Wake Up Call: Some Covid Bonuses Tied to Billable Hour Targets

In today’s column, a federal judge ordered Google to hand over emails to a party in a nasty London divorce fight that has landed in California; four Big Law firms advised as a U.S. aerospace supplier acquired a U.K.-based communications and navigation unit from a private equity firm; remote work hasn’t killed the law firm office, just changed it, a report says.

• Leading off, several firms this week have announced year-end associate bonuses that could total up to $140,000, depending on seniority. It turns out that the special “Covid appreciation” component of some firms’ bonuses are linked to billable hours thresholds, reports say.
• After Cravath Swaine & Moore on Monday topped Baker McKenzie in 2020’s competition on year-end associate bonuses, with a pair of payouts totaling up to $140,000, Paul Weiss quickly matched. On Tuesday, three more firms joined the fray. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Skadden Arps, and Milbank said they will pay the Cravath/Baker McKenzie year-end scale, which ranges from $15,000 for first-year associates to $100,000 for senior associates. Like Cravath, Cleary and Skadden also said they’ll pay an additional bonus ranging $7,500 to $40,000, depending on seniority, that matches the special “Covid appreciation” bonus scale set by Davis Polk & Wardwell in September. Milbank matched Davis Polk for that bonus back in September. (BLAW)
• Baker McKenzie, when it announced its year-end bonuses earlier this month, said it will match any increases in the market. (Above the Law)
• Goodwin Procter said it will match the Davis Polk scale for special fall bonuses, but the payout is linked to a billable hours target. Goodwin also said it expects to match Cravath’s year-end bonus scale in January. (BLAW)
• American Lawyer reported that Skadden’s special fall bonus is also tied to billable hours worked, but it said Skadden’s hours threshold isn’t yet clear. (American Lawyer)
• Dentons, the world’s biggest law firm by headcount has started consultations for layoffs, including for lawyers, as the firm moves more of its teams to “fully virtual” work, a report from London said. (The Lawyer)
• Big Law firms’ remote programs are helping them avoid a “lost generation” of associates during the pandemic. (BLAW)
• Remote working has caused a lot of changes in the way legal professionals work, but the law firm office is still going to be around. It’s just “being reimagined,” says an expert at one architecture firm. (American Lawyer)
• Worklaw attorneys say they’re getting a flood of inquiries from employers who want to know if they will be able to require employees to get a Covid vaccination. (BusinessInsider.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A nasty London divorce fight has landed in California, where a San Jose federal judge ordered Google to turn over the content of emails of the son of a Russian oligarch. The oligarch’s former wife wants the emails for her pursuit of a 450 million pound ($601 million) divorce judgment. The fight has also dragged in litigation funder Burford Capital Ltd. (Bloomberg News)
• The Pennsylvania federal judge who recently slammed a Trump campaign election fraud case is a Republican who was appointed by President Obama. (National Lawyer)
• Female attorneys in New York continue to face harassment and courtroom bias, a study says. (New York Law Journal)
• Four Big Law firms advised as U.S. aerospace supplier TransDigm Group Inc., acquired Marlow, U.K.-based Cobham Aero Connectivity, the communications and navigation division of Cobham Ltd., for about $965 million. BakerHostetler said it served as U.S. legal advisor to TransDigm, while Reed Smith served as TransDigm’s U.K. counsel, and Jones Day was its regulatory counsel. Weil, Gotshal & Manges advised the sellers, private equity firm Advent International. (PRNewswire)
• Cooley advised digital insurance platform Metromile Inc., a pay-per-mile auto insurer, on its go-public merger with INSU Acquisition Corp. II, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company advised by Ledgewood. Latham & Watkins is advising placement agents in the transaction, which will create a combined company with an equity value of about $1.3 billion. (Bloomberg News)
• Hogan Lovells advised pharmaceutical giant Novartis on its exclusive worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Mesoblast Limited to develop, commercialize, and manufacture a treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome, including that associated with Covid-19. (Bloomberg News)
• Japan’s biggest law firm, Nishimura & Asahi, said it opened two offices in Germany—a principal office in Frankfurt am Main and a branch office in Düsseldorf—to meet increased demand from its Japanese clients for advice on overseas operations, as well international clients who want to invest in Asia. (Jurists.co.jp)

Pro Bono

• Milbank and Legal Aid filed a lawsuit against New York City alleging it failed to provide children with reliable internet access over WiFi access in homeless shelters during the pandemic. (New York Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves

• King & Spalding recruited two construction and energy disputes partners in Dubai, getting Patrick McPherson and Randall Walker. They were both previously partners in the Dubai office London-headquartered firm CMS. (KSLaw.com)
• A former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Joshua J. Minkler, joined Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis as a partner in its white collar and investigations practice. (BTLaw.com)
• Paul Hastings recently expanded the life sciences arm it started in June, adding five life sciences veterans to its consulting staff. (American Lawyer)

In-House

• IAC/InterActivCorp, media conglomerate of billionaire Barry Diller, promoted M&A counsel and VP Kendall Handler, a former Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz corporate associate, to become its next general counsel Jan. 1. (BLAW)
• Chicago-based Cresco Labs Inc., a publicly traded cannabis company, has hired half a dozen lawyers to gear up an increase in recreational marijuana use after five more states approved legal weed measures in the Nov. 3 elections.(BLAW)

Promotions

• McDermott Will & Emery announced promotions of 37 lawyers to partner and five to counsel, effective Jan. 1, 2021. (MWE.com)
• Stroock said it promoted four lawyers (two women) to partner and three to special counsel, effective Jan. 1. The promotions span Stroock’s New York, Miami, and Washington offices in key practice areas including financial restructuring, litigation, and government affairs & regulatory support. (Stroock.com)

Technology

• Law firm IT departments say they got a lot of appreciation and sympathy in the pandemic’s early days, when they were swamped with calls from lawyers and employees who suddenly had to start working from home. But nine months into the pandemic, expectations and impatience with delays are getting back to their pre-Covid normal, they said. (Legaltech News)

Legal Education

• Bar exam pass rates in Florida for first-time test takers for October’s online sitting declined compared with July 2019. But, by itself, the state’s data paints an incomplete picture of exam results in a chaotic year. (BLAW)

Notice

Wake Up Call will not publish Nov. 26 in observance of Thanksgiving. We will resume Nov. 27.