Wake Up Call: Talent-Starved Firms Make ‘On the Spot’ Hires

In today’s column, Covington & Burling and prominent partner Eric Holder have built a business advising companies on their workplace culture; New York State’s executive chamber hired Willkie Farr & Gallagher for help with recently revealed federal probes; a New Jersey personal injury firm launched a metaverse presence to host virtual events.

• Leading off, facing a shortage of legal talent to handle soaring deal business, some Big Law firms are offering lawyers jobs without even interviewing them, a report says. (Law.com International)
• A few years ago, Covington & Burling partner Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general, helped ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies deal with a crisis over its workplace treatment of women. Since then workplace culture probes, fueled by #MeToo scandals and the fight against racism, have become a growing source of business for Covington and other law firms. (National Law Journal)
• New York litigation boutiques Holwell Shuster & Goldberg and Glenn Agre joined Big Law firms Hogan Lovells and Mayer Brown yesterday in matching the Cravath scale for year-end bonuses for associates. (Above The Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• The New York State’s executive chamber hired Willkie Farr & Gallagher for legal help related to a federal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the chamber’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• Three Boies Schiller Flexner litigators failed to get a judge to throw out a $2.4 million legal fee award to a former South Florida managing partner for Buchanan in a legal malpractice suit. (Daily Business Review) Littler and its client in a labor case were hit by an Alabama federal judge’s 94-page “bench slap.” (Above The Law) A New York attorney was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from a wrongful death settlement that was part of a child’s inheritance. (Justice.gov)
• In a recent survey, in-house counsel at Asia regional companies complained of pricing problems, poor quality work, slow turnaround time, and poor communication from their outside law firms, among other criticism. (Asia Business Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett hired away Cleary Gottlieb’s chief operating officer, Kelly Stevens, to take the same role at the firm. She replaces executive director Michael Hersch, retiring after about 20 years at the firm; Mishcon de Reya brought in veteran corporate finance leader Matt Hotson to be group chief financial officer, a new role at the firm, which recently decided to go public; Dorsey & Whitney said it expanded its U.S.-China practice, getting mergers & acquisitions partner Mark Kushner and a team of unspecified number from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt in New York. Kushner, who earlier spent 17 years at Debevoise & Plimpton, becomes Dorsey’s new head of U.S. M&A. (Dorsey.com)
• Blank Rome hired 30-year veteran Morgan Lewis real estate attorney J.J. Broderick as a partner in Philadelphia; Eversheds Sutherland picked up experienced financial services in-house attorney Ethan Corey in New York as senior counsel. He was recently a partner at Practus LLP in Boston; Greenspoon Marder hired entertainment, tech, and dealmaking lawyer Eric Galen as a partner and to lead its new Miami-based innovation & technology practice group; Husch Blackwell hired its first lawyer in Ohio, Columbus-based financial services lawyer Susan Seaman, as a partner. She’s the 28th attorney this year to join Husch’s virtual office, The Link. (HuschBlackwell.com)
• Baker McKenzie said the U.K.’s former top data privacy official Elizabeth Denham is joining the firm in January as a London-based consultant in its data & technology practice. Denham stepped down in November as the U.K. Information Commissioner; Best Western Hotels & Resorts promoted its vice president of legal, Jay Pricher, to general counsel; King & Spalding said it promoted 32 lawyers to partner and 16 to counsel across 16 U.S. and foreign cities. (KSLaw.com)

Technology

• A New Jersey personal injury firm launched a metaverse for hosting host virtual client meetings and other events. (Legaltech News)