Wake Up Call: Lateral Hires Dropped by 30% Amid Covid Last Year

In today’s column, demand is soaring for antitrust partners and associates; some, but not all, Texas-founded firms have matched the market standard for associate pay hikes; another firm launched a cannabis practice in Denver.

• Leading off, overall U.S. lateral hiring plunged more than 30% in 2020 to its lowest level since the Great Recession, mainly due to the pandemic’s impact on recruiting of associates, according to new report from the National Association for Law Firm Placement. Partner lateral hires fell by nearly 24% overall, across all regions. However, some individual cities/states experienced partner hiring growth, while office-specific data shows partner hires were up as much as 28% for big firms in some spots. (NALP.org)
• The NALP report noted that, although the pandemic slammed lateral hiring last year, the market already looks likely to rebound sharply this year. That’s already happening for antitrust talent. A report says an anticipated stream of antitrust work on Big Tech M&A and litigation has firms competing for antitrust partners and associates. (National Law Journal)
• Four of nine Texas-founded Big Law firms are matching the Davis Polk scale for associate pay raises. Others are still chewing on the idea. (Texas Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Detroit-headquartered Clark Hill is the latest firm to open a Denver office and add a cannabis team. (The American Lawyer)
• Mayer Brown appointed civil litigation and trial partner John Nadolenco as managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office. He takes over from partner Phil Recht, who led the office since 2009 and continues as a co-leader of the firm’s public policy, regulatory & political law practice; Norton Rose Fulbright announced new leaders for some of its industrial sectors, including for energy, infrastructure and resources; transport, technology, and consumer markets. (NortonRoseFulbright.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Irell & Manella said it’s opening a Washington office to expand its intellectual property practice, particularly in the areas of appeals, United States Patent and Trademark Office proceedings and policy work, and litigation. The office will be led by Irell partner Andrei Iancu, the former undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO, who rejoined the firm in April. Philip Warrick, joining the firm as counsel, was a USPTO associate solicitor and IP counsel to Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Also joining is of counsel Michael Fleming, the former chief administrative patent judge for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO, who has been at Irell since 2015. (Irell.com)
• Winston & Strawn added patent, IP, and commercial litigator Kelly Hunsaker as a partner in its Silicon Valley office. She was previously at Fish & Richardson, where she’d been close to 18 years, including as a principal; Seyfarth Shaw recruited Stephanie Magnell, former deputy assistant general counsel from the Government Accountability Office, as counsel in the firm’s litigation department, government contracts practice. (Seyfarth.com)
• Morrison & Foerster hired the former U.S. chair of DLA Piper’s agency finance practice, Greg Smith, and DLA lawyer Ann Lilienthal, who arrive in Washington as partners to lead MoFo’s new agency finance practice. Of counsel Amala Nath and associate Christopher Pearson also made the move to the team, which handles complex financing transactions for development finance institutions, multilateral agencies, regional development banks, and export credit agencies around the world; Sheppard Mullin added finance lawyer Michael O’Brien as a partner in Chicago to lead its derivatives & structured products practice. He joins after over 20 years at Winston & Strawn, where he led the firm’s derivatives & structured products and North American aviation finance practices. (SheppardMullin.com)
• Fox Rothschild hired financial restructuring and bankruptcy lawyer Joseph J. DiPasquale as a partner in Morristown, N.J. He arrives from Lowenstein Sandler; Stroock grabbed Baker McKenzie tax lawyer Steven Schneider as a partner in Washington. He’s a former Internal Revenue Service attorney who advises on tax aspects of S Corporations, real estate investment trusts, M&A and private equity deals; Orrick recruited health care and life sciences partner Thora Johnson from Venable in Washington. She’d been at Venable close to 25 years. (National Law Journal)

Technology

• E-discovery company Ipro acquired Amsterdam-based ZyLAB, including its-discovery platform, legal hold products, and data science team. (Legaltech News)