Wake Up Call: Younger Lawyers Wary of Burnout, Survey Finds

In today’s column, 10 law schools are signed up to a program in which they’ll guarantee admission to diverse and first-generation law students who meet certain criteria; prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction; a former L.A. water department special counsel pleaded guilty to involvement in a $2.2 million kickback scheme.

• Leading off, close to third of respondents to a recent survey of 1,200 “stand-out” attorneys across 50 countries said they’d liked to reduce the number of hours they work. The Stellar Performance Skills and Progression Mid-Year Survey, by Thomson Reuters, found, among other things, that younger lawyers expect to have longer careers and want to avoid burnout. (American Lawyer)
• Ten U.S. law schools are participating in a program that will guarantee admission and offer scholarships to certain under-represented candidates who didn’t get accepted on their first tries, a report says. The nonprofit AccessLex Institute says it hopes to have 15 law schools participating when the program launches next year. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• New filings reveal how much then Cooley partner, now U.S. solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar and others billed for helping represent an Idaho state prisoner who successfully sued to get sex reassignment surgery. Lawyers for the state are challenging a request for more than $2.8 million in legal fees in the case. (Reuters)
• A New York City lawyer who was also a special counsel to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power agreed to plead guilty to involvement in a nearly $2.2 million kickback scheme tied to a “collusive” lawsuit. (Justice.gov)
• Pennsylvania prosecutors yesterday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. (Politico) Lawyer John Pierce has taken over the case of “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6. Capitol riots. (National Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Boies Schiller Flexner antitrust partner Abby Dennis left the firm after 12 years to join the Federal Trade Commission as a senior trial counsel; Blank Rome brought in veteran government contracts lawyer Elizabeth N. Jochum as a partner in Washington. She was a partner at Smith Pachter McWhorter PLC; Perkins Coie picked up commercial and intellectual property litigator Alec Farr as a partner in Washington. He arrives after about 19 years at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and a predecessor firm as a partner. (PerkinsCoie.com)
• Sidley Austin said securities enforcement and regulatory lawyer Lara Thyagarajan is joining the firm as a partner in New York after close to 16 years at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, most recently as senior vice president, head of market regulation enforcement and enforcement litigation; Sidley also added DLA Piper M&A and private equity lawyer Stephen Ballas as a partner in Century City, California. Ballas was earlier an in-house leader at technology and real estate services companies; former Dechert chief financial officer Troy Senter, who earlier had the same job at Arnold & Porter, moved to take the same role at Fox Rothschild, based in Philadelphia. (FoxRothschild.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland recruited former energy industry in-house leader Jeffrey Smith to be head of legal services for its alternative legal services unit Konexo US; McGuireWoods said former Northwestern University associate general counsel Sarah Wake rejoined the firm as a partner on its education team in Chicago. Wake was a labor & employment associate at the firm earlier in her career; Polsinelli hired experienced health-care top lawyer Tracey Salinski as counsel in Chicago. She’s a former partner at Arnstein & Lehr, which merged with Saul Ewing. She was most recently at Duly Health and Care, where she was general counsel & senior vice president legal. (Polsinelli)
• Environmental infrastructure and solutions company Aris Water Solutions, Inc., hired veteran energy in-house leader Adrian Milton as general counsel, chief administrative officer and corporate secretary. Milton, a former Latham & Watkins associate, was most recently general counsel and vice president at clinical trial site network Headlands Research. (Businesswire)

Technology

• U.K. elite firm Slaughter and May said the fifth cohort of its five-year-old tech incubator focuses on companies developing innovative solutions to climate change. (SlaughterMay.com)