Wake Up Call: Freshfields’ U.S. Expansion Strains Partnership

In today’s column, Hogan Lovells announced new diversity and inclusion targets; Blank Rome joined the list of firms that have rolled back Covid pay cuts; Cahill says it won’t offer fall Covid bonuses, but said its year-end bonuses will reflect the “prevailing market”; litigation finance firm Burford went public on the New York Stock Exchange Monday; Burford also released a study showing lawyers expect a boom in litigation financing because of the Covid recession; the New Yorker suspended legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after he exposed himself on Zoom.

Leading off, as three hundred-year old European firm Freshfields pushes to become a U.S. heavyweight, the firm, and its new female leader, face challenges as its expansion strains a partnership built on a rigid pay structure. (Financial Times)

Transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells announced new diversity and inclusion targets for its U.S. and U.K. partnerships, including having minority partners account for 15% and LGBTQ partners 4% of its partnership by 2025. The firm said its existing goal of 30% women partners globally by 2022 remains unchanged. (HoganLovells.com)

Blank Rome joined the expanding roster of Big Law firms that, finding they’re having a better than expected year, business-wise are reversing pay cuts and other austerity measures made for associates and staff earlier in the year, when firms were worried about potential financial impacts of the Covid crisis. Blank Rome said it’s completely ending the 15% pay cuts it made in April, but the firm’s employees are still wondering if they’ll get back pay they’ve lost since the spring, according to this report. (Above the Law)

Meanwhile, Pillsbury Winthrop, which was one of the first big firms to roll back Covid pay cuts back in August, has now also paid rebates to fully restore employees’ pay, legal blog Above the Law reported. (Pillsbury Winthrop)

In the U.K., a report says that on Nov. 30 Eversheds Sutherland is ending the “flexible working scheme” it implemented earlier in the year as a Covid measure to cut its payroll outlay. (The Lawyer)

Cahill joined the growing Cravath/Kirkland camp of Big Law firms that have opted not to offer the special Covid appreciation bonuses that Davis Polk, Willkie, and several other firms have said they will offer. Cahill did say that associates’ year-end bonuses will reflect “prevailing market bonus activity across the New York area (including Covid-related bonuses),” ATL reported. (Above the Law)

In the past, Big Law firms have been accused of “herd mentality,” but recent diverging trends on layoffs, associate bonuses, and lateral hiring suggest more independent thinking. (American Lawyer)

Law firms that have online payment systems have done better during the pandemic than firms that don’t have them, according to the recent 2020 legal trends report by practice management platform Clio. Podcast discussion. (Legal Talk Network)

New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said new in-person jury trials are starting in New York City this week, including in Brooklyn, where the state has designated a coronavirus cluster zone in which nonessential businesses must close and nonessential gatherings are banned. (New York Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

Kirkland & Ellis, Boies Schiller Flexner, Holland & Knight, and Akerman are among firms that have seen an increase in partner exits this year. (American Lawyer)

Burford Capital yesterday became the first litigation funder listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (BLAW)

Burford also released a survey that finds in-house counsel and law firm attorneys expect the Covid-19 recession to set off a boom in litigation finance. (Corporate Counsel)

The New Yorker suspended legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer, for exposing himself during a Zoom call with with employees of the magazine and WNYC radio. (NYT) (Above the Law)

Cooley client Billtrust, which makes cloud-based software for processing B2B payments, is going public via a merger with South Mountain Merger Corporation, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company that got advice from Paul, Weiss. The deal will value Billtrust at an estimated $1.3 billion. Goodwin said it advised Billtrust’s existing investors on the transaction. Mayer Brown advised Citi and J.P Morgan in their role as placement agents for the concurrent private placement to the deal, a statement said. (PRNewswire.com)

Pro Bono

A free, virtual legal clinic co-founded by associates from Katten Muchin Rosenman and Kirkland & Ellis aims to help people in Chicago’s Asian community whose first language isn’t English. It helps themdeal with business-related legal issues ranging from evictions to insurance claims. The clinic, which includes about 60 volunteer attorneys and law students, also aims to serve as a way to create mentorship for law students in Chicago. (Chicago Sun Times)

Attorneys in the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association are offering free advice to wildfire victims across the state to help them deal with filing insurance claims, among other challenges. (The Register-Guard)

Laterals, Moves

Loeb & Loeb hired life sciences patent litigator Wanda French-Brown as a partner in New York. She arrives most recently from McGuireWoods, where she was a partner. Earlier in her career she worked as a registered pharmacist. (Loeb.com)

Clark Hill said financial services and privacy lawyer Leslie Bender joined the firm’s Washington office as senior counsel. She has experience working on matters before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and with credit reporting and debt collection issues. She most recently chief strategy officer and general counsel at BCA Financial Services, Inc., in Miami. (ClarkHill.com)

K&L Gates said litigator Mitchell Kim joined the firm as a partner in Los Angeles, arriving from Fox Rothschild. (KLGates.com)

California real estate firm Miller Starr Regalia added land use attorney Kenneth Stahl as of counsel in Newport Beach. (MSRLegal.com)

New French M&A and litigation firm Perchet Rontchevsky & Associés recruited former Davis Polk & Wardwell corporate governance lawyer Jean-Christophe Devouge as a partner in Paris. (LeMondeduDroit.fr)

Alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS said trial attorney Clifford M. Greene joined its Minneapolis panel. (JAMSadr.com)

In-house

Walmart Inc. hired Jones Day patent litigation partner John Kinton as lead counsel for intellectual property litigation. It also hired veteran energy industry in-house lawyer Emily Buchanan, a former federal court briefing attorney, as a director of ethics and conflicts of interest. (BLAW)

Hollywood-based talent agency ICM Partners hired entertainment industry veteran Julia Johnson as its new general counsel and executive vice president, head of business and legal affairs, starting in November. She arrives from the Agency for the Performing Arts, where she had a similar title. (Hollywood Reporter)

Technology

A Delaware federal class action suit alleges that Amazon-hosted call centers are violating Illinois state law by collecting personal information of callers located in Illinois. (Delaware Business Court Insider)

Legal Education

California’s bar exam threshold pass score will have to be reduced more than it recently was if the state wants to close the pass rate gap between white and minority examinees and improve diversity within the legal profession, a new study says. (The Recorder)

A law school professor University of Pittsburgh School of Law resigned after using the “n-word” in class. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) (Above the Law)