Wake Up Call: Top Lawyers Face Off in Public House Impeachment Hearings

• Public hearings begin today in the House Intelligence Committee impeachment investigation into whether President Trump violated the Constitution by pressuring Ukraine’s leader to investigate Trump’s political rival. The Democrats’ lead lawyer for the hearings, Daniel S. Goldman, spent a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, prosecuting mobsters and securities fraudsters. (WaPo) On the Republican side is GOP House Oversight investigator Steve Castor, who was prominently involved in several investigations of the Obama administration. (AP via NYT)

• Major U.S. law firms, including Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Boies Schiller Flexner, K&L Gates, and several others, have helped prepare House impeachment witnesses. (National Law Journal)

• Year-end associate bonus season is here, as Fried Frank, Paul Weiss, Clifford Chance, and New York litigation boutique Holwell Shuster & Goldberg have all posted their payment scales so far, matching the $15,000-to-$100,000 scale posted first by Milbank last week and then quickly matched by Cravath. (BLAW via BLB) (American Lawyer) (Above The Law) Austin-based trial boutique Reid Collins & Tsai has said it’s paying bonuses that beat what the Big Law firms are offering. (BLB)

• Most of the country’s biggest law firms are having good years in 2019, just not the record performance they posted overall in 2018, according to a new report from Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group. (BLAW via BLB) Meanwhile, another survey report says most corporate in-house legal department leaders said they expect a recession in the next two years, and they’re getting ready by cutting back on internal hiring and what they spend on outside counsel. (BLAW via BLB)

• Kirkland & Ellis private equity partner Kevin Morris died at age 46 last weekend, after a three-year battle with brain cancer. Based in Chicago, he was one of a small number of African American dealmakers in Big Law. (BLAW via BLB)

• A senior lawyer at a top Lloyd’s of London insurance company is suing the company for alleged harassment, racial discrimination and victimization. The lawyer alleges the harassment began after he blew the whistle on alleged sexual harassment and bullying at the company, Tokio Marine Kiln Group Ltd. (BN)

• Management-side worklaw firm Littler Mendelson said it’s opening its first outpost in Asia, an office in Singapore from which it will advise multinational clients that have operations in the Asia Pacific region. The firm said the office, not yet approved by local authorities, will partner with local firms to service clients on matters related to Singapore law. It will be managed by Littler shareholder Trent Sutton, a Korean speaker, and special counsel Nancy Zhang, who is qualified to practice in the People’s Republic of China. (Littler)

• Law firm timekeeping startup Ping received a $13.2 million venture funding boost for products it says fill a Big Law niche by using artificial intelligence to help automate the “miserable” process of filling out time sheets for client billing. (BLAW via BLB)

Lawyers, Law Firms, Pro Bono

• St. Louis-based battery maker Energizer appointed a new chief legal officer and promoted a former general counsel to president. (Corporate Counsel)

• London-headquartered CMS expanded into Africa by combining with RM Partners in South Africa and Daly & Inamdar Advocates in Kenya. (Global Trade Review)

• Jones Walker said it has entered a “strategic alliance” with former Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo and his Miami-based public affairs firm Vocero, LLC. The alliance will allow both the law firm and Vocero to expand services in Washington, South Florida, and throughout Latin America, while continuing to operate separate entities, the firm said. (JonesWalker.com)

Deals

• Goodwin Procter client Royalty Pharma agreed to pay up to $330 million to purchase Tokyo-based Eisai Co., Ltd.'s royalties on future worldwide sales of tazemetostat, a product candidate for treating hematological malignancies and genetically defined solid tumors. Tazemetostat is under development by biopharmaceutical company Epizyme, Inc. Royalty Pharma also made a $100 million initial equity investment in Massachusetts-based Epizyme, with options to invest more. Biospace has more info on this complex deal. (GoodwinLaw.com)

• Sidley Austin represented Apogee Enterprises, Inc., which designs and develops glass solutions for enclosing commercial buildings and framing art, in its cooperation agreement with activist investment company Engaged Capital. As part of the agreement, Apogee will nominate three new independent director candidates for election to its board at the upcoming 2019 annual meeting of shareholders. (Businesswire.com)

• Locke Lord represented Nautic Partners, LLC in its acquisition, in partnership with management, of Spartech LLC, which makes specialized acrylics and other engineered extruded plastics used in a variety of applications and end markets, including aerospace and defense. The seller was private equity owner Arsenal Capital Partners. No terms were disclosed. (Plastics News)

Laterals, Moves, In-house, Promotions

• Perkins Coie hired the head of Squire Patton Boggs’ Northern California labor & employment practice, Gary Gansle, as senior counsel in Palo Alto. Gansle is the fifth lateral to join Perkins Coie’s labor & employment practice since July. (PerkinsCoie.com)

• DLA Piper hired former Goodwin partner Erica Kuo as of counsel in its intellectual property and technology practice in New York. Kuo has expertise in pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent law, and according to her LinkedIn profile, was recently a life sciences business transactions consultant based in Shanghai, China. (DLAPiper.com)

• Blank Rome added two real estate associates: Kristin Cara in New York and Zachary J. Perkins in Philadelphia. (BlankRome.com)

Legal Actions, Bankruptcies, Decisions

• A Florida woman faces a minimum of two years in prison for pretending to be a lawyer, and using the name of a law school classmate to register two law firms, without that person’s knowledge. Federal authorities said the woman, Roberta Guedes, has a law degree, but failed the Florida Bar exam twice. (Tampa Bay Times)

Technology

• LawPay, a payment processing company for law firms, announced a partnership with AAC, Inc., a consulting group specializing in the implementation and enhancement of financial systems. (Businesswire.com)