Wake Up Call: Law Degree Worth Sapped by Debt, Stagnant Pay

In today’s column, a surge in new infections, client pressure, and other factors pushed firms to get serious about requiring Covid-19 vaccinations; corporate clients keen to manage their own ESG risks are scrutinizing how law firms handle such matters; Missouri’s governor pardoned the lawyer couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters last year.

• Leading off, with law school tuition soaring but graduates’ salaries stagnant, the value of a law degree from a non-elite school has diminished, even for “well-regarded” schools, the Journal reports. (WSJ) Some recent grads of leading law schools are striking “Faustian bargains” to work punishing hours for high pay at busy corporate firms in hopes of making enough to pay off their huge student debt. (Financial Times)
• Pressure from large corporate clients and a need to keep office-return plans from faltering are contributing to the lengthening list of law firms that have come out with Covid-19 vaccine mandates, firm leaders and legal industry observers said. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• As more law firms launch ESG practices and consider themselves “experts” on the subject, their potential corporate clients are closely watching how they handle environmental and social governance matters. (American Lawyer)
• Foley & Lardner appointed new office managing partners for Milwaukee and Washington. (Foley.com) McGuireWoods signed a lease for new office space in Houston, Texas, in a tower under construction that also has Vinson & Elkins and DLA Piper signed up as future tenants, a report says. (Houston Business Journal)
• Missouri’s Republican governor, Mark McCloskey, Tuesday said he pardoned the St. Louis lawyer couple who gained fame for pointing guns at demonstrators marching past their home last year during Black Lives Matter protests. (Politico)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Washington-headquartered Crowell & Moring recruited two veteran corporate partners in New York, getting financial restructuring and insolvency lawyer Rick Hyman from Duane Morris and technology transactions and outsourcing lawyer Sarvesh Mahajan, a former Commerce Department attorney, from Wiggin and Dana; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett grabbed Goodwin secondaries transactions practice co-leader Lauren King as a partner in New York; Orrick hired veteran Akin Gump corporate and securities lawyer Alice Hsu in New York as a capital markets partner; Holland & Knight added M&A and private equity attorney Rebecca Wilsker as a partner in Boston. She joins from Choate, Hall & Stewart. (HKLaw.com)
• Two former Norton Rose Fulbright renewable energy transactions tax lawyers made moves: Mayer Brown hired ex-Norton Rose partner Amanda Rosenberg as a partner in Los Angeles, while Mintz got Anne Levin-Nussbaum, a senior counsel at her former firm, as a member in New York; Willkie Farr & Gallagher hired PricewaterhouseCoopers tax principal Vadim Mahmoudov as a partner in New York. Mahmoudov was earlier a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton; Goodwin recruited real estate finance partner Anke Johann, who will work remotely from Munich. She was previously in-house at a German bank; Kirkland & Ellis hired environment and climate change lawyer Ruth Knox as a partner in London in its ESG & impact practice group. She arrives from Linklaters. (Kirkland.com)
• Fenwick & West recruited former New Jersey federal prosecutor, cybercrime unit chief David Feder in New York as counsel in its privacy and cybersecurity litigation practice; Squire Patton Boggs hired former GE Aviation chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel Breck Weigel as of counsel based in Cincinnati, Oh., in its global litigation practice. (SquirePattonBoggs.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland hired former Big Law corporate partner Darwin Conner as its new U.S. chief diversity, equity & inclusion officer. Eversheds also hired Big Law digital marketing and business development veteran Kyle Weidie as its first global head of digital marketing, based in New York. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)
• Littler said a longtime former shareholder at the firm, Bradley Strawn, recently at specialty insurance broker McGriff, Seibels & Williams as chief operating officer and executive vice president, rejoined the firm as office managing shareholder in Atlanta; Volvo Cars Group chief intellectual property officer and executive Ray Millien joined IP law firm Harness, Dickey & Pierce as its new chief executive officer, based in Detroit. He’s previously been in-house at General Electric, Goldman Sachs, and American Express. (HDP.com)