Wake Up Call: Simpson Thacher, Latham Advise in Ancestry.com Deal

In today’s column, more law schools are choosing to go all remote this fall because of the rapid increase in U.S. Covid infections; law firms’ white collar hires are up in part because of all that Covid-19 federal stimulus money; the NRA is suing JAMS and Winston & Strawn after an arbitrator got booted because a racist email forward; a Kasowitz lawyer on President Trump’s impeachment-defense team is joining the White House; EY’s new global legal managed services leader, John Knox, says he aims to double the unit’s revenues in the next 12 months; Rite Aid named a new general counsel.

• Leading off, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised private equity firm Blackstone on its $4.7 billion acquisition of a majority stake in online family history business Ancestry.com, which was advised by Latham & Watkins. Sellers were Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, Permira, and other equity holders. Dechert advised Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund GIC, which retains about a 25% stake. (Businesswire.com)

• Law firms are making more white collar hires, including from the government, among other things in anticipation of an increase in regulatory action and criminal investigations linked to large amounts of federal stimulus money in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic. (American Lawyer)

• As drug, device and delivery companies work in the effort to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, they’re getting legal advice from Big Law firms. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Kasowitz Benson Torres partner Eric Herschmann, who was on President Donald Trump’s defense team for his impeachment proceedings, has joined the White House as a senior adviser to the president, according to court records. (National Law Journal)

• EY’s new global legal managed services leader, John Knox, says he aims to double the unit’s revenues in the next 12 months. (BLAW)

• The legal profession ’s allegiance to the billable hour holds back lawyers who want to make investor-style returns by betting on risky cases. (BLAW)

• Black intellectual property attorneys account for 1.7% of IP lawyers overall in the United States. Some Black IP lawyers recently talked to Bloomberg Law about entry barriers they had to surmount to get where they are, and what can be done to boost their ranks. (BLAW)

• The National Rifle Association is suing to force alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS and Winston & Strawn to pay costs stemming from the removal of a JAMS arbitrator in a suit against the NRA. The arbitrator was ousted for forwarding a racist email. (AM Law Litigation Daily)

• A former Reed Smith litigator is suing the firm for alleged retaliation and discrimination related to a concussion he suffered on vacation. He’s represented by employment firm Wigdor. (American Lawyer)

• U.K.-based virtual law firm 360 Business Law, which launched in the U.S. just before the pandemic arrived, aims to have a presence in all 50 states. (American Lawyer)

• Trump campaign lawyer and Husch Blackwell senior counsel Lane Ruland is reportedly helping rapper Kanye West get on the ballot in Wisconsin as part of a long shot White House bid. (BLAW)

Laterals, Moves

• Linklaters expanded its New York investment funds team by getting Schulte Roth & Zabel attorney Brad Caswell as partner. He is the third new partner to join Linklaters from Schulte Roth in the last year. (Linklaters.com)

• Kirkland & Ellis’ London office lost a private equity partner to Herbert Smith Freehills. (The Lawyer)

• Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan made its first London lateral of 2020, getting litigator Justin Michaelson as a partner from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson in London. (The Lawyer)

• Big Florida-based plaintiffs firm Morgan & Morgan hired Robins Kaplan attorneys Michael Ram and Marie Appel to lead its new San Francisco office, as it enters the Northern California market. (The Recorder)

• Hinshaw & Culbertson added experienced insurance litigator Courtney Murphy as a partner in its global insurance services practice group in New York. She previously spent over 20 years at Clausen Miller, including as a shareholder, and began her legal career at Skadden Arps. (HinshawLaw.com)

• Cozen O’Connor recruited former Fox Rothschild trial attorney Rick Holzworth as a Philadelphia-based member in its private client services practice. Holzworth’s a litigator who handles complex, high-value lawsuits on behalf of estate and trust administrators, individual beneficiaries, and corporate fiduciaries, Cozen said. (Cozen.com)

• Blank Rome hired corporate litigator Andrew Schrag as an associate in Chicago. He spent seven years at Kirkland & Ellis and arrives from GoodSmith Gregg & Unruh. (BlankRome.com)

• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher got Jones Day partner Stephen Olson as a partner in Houston and head of the firm’s private equity practice in Texas. The hire of Olson, who was a former partner in charge of Jones Day’s Houston office, expands Gibson Dunn’s Texas range outside the energy industry. (Texas Lawyer)

In-house

• Rite Aid hired experienced health care law attorney Paul Gilbert as its general counsel and corporate secretary. He joined the company on an interim role in May upon the exit of former general counsel James Comitale. Gilbert spent over 10 years as executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate governance officer at LifePoint Health and most recently was a corporate health care member at Epstein Becker & Green. (BLAW)

• Cloud-based communications company Fuze hired tech-industry in-house veteran John Milton as general counsel. (Martechseries.com)

• In-house lawyer Colin S. Lawyer, who in May announced on Twitter that he’d been laid off by Salary.com, found a new job as counsel at Boston-based mobile-security company Lookout. (Twitter)

Legal Education

• As U.S. Covid-19 cases continue to climb, at least one-sixth of all American Bar Association-accredited law schools plan to be fully virtual for the fall semester, including a few that had previously planned to offer mix of in-person and online classes. (Law.com)