Wake Up Call: Pay Gap Grows Between Partners, In-House Chiefs

In today’s column, Covington & Burling, Winston Strawn, and Perkins Coie are the latest firms announcing year-end bonuses; Jones Day promoted 50 lawyers to partner; Norton Rose Fulbright announced a post-Covid remote work policy for EMEA staff; Willkie named a new joint chairman.

• Leading off, the pandemic has exacerbated a “disconnect” in compensation between partners at Big Law firms and their in-house counterparts, a new report says. The report, based on ALM intelligence survey data, finds that pay growth has stalled for general counsel and chief legal officers in 2020. It finds the average partner at a Big Law firm earns nearly double the money that the legal department leader of a typical client would earn. (Corporate Counsel)
• Meanwhile, a new Gartner study says the pandemic has caused corporate legal departments to cut their spending on outside counsel and keep more work in-house. That’s fueled a big jump in demand for in-house specialists and legal operations managers, it says. (Corporate Counsel)
• Covington & Burling’s 2020 year-end associate bonuses, up to $140,000 in total depending on year, match the Baker McKenzie bonus scale that was later one-upped by Cravath and the Davis Polk scale for special Covid bonuses that Covington had earlier said it would skip. Covington’s bonuses are linked to a billable hours requirement and some associates are not thrilled about that. (Above the Law)
• Winston & Strawn is also matching the Cravath and Davis Polk scales, but some associates expressed frustration about its billable hour requirements to get the cash. At Perkins Coie, which is not offering special Covid bonuses at all, some associates complained about its individualized bonus approach in this pandemic year, legal blog Above the Law reported. (Above the Law)
• Norton Rose Fulbright announced a post-Covid policy under which staff and partners in its European, Middle East and Africa locations will be able to work from home 50% percent of the time, a report from London says. (The Lawyer)
• Court administrators and judges trying to keep dockets moving during the pandemic have faced a “logistical nightmare” for in-person proceedings and complaints about virtual alternatives. (Law.com)
• An example comes from New Jersey, where a county bar association is criticizing a plan to require civil jury trials via Zoom in the state’s courts. The association cites the risk that members of diverse communities will be excluded from jury pools. (New Jersey Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems wrote to former Trump lawyer Sydney Powell to demand she publicly retract allegations that the company was part of a vast voter fraud conspiracy designed to cheat President Trump of re-election. (ABC News)
• Willkie Farr & Gallagher picked bankruptcy partner Matthew Feldman to take over as its new joint chairman at the start of 2021. The transition comes as longtime leader Steven Gartner is set to retire after over 35 years at the firm. Feldman, member of the firm’s executive committee and co-chair of its business reorganization & restructuring department, will serve alongside current joint chairman Thomas Cerabino. (BLAW)
• Arnold & Porter said it’s collaborating with the National Bar Association on an effort to support retention and advancement of Black attorneys at the biggest U.S. law firms. It’s also working in a partnership aimed at increasing the pipeline of diverse students pursing legal careers. The partnerships are among diversity initiatives the firm announced Thursday. (ArnoldPorter.com)
• In a year in which the U.S. Supreme Court has so far taken up fewer than 50 cases, Paul, Weiss’ Supreme Court and appellate practice group has gotten five cert grants. The chair of that group, Kannon Shanmugam, says his team has no “magic formula” to explain that success. (Litigation Daily via National Law Journal)
• A proposed federal class action suit accuses Perkins Coie and one of its partners of mismanaging escrow money solicited from investors to fund a cryptocurrency mining project in Washington. (BLAW)
• Lawyers are not as prone to mental health problems as previously believed but they do have a drinking problem, a report says. (Reason.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Morrison & Foerster promoted its diversity leader, attorney Natalie Kernisant, to chief diversity and inclusion officer. (MoFo.com)
• Hinshaw & Culbertson said worklaw and general litigation attorney Kyle Ferachi and commercial litigator Stephanie Tolson joined the firm as partners in Houston. Both were previously at McGlinchey Stafford, where Ferachi was Houston office managing member. Ferachi also practices out of Hinshaw’s Baton Rouge office. (Hinshawlaw.com)
• Psychemedics Corporation, which provides hair testing to detect drug abuse, said its former corporate counsel Sarah Ashby is returning as its vice president and general counsel. According to her LinkedIn profile, Ashby is a biotech in-house veteran and former WilmerHale attorney and arrives most recently from Decibel Therapeutics, Inc., a start-up researching hearing loss therapies, where she was senior contracts manager. Before that she was R&D contracts counsel at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd. (GlobeNewswire.com)
• Covid-19-test maker Quidel Corp. hired longtime Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Michelle Hodges to be its general counsel. The San Diego-based medical diagnostics company recruited Hodges after promoting former GC Robert Bujarski, also a Gibson Dunn alum, to chief operating officer. (BLAW)

Promotions

• Jones Day announced it’s promoting 50 lawyers (24 women) to partner, effective Jan. 1, 2021. (JonesDay.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland elected nine U.S. attorneys (two women) to partner effective Jan. 1, 2021. (EvershedsSutherland.com)
• Mintz promoted nine attorneys (seven women) to member. (Mintz.com)

Technology

• Google yesterday got hit by a third antitrust suit in two months. The latest one, filed by 38 state attorneys general, accuses Google of illegally monopolizing internet search and search advertising. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)

Legal Education

• Two California law schools have hired legal education veterans to take over as their deans next year. (The Recorder)