Wake Up Call: Paul Weiss Chair Karp Mulls His Future at Firm

In today’s column, the California State Bar said it plans to get more aggressive on attorney discipline; two UK Big Law firms set up captive insurers; Florida courts are taking a wait-and-see approach on monkeypox.

• Leading off, Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp says that after nearly 15 years leading the New York-based firm, for which he generates around $500 million in fees annually, he’s reassessing if he wants to stay in the role when his current term ends in May 2023. “I’ll have to figure out whether I have the energy and strength,” he told Business Insider. (Business Insider)
• The California State Bar’s leaders said they’ve learned from the organization’s stumbles handling complaints about disgraced plaintiffs’ attorney Tom Girardi, and they vowed to get more proactive about attorney discipline. (Reuters)
• UK-headquartered Fieldfisher and HFW have set up captive insurers in the latest example of Big Law firms turning to self-insurance to reduce their costs for professional indemnity cover. (Law.com International)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Florida state courts are taking a “wait-and-see” approach regarding monkeypox, which the World Health Organization has labeled as a “global health emergency.” (Daily Business Review)
• The Texas State Bar in May accused Attorney General Ken Paxton of misconduct over his participation in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Paxton has responded by prohibiting his office’s lawyers from speaking at any events organized by the bar association and refusing to pay for any attorneys to attend bar-sponsored events. (Texas Tribune)
• A Louisiana appeals court removed a district judge from managing several lawsuits stemming from a botched evacuation of nursing homes during Hurricane Ida. The court found the judge had raised questions about his own impartiality, by calling a non-party to the case a “piece of s**t” from the bench. (Nola)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Latham & Watkins poached Kirkland & Ellis investment funds partner John Kelley as a corporate partner in New York; Goodwin recruited Credit Suisse head of M&A legal, Americas, James Mayne as a private equity partner in New York. He’s previously been at Skadden Arps and Australian firm Blake Dawson, now part of Ashurst; Morrison Foerster snagged corporate attorney Derek Steingarten as a partner in New York and co-chair of its investment management group. He arrives after six-plus years at K&L Gates, where he was partner, and he earlier spent 15 years at Goodwin’s Boston office; Loeb & Loeb hired White and Williams real estate attorney C. Jason Kim as partner in New York; management-side worklaw firm Littler picked up Blank Rome employment trial attorney William Anthony as a shareholder in New York. (Littler.com)
• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner added real estate finance attorney Bob Stupar as partner in Atlanta. He arrives from Kilpatrick Townsend; Bryan Cave also grabbed Baker McKenzie’s longtime global chief information officer Dan Surowiec as its new global CIO, based in Chicago; O’Melveny & Myers added Ryan Sears, the head of Gray Reed & McGraw’s energy transactions practice and energy industry team in Dallas, as partner in its project development and real estate and energy groups. (OMM.com)
• Squire Patton Boggs brought in insurance industry top lawyer John Kirtley as financial services of counsel. He most recently was vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary at Illinois Mutual Life Insurance Company; pharmaceutical in-house veteran Tim Gaul, recently associate general counsel at Amgen Inc., took a job as vice president, intellectual property strategy at Brand Institute, a pharmaceutical branding consultancy; clothing retail industry in-house leader Stacey Siegal, recently at American Eagle Outfitters Inc. as executive vice president and GC for people and culture,. said she took a job as executive vice president and chief legal officer at J. Crew Group. (LinkedIn)

Technology

• Exterro Inc., an e-discovery and compliance software provider eying an IPO in 2023, said it got new financing that lifts its market value over $1 billion. (WSJ) Equifax, an Atlanta-based data, analytics, and technology company, acquired LawLogix, a Phoenix-based provider of cloud-based employment eligibility and immigration case management software. (FINSMES)