Wake Up Call: India Opens to Foreign Law Firms, Lawyers

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

• India released new rules that will allow foreign law firms and lawyers to practice in the country, lifting decades of restrictions. The Bar Council of India said the opening will help grow the legal profession. (Bloomberg News)
• Squire Patton Boggs said it is ending its association with a local law firm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a view to opening its own office and hiring its own attorneys in the region. Greenberg Traurig said it is starting a joint venture with the same Saudi firm as it enters the kingdom’s legal market for the first time. The moves come as the kingdom releases new rules for licensing foreign firms. (Reuters) (Global Legal Post)
• Transatlantic giant DLA Piper’s steady client demand across regions and practices helped it expand gross revenues 6.2% to about $3.69 billion in 2022. Its average profits per equity partner jumped 15.3% to $2.88 million. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A New Jersey Supreme Court case will hear an Atlantic City casino’s appeal seeking reimbursement for its losses during the Covid pandemic shutdown. (New Jersey Law Journal)
• Philadelphia’s thriving life sciences market and increasing regulation of the sector is attracting new law firms. (Legal Intelligencer)
• Attorney Mark Zaid reportedly gets around $600 an hour for his national security and whistleblower work, but he went pro bono to help a data analyst beat a traffic ticket. (WaPo)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• DLA Piper hired Boston-based technology transactions lawyer Elizabeth Burkhard as partner. She arrives after over 16 years at Holland & Knight, including seven as partner. (DLA Piper)
• Gowling WLG, a U.K.-Canadian firm with around 1,400 lawyers, said it’s getting a five-partner team from UK rival Taylor Wessing to open an office in Frankfurt, its third in Germany. Partners Lars-Gerrit Luessmann and Ulrich Reers will lead Gowling WLG’ capital markets team in Germany. Michael Sinhart and Michael Lamsa will lead the M&A, private equity and venture capital team. Another partner will lead the real estate team. (GowlingWLG.com)
• Bonnie Heiple, WilmerHale environmental and energy lawyer, was appointed commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. (Mass.gov)
• Haynes and Boone said it formed a banking task force to advise clients on fallout from the recent bank shutdowns by state and federal regulators. (HaynesBoone.com)
• New York litigation boutique Slarskey LLC added shareholder rights and commercial litigation attorney Adam Hollander as a partner. He was at Boies Schiller Flexner earlier in his career and arrives recently from Bernstein Litowitz. (Slarskey.com)
• Minneapolis-based intellectual property law firm Merchant & Gould named litigator and shareholder Heather Kliebenstein as the 123-year-old firm’s first female managing director. (MerchantGould.com)
• Industrial products group Crane Holdings, Co. named industrial technology in-house veteran Paul G. Igoe senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of its soon-to-be spun off Crane NXT unit for payment, merchandising and other tech. Igoe, a former WilmerHale junior partner, arrives from Excelitas Technologies Corp., where he was top lawyer and executive. (Businesswire)
• Bermuda-based reinsurance company Everest Re Group, Ltd. said its New Jersey-based executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer Sanjoy Mukherjee is leaving April 21 to pursue other opportunities. Its Hartford, Connecticut-based head of claims and chief operations officer, Brent Hoffman, is stepping up as interim GC while it looks for a replacement. (EverestRe.com)