Wake Up Call: Kirkland Said to Set Office Return for March 29

In today’s column, Cooley associates reported getting Milbank-scale raises; Troutman Pepper grabbed seven consumer finance partners from Ballard; a big litigation finance firm opened an office in Washington.

• Leading off, Chicago-headquartered Kirkland & Ellis reportedly sent a firmwide email telling attorneys and staff that starting March 29 they’ll be expected to be in office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays under the firm’s new hybrid workplace model. (Above The Law)
• Above The Law said Kirkland associates had been hoping for news about a Milbank-scale salary match. The legal blog said it has heard from Cooley associates that they are getting Milbank-level raises after performance reviews. (Above The Law)
• Big litigation funder Omni Bridgeway, formerly known as Bentham IMF, launched a Washington office led by former Big Law trial partner Jason Levine. Former roles for Levine, who joins as investment manager and legal counsel, include McDermott’s D.C. trial practice chief. (PR Newswire)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• The Justice Department apologized to an attorney for UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law for threatening her with criminal action over her tweets about proceedings in a San Diego immigration court. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the married St. Louis attorneys who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, had their law licenses put on one year’s probation by the Missouri Supreme Court. The ruling allows them to keep practicing. (St. Louis Post Dispatch)
• A Virginia attorney reportedly agreed to have his license revoked for five years for allegedly using a six-year-old client’s trust to help pay law firm expenses. (Law.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Troutman Pepper expanded its consumer financial services regulatory practice with a team of seven partners grabbed from Ballard Spahr. Practice co-leader Christopher Willis joins in Atlanta and co-leader Mark J. Furletti in Philadelphia. Stefanie Jackman joined in Atlanta, James Kim in New York, Jeremy Rosenblum and Jason Cover in Philadelphia, and Anthony Kaye in Salt Lake City and New York; Sidley Austin picked up global finance partner Elizabeth Tabas Carson in New York. She was at Reed Smith; Fox Rothschild poached a team of five litigators in Pittsburgh from McGuireWoods, led by partner Matt Monsour. Jennifer Dempsey, Rachel Dizard, Brett Huston, and Kate Stoy were counsel at McGuireWoods and joined Fox Rothschild as partners; Loeb & Loeb hired veteran trial lawyer John Gatti in Los Angeles. He arrives from Manatt, where he was partner and co-chair of the entertainment and media litigation practice group; Reed Smith added two partners in Texas. Restructuring attorney and commercial litigator Paul Moak joined from Gray Reed in Houston. Food and Drug Administration regulation and health-care law attorney Rebecca McKnight joined in Austin from DLA Piper. (Reed Smith)
• Stradley Ronon said securities litigator Jan Folena, former supervisory assistant chief litigation counsel in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, joined as a partner in Philadelphia. She was earlier chief trial attorney at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a Justice Department trial attorney; Squire Patton Boggs added two attorneys in its global government investigations and white collar practice, getting former federal prosecutor David Lizmi in New York as principal and Ally Rich in Cleveland as of counsel; Perkins Coie snagged Kirkland & Ellis patent litigator Hari Santhanam as an intellectual property partner in Chicago; K&L Gates in Australia got back workplace safety partner Dominic Fleeton; Wilson Sonsini hired London-based transatlantic and global transactions specialist Richard Goold as a corporate partner. He arrives from Ernst & Young where he was global head of tech law. (WSGR.com)
• Engineering and construction management firm The Kleinfelder Group, Inc, said engineering and environmental services industry top lawyer Scott Hillman joined as senior vice president and general counsel; tech company WealthIntel, Inc. hired crypto industry in-house veteran James Falvey, a former chief administrative officer and general counsel at the U.S. Futures Exchange and Intercontinental Exchange top lawyer, as its new general counsel. It named commericial litigator Jason Solotaroff deputy GC. (Digital Journal)

Legal Education

• Columbia Law School said it’s getting $5 million from Microsoft president and former general counsel Brad Smith and his wife Kathy Surace-Smith, both grads of the school. (Law.Columbia.Edu)