Wake Up Call: Gibson Dunn Promotes Record 37 to Partner

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 promoted a record 37 lawyers to partner, effective Jan. 1, 2023, with its offices in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles accounting for most of the new partners. (GibsonDunn.com)
• Average law firm net income shrank 7.3% and profits per equity partner fell 8.5% through 2022’s first nine months, according to a new survey report from Wells Fargo Legal Specialty Group. (American Lawyer)
• Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe poached a four-partner intellectual property litigation team from Milbank in Los Angeles, including David Gindler, who led Milbank’s IP litigation and licensing practice. The rest of the team includes Gary Frischling, Lauren Drake, and John Lu. The team earlier practiced together at Irell & Manella, where Gindler served as managing partner and Frischling was co-leader of the IP practice. (Orrick.com)
• More than half of the 473 in-house attorneys responding to a recent survey said they would not go back to working at a law firm. 87% said responsiveness is the most important characteristic they want from their outside counsel. (Leopard Solutions)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• New York’s top appellate court disbarred two attorneys who pleaded guilty to firebombing an empty city police vehicle during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. (Reuters)
• Latham & Watkins and Davis Polk & Wardwell were among five US and Chinese law firms advising Chinese hotel chain Atour Lifestyle Holdings on its Nasdaq initial public offering, through which it raised $52.23 million. (Law.Asia)
• Chinese law firms have poached dozens of senior lawyers from international firms over the past year and a half. (Law.com International)
• Atlanta-based defense litigation firm Hawkins Parnell & Young is adding a group of more than 50 litigators on the West Coast from midsize firm,Selman Breitman, which is formally dissolving at year’s end. Hawkins Parnell, which is also getting Selman’s offices in San Diego and Orange County, California, Seattle and Las Vegas, will have over 160 lawyers across 17 cities after the additions. (HPYLaw.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Nixon Peabody grabbed Steptoe & Johnson (DC) patent litigator Daniel Stringfield in Chicago as a partner in its intellectual property practice. (NixonPeabody.com)
• Davis Wright Tremaine added health-care attorneys Leslie Murphy and John Barnes as partners in San Francisco. They were both partners at King & Spalding. (Businesswire.com)
• Greenberg Traurig hired health-care insurance in-house attorney Randi Imbriaco, a former New York State Health Department official, as of counsel in Albany, New York. (GTLaw.com)
• Holland & Hart picked up veteran management-side worklaw attorney Steven Suflas as of counsel in Salt Lake City, Utah. He arrives from Ballard Spahr, where he’s been office managing partner in Denver and New Jersey. (HollandHart.com)
• Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath said tax attorney Leila Vaughan, an associate at the firm earlier in her career, rejoined as an investment management partner in Philadelphia. (FaegreDrinker.com)
• Professional services payment group AffiniPay, a portfolio company of TA Associates and the parent company of legal tech companies LawPay and MyCase, hired in-house leader Catherine Dawson as general counsel. A former Big Law attorney, she arrives from data privacy compliance platform Osano, where she was GC and chief privacy officer. (Businesswire)

Technology

• Twitter’s new policy on blue check marks is likely to create security and privacy risks for attorneys and law firms using the social media network, legal professionals say. (Legaltech News)
• Wiggin and Dana launched wiggin(x), which it described as an independent brand to meet needs of startup and venture capital clients. (Wiggin.com)