Wake Up Call: Kirkland Takes Wachtell’s Partner Profits Crown

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 dethroned Wachtell Lipton, the longtime Am Law 100 leader for average profits per equity partner, posting $7.5 million in PEP in 2022, up 1.73% from the previous year. Wachtell’s PEP plunged 13.17% to $7.29 million, according to the new 2023 Am Law 100 report. The top 100 US firms’ average PEP fell 3.7% in 2022, because of a bounce-back in expenses post-pandemic, the report said. Kirkland also remained the No. 1 US law firm by revenues with $6.5 billion in 2022. Overall, the top 100 firms grew gross revenue by 2.7% from 2021 despite tougher demand conditions, especially for deal work. (American Lawyer)
• Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, No. 84 in the new Am Law revenue rankings, is reportedly letting go about 15 associates and 30 business professionals, after posting sharp drops in revenues and profits in 2022. It’s the latest Big Law firm to cut jobs as demand shrinks. (American Lawyer)
• Williams & Connolly civil litigation partner Robert Shaughnessy and Susan Shaughnessy reportedly agreed to pay close to $7.3 million to resolve the federal government’s civil suit accusing them of failing to pay federal income taxes. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Twice as many associates who identify litigation as their primary practice area left their firms in 2022 than did associates identifying business/corporate as their main practice, according to a new report on associate attrition. (NALP Foundation)
• Donald Trump’s defense lawyer Joe Tacopina rang up some of his other celebrity clients and allies to let them know he’s representing the former president in his New York City criminal case. (WaPo)
• Simpson Thacher said it joined Mobilization for Justice in filing a federal class action lawsuit targeting the New York City Department of Education on behalf of a group of New York City students with disabilities and their families. (MobilizationforJustice.Org)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Norton Rose Fulbright poached six US partners from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. Kevin Fischer and Bruce Baty, who co-led BCLP’s global insurance practice, and Jodi Adolf and Michael Schwartz, joined Norton Rose in St. Louis, Missouri, on its transactional and regulatory insurance team. Sean Christy and Chuck Hollis, who were US co-leaders ofBCLP’s global technology and commercial transactions practice, joined their new firm in Atlanta on its technology transactions team. (NortonRoseFulbright.com)
• Milbank LLP grabbed a three-partner structured finance team from King & Spalding for its alternative investments practice in New York. The team, led by Michael Urschel, includes Martin Eid and Katie Weiss. (Milbank.com)
• Greenberg Traurig brought back real estate attorney John Chibbaro as a shareholder in Miami, where he’ll advise real estate developers, investors, and utilities on environmental and land use issues. He returns after three years at Bilzin Sumberg, where he led the resilience and sustainability team. (GTLaw.com)
• Latham & Watkins in Germany is getting longtime Hogan Lovells energy and infrastructure M&A attorney Alexander Stefan Rieger as partner in Frankfurt. (LW.com)
• Squire Patton Boggs hired funds partner Rob Eke in London. He arrives from MJ Hudson. (SquirePattonBoggs.com)
• BCLP hired veteran Big Law legal operations executive Alexandra Guajardo as its first-ever global director of commercial strategy. She arrives from fossil fuels giant Shell, where she was pricing and analytics officer, managing its outside counsel program. (LinkedIn)
• Cooley named business litigator Ian Shapiro as new partner-in-charge of its New York office (Cooley.com)
• Duane Morris hired law firm information tech pro Michael Bruckner as chief information officer, replacing John J. Sroka, who is retiring. Bruckner arrives from Buckley LLP. (DuaneMorris.com)

Promotions

• London-based Ashurst promoted a firm-record 25 lawyers to partner. (Ashurst.com)