Wake Up Call: Winston Poaches Six to Launch Miami Office

In today’s column, a recent New York judicial conference at a Long Island resort turned out to be a Covid superspreader event; Foley & Lardner announced associate pay raises; Syracuse University Law just graduated its first 45 students in an online program started just before the pandemic hit.

• Leading off, Winston & Strawn said it launched a Miami office with six transactional and litigation partners poached from five rival firms and expects to add more partners soon. It said the expansion is its largest in five years. The office will serve the area’s fast-growing sectors, including complex commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions, financial services, cryptocurrency and blockchain, real estate, energy and infrastructure, bankruptcy, and Latin America, the firm said. (Winston.com)
• After 70-plus New York City judges gathered for a weekend retreat on Long Island’s Montauk resort, 20 of them tested positive for Covid-19. The event featured a karaoke session. (New York Times)
• Big Law firms are boosting their trusts and estates work, but the practices can bring significant risks and insurance premium costs. (American Lawyer)
• Foley & Lardner announced associate raises that will take effect in August. Presented as midyear salary adjustments, they range from $215,000 to $400,000 depending on seniority. They don’t quite match the Cravath scale but are “pretty darned close.” (Above The Law)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Some corporate legal departments have to balance their companies’ contradictory policies requiring them to lead environmental, social and governance strategies but also prohibiting in-house lawyers from speaking publicly about social issues, a new survey report says. (Corporate Counsel)
• Reed Smith is allowing “timekeeper” attorneys across the firm up to 25 hours of billable hour credit for sustainability projects. (Law.com International via American Lawyer)
• Florida’s state chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis urged the Florida Bar to disbar lawyers he says are defrauding homeowner insurance policyholders of millions of dollars. (Florida Politics)
• Fox Rothschild is moving into city center Minneapolis taking over almost 40,000 square feet of space previously leased by Target Corp. (Minneapolis Business Journal) Buchalter said it relocated its Portland, Oregon, office, which has 55 attorneys and support staff, to a 17,000 square foot space in Fox Tower downtown; Snell & Wilmer said its Dallas team has moved to a new uptown location. (SWLaw.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Willkie, Farr & Gallagher said it’s starting a capital markets practice in Frankfurt, Germany, with two corporate partners from McDermott, Will & Emery, Simon Weiss and Joseph Marx; Norton Rose Fulbright boosted its Middle East offering, promoting Saudi Arabia-based commercial and projects attorney David Johnston to partner in its banking and finance team. Johnson was senior associate at Mohammed Al Ghamdi Law Firm, Norton Rose’s associated firm in the country; Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch poached Snell & Wilmer intellectual property lawyer Jeffrey Morton as a partner in San Diego. He was chair of Snell’s life sciences industry group & co-chair of its technology industry group; Clark Hill hired former Nevada Gaming Commission chairman John Moran, Jr as senior counsel in its government & regulatory affairs business unit. (ClarkHill.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland added Hogan Lovells corporate and transactions attorney Philip Ehrlich in New York as senior counsel in its insurance practice. Ehrlich represents financial institutions, private equity and hedge funds, corporate clients, and bondholder and creditor committees; Clyde & Co. added to its energy, marine, and natural resources practice in Miami, bringing in former Norwegian Cruise Lines top lawyer and executive Robert Kritzman as partner. He’s been a corporate and transactions partner at several other Big Law firms, recently Lewis Brisbois; Atlanta-based Morris, Manning & Martin appointed litigation partner Seslee Smith to be its new general counsel. She’s been at the firm for close to 22 years and is its first-ever woman GC; Dykema recruited health care and corporate attorney Tim Caprez in Milwaukee as senior counsel. He was vice president and chief compliance counsel at Exact Sciences Corp, a cancer diagnostics provider. He was earlier senior counsel at GE Healthcare. (Dykema.com)

Legal Education

• Syracuse Law’s online J.D. program, started in 2019, just graduated 45 students. (Law.com) A new UC Berkeley Law program aims to build on a University of California tuition help plan for Native Americans to add support for law school tuition. (Red Lake Nation News)