Wake Up Call: No Remote Legal Work for Russians, Scholars Urge

In today’s column, lawyers and staff at international law firms in Warsaw, Poland, are opening their homes to Ukraine refugees flowing into the country; Husch Blackwell launched what it called Big Law’s first dedicated team to advise developers of psychedelics and emerging therapies; a Stroock & Stroock & Lavan lawyer was appointed director of a voting rights project at Fordham University School of Law.

• Leading off, a team of faculty and research staff from law schools at Harvard, Stanford and Yale said recent Big Law firm exits from Russia are a good first step but possibly misleading. “Law firms can and do serve Russian interests from afar; if nothing else, Covid has taught us the possibilities of remote work,” the project said in a statement. The team said it is tracking AmLaw 100 firms and UK100 firms to see which have publicly committed not to profit from work that helps Russia’s war on Ukraine. So far, only four have done that, it said. (Law.Stanford.edu) Another monitoring project, at Yale Law, says over 400 companies have withdrawn from Russia, but others remain. (Yale.edu)
• As the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine nears 3 million, international law firms in Warsaw including Greenberg Traurig, Clifford Chance, Gide Loyrette Nouel, Hogan Lovells, and Eversheds Sutherland, are offering help. (Law.com International)
• With digital donations streaming in for Ukraine, the country’s president signed a law creating a legal framework for the cryptocurrency industry. (NBCNews)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Tech, finance, and real estate work helped propel Mayer Brown’s gross revenues up 21.3% to $1.84 billion in 2021. Its average profits per equity partner soared 22.9% to $2.47 million. (American Lawyer)
• Husch Blackwell launched a psychedelics and emerging therapies group aimed at advising innovators that seek to research, develop and commercialize novel therapies deal with a problematic legal and regulatory environment for the treatments. (HuschBlackwell.com)
• In Boston, caterers and restaurants are getting a boost in sales as law firms, insurance companies, and hedge funds buy food for their workers coming back to the office. Legal offices are ordering 20% more than before the pandemic, a report says. (Boston Globe) Reed Smith announced its staff and attorneys worldwide can get up to $60,000 in family-forming resources, services and support from Carrot Fertility. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in January also said it’s offering benefits through that company. (Reed Smith)
• Paul Hastings and Kirkland & Ellis advised private equity firm Francisco Partners on its “significant” investment in Veson Nautical, a Boston-based maritime freight software developer that has over 18,000 users. Veson and its existing stakeholder, Pamlico Capital, got advice from Alston & Bird. Cooley advised Veson’s management, according to a statement. (Pamlico Capital)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Goodwin Procter grabbed Cooley venture capital funds attorney Eunice Choi as a partner in San Francisco; Winston & Strawn antitrust partner Molly Donovan said she jumped to New York boutique firm Bona Law as counsel because she wanted more “family time and to pursue outside interests.”; Dentons hired Trinidad and Tobago-based corporate attorney Leonard Birmingham as its head of corporate and commercial law for the Caribbean. According to his LinkedIn profile, Birmingham spent 21 years at British Virgin Islands-based offshore firm Harneys, including as global head of corporate and arrives recently from Virgin Group Holdings Limited, where he was a “non-executive director”; Polsinelli brought in former Alston & Bird business development pro Tiffany Zeigler as chief marketing officer based in Atlanta. Polsinelli hired Hogan Lovells technology operations chief Harpreet Suri as chief information officer based in Washington. (Polsinelli)
• San Francisco-based web development platform Netlify hired an Ireland-based in-house veteran Rachel Tobin as its first vice president, head of legal. She arrives after 10 years at software company Zendesk, recently as a senior director, global privacy counsel. (Corporate Counsel)

Legal Education

• Fordham University School of Law said its new voting rights and democracy project aims to train the next generation of voting rights lawyers through election-related classes and seminars and panel discussions. It appointed Stroock & Stroock & Lavan special counsel Jerry H. Goldfeder, an adjunct professor at the school, director of the project. (Law.Fordham.edu)