Wake Up Call: NYC Faces Attorney Shortage, Seeks Unpaid Help

In today’s column, the UK’s top 50 law firms overall posted nearly 11% average revenue gains in their latest fiscal year; Sidney Powell tagged as “nit-picky” a federal judge who sanctioned her and other Trump lawyers challenging the 2020 election; and Duane Morris is defending Sesame Place in a racial discrimination class action.

• Leading off, New York City is reportedly facing a shortage of attorneys caused by low pay and lack of flexibility on working from home. To close the gap, Mayor Eric Adams asked his chief counsel, former WilmerHale partner Brendan McGuire, to lead an effort to recruit junior attorneys from private law firms to work pro bono. (The City)
• The UK’s top 50 law firms saw average overall revenue climb by 11% in their most recent fiscal year, even as economic and geopolitical bad news piled up. (Law.com International)
• Sidney Powell, previously an attorney for former President Donald Trump, is challenging $175,000 in sanctions against her and other lawyers involved in a failed lawsuit seeking to overturn 2020 results in Michigan. (National Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Two European intellectual property firms—Brinkhof in the Netherlands and Germany’s Vossius & Partner—are partnering in a new firm, Vossius & Brinkhof UPC Litigators, aimed specifically at litigating in the EU’s soon to open Unified Patent Court. (JUVE Patent) (IAM)
• Duane Morris is defending Florida’s SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment in a proposed class action filed by a Black family against Seaworld subsidiary Sesame Place amusement park. (Legal Intelligencer)
• A Connecticut lawyer is facing criminal assault charges for allegedly slapping another attorney during an argument outside a courthouse. (Associated Press)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Seyfarth Shaw snagged Patterson Belknap real estate counsel Jason Polevoy as a partner in New York, while Locke Lord added Dorsey & Whitney renewable energy, real estate and infrastructure attorney Jeffrey Escobar as a partner in the city; Baker Botts grabbed Nixon Peabody partner and energy and infrastructure projects team co-leader Ellen Friedman in New York as a partner in its global projects department. (Baker Botts)
• UK headquartered HFW said it recruited former Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner aviation finance attorney Rebecca Quayle as a partner in London; Womble Bond Dickinson recruited former US International Trade Commission investigative attorney Andrew Beverina as intellectual property litigation counsel in Washington. (WombleBondDickinson.com)
• DLA Piper said it’s moving its Silicon Valley office in June to Palo Alto’s Stanford Research Park, home to more than 150 companies, including HP Inc, Tesla Motors and VMware; Hunton Andrews Kurth hired veteran corporate transactions attorney J.A. Glaccum as partner in Houston. He was a Washington-based partner at DLA Piper; Clark Hill hired health care attorney James Stafford, US Army Reserve officer and attorney, as a member in Dallas. (Clark Hill)
• LoanDepot, Inc., a consumer lending and real estate services provider, hired former Housing and Urban Development Department deputy general counsel Joseph Grassi as chief risk officer. According to his LinkedIn profile, Grassi was a top attorney for Fannie Mae and was recently GC and chief risk officer at Celebrity Home Loans, LLC; digital bank Green Dot Corporation hired in-house legal and compliance veteran Amy Pugh as general counsel. She arrives from Cross River Bank, where she served as associate GC supporting the fintech banking and digital assets teams.
• Longtime Debevoise & Plimpton restructuring and insurance partner My Chi To, recently insurance department head at the New York State Department of Financial Services, joined New York-based investment and insurance firm Voya Financial, Inc. as executive vice president and chief legal officer. (Businesswire)