Wake Up Call: NFL Raiders’ President Out, Top Lawyer Steps Up

In today’s column, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has hired Attorney General Merrick Garland’s daughter as a clerk, a prominent legal blogger reported; a Boston trial firm for many U.S. multinationals disclosed it was hit in a major cyber breach; the biggest Spanish-language media provider in the U.S., Univision, grabbed Mastercard’s North America general counsel as its new top lawyer.

• Leading off, the National Football League’s Las Vegas Raiders announced that its executive vice president and general counsel, Dan Ventrelle, will serve as the team’s interim president after the abrupt resignation yesterday of the team’s president, Marc Badain. (LVSports.com) (Raiders.com)
• A Boston-based trial law firm that does work for major companies including Apple, Ford, Boeing, Exxon, and Pfizer, among others, disclosed Friday that it was hacked in a large ransomware attack in January. (ZDNet) (Information Security Buzz)
• Trends in Big Law, including a boom in lateral hires, flexible work, pay hikes and bonuses, among others, show that it’s a “very pro-attorney” market. (American Lawyer) However, although associate pay has been surging at Big Law firms it still isn’t keeping up with partner profits, another report says. (Business Insider) Candidates for in-house jobs are less likely to be willing to move, recruiters say. But secondment requests are rising. (Corporate Counsel)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Attorney General Merrick Garland’s daughter, Jessica Garland, was hired as a clerk by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, Above the Law founder and current legal blogger David Lat reported. That set off an ethics discussion in Lat’s Twitter feed. (Twitter)
• London-based Big Law firm Fieldfisher is changing its office reopening plans in reaction to a surge in delta-variant Covid cases. (The Lawyer) Some California courts are bringing back mask requirements because of the surge. (The Recorder) With pandemic exemptions that allowed videoconferencing and teleconferencing about to end, federal judges are coming up with ways to maintain remote courts and public access. (Legaltech News)
• Two former Jones Day associates suing the firm for alleged bias against fathers have to let the firm’s leaders see discovery materials in the case, a judge ruled. (American Lawyer)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Quinn Emanuel hired former federal prosecutor Robert Zink, who led the Justice Department’s effort against market manipulation in commodities and derivatives, as a white collar partner in Washington. (WSJ); Morrison & Foerster hired veteran litigation and arbitration lawyer Anthony Fiotto in Boston as a partner and head of the office’s litigation practice. According to his LinkedIn profile, he arrives after 30 years at Goodwin Procter, where he was chair of securities litigation and white collar defense; Tarter Krinsky & Drogin got a former in-house leader at Goldman Sachs and UBS Investment Bank, Richard J.L. Lomuscio, as a partner to boost its securities and financial services practices. He arrives most recently from Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti. (TarterKrinsky.com)
• Kirkland & Ellis added former Fried Frank environmental lawyer Mary Beth Houlihan as a partner in New York in its environmental, social, and governance & impact practice group; Willkie Farr & Gallagher grabbed Kirkland private equity partner Dvir Oren as a corporate & financial services partner in New York; Kirkland also lost investment funds partner William C. “Beau” Brashares to Latham & Watkins; Lowenstein Sandler recruited Arent Fox bankruptcy & restructuring partner Jordana Renert as a partner in New York; Blank Rome re-hired litigator Jill Lipman Beck in Pittsburgh. She returns after a run for state Superior Court judge. (BlankRome.com)
• Mastercard Inc.’s general counsel for North America, Pilar Ramos, is leaving to become legal chief at Univision Holdings Inc. She’s due to start the job after the expected second-half close of the Spanish-language content group’s $4.8 billion merger with Grupo Televisa SAB, Mexico’s largest broadcaster; Eversheds Sutherland added corporate lawyer Paul Hogan as counsel in Chicago. He’s a former associate at Ice Miller and Greenberg Traurig and joins most recently from Kingsway Financial Services, where he was secretary and general counsel. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)

Technology

• Lawyers say a French competition case against Google threatens the core of the company’s way of doing business. (Law.com International)