Wake Up Call: Legal Profession Adds 1,500 Jobs in April

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

• Legal profession employment bounced back from a slight decline in March to add about 1,500 jobs in April, with employment in the sector reaching 1,179,400 jobs overall, according to new seasonally adjusted data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (BLS.gov) Legal sector employment is about 20,000 jobs higher than at the beginning of the pandemic in early in 2020, but down about 10,000 jobs from its July 2022 peak. (American Lawyer)
• A month after the India Bar Council announced a rule change to allow foreign law firms to operate in the country there is still confusion over what international firms will actually be permitted to do. (Financial Times)
• Morgan Lewis convinced a New York state judge to throw out an investment company’s $12 million lawsuit accusing the firm of professional negligence in handling its loan agreement. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• St. Louis-based Thompson Coburn posted 8.5% growth to a record $254 million revenues in 2022, powered by its midmarket corporate work and an upturn in its litigation in the year’s second half. The firm’s average profits per equity partner dropped 6.1%, to $652,000 as it added 14 equity partners during the year. (American Lawyer)
• Women lawyers who left their law firms cited lack of support for maternity leave or child care and the stress of meeting billable-hour targets among reasons motivating their exits, a survey report says. (American Lawyer)
• BakerHostetler brought in a team of eight corporate lawyers in Los Angeles. The team is led by Will Chuchawat, who was co-chair of private equity and M&A at Proskauer Rose, and by JR Lanis, who was vice chair of securities at Polsinelli. (The Recorder)
• Donald Trump let pass a judge’s Sunday deadline to testify at a civil trial over writer E. Jean Carroll’s accusations that the former president raped her in the 1990s. (Associated Press)
• In his video deposition for the case, Trump told a lawyer Carroll wasn’t his type and that neither was the lawyer. (Business Insider)
• The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission recommended disciplinary action against Sidney Powell and other attorneys who pushed Trump’s election denying claims in a 2020 lawsuit. (Detroit Free Press)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Alston & Bird grabbed Kirkland & Ellis private equity partners Jonathan Manor and Simon Root as partners in Silicon Valley. (Alston.com)
• Akerman added financial services litigator Aliza Malouf to its consumer financial services data and technology practice in Washington. She joins after over seven years at Hunton Andrews Kurth. (Akerman.com)
• Stradley Ronon hired investment management lawyer Jonathan Miller as senior counsel in New York. He arrives after 35 years at Sidley Austin. (Stradley.com)
• Alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS hired attorney and law school professor Angela Downes as a neutral on its Dallas panel. JAMS also recruited retired Illinois county associate judge James E. Snyder to its panel in Chicago. (JAMSadr.com)

Legal Education

• California’s bar passage rate slipped slightly in February to 32.5%. That means fewer than one in three takers passed the test. (The Recorder)