Wake Up Call: Rapper Faces $10 Billion Astroworld Suit

In today’s column, more Big Law firms matched the new Davis Polk scale for associate bonuses; corporate legal departments are expecting a bigger workload and bigger budgets next year; a federal judge threw out actor Rose McGowan’s racketeering lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers David Boies and Lisa Bloom.

• Leading off, a Houston law firm representing 1,547 plaintiffs in the Nov. 5 Astroworld Festival disaster said it has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against rapper Travis Scott and others, a report says. Scott, who recently hired O’Melveny’s litigation chief Daniel Petrocelli to represent him, faces, with concert organizers, hundreds of lawsuits accusing them of negligence and misconduct in the crowd surge that killed 10 and injured hundreds. (Chron)
• Skadden Arps, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Proskauer Rose are the latest Big Law firms to match the associate bonuses set Monday by Davis Polk & Wardwell, which matches Cravath’s earlier up to $115,000 bonuses and adds an up to $23,000 “special bonus,” depending on year of seniority; Cravath also matched the new mark yesterday; Katten Munchin said it’s matching the earlier Cravath scale for associates who bill at least 2,000 hours. Katten said big billers can get even more, but it didn’t say it’s matching the Davis Polk scale. Boutique Hueston Hennigan is said to be giving individually set bonuses that beat the Davis Polk scale. (Above The Law)
• With Big Law profits soaring and the market for legal talent on fire this year, firms face significant choices about how to parcel out compensation to their equity partners. (American Lawyer) Corporate in-house legal departments’ spending ticked up about 2% last year, despite the pandemic, and most departments avoided lay-offs, a report said. Departments told a survey they expect increased workloads and bigger budgets next year. (Corporate Counsel)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A federal judge threw out actor Rose McGowan’s racketeering lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers David Boies and Lisa Bloom. McGowan had missed a court-ordered deadline after firing her own attorneys. (Variety)
• U.K. elite firms Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Linklaters “confirmed” they’ve been ousted from a legal panel that advises the U.K. government on matters from corporate finance to government departments and executive agencies. (Times of London)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Dechert said private fund formation lawyer Sonia Gioseffi, an associate at the firm earlier in her career, rejoined as a partner in San Francisco. She arrives after 13 years at K&L Gates, where she was a partner; Stroock hired real estate lawyer Tim DeKeyser from Bilzin in Miami as a partner and private funds lawyer Yong-Nam Jun from Orrick as partner in Los Angeles; worklaw firm Jackson Lewis brought in two veterans as principals: Christina Silva joins after 27 years at Lum, Drasco & Positan in Berkeley Heights, N.J., and Jack Schaedel joins from FordHarrison in Los Angeles; Withers added trusts and estates partner Caryn Young from Day Pitney in New York; Bracewell said its longtime appellate partner Jeff Oldham, who left in 2018 to become general counsel to the state’s governor, has returned to the firm and is based in Houston. (Bracewell)
• Dorsey & Whitney hired cross-border M&A and transactions partner Stewart Worthy in London. He arrives from King & Wood Mallesons after earlier spending 12 years at Winston & Strawn; Cozen O’Connor said its public strategies unit recruited Sydney Corryn Holman, a former legislative affairs lobbyist in Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office, as a principal based in Chicago; Winston & Strawn said it promoted 21 lawyers to partner across seven U.S. offices; Munger, Tolles & Olson promoted seven lawyers to partner in its Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington offices, effective Jan. 1, 2022. (MTO.com)

Technology

• Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. bought JND Legal Administration, which provides class action administration, mass tort and lien resolution, e-discovery, government redress and legal noticing services. (PR Newswire)

Legal Education

• Notre Dame Law School said it received a $2.1 million grant for its “religious liberty” initiative. (Notre Dame)