Wake Up Call: Reed Smith Widens Emergency Child Care for Lawyers

In today’s column, in-house lawyer salary growth slowed last year; Merck is getting advice from Gibson Dunn and Covington for the pharma giant’s $9 billion spinoff; a U.K. legal profession watchdog asked two Big Law firms about their handling of conduct complaints against lawyers.

• Leading off, as Reed Smith gets ready to bring attorneys back into the office, the Pittsburgh-based firm is expanding its emergency child care coverage as part of its plan to support working parents. (American Lawyer) Pennsylvania firms say their policies on remote work are affecting their ability to recruit and retain lawyers, particularly those who have obligations at home. (Legal Intelligencer) Meanwhile, New York-headquartered Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s office return plan allows for administrative staff, including secretaries, to be able to mix in-office and remote work. (American Lawyer)
• Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Covington & Burling are advising Merck & Co. Inc. on the approximately $9 billion spinoff of its women’s health, legacy products, and biosimilars businesses to create New York Stock Exchange-listed Organon & Co. (Businesswire) Sidley Austin said it is advising United Airlines on its approximately $3 billion order for 15 supersonic aircraft from Denver-based aerospace company Boom Technology Inc. (Bloomberg News)
• Overall growth of U.S. in-house lawyers’ salaries shrank from 4.4% in 2019 to 3.5% in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic slammed the global economy, according to a new compensation report from executive search boutique Barker Gilmore. (BarkerGilmore.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• The U.K.’s legal profession regulator is investigating how White & Case and Linklaters handled complaints about the conduct of lawyers at their firms, according to a report. (Law.com International)
• Patricia Lee Refo, president of the American Bar Association and a Snell & Wilmer commercial litigation partner, says the legal profession’s gender inequality is forcing women into drastic professional choices. (Ms. Magazine)
• Covington’s recent Justice Department filings required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act shed rare light on its rates, fees and other matters. (National Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Fox Rothschild poached a three-partner employment litigation team from McDermott Will & Emery in New York. The group includes McDermott’s international employment practice chief, Brian S. Cousin. He’s joined by former McDermott partners Richard I. Scharlat and Neil A. Capobianco; Hughes Hubbard got Covington corporate special counsel Scott Naturman as a partner in New York; Kansas City, Mo.-based Shook Hardy & Bacon picked up a ten-lawyer environmental and toxic torts litigation group, including five partners, for its new St. Louis office; Cozen O’Connor brought in airline industry adviser Jonathon H. Foglia as a member in its trade and transportation practice in Washington; FisherBroyles, which recently became the first virtual firm to make it into the AmLaw 200, added tax partner Gregory McKenzie from Kelley Drye & Warren in New York. (FisherBroyles)
• Foley & Lardner hired Hogan Lovells’ Americas head of marketing and business development Koree Khongphand-Buckman as its chief marketing & business development officer; Holland & Hart promoted its chief information security officer James Johnson to chief information officer, a role he’s held on an interim basis since November 2019. (HollandHart.com)
• World Wrestling Entertainment, which fired its legal leader last year, hired Cravath and O’Melveny veteran Samira Shah to be its new general counsel. (Corporate Counsel) Booster, a mobile fuel delivery service, hired Guidewire Software deputy general counsel and VP Juliana Chen to be its new general counsel. She was earlier in-house at Fitbit; San Antonio-based USAA Real Estate hired veteran financial services in-house lawyer and compliance officer Andra Purkalitis, a former Securities and Exchange Commission branch chief and enforcement attorney, as executive managing director and chief compliance officer; European alternative asset manager Tikehau Capital hired former Shearman & Sterling associate Amy Bohannon as its U.S. general counsel. She arrives after nine years at J.C. Flowers & Co as associate general counsel. (TikehauCapital.com)

Legal Education

• Stanford University is getting panned over its investigation, now closed, of a law student who published a parody of the Federalist Society. (ABAJournal) A Harvard Law School policy requires summer associates who receive financial aid from the school to fork over 90% of their summer earnings directly to tuition. (Above the Law)