Wake Up Call: Ogletree, KPMG Germany Announce Global Alliance

In today’s column, Texas-based Bracewell recruited former top Justice Department official Seth DuCharme as a partner in New York; the February pass rate for California’s bar exam was up sharply year-on-year, helped by a reduction in the minimum passing score; courts are considering requests to sanction pro-Trump lawyers who filed legal challenges to the 2020 election.

• Leading off, KPMG Law in Germany and Atlanta-based Ogletree Deakins Monday announced a “technology-powered” alliance that appears to take a big step in KPMG’s efforts to build its global legal services network that currently has 2,800 lawyers in 81 jurisdictions. KPMG and Ogletree said the new partnership will give KPMG Germany’s global, non-U.S. clients access to Ogletree’s expertise in U.S. labor, employment and immigration matters. Ogletree, which says it has over 900 lawyers across 53 offices worldwide, said the alliance gives its clients access to KPMG’s “end-to-end” workplace solutions—including tax, compensation, global immigration, and related advisory and consulting services. (Businesswire)
• KPMG’s head of global immigration services, Thomas Wolf, said the alliance responds to growing client demand, post-pandemic, for a technology-powered, globally unified approach to business challenges faced in the areas of immigration and global mobility, labor and employment, and associated tax, compensation, and benefits issues. (KPMG)
• Three more Big U.K. firms recently announced bonuses to thank staff for their efforts during the pandemic, RollonFriday reported. Shoosmiths said staff will get bonuses equal to 7.7% of their annual pay; Osborne Clark is giving staff bonuses equal to 5% of their annual pay; while Bird & Bird is giving a 1,000 euro (about $1,216) bonus, the report says; Meanwhile, Florida-headquartered Greenspoon Marder, which says it employs nearly 450 people across 22 U.S. offices, not including partners, last week announced associate and staff appreciation bonuses. But it didn’t say how much they’re getting. (GMLaw.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• White & Case, which had been shopping for new London premises, has asked a consultancy for a cost estimate on refurbishing the offices it is already in, a report says; New York-headquartered Axinn moved its Washington offices to new premises. (Axinn.com)
• Courts and lawyer licensing bodies are considering requests for sanctions against attorneys who filed failed legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election in support of or on behalf of former President Donald Trump. (WSJ); Former Trump lawyer Jenny Ellis was mocked on Twitter for thanking the U.S. Space Force for protecting the U.S. from debris from a falling Chinese rocket. (The Sun)
• Former Above the Law managing editor Elie Mystal, now a columnist at the Nation, said he takes the blame for an Above the Law article, by an unnamed conservative writer, that appeared in 2019 including the “N-word” spelled out. Then Mystal argues why he should have caught and rewritten it as “N-word” or other work-around. (Above the Law)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Bracewell said former acting U.S. Attorney for New York’s Eastern District Seth DuCharme has joined the firm as a partner in New York in its government enforcement and investigations practice. DuCharme, at Simpson Thacher early in his career, spent about 12 years at the Justice Department; Norton Rose Fulbright hired two Texas-based litigators and former federal prosecutors as partners in its regulations, investigations, securities and compliance practice. Jay Dewald joined from Jackson Walker in Dallas and San Antonio, where he led his former firm’s investigations and white collar defense practice. Julie Searle, who joins in Austin, was in-house senior director of ethics & compliance at Walmart. (Norton Rose Fulbright)
• Arent Fox grabbed Cooley corporate lawyer Jonathan Bagg as a partner in Washington in its corporate & securities practice. Bagg was an intern in the Securities & Exchange commission’s office of international corporate finance early in his career, and was assistant to the vice chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; Akerman got veteran corporate lawyer Jason Northcutt as partner in Washington. He’s a former Sheppard Mullin partner and arrives most recently from Bass, Berry & Sims. (Akerman)

Legal Education

• California’s February bar exam pass rate rose to 37% in 2021, up from 27.9% in 2020, but this year’s scores were boosted by the recent easing of the pass score from 1440 to 1390. (The Recorder)