Wake Up Call: Latham Seeks to Drop Sanctioned Russian Bank

In today’s column, licensed lawyers should be able to practice law in any state in the country, a group of legal ethics lawyers and professor told the ABA; for Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins being $5 billion firms comes with big advantages, but also big challenges; Brownstein stayed No. 1 for D.C. lobbying revenues in the first quarter.

• Leading off, Latham & Watkins, which is representing sanctioned Russian bank VTB Bank in a lawsuit over a 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight downed over Ukraine, asked to exit the case. Attorneys at White & Case and Debevoise & Plimpton have said they also plan to exit as counsel for another sanctioned bank, Sberbank, in the same case. (Reuters)
• A group of more than 400 legal ethics lawyers and law professors is proposing that the American Bar Association revise its model rules to help clear the way for licensed lawyers to practice law in any state. (ABA Journal)
• Last year Kirkland & Ellis topped $6 billion and Latham & Watkins topped $5 billion in gross revenues, putting them in the same league as some Fortune 500 corporations. Their size brings benefits in recruiting and reputation, but it also comes with challenges. Meanwhile, Big Law’s most profitable firm is much smaller, this report says. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck continued to lead Washington lobbying firms in revenues in a big first quarter for the sector, as firms advise on Biden administration rulemaking. Brownstein said it took in $15.4 million, up about 11% from the same quarter last year. Akin Gump reported $13 million for the quarter, and Holland & Knight said its first quarter lobbying revenue jumped 37.1% to $10.1 million. (The Hill)
• New York and Chicago lawyers who want to move to Miami are feeding Greenberg Traurig’s “talent pipeline.” (Daily Business Review)
• Virginia law firms Woods Rogers PLC and Vandeventer Black LLP agreed to merge July 1 into a Roanoke-headquartered firm with over 130 attorneys. (Virginia Business)
• Kalpana Kotagal, a Biden nominee for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, disclosed she earned $399,295 as a partner for plaintiffs firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. (National Law Journal)
• The American Arbitration Association ordered former President Donald Trump’s campaign to pay former Trump aid Omarosa Manigault Newman $1.3 million in legal fees and costs stemming from the former president’s lawsuit against her. (Business Insider)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Washington-based Crowell & Moring said it hired Loeb & Loeb litigator Jason Stiehl as a partner in Chicago; Greenspoon Marder added entertainment & sports attorney Ahmand Johnson as a partner in Miami; Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough hired corporate attorney Matt Lane as a partner in Boston. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a partner at Sullivan & Worcester; DLA Piper said former chief of staff to the Environmental Protection Agency Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming joined its environmental regulatory practice as a partner in Washington. (DLAPiper.com)
• FisherBroyles added privacy pro, corporate and commercial litigator Maryam Meseha as a partner in its cyber risk, privacy & data security practice group, based out of its Princeton, New York City, and Charlotte, North Carolina offices. She arrives from Scarinci Hollenbeck, where she was counsel and practice co-chair; FisherBroyles also brought in Big Law veteran civil litigation attorney Elizabeth MacGregor as partner in Seattle. (FisherBroyles.com)
• Sullivan & Cromwell partner and antitrust practice co-leader Steven Holley took a job as executive vice-president at New York-based hedge fund Select Equity Group; global reinsurer AmericanAg recruited insurance industry attorney and executive Michael A. Conlon as general counsel based in Chicago; LRS, an Illinois-based independent waste diversion, recycling and portable services provider, hired in-house veteran Corey Grauer, a former Pepsi Cola bottler deputy general counsel, as its executive vice president and general counsel. He was recently general counsel, compliance officer and corporate secretary at Marmon Holdings, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway manufacturing subsidiary. (PR Newswire)