Wake Up Call: Legal Tech Company Suspends Site After Ransomware Attack

In today’s column, several firms advised on multi-billion dollar deals; shared workspace giant WeWork fights a former in-house lawyer’s bias suit; and Alston & Bird posted gross revenue and PEP gains for 2019.

• Leading off, legal data and services platform Epiq reported that it was hit by a ransomware attack, forcing it offline as it seeks to recover. The Atlanta-based company said no client data was compromised. It said federal authorities are investigating, without offering more detail. (Artificial Lawyer) (Yahoo Finance!)

• Cooley advised clinical-stage immuno-oncology company Forty Seven Inc. in its $4.9 billion acquisition by Gilead Sciences Inc., represented by Skadden Arps. Goodwin Procter represented investment banking and advisory firm Centerview Partners, which advised Forty Seven in the deal. (Bloomberg News)

• Atlanta-based Alston & Bird’s 2019 gross revenues were up 2.9% to $835.87 million, compared with the previous year, while its average profits per equity partner gained 7.9%, to about $2.25 million, early data show. (Daily Report)

• Shared workspace company WeWork, advised by Morgan Lewis, is getting sued for racial and gender discrimination by a former in-house lawyer. (Corporate Counsel)

• The Washington federal judge in the criminal trial of Trump ally Roger Stone appointed a Sidley Austin partner to represent jurors in the case, after a right wing commentator filed a motion to get their juror questionnaires. (National Law Journal)

• Foley & Lardner grabbed a four-attorney intellectual property team from Dentons, including Washington-based Eric Sophir, who was a partner and co-practice leader of Denton’s IP group. (BLAW)

• In Paris, U.K.-based firm Ashurst grabbed a three-lawyer employment law team from Hogan Lovells, led by partner Muriel Pariente who’d been at Hogan Lovells almost 15 years and previously spent six years at Winston & Strawn. (LeMondedurDroit.com) (Ashurst.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Morgan Lewis announced two big partner hires. It said former managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ national tax services practice, Daniel Carmody, re-joined the firm in Philadelphia. It said Daniel Tehrani, the former deputy chief of the appeals unit for the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, joined in New York. (BLAW)

• Paul Hastings got fintech lawyer Christopher Austin, who was Orrick’s global head of capital markets and head of its blockchain and cryptocurrency working group, as a partner based in New York. (BLAW)

• Sidley Austin got Kirkland & Ellis litigation partner Brian Kavanaugh as a partner, working out of its Chicago and Dallas offices. He was at Kirkland 20 and a half years, recently as one of the leaders of the data security & privacy practice. (BLAW)

• Holland & Knight named former Tallahassee office executive partner Karen Walker as head of its firm-wide government section, based in Washington and Tallahassee. She takes over from David Whitestone, who was recently appointed executive partner of the Washington office. (HKLaw.com)

Deals

• Davis Polk is advising Mobile Mini, Inc., provider of portable, storage solutions, on its merger-of-equals transaction with modular space provider WillScot Corporation, represented by Allen & Overy. The merger aims to form a combined company with an implied total enterprise value of approximately $6.6 billion. (Globenewswire.com)

• Shearman & Sterling’s Paris office advised LBO France regarding its entry into exclusive negotiations to acquire Five Arrows Principal Investments, a European distributor of R&D laboratory consumables and equipment. (PEHub.com)

• Cooley advised London-based British film tech startup WeGotPOP in its acquisition by Burbank, California-based Entertainment Partners, an entertainment industry production and workforce management solutions company that among other things owns Central Casting. (San Fernando Valley Business Journal) (Entertainment Partners)

• Several firms advised on Palladium Equity Partners, LLC’s acquisition of alternative student transportation company ALC Schools, from affiliates of American Logistics for an undisclosed price. Paul Weiss advised private equity company Palladium, while Morrison & Foerster represented Palladium in the financing arrangements. Morgan Lewis advised ALC. (Businesswire.com)

• DLA Piper advised ABS Capital Partners on its investment in SquadLocker, a Rhode Island-based provider of online tools and services to manage purchases of custom apparel, in a recent $20 million funding round led by ABS. (AmericanInno.com)

• Goodwin advised New York-based Leeds Equity Partners in the recently closed sales of Campus Management Corp. and Edcentric Inc. to Veritas Capital. (Markets.BusinessInsider.com)

Laterals, Moves

• Foley & Lardner healthcare defense partner Torrey Young jumped to Mukasey, Frenchman & Sklaroff, the New York trial boutique led by former federal prosecutor Marc Mukasey. (MFSLLP.com)

• Brown Rudnick added bankruptcy & corporate restructuring lawyer Oksana Lashko as a partner in New York. She arrives from Paul Weiss, where she was an associate. (BrownRudnick.com)

• Dykema added intellectual property lawyer Michael Gzybowski, a former patent examiner for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, as senior counsel in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was most recently at Brinks Gilson & Lione. (Dykema)

• Blank Rome got Reed Smith corporate & securities counsel Jodi Lashin as a partner in New York in its corporate, M&A and securities group. (BlankRome.com)

• Business and real estate firm Newmeyer Dillion hired health care litigator Savera Sandhu as a partner in its Las Vegas office. (NewmeyerDillion)

• Health care lawyer Zubin Khambatta jumped from Husch Blackwell to Perkins Coie as a partner in its new Austin office. (PerkinsCoie.com)

• ML Strategies, a consulting subsidiary of Boston-headquartered Mintz, hired public policy adviser Anthony DeMaio as director of government relations, based in Washington. He comes over from McDermott Will & Emery. (MLStrategies.com)

Promotions

• Thompson & Knight promoted four attorneys (two women) to partner in the firm’s Dallas and Houston offices. (TKLaw.com)

• Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck promoted three attorneys to partner (one woman) and three to of counsel, in five offices. (KDVLaw.com)

Technology

• LEAP Legal Software, which makes practice management software, said it released a version of its software aimed at Connecticut-based small and medium-size enterprises. (PRnewswire.com)