Wake Up Call: Linklaters Joins Firms Ditching Strict Lockstep Pay

In today’s column, Clifford Chance elected a new global managing partner; Sullivan & Cromwell barred its lawyers from trading bitcoin; Gibson Dunn added four private equity and capital markets partners London.

• Leading off, “magic circle” firm Linklaters said it is changing its global lockstep pay system so that it can pay high-performing partners more. London-based Linklaters is the latest Big Law firm to say it is changing its longstanding lockstep system to avoid losing partners in an intense market for talent after Cravath Swaine & Moore took the step last week. (Financial Times)
• Another London elite firm, Clifford Chance, announced today that its partners have elected Milan-based banking and project finance partner Charles Adams as its next global managing partner. Adams, the firm’s regional managing partner for continental Europe and former office managing partner for Italy, starts a four-year term in the new role on May 1, 2022. He takes over from current global managing partner Matthew Layton. (Clifford Chance)
• The omicron Covid-variant is upsetting plans in New York: the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has a Covid outbreak among staff after an off-site holiday party. (NBC New York) Kirkland & Ellis sent an email to its New York office members canceling a holiday party, and New York University Law School canceled in-person exams. (Above the Law)
• Cahill Gordon & Reindel beat the Davis Polk scale for associate year-end and special bonuses; Covington & Burling matched the scale, which runs up to $138,000 total, depending on seniority. (Above The Law) Morrison & Foerster, which already matched the earlier Cravath year-end bonus scale, which goes up to $115,000, is offering market-beating bonuses for big billers; Munger Tolles announced bonuses for clerks. (Above The Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Sullivan & Cromwell has barred its attorneys from buying and selling bitcoin. (Business Insider)
• Diversity Lab designated 20 Big Law firms “inclusion champions” for their progress on diversity representation and tracking. (American Lawyer) U.K.-headquartered law firms are doing a better job than their U.S. counterparts on addressing environmental, social and governance issues, according to an international study of the 500 biggest firms worldwide. (Law.com International via American Lawyer)
• A German law firm said a Cologne regional court has cleared the way for its billion-dollar investor class action lawsuit against Bayer AG over its takeover of U.S. seed manufacturer Monsanto. (Bloomberg News)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher added four corporate partners in London to expand its private equity and capital markets practices. Private equity lawyers Wim De Vlieger and Till Lefranc join from Sidley Austin, where they were partners, joined by new partner Isabel Berger, who was a Sidley senior associate. New partner Hugo Hernández-Mancha, a senior associate at Linklaters, focuses on capital markets and leveraged finance. De Vlieger will serve as co-chair of Gibson’s emerging companies practice group, and co-head of private equity in Europe with private equity partner Federico Fruhbeck. Frubeck joined the firm in October and is global co-chair of its projects and infrastructure practice group; Dentons recruited Troutman Pepper M&A and private equity lawyer Chris Hagenbuch as a partner in New York in its venture technology and emerging growth companies practice. (Dentons)
• Novartis Pharmaceuticals is promoting John Kuckelman, senior vice president and general counsel of subsidiary Novartis Gene Therapies, to company-wide general counsel, effective Jan. 1, 2022, reporting to the company’s president Marie-France Tschudin and Karen Hale, who since March is the chief legal officer of Novartis AG. (Reuters) Biotechnology firm Cerecin hired former Polsinelli shareholder Milan Vinnola as general counsel, based in Denver, Colorado. (GlobeNewswire)
• O’Melveny & Myers elected 13 lawyers to partner across 12 practice areas for 2022; New York-based Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler promoted three lawyers to partner and three to counsel, effective Jan. 1, 2022; Blank Rome promoted 11 lawyers to partner and one to of counsel; Faegre Drinker announced a 2021 first-year class including 41 associates in 10 locations across 10 practice areas; Nixon Peabody hired former Covington & Burling pro bono manager Sharmaine Heng as director of pro bono and social impact; Cooley hired former U.S. Supreme Court clerk David Souk as an associate. (National Law Journal)