Wake Up Call: Pandemic ‘Shakeup’ Hits Corporate Legal Ties

In today’s column, Dentons said it added new firms in Nigeria and Iowa; Womble Bond Dickinson plans to slash its U.S. office space; Singapore sees returns on efforts to compete with Hong Kong as a dispute venue.

• Leading off, most corporate legal departments reduced their outside counsel relationships last year in the “biggest shakeup in the outside legal services market since the Great Recession,” according to Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions’ latest LegalView report. The report says 16% of attorney-client relationships that existed in 2019 were paused in 2020, with the last 50 of the Am Law 200 most likely to get hit. (Wolters Kluwer)
• Several Big Law firms Thursday matched the Davis Polk scale for special associate bonuses, which runs up to $64,000, depending on seniority and is paid out in two installments. Sullivan & Cromwell, McDermott Will & Emery, O’Melveny, Vinson & Elkins, and Kramer Levin joined dozens of other firms that have matched the scale so far. Some attach billable hour requirements to get the money. All that money may not ease associate burnout. (Above the Law)
• Litigation-focused firms, like Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Munger, Tolles & Olson, and Winston & Strawn, saw their revenues take a hit in 2020 as the pandemic closed courtrooms. Litigation leaders at firms discussed their outlook for 2021. (American Lawyer)
• Trans-Atlantic firm Womble Bond Dickinson said it plans to cut its office space by half across its 18 U.S. locations, citing lessons learned from remote working during the pandemic. The firm, whose U.S. headquarters is in Winston-Salem, N.C., posted gross revenues up 0.1% to $471.2 million, with profits per equity partner up 28.9% to $718,000. (Daily Report)
• Dentons, the world’s biggest law firm by head count, said Thursday it’s tying up with Nigerian firm Adepetun, Caxton-Martins, Agbor & Segun to enter that country’s legal market. ACAS-Law, with seven partners and 52 lawyers, is 60% women-owned and has a female managing partner, Dentons said. The firm, which recently lost 21 lawyers in California to Husch Blackwell, is also adding more than 75 lawyers in Iowa through a merger with local firm Davis Brown as part of its “Project Golden Spike” to become a national-scale firm in the U.S. It said it now has 44 U.S. locations among its locations in 77 countries. (Dentons)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Singapore, looking to compete with Hong Kong as a top venue for dispute resolution, said new arbitration cases more than doubled last year. The record 1,080 cases reportedly represented $8.5 billion in disputes. (Financial Times)
• Los Angeles-based Loeb & Loeb said it already had the technological infrastructure to support remote work when the pandemic hit last year. Its 2020 gross revenues increased 4.1% over the year to reach $385.27 million, with strong performances from technology, advertising, and digital media, privacy, and life sciences, and capital markets. The firm’s profits per equity partner rose 8.5% to $1.89 million. (The Recorder)
• Two lawyers arrested for allegedly fire-bombing an empty police van in New York during protests after the police killing of George Floyd last summer are still trying to negotiate their pleas. One of the lawyers was a furloughed associate at Manhattan firm Pryor Cashman, and the other was an attorney at a legal services nonprofit. (New York Post)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Morgan, Lewis & Bockius added three partners from Hunton Andrews Kurth. The trio includes structured transactions partners Steven Becker in New York and Alex Velinsky in Washington, as well as insurance coverage litigator Sergio F. Oehninger in Washington; Morgan Lewis lost insurance partner Scott Fischer to DLA Piper. Fischer, a former executive deputy superintendent for insurance at the New York State Department of Financial Services, joined DLA Piper as head of its U.S. insurance regulatory practice; Locke Lord grabbed veteran public finance attorney and Bracewell partner Carey Troell as a partner in Austin. (LockeLord.com)
• American Equity Investment Life Holding Company promoted its general counsel, U.S., Phyllis Zanghi to executive vice president and chief legal officer. Zanghi joined American Equity in October 2020 after previous stints as a senior vice president at MetLife and head of tax and associate GC at Brighthouse Financial. (Businesswire) Molecular technologies company Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. hired veteran intellectual property and corporate in-house veteran Clay Shorrock for the new role of chief legal officer and executive director of business development. (Businesswire)