Wake Up Call: Ousted University of Miami Law Dean Fights Back

In today’s column, Big Law diversity pros say their firms have been more talk than action when it comes to improving equity; London-based Big Law firm Ashurst elected its first-ever woman global chair; U.K. elite firm Clifford Chance is closing its Seoul, Korea, outpost.

• Leading off, an attorney for ousted University of Miami Law Dean Anthony Varona says the school president’s explanation for his firing is “malicious falsehood.” Varona’s lawyer, Debra Katz, represented California psychologist Christine Blasey Ford, who during Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Senate confirmation hearings accused him of sexually assaulting her. (Daily Business Review) Some elite law schools are substantially “over-enrolled” for the coming year and are asking some incoming students to put off their attendance in an attempt to “right-size” their class sizes, a report says. (Above the Law)
• U.K. elite firm Clifford Chance is closing its Seoul, Korea, office. (The Lawyer) London-based global firm Ashurst elected its U.K. head of corporate, Karen Davies, to be the firm’s global chair starting Aug. 1, making her the first woman to lead the firm. (Ashurst.com)
• Several Big Law firms are sticking with plans for remote summer associate programs despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent updated guidance dropping mask requirements for vaccinated people. Some are taking a hybrid approach, while others plan mostly in-person programs. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Diversity professionals at Big Law firms told American Lawyer in a recent survey that, although firms have showed interest in working to improve social and racial justice, they’ve been less inclined to take actual actions to improve equity. (American Lawyer)
• Washington-based IP firm Finnegan said the class of summer associates it’s welcoming June 1 is 80% diverse. The firm said 95% of the class have a background in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The nine-week program is focused on intellectual property law. (Finnegan.com)
• Google has to face a gender pay-bias class action suit after a California state judge certified class action status for close to 11,000 women who claim the company pays men more than women doing the same work. (Bloomberg News via BLAW) Managing partners from 16 global law firms issued a letter denouncing antisemitism “in all its forms.” (Jewish Insider)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who already has second job as Quinn Emanuel of counsel, is joining private equity firm DaGrosa Capital Partners as senior operating partner. (Bloomberg News via BLAW) AutoCAD software maker AutoDesk said it’s in the market for a new top lawyer, as its executive vice president of corporate affairs and chief legal officer, Pascal W.Di Fronzo, plans to retire in December after 23 years at the company. (PR Newswire)
• Jones Day‘s Paris office brought in financial markets lawyer Jean-Guillaume de Tocqueville as a partner. He was a partner and head of the financial services practice at French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel, from which he arrives with counsel Matthieu Ollivry, and three associates. De Tocqueville is a descendant of French historian and political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote “Democracy in America”; distributed firm FisherBroyles got securitization and capital markets partner Neil Hamilton in London. He’s a former partner at several Big Law firms and arrives most recently from CMS LLP. (FisherBroyles.com)
• San Francisco headquartered Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani expanded in the Midwest, grabbing a 12-lawyer commercial litigation and products liability team from Wilson Elser in Detroit. Wilson Elser’s former regional managing partner John Eads will serve as Gordon Rees’ Detroit office managing partner, with complex tort, general casualty litigator Juliana Sabatini, as assistant office managing partner; Dykema said products litigator Janet Conigliaro returned to its Detroit office after close to two years in-house as director of legal regulatory counsel at German company ZF Group, which supplies parts and tech to the auto industry; Davis Wright Tremaine got former Federal Trade Commission enforcement attorney Thomas Kost as counsel in Seattle in the firm’s banking and financial services practice. (DWT.com)

Technology

• Legal tech leader DocuSign is acquiring smart contract provider Clause. (Artificial Lawyer) E-discovery provider Relativity, which recently got an investment from private equity firm Silver Lake, bought artificial intelligence company Text IQ. (PR Newswire)

Notice

• Wake Up Call will take a publishing break May 31 through June 2. We will resume June 3.