Wake Up Call: Law Grads’ Job Disparities Continue, NALP Says

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• Black, native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander graduates of law schools were significantly less likely to land jobs that required bar passage than white graduates were in 2021, according to a survey report by the National Association for Law Placement. White graduates had the highest level of employment in bar passage required/anticipated jobs, at 81.0%, falling to 65.9% for Black graduates and 58.5% for native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander graduates, NALP said. (NALP.org)
• New York-based Davis Polk & Wardwell is following Brown Rudnick out of Paris. Davis Polk plans to close its 60-year-old outpost in Paris by year’s end, as it has handled much of its recent European deal work from its US offices, a report says. (Law.com International)
• Davis Polk has been very active in the associate pay and bonus wars in the post-pandemic period. After last year’s bonanza, most Big Law associates responding to a recent survey said they’re not expecting to get special payouts this year. Overall, associates also said they’re on track to bill significantly fewer hours than last year. (Above The Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A survey of 200 UK law firm partners commissioned by litigation funder Harbour found that 44% say they’re facing pressure to reduce fees from clients dealing with increasing costs and dimming economic prospects. Harbour said 46% of respondents said they’re losing work to less expensive rivals. (Financial News)
• Another survey finds law firms are missing out on work because they responded too slowly to potential clients’ requests for information on their experience in a particular practice area. (American Lawyer)
• Mark Lanier, founder of Texas-based class-action firm Lanier Law Firm, which has won verdicts against Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical companies, is reportedly opening an office in Manchester, England and has already recruited two former Linklaters attorneys in the city. (Global Legal Post)
• A Maine judge handed a one-year suspension to an attorney who had his legal assistant take his required continuing legal education courses in 2019. (Law.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, a top New York prosecutor who supervised the handling of sexual assault allegations made by two women against Apollo Global founder Leon Black, has reportedly moved to a boutique law firm that represents Black. Lawyers representing Black’s accusers are angry over the move. (Financial Times)
• Former investigator on the House’s Jan. 6 Committee Kevin Elliker returned to Hunton Andrews Kurth as counsel in Richmond in its issues and appeals practice. Elliker was earlier an assistant US Attorney in the city. (HuntonAK.com)
• Cozen O’Connor brought back veteran commercial litigator Miguel Alexander Pozo, former Mercedes Benz litigation head in Atlanta, as a member in Minneapolis. Earlier at Cozen, Pozo has been a partner at Lowenstein Sandler and Duane Morris, and he was recently a senior vice president, general counsel, and compliance officer at Minnesota Community Care, a healthcare center. (Cozen.com)
• Also in Minneapolis, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough picked up Lewis Brisbois litigator David Carrier as a partner in its eight-month-old office in the city. (Nelson Mullins)
• Carlton Fields brought in Ballard Spahr real estate attorney Garland Gantt, III as of counsel in Washington. (CarltonFields.com)
• New Jersey-based Kearny Bank hired financial services in-house veteran Cassia Beierle as its general counsel. She was previously deputy GC at Investors Bank. (NJBiz)

Legal Education

• Texas-based St. Mary’s University School of Law got 791 applications for its first all-remote program and only offered admission to 71. That approximately 9% acceptance rate is comparable to the one at Yale Law School. (Reuters)