Wake Up Call: Law Firms Prepare for Surge in Health-Care Costs

In today’s column, WilmerHale partner Alejandro Mayorkas is Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Homeland Security Department; because of the pandemic, Wall Street finance and law firms are planning to play it safe for their year-end holiday festivities; Kira Systems said it has developed a way to protect proprietary information collected by its machine-learning tools.

• Leading off, law firms got a break this year on their costs for health care claims, as the pandemic caused employees to put off visits to the doctor or elective medical procedures. But firms should start getting ready for a steep rise in their costs for employee health care claims next year, to at least their pre-pandemic levels, experts say in this report. (American Lawyer)
• WilmerHale partner and coronavirus task force chief Alejandro Mayorkas is Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Homeland Security Department. He is the former U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles and was also a partner in O’Melveny & Myer’s L.A. office. A Cuban-American, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to lead DHS if he is confirmed by the Senate next year. But he faces a tough confirmation if the Senate stays in Republican hands. (BLAW)
• Two big New York firms that sat out the Covid-appreciation bonus fest earlier this fall have now stepped up with year-end rewards for their associates. After Baker McKenzie recently kicked things off, Cravath Swaine & Moore Monday raised the ante in the annual associate bonus contest, announcing year-end bonuses of up to $100,000 plus special bonuses of up to $40,000. Cravath was quickly matched by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, and now the question is how many firms will be able to meet that mark in what has been a tough year. (BLAW)
• A new survey finds most partners responding say they’re either “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with how their firms responded to the pandemic. American Lawyer)
• In pre-Covid times, Big Law firms and financial services firms on Wall Street have been known to splurge on their holiday parties. But with the pandemic raging, those firms plan to play it safe, and that means keeping celebrations virtual, as for many other things this year. (Business Insider)
• General counsel at four luxury brands talked recently about the impact of Covid lockdowns on their companies and their experiences working in the sector, among other subjects. (Global Legal Post)

Biden Transition, Election Litigation

• The General Services Administration acknowledged Joe Biden as the apparent winner of the presidential election on Monday, following weeks of inaction, and President Donald Trump called on his agencies to cooperate. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• After a Pennsylvania federal judge rejected their election fraud claims over the weekend, Trump’s lawyers are plotting a last stand in the state. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• In football terms, Trump’s lawyers are facing fourth down and long, with 34 seconds on the clock, writes a columnist. (Above the Law)
• Trump is worried that his legal team is making him look bad, a report says. (CNBC)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Class of 2021 law graduates include many who were inspired to go to law school by seeing the lawyers who counseled people at airports when Trump imposed his travel ban in 2017, this report says. (Reuters)
• New York and Illinois are joining a growing list of states considering changes to rules that could give companies more opportunities to compete with law firms. (BLAW)
• California’s State Bar got hit by a $2.9 million bias claim by a Black former statehouse attorney who accuses the agency’s leaders of illegally rescinding a job offer that would have made her executive director. (The Recorder)
• Dentons, Herbert Smith Freehills, and Addleshaw Goddard joined a U.K. domestic violence campaign that offers advice and other private support for victims via their websites. (Legaltech News)
• Fenwick & West advised Relativity Space Inc., a maker of 3D printed rockets, on a $500 million funding round led by Tiger Global Management. A report says that when the round is completed it will value the startup at $2.3 billion. (Businesswire.com)

Laterals, Moves

• White & Case expanded its global debt finance practice in Hong Kong, grabbing leveraged finance partner Daniel Abercromby from Weil Gotshal & Manges as a partner. According to his LinkedIn, earlier in his career Abercromby was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in London and Hong Kong, and earlier he was a senior associate in London and Singapore for Allen & Overy. (WhiteCase.com)
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom recruited Jones Day appellate advocate Shay Dvoretzky as a partner in Washington, where he will start and lead Skadden’s U.S. Supreme Court and appellate litigation group. Dvoretzky, a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, leaves Jones Day after close to 20 years at that firm. (BLAW)
• Weil, Gotshal & Manges restructuring partner Ryan Preston Dahl jumped to Ropes & Gray as a partner in the firm’s Chicago and New York offices. (BLAW)
• Holland & Knight said former federal prosecutor Eddie Jauregui, who was deputy chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, joined the firm’s L.A. office as a litigation partner in its white collar defense and investigations team. According to his LinkedIn, earlier in his career Jauregui spent time in New York as an associate at Latham & Watkins, then at Jenner & Block. (HKLaw.com)
• Stradley Ronon hired financial services litigator Tara B. Dickerman as counsel in Philadelphia. She was previously at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel. (Stradley.com)

In-House

• TechnipFMC Plc, an oilfield services provider, hired Big Law and oil and gas industry in-house veteran Victoria Lazar as its new general counsel and corporate secretary. A Baker Botts associate early in her career, Lazar was most recently top lawyer at Bristow Group Inc., a Houston-based helicopter company that serves the offshore oil and gas industry. She’s been in-house at General Electric was almost 12 years at Electronic Data Systems, including as legal manager.(BLAW)
• Conversion Labs, telemedicine and wellness company, hired Holland & Knight intellectual property partner Eric Yecies as chief compliance officer and general counsel. Earlier in his career, Yecies was a patent litigator at Goodwin Proctor, Ropes & Gray. (Compliance Week)

Technology

• Legal tech company Kira Systems said it has developed a capability to protect confidential information in its artificial intelligence-powered contract and document analysis tools. (Artificial Intelligence)

Legal Education

• Get as much information about the law as you can, and more advice from a new step-by-step guide to becoming a lawyer. (U.S. News & World Report)