medical supply company McKesson Corp.; Nasdaq-listed biopharmaceutical company VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. hired former Big Law partner and veteran biotech industry in-house leader Reid Adler as chief legal officer. (VistaGen.com)