Wake Up Call: Kirkland, Selendy Enter Year-End Bonus Fray

In today’s column, Florida law firm partners took millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program loans, separately from the loans their firms took; Big Law attorneys are pouring money into Georgia’s Senate run-off races; Latham & Watkins poached the London-based private equity head of a U.K. firm, and it also got two new partners in the U.S.

• Leading off, the world’s biggest law firm by revenue, Kirkland & Ellis, and litigation boutique Selendy & Gay, back in September both opted to skip the special Covid bonus competition launched by Cooley, but said their year-end bonuses would take associates’ pandemic efforts into account. This week both firms announced those bonuses, taking very distinct approaches. Selendy & Gay set out a scale that ranges from $28,013 up to $174,650, depending on seniority. “These bonuses are well-earned and in recognition of our associates’ commitment and superb work, which has continued unabated during the pandemic,” Selendy Managing Partner David Elsberg said in a statement. (SelendyGay.com)
• Selendy’s scale beats the $140,000 year-end standard set in November by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Cravath’s scale, essentially, combines the up-to-$100,000 year-end standard set by Baker McKenzie with the up-to $40,000 standard for special Covid bonuses, notched in September by Davis Polk. Meanwhile, Kirkland reportedly told associates that their bonuses will be set individually, depending on performance, but that they will beat the market. The big firm got mixed reactions. (Above the Law)
• Selendy is just the latest example of boutiques beating most Big Law firms on year-end bonuses. Other examples this year include Susman & Godfrey and Roche Cyrulnik Freedman, a litigation spinoff of Boies Schiller Flexner. (American Lawyer)
• Meanwhile, Stoel Rives announced that non-partner lawyers will get an extra 25% boost on top of the year-end bonuses it paid out last week, and staff will get a $1,000 supplementary bonus. (Above the Law) Elite London-based firms have also announced bonuses. (Above the Law)
• More than 50 equity partners of law firms in Florida took millions of dollars in loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which was aimed at protecting jobs during the pandemic, a report says. The partners’ loans were separate from PPP loans their firms took. (Daily Business Review)
• Companies and law firms need more privacy and data security lawyers to help them deal with the shift to remote work because of the pandemic, new privacy laws, and an uptick in ransomware attacks. (BLAW)
• As the pandemic pounds the hospitality industry, executives at cash-strapped Virginia-based Sotherly Hotels Inc., including its new general counsel, Robert Kirkland, agreed to give up some of their salaries in exchange for a restricted stock award. (Corporate Counsel)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Attorneys at Big Law firms are pouring money into the Georgia Senate run-off races, including attorneys at firms that have no offices in Atlanta. (Daily Report)
• Shipman & Goodwin elected three members of its management committee to take over from the Connecticut-headquartered firm’s managing partner, Alan Lieberman, who’s retiring next week. School law partner Leander A. Dolphin and litigation partner James P. Ruggeri become co-managing partners, while commercial real estate partner Kent S. Nevins becomes management committee chair, all effective Jan. 1, 2021. (ShipmanGoodman.com)
• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed her counsel and senior ethics advisor, Celia Meza, to fill the role of acting corporation counsel after the resignation of the city’s top lawyer amid uproar over the city’s response to a botched police raid of a Black woman’s apartment. (NBCChicago.com)
• Forbes published an interview conducted by #MeToo litigator Douglas Wigdor with his fellow employment attorney David Lowe, discussing the $20-plus million settlement Lowe recently obtained from Pinterest Inc. for his client. The client, Francoise Brougher, a former chief operating officer at Pinterest, was suing the social media company for alleged gender discrimination. (Forbes)
• A deputy general counsel at accounting firm CohnReznick, Thompson Dietz, was confirmed to the federal claims bench. (New Jersey Law Journal)

Pro Bono

• Justice Defenders, a registered U.K. charity and U.S. nonprofit, is providing legal training to prisoners and prison staff in Kenya and Uganda. Some of those people go on to become paralegals and lawyers, a report says. (CBSNews.com)

Laterals, Moves

• Latham & Watkins’ London office got veteran private equity partner Paul Dolman from U.K. firm Travers Smith, where he’d been 22 years, lately as head of private equity and co-head of corporate and M&A. (LW.com)
• Latham also expanded its private equity and capital markets practices in the U.S. Capital markets partner Alison Haggerty joined the firm in New York. She advises issuers, mainly in the technology and life sciences industries, and underwriters on transactions. She arrives after about seven years at Cooley, including one year as partner. (LW.com)
• Latham grabbed Weil, Gotshal & Manges private equity and M&A lawyer Matthew Goulding as a partner in Boston in its corporate department. According to his LinkedIn profile, he’d been at Weil for over 15 years, including three as partner. (LW.com)
• Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr brought on life sciences patent attorney Alireza Behrooz in Washington for its intellectual property practice. His LinkedIn profile says he spent 10 years at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and arrives most recently from Birch, Stewart, Kolasch & Birch. (Saul.com)

In-House

• Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc., owner of the Ruth’s Chris Steak House chain and other casual restaurant brands, has brought on longtime Boies Schiller counsel Marcy Norwood Lynch as general counsel and corporate secretary. She’s based in Orlando. (BLAW)
• McGuireWoods said its associate Lauren Scott, a commercial and environmental litigator, is leaving the Richmond, Va.-headquartered law firm to join Capital One as a senior manager flex counsel, effective Jan. 19, 2021. (McGuireWoods.com)

Promotions

• O’Melveny & Myers promoted six lawyers (two women) to partner. (OMM.com)

Legal Education

• Rutgers University is renaming a dorm building in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice started her legal career as a professor at its Newark law school. (New Jersey Law Journal)
• The University of Houston Law Center said it plans to offer its first-ever course on legal innovation starting in the spring of 2021. (Law.UH.edu)