Wake Up Call: Kirkland & Ellis Tops $6.5 Billion Revenue in 2022

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

• Kirkland & Ellis, the world’s richest law firm, saw its gross revenue grow by 7.8% to more than $6.5 billion last year, despite a slump in big deals. The boost follows a 25% revenue gain for Kirkland in 2021. The Chicago-founded firm pointed to strong litigation, restructuring, and middle-market deals, according to a report based on early data. The firm expanded its headcount about 12.9% to 3,415 last year, but more recently made layoffs. Kirkland’s average profits per equity partner edged up 1.7%, to $7.5 million. (American Lawyer)
• Legal tech companies vLex and Fastcase said they’re merging. Oakley Capital and Bain Capital Credit said they’re backing the combination, aimed at accelerating development of artificial intelligence tools for lawyers. (Finance.Yahoo.com)
• Skadden grabbed Proskauer trial practice group co-leader Manuel Cachán as a litigation partner in Los Angeles. Cachán’s clients include Bayer AG’s Monsanto, Johnson & Johnson, and Wells Fargo Bank, among others. (Skadden.com)
• Silicon Valley firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati signed a 16.5-year lease for 119,000 square feet in a tower on 52nd Street in Manhattan, taking over space previously leased by Clifford Chance. Pillsbury Winthrop and Holland & Knight have offices in the building. (Commercial Observer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Gordon & Rees is fighting a $92 million lawsuit filed by a veteran National Basketball Association players agent and his partner, who accuse the firm of fraud. (Reuters)
• Katten Muchin Rosenman’s busy practices and strong corporate demand helped it grow revenues and profits per equity partner in 2022. (American Lawyer)
• The National Collegiate Athletic Association was hit by a multimillion-dollar, antitrust class-action lawsuit filed in California by Winston & Strawn and big plaintiffs firm Hagens Berman. (Sports Illustrated)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Akerman hired business litigator Donald Pocock, who focuses on the construction and financial services industries, as partner in Winston Salem, North Carolina. He arrives after close to 18 years at Nelson Mullins. (Akerman.com)
• Loeb & Loeb added Ropes & Gray real estate lawyer Chrystal Dyer LaRoche in New York as a partner. (Loeb.com)
• Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes picked up trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor David Callaway as partner in San Francisco in its complex commercial litigation and white-collar litigation & investigations practices. He joins from Goodwin Procter. (GlennAgre.com)
• Eckert Seamans brought in professional liability litigator Elaine M. Ross as a member in Philadelphia. She arrives from Rawle & Henderson. (EckertSeamans.com)
• Crowell & Moring hired Chicago-based information technology and operations veteran Joel Gustafson as chief information officer. He arrives from Mayer Brown. (Crowell.com) Mintz PC named new office managing members in San Francisco and Washington. (Mintz.com)
• JumpCloud Inc., which provides enterprise software for managing remote employee workstations, hired veteran tech startup in-house leader Jill Passalacqua as chief legal officer, its second CLO in a year. Passalacqua was most recently GC at software delivery platform Harness. She replaces corporate attorney Eric Gunning, who took the CLO role in April 2022 then left to join security company Allegion in February as deputy GC and corporate secretary. (JumpCloud.com)
• Arizona-based investment company Monetary Metals hired former KPMG M&A tax attorney Jeff Deist as its general counsel. Deist served as chief of staff to then-Texas Congressman Ron Paul and was recently president of the Paul-funded libertarian nonprofit think tank Ludwig von Mises Institute. (PR Newswire)

Promotions

• Elite UK firm Linklaters promoted 41 attorneys to partner worldwide, include three in the US in its tax and dispute resolution practices, and 53 to counsel, effective May 1. (Linklaters)

Technology

• Big UK firm Shoosmiths is the first firm in the country to start using TikTok to help with recruiting. (Legal Cheek)