Wake Up Call: Willkie to Double Chicago Office Space on Growth

In today’s column, Goodwin launched an office in Munich to target private equity business; as pay soars for Big Law legal talent, district attorneys are facing a shortage of lawyers; a 71-year-old lawyer is accused of stealing $1.2 million from his former firm in Manhattan.

• Leading off, Willkie Farr & Gallagher said it signed a lease to double space at its two-year-old office in Chicago at 300 North LaSalle to accommodate strong demand. The New York-headquartered firm in March 2020 launched the office with six lawyers as the Covid-19 pandemic was getting started. The office has grown to over 60. Currently on the 50th floor, it will add the entire 51st floor, with plans to include a mock courtroom and other amenities. Construction is slated to start later this year. (Willkie)
• After massive growth in 2021, some Big Law firms are using their big profits to expand in their existing markets. Others are eyeing new markets. (American Lawyer)
• Goodwin & Procter said it launched a Munich office as part of its private equity practice expansion in Germany and across Europe; Jones Walker moved its Atlanta office to new space in the The Pinnacle Building in the Buckhead district. (JonesWalker.com)
• District attorneys’ offices across the U.S. are having a hard time recruiting and keeping lawyers, as low pay, heavy workloads and other factors contribute to shortages. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Authorities charged a 71-year-old former partner of a now-defunct Manhattan law firm of stealing $1.2 million from the firm. (New York Law Journal)
• The D.C. American Civil Liberties Union and the Justice Department announced a partial settlement of four civil lawsuits stemming from the Trump administration’s violent June 2020 clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Civil rights organizations and law firms Arnold & Porter; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Regan Zambri Long filed the original suits. (WaPo)
• Willkie represented Insight Partners on its investment, with Rothschild & Co’s Five Arrows private equity unit, of over $200 million in Kpler, a Brussels-based provider of data and analytics to commodity traders. Cooley advised Kpler. (Kpler.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Sheppard Mullin grabbed a four-partner energy and regulatory team from Winston & Strawn in California. Joseph Karp, Lisa Cottle, and Thomas Solomon joined in San Francisco. Christine Kolosov joined in Los Angeles; Gibson Dunn appointed its Washington co-partner in charge Thomas H. Dupree Jr. and partner Julian W. Poon as co-chairs of its appellate and constitutional law practice group. They join partner and current co-chair Allyson Ho; Winston & Strawn hired litigation partner LeElle Slifer in Dallas; New York-headquartered Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck said it acquired the Myers Law Group and its six attorneys, including three partners, giving it new offices in Dallas and New Orleans; Blank Rome hired two real estate of counsel. Kathryn Appling joined from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in New York, while Jamie Garelick joined from Glaser Weil in Los Angeles. (BlankRome.com)
• Former Sheppard Mullin and K&L Gates partner Dan Rosenberg, recently senior vice president and general counsel for McHugh Construction, joined Much Shelist as a principal in Chicago advising construction, design, and real estate clients; Vaxxas, a clinical-stage biotechnology company commercializing a no-needle vaccination platform, hired former Pfizer head of international business development Dan Devine as chief business officer and general counsel; crypto exchange Binance reportedly hired blockchain-focused attorney Stéphanie Cabossioras, deputy general counsel of the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers. (The Block)

Legal Education

• The University of Louisville said it’s getting a $1 million donation from the artist who painted the Vanity Fair cover portrait of Breonna Taylor, the emergency medical technician shot dead by police in a no-knock raid. The school said the money is going to fund the Brandeis Law School’s Breonna Taylor legacy fellowship and a scholarship for undergraduates. (UL News)