Wake Up Call: Insurance Fueled Big Law Russia Exit, Report Says

In today’s column, Greenberg Traurig added a team of four shareholders for a new Asia energy & infrastructure practice and plans a Singapore office; Reed Smith is moving to new office in London; Akerman’s new “re-imagined” and “rebranded” consumer financial services group adds data and technology to the mix.

• Leading off, some Big Law firms that pulled out of Russia may have been motivated by insurance reasons as much or more than by ethical concerns. Insurance providers, worried about international Russia sanctions, put exclusion clauses into indemnity policies for law firms or just denied coverage for Russia work outright. Those moves were a ”big driver” for law firms’ decisions to get out of the country, a report says. (Law.com International)
• Greenberg Traurig poached a team of three Hogan Lovells Tokyo and Hong Kong attorneys as shareholders to launch its Asia energy & infrastructure practice, initially in Tokyo and eventually to start a new Singapore outpost. The team is led by shareholder Joseph Kim, who was Hogan Lovell’s financial services practice head in Tokyo, and will lead the new practice. Kim is joined by William Wu and Da Woon (Christina) Jeong. Jared Raleigh is rejoining the team as a shareholder after spending several years in-house at global mining, energy, and infrastructure companies and at Jones Day. (GTLaw.com)
• Reed Smith is moving its London offices to a new building with space that will allow for a more open layout, a report said. (The Lawyer) Part of U.K. law firms’ big increase in profits overall during the pandemic came at the expense of taxpayers, in particular through furlough grants, a report says. (Times of London)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Akerman said it launched a “re-imagined” and “rebranded” consumer financial services group that adds data and technology to the mix to help clients deal with new challenges facing their business platforms. The firm said former Paul Hastings and Skadden Arps corporate and M&A attorney Gabriela Menna Barreto Scanlon is joining the group in Washington in May and it has plans to expand the practice nationwide. (Akerman)
• Apollo co-founder and former CEO Leon Black gave 2 million pounds ($2.49 million) to former Russian model Guzel Ganieva and introduced her to a London-based Paul Weiss mergers and acquisitions specialist to help her get an investors’ visa in London, a report says. Black is suing Ganieva, who accused him of rape, for defamation. (Financial Times)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Ropes & Gray grabbed three European private equity partners from Fried Frank in London, including its European private equity head Dan Oates, who was earlier a Kirkland & Ellis partner. Oates is joined by partners Simon Saitowitz and Angela Becker; Blank Rome snagged Kirkland international trade & national security attorney Anthony Rapa as a partner in Washington, and head of the firm’s national security team. (BlankRome.com)
• ArentFox Schiff hired health care counsel Gayland Hethcoat in Los Angeles. He was recently at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as senior legal counsel and, before that, corporate counsel at Dignity Health; McGlinchey Stafford brought in insurance and regulated business attorney Lauren Ybarra as a member in its insurance regulatory group in Dallas; Fox Rothschild hired former Pennsylvania federal prosecutor Haley Warden-Rodgers as a litigation partner in Pittsburgh. (FoxRothschild.com)
• Troutman Pepper added financial services, payments, and business attorney Glen Trudel as a corporate partner in Wilmington, Delaware. He arrives from Ballard Spahr; Troutman also recruited longtime privacy pro Jim Koenig in New York as a partner and co-lead of its privacy and cybersecurity practice. He joins from Fenwick & West, where he had similar roles and he has earlier been at Paul Hastings, Booz Allen Hamilton, and PwC; U.K. elite firm Clifford Chance promoted 37 partners (15 women) across its practices and offices worldwide, effective May 1. (CliffordChance.com)

Legal Education

• A lawsuit filed by three University of Idaho law students, members of the school’s Christian Legal Society, accuses school administrators of violating their First Amendment rights. (Above The Law)