Wake Up Call: Gibson Dunn Continues Record Revenue String

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• Gibson Dunn said strong demand for its litigation, regulatory, and private equity advice helped the firm grow revenue for the 27th straight year in 2022. The firm’s gross revenue jumped by more than 10% to about $2.74 billion. Its profits per equity partner also surged, up nearly 11% to $4.93 million, another record. (American Lawyer)
• Private equity and venture capital investments in the UK nosedived 61% year over year in 2022, as the number of big transactions dried up, according to a report. (S&P Global Market Intelligence) TPG Rise, the global impact investing platform of private equity firm TPG, warned that its third private equity impact fund may fall short on its $3 billion target because of “ongoing challenges in the fundraising market.” (NewPrivateMarkets.com)
• Skadden and Latham & Watkins were among law firms advising Hesai Technology, a Chinese self-driving vehicle tech company, on its recent $190 million initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange. (China Business Law Journal)
• A North Dakota law firm won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against two associates that the firm said received fixed draws but then failed to make their billable hour targets. (Law.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Crypto payment infrastructure provider Moonpay made its first in-house lawyer hire, bringing on Blockchain.com’s chief legal and administrative officer Lindsey Haswell as chief legal officer. Haswell told Reuters that the company plans to add seven to 20 people to build its legal department. (Reuters) Blockchain.com this week promoted vice president and deputy GC Tim Lubans to general counsel. (BLAW)
• Some top House Jan. 6 committee investigators have landed jobs at major law firms around Washington. (Politico)
• A lawyer for former President Donald Trump, Evan Corcoran, has lawyered up himself as prosecutors ratchet up their investigation into the handling of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago hotel in Florida. (Reuters)
• Younger litigators have fewer chances to get court experience, attorneys say, because fewer civil cases go to trial and more cases are conducted remotely. (Legal Intelligencer)
• Two Bryan Cave partners working pro bono as special prosecutors in the first case under a 2021 Missouri law helped overturn the 1995 murder conviction of Lamar Johnson, who had spent 28 years in prison. (ABA Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• DLA Piper recruited Lidl US general counsel and head of legal and compliance Kristy Balsanek as partner in Washington in its regulatory and government affairs practice. She advises on environmental, social, and governance risks. (DLA Piper)
• Kirkland & Ellis poached Clifford Chance’s Germany restructuring and insolvency practice chief Cristina Weidner as a partner in Munich and leader of its Germany restructuring practice. (Kirkland.com)
• Barnes & Thornburg added McGuireWoods intellectual property lawyer Robert Hilton as partner in Dallas. (BTLaw.com)
• Squire Patton Boggs brought in former Eversheds Sutherland employment attorney Elsa Mora as of counsel and to lead its labor and employment practice group in Milan, Italy. She arrives recently from CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni. (SquirePattonBoggs.com)
• Dallas-based energy company Matador Resources Company promoted the president and general counsel of one of its subsidiaries, former Baker Botts attorney Brian Willey, to chief financial officer. (Investor Oberver)
• Cannabis company Medicine Man Technologies, operating as Schwazze, hired legal weed and tech industry in-house veteran Christine Jones as chief legal officer. She replaces Dan Pabon, who recently became the Denver-based company’s chief policy and regulatory affairs officer. (PR Newswire)
• Cozen O’Connor white collar defense and investigations member Mira Baylson took a job as executive deputy secretary in the Pennsylvania department of state. (Philadelphia Business Journal)