Wake Up Call: Weil Billing in Sears Bankruptcy Reaches $22 Million

• Weil Gotshal & Manges has billed Sears for about $22 million on the retailer’s Chapter 11 case to date, with the firm’s hourly rate at around $1,600 per hour for some senior attorneys and around $560 per hour for associates who haven’t yet been admitted to the bar, according to a filing. The U.S. bankruptcy watchdog overseeing the case said in a January court filing that the case needs an independent fee examiner to analyze millions of dollars in fee requests by law and other professional firms. (BN via BLAW)

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk is about to ask a court to go to easy on him, in a filing today in his latest fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission over his tweeting habits. The SEC is accusing Musk of contempt of court for violating a court order that he appoint a lawyer to review his tweets. (BN)

• Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren wants to break up the largest technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., calling them anti-competitive behemoths that are crowding out competition. (BN via BLAW)

• Companies’ in-house legal teams tend to be more diverse than Big Law firms, but attorneys of color are still having a hard time getting jobs as general counsel at big companies, according to a report. (Corporate Counsel)

• After Ballard Spahr litigation associate Spencer A. Hill was shot last week in Philadelphia in a botched robbery, the firm is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator. Hill is expected to recover. (Above The Law)

• Goodwin announced plans to open an office in Santa Monica, California, which would make it the latest big firm to set up on Southern California’s so-called Silicon Beach to serve tech and private equity clients. (The Recorder)

• Employment in the legal services industry squeaked up by 600 jobs in February, reflecting overall weak growth in the U.S. jobs market. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms, Deals

• Some law schools are offering programs to equip graduates with skills in legal tech, to help improve their job prospects. But it turns out the legal profession isn’t yet ready for tech-proficient grads and doesn’t have many jobs specifically for them, according to a report. (ABAJournal.com)

• Willkie Farr & Gallagher advised investment and private equity firm Atlas Holdings LLC on an agreement in which Atlas affiliates will acquire International Wire Group Holdings, which is a maker and marketer of copper, silver-and nickel-plated and other types of wire, and which was advised by Jones Day. (Businesswire.com)

• Willkie was also involved in Blackstone Infrastructure Partners’ deal, announced Sunday, to buy a minority stake in Carrix Inc., the operator of ports and rail yards in more than 250 locations worldwide. Willkie said it advised Carrix in the deal. (Businesswire.com) Bloomberg reported earlier about talks for the deal, for which terms were not disclosed. (BN)

• Milbank advised an adhoc committee of credit default market swap participants that had a key role in developing a proposal last week by the main trade group for the CDS industry, addressing certain credit events. In a nutshell, the proposal aims to clean up an $8 trillion segment of the derivatives market that’s been subject to heavy criticism. (Bloomberg) (Milbank)

• Offshore firm Appleby said it expanded its two-year-old global female leaders network. (Appleby Global)

• Loeb & Loeb music industry lawyer Farrah Usmani recently entered the boxing ring to fight in a charity boxing event hosted by a Nashville-based nonprofit supporting children’s needs. She said she felt pretty good afterwards. (American Lawyer)

• A U.S. immigration attorney says she is essentially stuck in Mexico because of a U.S. surveillance policy. (NBC Los Angeles)

Laterals, Moves, Promotions

• Bucknell University’s general counsel, former Saul Ewing partner Amy Foerster, is leaving the school to join Pepper Hamilton as a partner in May. Based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she will co-chair the firm’s higher education practice group with litigation partner Michael Baughman. (Legal Intelligencer)

• Mayer Brown said Bracewell energy and infrastucture M&A attorney Elena Rubinov joined the firm as a partner in New York. She rejoins ex-Bracewell M&A partner Fritz Lark, who made the same move in February. (MayerBrown.com)

• DLA Piper said global co-chair of its insurance practice Prakash “PK” Paran is moving from the firm’s London office to join in its New York office as a partner in the corporate practice. The aim is to advance and support his clients’ interest in the Americas, while continuing to work with European and Asia Pacific-based clients and colleagues, the firm said. (DLAPiper.com)

• Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck named labor and employment partner Katherine S. Catlos its first chief diversity & inclusion officer. Catlos is stepping down as managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office to take the new role, and worklaw attorney Arif Virji takes over as San Francisco managing partner, the firm said. (KDVlaw.com)

Legal Actions

• Manatt lawyers for music publisher EMI filed a breach-of-contract suit in New York against hip-hop star Kanye West and his company in the latest round of their legal fight over West’s efforts to get out of his contract with the company. (Hollywood Reporter)