Good morning. We’ve reported extensively on law firms using salary increases and bonuses to get a leg up in the battle for talent, but now Shearman & Sterling and Freshfields are using a new set of recruiting tools to stand out. The associate salary race is still on though — we’ve got the details on how Milbank and Cadwalader just took that to a new level, too. It’s Friday — we made it!
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Shearman & Sterling, Freshfields get creative in bid for lawyer talent
A pair of law firms are trying new tactics to staff up amid strong client demand and a tight market for legal talent, report Xiumei Dong and Sara Merken.
Wall Street firm Shearman & Sterling is looking to its former attorneys and staff to serve as headhunters, writes Dong. The firm announced it will pay former lawyers and staff $25,000 for successful referrals of associates or counsel with at least one year of experience, with additional cash available for recruits to other positions.
Meanwhile, Freshfields is looking to another pool for talent: Lawyers who quit the profession and are ready to return. It’s launching a program out of its Silicon Valley office that targets attorneys who haven’t practiced for two years or more.
The move is more than just another recruiting tool, firm representatives told Merken. It’s about drawing people back to the profession who may have left to care for family or for other reasons, a group that could help the firm focus on diversity and inclusion, they said.
Read more about Shearman’s alumni referral strategy, and about Freshfields’ focus on a new talent pool.
- A Boston lawyer who was accused of exploiting the Zoom video platform to whisper answers to a client during a deposition was ordered to receive counseling. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin said the lawyer, Jeffrey Rosin of O’Hagan Meyer, never denied the misconduct. “Rosin has also accepted responsibility for his misconduct, something becoming increasingly less common,” Sorokin said in his order. (Reuters)
- Private lawyers who were hired to prosecute disbarred environmental lawyer Steven Donziger in a federal criminal contempt case that ended in his conviction were paid more than $670,000 for work performed from mid-2019 to mid-2021, according to court papers and a review of paid invoices (here, here and here). (Reuters)
- Holly Thomas will become the second Black woman to ever serve on the 9th Circuit following her U.S. Senate confirmation vote. Thomas, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, was approved 48-40. A Senate committee deadlocked on another nominee, ACLU voting rights litigator Dale Ho, whose social media posts critical of Republicans drew criticism. (Reuters)
"During these five years of criminal probation, we have tried hard to rehabilitate PG&E. As the supervising district judge, however, I must acknowledge failure."
–U.S. District Judge William Alsup, whose final comments at the end of Pacific Gas & Electric’s criminal probation described the electrical company’s behavior during the five-year term as a “crime spree.” The probationary period — during which the company is accused of setting at least 31 wildfires — came after PG&E’s felony convictions stemming from a gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California, in 2010.
- Former Rudy Giuliani associate Igor Fruman, who helped the former New York mayor and Donald Trump lawyer collect information in Ukraine about U.S. President Joe Biden and his son Hunter before the 2020 election, will be sentenced after pleading guilty to one criminal count in a campaign finance case. Fruman admitted to soliciting money from a foreign national. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan.
- The D.C. Circuit is set to hear oral arguments in Oberlin, Ohio’s challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s finding of a market need for the proposed Ohio-to-Michigan, $2.1 billion Nexus Gas Transmission LLC pipeline. The city argues that the natural gas the line would carry for foreign export to Canada should not serve to justify the project. The pipeline operator has intervened in the case with a team from Bracewell, arguing that its export of gas to Canada is just one factor FERC considered in approving the project.
- A Florida doctor is slated to be sentenced in Brooklyn federal court after pleading guilty to participating in a scheme to convince women to have unnecessary surgeries to remove their transvaginal mesh implants in an effort to get a cut of settlement funds paid by the mesh manufacturers. Dr. Christopher Walker, a urogynecologist from Windermere, Florida, was charged alongside Detroit-based surgical funding consultant Wesley Barber in 2019. Walker admitted to paying Barber bribes for mesh implant patient referrals. His attorney, Jodi Avergun of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, told Reuters Walker accepted responsibility for his actions so he can get back to caring for patients.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
What to catch up on this weekend
- A unit of video game giant Activision Blizzard lost a bid to throw out a lawsuit in Texas federal court that accused it of profiting from another company's patented technology. Blizzard Entertainment failed to prove a patent owned by AC Technologies SA and licensed by plaintiff Via Vadis was invalid. (Reuters)
- Leon Black accused a former top lieutenant at Apollo Global Management of exploiting the billionaire's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in an effort to launch a "coup" and oust him from the investment firm he co-founded. (Reuters)
- Two California counties' mandates forcing gun shops and firing ranges to close in the early days of the pandemic in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 were unconstitutional, the 9th Circuit said. But U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke issued a concurring opinion to his own decision that said he anticipated the ruling would be overturned if the circuit votes to hear the case en banc – and wrote a draft opinion for what that panel would decide. He concluded by telling the would-be panel, “You’re welcome.” (Reuters)
- A divided U.S. Supreme Court refused to direct the 5th Circuit to let a legal challenge to the near-total abortion ban in Texas play out in federal court. The appeals court on Monday asked the Texas State Supreme Court to review an enforcement question about the law, S.B. 8. The challengers argued the move would delay litigation and defy the Supreme Court’s order last month permitting the case to move ahead. "Today, for the fourth time, this court declines to protect pregnant Texans from egregious violations of their constitutional rights," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent on Thursday.
- “Fortnite” creator Epic Games has expanded its legal team in its antitrust clash with Apple, bringing on U.S. Supreme Court veteran Thomas Goldstein of Goldstein & Russell to work with Cravath partners including Katherine Forrest and Christine Varney. Epic’s opening brief to the appeals court urged a panel to revive its federal antitrust claims against Apple, represented by Gibson Dunn. The court earlier granted Apple’s request to pause a trial judge’s order requiring certain changes to the company’s App Store rules.
- Laura Edidin, the former top ethics lawyer in the office of ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, has joined Wigdor in New York. Edidin, who said she resigned from Cuomo’s office in March over the sexual misconduct allegations against him, will be of counsel at the firm. (Reuters)
- Law firm Venable landed a seven-member healthcare lobbying team from Faegre Drinker to join its Washington, D.C., office. (Reuters)
- New York-based Olshan Frome Wolosky has added longtime Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle partner Eduardo Cukier as chair of its tax practice. (Reuters)
- Manatt said Rachel Sher has joined the firm as a Washington, D.C.-based health partner. Sher earlier served as vice president for policy and regulatory affairs at the National Organization for Rare Diseases. (Manatt)
- King & Spalding has added structured finance and securitization partner David Ridenour to the firm’s corporate, finance and investments group in Washington, D.C. Ridenhour arrived at the firm from DLA Piper. (King & Spalding)
- DLA Piper has brought on Brian Boyle and Christopher Halliday as partners in the firm’s Philadelphia office. Boyle, formerly at McDermott, is a litigation partner, and Halliday, who previously practiced at Morgan Lewis, focuses on patent prosecution.
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