Wake Up Call: Schiff Said to Mull Tie-Up With Arent Fox

In today’s column, Fox Rothschild’s equity partner profits soared 17.31% in 2020, tops among Philadelphia firms; Quinn Emanuel got awarded three times more in fees than its client won in a securities case; a missing real estate lawyer’s 94-year-old mom sued him for forgery.

• Leading off, Chicago-based Schiff Hardin, which posted 2020 gross revenues down about 6% from 2019 to around $174 million, is said to be mulling a possible merger with Washington-based Arent Fox, whose 2020 revenues were up 2.3% to $333.6 million. The merger would create a firm with about 600 lawyers. But the two firms wouldn’t confirm they’re talking. (American Lawyer)
• Fox Rothschild beat its earlier estimates by posting $603.3 million in gross revenues for its fiscal 2020 that ended March 31, 2021. That’s up 8.7% from the previous year. Fox, which notched the best 2020 results among Philadelphia firms, had profits per equity partner that soared 17.31% to $838,765. The firm credited a varied practice lineup targeting industry groups. (Legal Intelligencer)
• Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan snagged close to $14 million in fees in a mortgage-backed securities-related trial, almost triple the $5.4 million its client was awarded. The Minnesota federal judge in the case cited “poor judgment” in litigation tactics by the opposition, represented by Williams & Connolly. (National Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Missing New York real estate lawyer Mitch Kossoff is getting sued by his 94-year-old mother, who alleges her son forged her signature to take out $2 million in loans. (The Real Deal) A Chicago attorney was arrested on tax and other charges in connection with funds he received from a failed bank. (Justice.gov)
• Equity strategies stayed in high demand in the hedge fund industry last year, despite pandemic-induced volatility and stress in the market, a new Seward & Kissel study says; Dechert’s new antitrust merger investigation report says the U.S. completed only four significant merger investigations during the transition to the Biden administration in 2021’s first-quarter. (Dechert)
• A Texas judge got sanctioned for having a salad at the luncheon of a law firm whose case she was presiding. Under bar rules, if she had taken a campaign donation of thousands of dollars from the same firm, that would be okay. (TexasLawyer.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Willkie Farr & Gallagher poached a four-lawyer Mayer Brown’s insurance team in San Francisco and New York including Kara Baysinger, who was co-head of Mayer Brown’s U.S. insurance regulatory and enforcement group and is now co-chair of Willkie’s insurance regulatory practice; Barnes & Thornburg hired insurance recovery litigator Austin Bersinger as a partner in Atlanta; Dykema appointed L.A.-based member Ashley Fickel to lead its financial services litigation practice group. It also hired Akerman health care antitrust litigator James Burns as a member in Washington. (Dykema)
• Foley & Lardner got Proskauer Rose private funds partner Matthew McBride as a partner in Boston; McDermott Will & Emery brought in former Hawaii federal prosecutor Kenji Price in Washington as a partner in its investigations and white collar practice; alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS said retired New York judge L. Priscilla Hall, most recently a state appellate court associate justice, joined its New York panel. Shook Hardy & Bacon re-elected its chair Madeleine McDonough to a second five-year term starting in January. (Kansas City Business Journal)
• DLA Piper’s Colombia affiliate recruited Bogota-based Lucas Arboleda, former legal office head at the Colombian ministry of mines and energy, as director of its energy and natural resources practice; K&L Gates got former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission attorney Ruta Kalvaitis Skucas as a partner, joined by an associate, for its power practice in Washington. (K&L Gates)

Legal Education

• Law Students for Climate Accountability said it got no response from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to the letter it mailed weeks ago to the firm’s Washington office. So the group said Thursday that it hand-delivered the letter, which criticizes the firm’s work representing fossil fuel companies and urges it to commit to an ethical standard for such work; many dozens of law schools will require students to have Covid vaccinations to be able to return in the fall. (Law.com)