Wake Up Call: Top Litigators Steer $2.7 Billion Suit Against Fox

In today’s column, the Trump campaign paid out $7 million in legal fees in the months following the presidential election; as the Biden administration hires lawyers for top posts, Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis have been displaced as favorite firms; Hogan Lovells appointed its first-ever solo female chair; the NFL said litigator Beth Wilkinson is close to finishing her sexual harassment probe into the Washington Football Team.

• Leading off, voting tech firm Smartmatic Corp. has veteran Big Law litigator J. Erik Connolly leading its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and several Fox hosts. The suit accuses them of a coordinated disinformation campaign to convince the public of rampant election fraud. According to his LinkedIn profile, Chicago-based Connolly is vice chair of Benesch Law’s litigation practice and co-chair of its securities litigation practice group. He joined Benesch in September 2018 after 14-plus years as a Winston & Strawn partner. Benesch trial practice vice chair Nicole E Wrigley, who made the move from Winston & Strawn with Connolly, is also listed as representing Smartmatic. (Bloomberg News via BLAW) (Smartmatic.com)
• Here’s a look at how the legal industry overall had a bang-up year in 2020, even as Covid-19 slammed the general economy hard. (American Lawyer)
• Law firms that are doing great even as the pandemic causes economic hardship for many others should talk about their 2020 results head-on, and with real, tangible empathy, a columnist suggests. (BLAW)
• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is the latest Big Law firm to launch an environmental, social and governance practice, as ESG matters become increasingly important for corporations and investors around the world. (GibsonDunn.com)
• Hogan Lovells said it appointed Paris partner Marie-Aimée de Dampierre to be the firm’s first ever solo female chair, starting a three-year term May 1. De Dampierre, who’s currently the firm’s regional managing partner for Europe, Middle East, and Asia, will take over from the current chair, Hamburg-based Leopold von Gerlach, who’s going back to his intellectual property practice. Firm CEO Miguel A. Zaldivar started his job in July 2020. (HoganLovells.com)

Biden Administration, Election Litigation, Fallout From Capitol Riots

• After the presidential election, the Trump campaign paid out $7 million in legal fees to about 45 law firms for legal work. Kasowitz Benson Torres, Dechert, and Jones Day were among the biggest earners. (American Lawyer)
• Former Trump Justice Department official Eric S. Dreiband is returning to Jones Day, the latest of several former Trump administration lawyers to be rehired by the firm. (BLAW)
• Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis were mainstay firms contributing the most lawyers to the Trump administration. So far, Latham & Watkins, O’Melveny & Myers, and WilmerHale are leading firms with lawyers getting posts in the Biden administration. (National Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday that litigator Beth Wilkinson is close to finishing her investigation into the Washington Football Team over allegations of sexual harassment and mistreatment of female employees. (WaPo)
• Philadelphia-based Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young is changing leaders after 27 years. (Legal Intelligencer)

Pro Bono

• Morrison & Foerster joined the ACLU of Connecticut and a Yale Law School clinic in representing a disability rights group’s lawsuit accusing the Connecticut Department of Correction of abusing mentally ill people incarcerated in a state prison. (DisrightsCT.org)

Laterals, Moves

• Hogan Lovells said it expanded its London office with several senior corporate and litigation hires from Big Law rivals. It poached White & Case’s London corporate practice co-lead Patrick Sarch, who was also co-head of that firm’s global financial institutions industry group. Sarch joins in London as a partner and co-head of Hogan Lovells’ London M&A practice, alongside current co-head Ben Higson. Hogan Lovells said it also recruited a team of four corporate litigation partners from Debevoise & Plimpton. (HoganLovells.com)
• Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna, started about a month ago by four former McKool Smith insurance recovery partners, said it boosted its headcount to 28 with several new hires. The New York-based firm recruited commercial litigator Andrew Bourne as a partner, getting him from Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney. Bourne worked with Cohen Ziffer founders when he was earlier at Kasowitz and at Dickstein Shapiro. Cohen Ziffer also announced the arrival of a counsel and six associates. (CohenZiffer.com)
• Holland & Knight hired international finance lawyer Kevin Turner, most recently vice president and general counsel of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, as a partner in Washington. He was previously top lawyer at the U.S. Export-Import Bank and his earlier roles include counsel at Venable based in Washington. (HKLaw.com)
• Cozen O’Connor said its public strategies unit added lobbyist Tristan R. Breaux, former House legislative director for South Carolina Democratic Representative Joe Cunningham, in Washington as a principal. (Cozen.com)
• U.K. firm Ashurst got project finance expert Andrew Roche as a partner in Singapore from Latham & Watkins. (Asian Legal Business)
• Alternative dispute resolution services provider JAMS said veteran litigator Christopher Keele, a former California managing partner at Stoel Rives, joined its Silicon Valley panel as a neutral. (JAMSadr.com)
• Alston & Bird hired veteran Big Law marketing and business development specialist Mariana Loose as chief marketing officer in New York. (Alston.com)
• A former administrative patent judge at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Philip Hoffmann, joined Ropes & Gray as a senior attorney. He was earlier in his career in-house at General Electric. (PatentsPostGrant.com)

In-House

• Another former PTO administrative judge, Scott Kamholz took a job at Massachusetts-based biotech start-up Tessera Therapeutics as its vice president of intellectual property. He was most recently of counsel at Covington & Burling, before that a partner at Foley Hoag, and co-chair of its Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice. (National Law Journal)
• French spirits company Pernod Ricard hired veteran food, beverage, and health industry in-house leader Anne-Marie Poliquin as group general counsel at of the end of March. Poliquin, a Harvard Law grad, is currently top lawyer at Netherlands-based coffee and tea giant JDE Peet. She’s been at health tech company Neogia, and was a Paris-based senior legal counsel at GE Healthcare, among other roles. Pernod said current top lawyer Amanda Hamilton-Stanley is leaving “to take her career in a different direction.” (BLAW)
• The top lawyer at British energy company BP, London-based Bettina Kramer-Braun, is moving to German stockmarket operator Deutsche Börse AG as general counsel. Kramer-Braun has been at BP for 10 years, before which she was Frankfurt-based M&A counsel at Linklaters. Deutsche Börse said its current GC Michael Lappe, a former Linklaters partner, is leaving in June but will continue to advise the company as a consultant. (FXNewsgroup.com)

Technology

• Seward & Kissel launched a cryptocurrency news blog, “SKrypto.” (Sewkis.com)