Wake Up Call: Lawyer Jobs Shrink 15% in Six Months

In today’s column, three Florida lawyers filed close to 300 federal consumer bankruptcy cases last month, as individuals follow the lead of major retailers in seeking protection from Covid-19’s economic devastation; the global Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, which now has over 240 participating firms, held its first meeting last week in Chicago; Atlanta plaintiffs attorney C.K. Hoffler was sworn in last week as the new president of the the oldest and biggest African American bar association in the United States; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett poached a Gibson Dunn private equity specialist in London.

• Leading off, lawyer jobs declined 15% in six months, taking the sector’s employment down to its 2017 level, according to a new BLAW analysis. Among other things, the analysis observes that so-called stealth layoffs—in which law firms blame job cuts on performance and productivity reasons rather than admitting they were for economic reasons—complicate the work of tallying the real number of attorneys laid off. (BLAW)

• As stay-at-home orders to fight the pandemic pushed major retail companies including J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and J.C. Penney among others into bankruptcy, soaring unemployment has contributed to a steady increase in consumer bankruptcy filings in Florida. Three South Florida lawyers filed almost 300 federal cases in Miami in July, a report says. (Daily Business Review)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• National Law Journal today published a series of short interviews with its 40 “DC Rising Stars” honorees for 2020 across a broad range of practice areas. (National Law Journal)

• Litigation funders, which bet hundreds of millions of dollars on court battles, got a regulatory win last week as the Uniform Law Commission, an influential oversight group, officially abandoned a yearlong effort to consider potential uniform litigation funding laws. (BLAW)

• Atlanta plaintiffs attorney C.K. Hoffler was sworn in last week as the new president of the National Bar Association, the oldest and biggest African American bar association in the United States. She promised to lead the organization in fighting what she called the three pandemics of 2020: COVID-19, police brutality and election suppression. (Daily Report)

• Also last week, the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, which now has over 240 member firms worldwide, held its first summit in Chicago. (American Lawyer)

• “Zealous” public interest advocate Robert Gnaizda, who started out as a tax lawyer bored with corporate law and went on to fight for social justice causes, died in July at age 83. (New York Times)

• Latham & Watkins advised One Equity Partners on a $200 million financing round in cloud communications firm Infobip Limited, in a deal that values the Croatia-based firm at $1 billion, according to reports. Morrison & Foerster represented Infobip, which counts Burker King and Uber Technologies Inc. as customers. (New York Times) (PRNewswire.com)

• Cooley advised pasture-raised egg producer Vital Farms, Inc. on its initial public offering last week. The IPO brought in about $200 million and gave the company a market valuation of $1.3 billion. (Forbes)

• Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe advised as a New York-based private equity firm, RedBird Capital Partners, acquired a soccer team in the French city of Toulouse. (Law.com International)

Laterals, Moves

• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett said it hired Gibson Dunn private equity specialist James Howe to join the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice as a partner in London. (Businesswire)

• Proskauer confirmed via email today that it hired four private credit partners away from Schulte Roth & Zabel in New York, including that firm’s finance chair, Frederic L. Ragucci, and Michael M. Mezzacappa, Marc B. Friess and Ji Hye You. A report last week said disagreements with firm leaders motivated the exit. (Business Insider)

• Goodwin Procter is bringing on a new chief practice management officer from Sullivan & Cromwell, Bonnie Ciaramella, who has had leading business development and marketing and roles at several Big Law firms. (GoodwinLaw.com)

• McGuireWoods hired a former senior Manhattan federal prosecutor, Jason Cowley, who had leadership roles with the office’s money laundering/asset forfeiture and securities & commodities fraud groups, as a partner in Charlotte. (APK Metro.com)
• Crowell & Moring hired two partners in Washington focused on the False Claims Act, which seeks to hold companies involved in government contracting accountable for fraudulent claims. Department of Justice trial lawyer Michael Shaheen joins the firm’s health care and white collar practices and focuses on FCA enforcement in the health care industry. Former federal prosecutor Preston Pugh, who was also a GE Healthcare counsel, joins most recently from Miller & Chevalier and will serve on the steering committee of Crowell’s FCA practice. (BLAW)

• McDermott Will & Emery expanded its Washington-based international trade practice by poaching a team of seven attorneys from Hughes Hubbard & Reed, led by partner Joanne Osendarp, who was chair of Hughes Hubbard’s international trade practice and Eric Parnes, former chair of Hughes Hubbard’s defense industry practice group and co-chair of its technology committee. Former commissioner and vice chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission Dean Pinkert, is also joining McDermott as senior counsel. (BLAW)

• Jones Walker said Iberiabank executive vice president and general counsel Rob Worley is returning to the firm as a partner in its litigation practice group in its New Orleans office. Worley previously spent 12 years at the firm and was a partner in its labor and employment group when he left for Iberiabank in 2011. (JonesWalker.com)

In-house

• The United States Soccer Federation hired Karen Leetzow, formerly general counsel for auto racing circuit Nascar Holdings Inc., as its new chief legal officer to start in early August. She replaces Lydia Wahlke, who resigned amid controversy over her handling of defense against the $67 million pay discrimination lawsuit filed by women’s national team players. (BLAW)

• London-based Insurance brokerage Oneglobal hired an experience in-house leader Christopher Galyer as general counsel. He’s a former legal director at HSBC Insurance Brokers Limited and earlier in his career spent time as an associate Eversheds and Stephenson Harwood. (InsuranceBusinessMag.com)

Technology

• The alleged “mastermind” behind the July 15 hack of Twitter accounts of business titans, celebrities and a former president is 17 years old. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)

• Mitratech, a legal and compliance technology provider, said it acquired immigration management solution provider Tracker Corp., whose tools, it said, are well positioned to help companies deal with compliance challenges linked to remote working staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Legaltech News)