Wake Up Call: Latham Partner Tops EU Private Equity Deal Rank

In today’s column, the market for ALSPs hit $14 billion last year, probably getting a push from the pandemic, a report says; about 31% of corporations report the pandemic has caused an increase in disputes; Baker McKenzie accepts 125 hours of diversity and inclusion work toward U.S. and Canada attorneys’ billable hours targets; the anti-Trump Lincoln Project has been hit by scandals.

• Leading off, Latham & Watkins’ London corporate practice co-chair Farah O’Brien tops a new ranking of the top 10 private equity lawyers in Europe, with eight deals valued at 30.94 billion pounds ($42.7 billion). Kirkland & Ellis lawyers took second and third. The list is dominated by partners from U.S. law firms, this report says. (Private Equity News)
• The market for alternative legal service providers is at nearly $14 billion, and almost 80% of law firms and over 70% of corporate law departments use them, according to a report by Thomson Reuters, with The Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law and the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. The 24-page report says the pandemic briefly slowed ALSP’s growth, but then quickly made the ALSP model more acceptable. (LegalExecutiveInstitute.com)
• About 31% of corporations have reported an increase in disputes as a direct result of the pandemic, mainly commercial and labor disputes, according to Norton Rose Fulbright’s latest litigation trends survey. (NortonRoseFulbright.com)
• With courts handing down divergent rulings in Covid-19 business interruption insurance litigation around the country, lawyers are hoping that Ohio’s Supreme Court will be able to set out some guidance. (Law.com)
• Baker McKenzie credits up to 125 hours annually of diversity and inclusion work towards attorneys’ billable hours targets in the U.S. and Canada. That’s more than double what some other firms accept. (Above the Law)

Biden Administration, Election Litigation, Fallout From Capitol Riots

• Two Democratic senators have recommended WilmerHale partner Regina Rodriguez for a federal appeals judgeship. Some liberals say the endorsement flouts President Joe Biden’s pledge to staff the federal bench with more civil rights lawyers and public defenders, legal aid attorneys, and fewer corporate attorneys and prosecutors. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• How former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are making his defense case in his second impeachment trial.(NPR)
• Procedural rules prohibit livestreaming of federal court proceedings in Capitol riot cases, a top administrative official said. (National Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Wigdor Law Firm founder Douglas Wigdor said the firm, known for taking on #MeToo cases against Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, among others, is thriving as companies hit with discrimination and harassment lawsuits increasingly look to avoid public battles by settling. (BLAW)
• The Times reports a couple of brewing scandals at the anti-Trump The Lincoln Project over a co-founder of the group who allegedly harassed young men online, and the group’s unauthorized access of another co-founder’s Twitter messages. (NYT)
• KPMG UK hired Linklaters to do an independent investigation of alleged comments by the Big Four firm’s now former chairman, Bill Michael, in an online conference. Michael among other things is alleged to have called the concept of discrimination caused by unconscious bias as “complete and utter crap.” (Financial Times)
• King & Spalding lawyers for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. got a Florida appeals court to order a new trial in a lung cancer death liability case after finding that “hearsay” contributed to the jury’s $10.6 million verdict against the cigarette maker. (BLAW)
• Big Law firms are grabbing nonlawyer business professionals including IT, sales, strategy pros, from the Big Four accounting giants. (Business Insider)
• The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity said it elected two corporate legal leaders to its board of directors: ViacomCBS’s executive VP, general counsel and secretary, Christa A. D’Alimonte, and Accenture’s general counsel and corporate secretary, Joel Unruch. (LCLD.net)
• Fired senior aides to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused him in a court filing of taking a bribe from an Austin real estate developer who had donated to his campaign. (Texas Tribune)
• Washington state laws requiring government-related meetings to occur in public do not apply to the state’s bar association, the Washington Supreme Court ruled. (The Spokesman-Review)
• O’Melveny & Myers announced a slate of new leaders, including litigation and corporate department co-heads and a second vice chair of the firm. (BLAW)

Laterals, Moves

• Loeb & Loeb hired capital markets and corporate lawyer Andrei Sirabionian as a partner in New York. He arrives from Seward & Kissel, where he was counsel. (Loeb.com)
• Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck got insurance coverage litigator Laura Ruettgers as a partner in San Francisco and chair of the its data privacy & cybersecurity practice. She arrives from Severson & Werson, where she was a partner. (KDVLaw.com)
• In London, Reed Smith recruited Sidley Austin structured finance partner Jason Richardson as a partner in the city in its financial industries group. (ReedSmith.com)
• DLA Piper got veteran real estate partner Sue Zabloudil as a partner based in Miami and Los Angeles. Zabloudil joins from Akerman, where she was a former L.A. office managing partner and a member of the firm’s board. (DLAPiper.com)
• Clark Hill said commercial real estate lawyer Richard Crow rejoined as a member in Houston. He’d previously been an attorney at the firm from 2012 to 2019 and returns most recently from Schlanger Silver, where he was a partner. (ClarkHill.com)
• Proskauer hired Sheppard Mullin’s mergers and acquisitions team leader Will Chuchawat in Los Angeles as an M&A partner. (BLAW)
• Alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS said veteran mediator and arbitrator Keith D. Koeller joined its Orange County, Calif., resolution center. Koeller arrives from Koeller, Nebeker, Carlson & Haluck, where he was a founder and managing partner. (JAMSadr.com)
• Carlton Fields added health care litigator Kurtley Taylor as an associate in Tampa in its white collar crime and government investigations practice. He was previously at Brown & Fortunato. (CarltonFields.com)
• Margolis Healy, a safety, security, and compliance firm affiliated with Cozen O’Connor, hired a former University of Virginia assistant vice president, Gabe Gates, as a consultant. (MargolisHealy.com)

In-House

• Tech-powered litigation funder Legalist, Inc. announced via email that it recruited litigator Jared Danziger as investment counsel on its underwriting team. According to his LinkedIn profile, Danziger is a chartered financial analyst and a former New York-based litigator at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann. He has been running his own law firm for about 13 years. (Legalist.com)
• Wells Fargo & Co. recruited new deputy general counsels from three of its major competitors—American Express Co., Barclays PLC, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (BLAW)

Notice

Wake Up Call will not publish Feb. 15 in observance of Presidents’ Day. We will resume Feb. 16.