Wake Up Call: Some Big Law Firms Silent on Work for Russians

In today’s column, Skadden poached two class action leaders from Cozen O’Connor in New York; more firms matched the Cravath pay scale for associates; a Ukraine Supreme Court judge reportedly joined a reserve unit defending Kyiv from Russian attackers.

• Leading off, while Norton Rose Fulbright, Linklaters and some other firms have announced they’re dropping sanctioned Russian clients and others linked to President Vladimir Putin, a half dozen or so Big Law firms have stayed silent on their work for Russians. (Business Insider) (The Lawyer) Coinbase blocked sanctioned Russian individuals from using its platform. (Corporate Counsel)
• A Georgia attorney told a court that Baker McKenzie has a conflict of interest and should be disqualified from representing a Russian bank. (Daily Report)
• A Ukraine Supreme Court judge joined a military unit defending Kyiv from a Russian force attacking the city, according to reports. (LawGazette.co.uk)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Goodwin Procter joined firms matching the Cravath scale for associate pay, which tops out at $415,000 for the class of 2014 and above. Freshfields, Fenwick & West, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges were among other firms matching Cravath. Norton Rose Fulbright matched the lower Davis Polk scale. (Above The Law)
• Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton’s results lagged industry averages in 2021. It posted gross revenue up 1.9% to $507.3 million and average profits per equity partner up 3.9% to $1.41 million. (Daily Report)
• The U.K. legal profession regulator said a former Mishcon de Reya corporate partner agreed to pay a fine of about $22,934 (17,500 pounds) for participating in money laundering. (Financial Times)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Skadden Arps grabbed Cozen O’Connor class action co-chairs Meredith Slawe and Michael McTigue as partners in New York. According to their LinkedIn profiles, both were earlier partners at Akin Gump and spent over a decade at Drinker Biddle & Reath, where McTigue chaired the litigation department and Slawe co-led the class actions team and retail group; Sidley Austin brought in M&A and private equity lawyer Grace Jamgochian as a partner in New York. She arrives after a decade at Shearman & Sterling; Schulte Roth & Zabel got Shearman business restructuring and insolvency partner in New York Ned S. Schodek; O’Melveny & Myers hired McDermott Will & Emery litigator and product liability veteran Nexus Sea as a partner in New York. Cozen O’Connor added a team of five private equity and corporate lawyers in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The team, arriving from from Miller Thomson, includes members Rory Godinho, Kathy Tang, Lucy Schilling, and Brian Fast, and an associate. (Cozen.com)
• Fox Rothschild opened an office in Oklahoma City with five energy litigators grabbed from Conner & Winters, including four partners; Orrick added two technology lawyers as corporate partners in Southern California. Employment strategy adviser Christina Bouchot joined from Goodwin in Los Angeles and emerging growth and venture capital adviser Caroline Cherkassky joined in Santa Monica from Stubbs Alderton; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher snagged Paul Hastings real estate and hospitality partner Lauren Giovannone in Los Angeles as a partner. (GibsonDunn.com)
• Wiley Rein said former Public Broadcasting Service vice president and deputy general counsel Craig Sperling, a corporate attorney at the firm earlier in his career, has returned as a partner in its telecom, media & technology practice; Paul Hastings said former senior Justice Department anti-money laundering enforcement attorney Leo Tsao joined in Washington as a partner in its investigations and white collar defense and fintech practices; E-discovery services firm HaysackID recruited Ernst & Young privacy veteran and former Big Law antitrust attorney Christopher Wall in Washington as special counsel for global privacy & forensics. He’ll also serve as the company’s internal data protection officer; fnancial tech firm Mercury Financial LLC hired former Citigroup Inc. in-house leader Susan Steinthal as chief legal officer. She was recently a deputy general counsel and executive at Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (Businesswire)

Technology

• Legal services provider Epiq Systems Inc. announced an update to its “Service Cloud” suite of productivity, discovery, intelligence and other tools and dashboards for legal and operations professionals. (Yahoo.com)