Wake Up Call: Texas Firms, Energy Clients Face Ukraine Snags

In today’s column, deal work pushed up Reed Smith’s revenues and profits last year; Sheppard Mullin continued its 31-year streak of growth; more firms matched Cravath’s pay scale for associates.

• Leading off, sanctions against Russian companies and professionals that do business with them are causing complications for Big Law firms operating in Texas and for energy firms’ in-house lawyers, a report says. (Houston Chronicle) Ukrainian authorities said that citizens that seize Russian invaders’ military equipment don’t need to declare them for tax purposes. (The Guardian)
• Reed Smith said M&A and private equity deal work helped drive 9.6% growth in its global revenues to about $1.43 billion in 2021. Its profits per equity partner jumped 13.4% to $1.74 million.(American Lawyer) (The Lawyer) Sheppard Mullin said increased work in its transactional and litigation practices helped continue its 31-year streak of revenue and profit growth in 2021. The L.A.-headquartered firm had revenues up 15.9% to $1.01 billion, its first time over $1 billion. Its profits per equity partner rose 12.9% to $2.26 million. (The Recorder)
• Simpson Thacher, Cleary Gottlieb, Sidley Austin, Skadden Arps, and Hueston Hennigan are the latest firms to match Cravath’s pay scale for associates, which goes up to $415,000 depending on seniority. Ropes & Gray matched Cravath and added an extra $10,000 for the class of 2013 and later; Arnold & Porter said it’s matching Davis Polk’s scale, which Cravath topped this week. (Above The Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• In 2021, its new CEO’s first year, Nixon Peabody’s revenues grew 7.8% to around $527 million and its profits per equity partner rose 4.8% to $1.71 million. (American Lawyer) Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s focus on core practices helped push up revenues 7.1% to about $422 million in 2021. The Washington-headquartered firm’s PEP surged 21.7% to $1.54 million. (American Lawyer)
• Ropes & Gray is expanding its parental leave program to up to 22 weeks. (Above The Law)
• A Manhattan judge rejected a motion by New York Attorney General Letitia James to dissolve the National Rifle Association, but her lawsuit against the NRA continues. (The Trace) Former Hong Kong bar association head Paul Harris left the city abruptly after being questioned by national security police. (Financial Times)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Greenspoon Marder recruited five attorneys, including three partners, for a new national franchise law practice group. (GMLaw.com)
• Winston & Strawn brought in Hogan Lovells antitrust and class action litigator Paul Salvaty as partner in Los Angeles; recently merged ArentFox Schiff hired Thompson Hine antitrust litigator Michael Jahnke as a partner in New York. He was earlier co-chair of Loeb & Loeb’s antitrust practice; Quarles & Brady hired two business law attorneys in Indianapolis: Martin Zivitz joined from Barnes & Thornburg as a partner. Big Law veteran Sujata Barai Chugh arrived as senior counsel; Faegre Drinker got food litigation and regulatory lawyer Nury Yoo as partner in its product liability and mass torts practice. She arrives from Keller and Heckman and works in San Francisco and Los Angeles; Haynes and Boone got back intellectual property and trade secret litigator Ken Parker as a partner. He returns from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which he joined in August 2020, and will divide his time between San Francisco and Orange County; Polsinelli added real estate veteran Sarah Laird as a sharehholder in Nashville, Tenn. She arrives with associate Brittany Macon from Maynard Cooper & Gale. (Polsinelli.com)
• Former PepsiCo, Inc. executive and general counsel David Yawman joined executive search firm BarkerGilmore as a senior adviser. (BarkerGilmore.com)

Technology

• Australia-founded legaltech company Immediation announced a license agreement with the New York-based nonprofit International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Immediation will operate, on behalf of the institute, an online dispute resolution and mediation platform starting in the second half of 2022. (Businesswire)

Legal Education

• University of Nevada, Las Vegas named former Big Law attorney and in-house counsel Leah Chan Grinvald, currently associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at Boston-based Suffolk University Law School, as the next dean for UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, effective July 1. (UNLV.edu)