Wake Up Call: Paul Hastings’ Revenues Rise to $1.67 Billion

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• Paul Hastings grew revenue 6% to $1.67 billion in 2022 thanks to bankruptcy, litigation, and deal work grabbed from competitors after a “historic” 2021. Average profits per equity partner at the Los Angeles-founded firm rose 4% to $4.89 million, as its equity partnership shrank 7.9% to 163, according to a report based on early data. (American Lawyer)
• Davis Polk & Wardwell snared Cravath Swaine & Moore partner and bank regulatory practice head David Portilla as a financial institutions partner in New York. When he left Debevoise & Plimpton two years ago, Portilla, a former Treasury Department senior policy adviser on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, was a rare lateral hire for Cravath. He was a Davis Polk associate earlier in his career. (DavisPolk.com)
• Sullivan & Cromwell billed crypto exchange FTX around $13.45 million for over 12,000 hours of work on its bankruptcy in February. Sullivan lawyers, other bankruptcy attorneys, and other advisers billed the company for a total of around $32.5 million in the month, according to a report citing recent court filings. (CoinTelegraph)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Two years after its merger, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders posted revenues up 5% to $1.08 billion in 2022, helped by a solid year for transactional work and strengths in financial services, life sciences, and renewable energy markets. Its average PEP surged 12.4% to $1.56 million on a 8.5% drop in its equity partnership. (American Lawyer)
• Atlanta-headquartered Morris Manning & Manning announced a new LGBTQ business practice that it said will advise LGBTQ-owned and operated businesses, business owners, investors, brokers, buyers, sellers, and lenders on legal issues unique to the community. The practice, which it called the first by a southern law firm, is co-chaired by real estate and finance partner Douglas D. Selph and commercial real estate associate Charles E. Hicks. (LinkedIn.com)
• Milbank LLP added 28,000 square feet of space to its lease at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, where its leased total is now slightly under 315,000 square feet, according to a report. (Commercial Observer)
• Juul Labs settled, for $7.9 million, a West Virginia lawsuit accusing the vaping company of deceptive marketing. (CNN)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Radio company iHeartMedia hired Amazon media & entertainment attorney Jon Kurland, who was senior corporate counsel at Amazon’s Audible audio book unit, as chief entertainment counsel and executive vice president of business affairs, based in New York. (Investors.iheartmedia.com)
• Eckert Seamans recruited former Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission chief counsel Renardo (Rick) Hicks as a member in its utilities and telecommunications practice group in Harrisburg. His previous roles include Pennsylvania executive deputy attorney general and public protection division director; Eckert also added commercial litigator Jacqueline A. Welch as a member in Boston. She arrives from Nystrom Beckman & Paris. (EckertSeamans.com)
• Kaplan Hecker & Fink brought in former Federal Bar Council executive director Anna Stowe as chief operating officer, based in New York. (KaplanHecker.com)
• Land use attorney Dana Kennedy joined Miller Starr & Regalia as shareholder in San Francisco. She comes over from Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass, where she was special counsel. (MSRLegal.com)
• Baker Botts hired legal talent acquisition pro Dani Barnard as its first-ever chief recruiting officer, based in Washington. She arrives from Polsinelli, where she was CRO. (BakerBotts.com)
• Gene editing company Tune Therapeutics, Inc. hired former Latham & Watkins corporate attorney Zachary Hale as executive vice president and general counsel in Seattle. He spent four years in-house at biotech company Juno Therapeutics. (Businesswire)
• Dextra, a middle-market private equity firm, hired private equity in-house veteran Lorne Smith as general counsel and chief compliance officer, based in New York. (Businesswire)