December 19, 2014
CAL LAW 360
By Lance Duroni
CHICAGO – BigLaw’s biggest hirings this year included a Winston & Strawn LLP mainstay skipping out to a bitter rival, a legendary general counsel latching onto Ballard Spahr LLP and the judge who oversaw an era-defining bankruptcy battle returning to the private sector.
Here, Law360 looks at the firm pickups that mattered most in 2014.
Winston’s Litigation Head Grabs Brass Ring at Kirkland
Kirkland & Ellis LLP saved one of the year’s biggest coups for last, announcing on Dec. 11 that it had lured James F. Hurst, the chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP’s 500-lawyer litigation department, to join its Chicago office as a litigation and intellectual property partner.
Hurst’s 25 years of experience includes time at the highest levels of BigLaw management, having served on Winston’s executive committee. He will immediately assume a spot on Kirkland’s executive committee as well, an unusual vote of confidence from the get-go for a lateral hire, according to Larry Latourette, a principal at Lateral Link Group LLC.
“Usually, there’s a look-and-see period for any lateral just to make sure they don’t drool or something,” Latourette told Law360. “But apparently not here.”
Hurst’s compensation package from Kirkland — reportedly $9 million guaranteed — has raised eyebrows in the industry, coming on the heels of big paydays the firm handed to Stephen Lucas, who arrived in May after leading Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP’s London banking practice, and Robert Khuzami, who was the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s head of enforcement before skipping to Kirkland last year, Latourette said.
Guarantees on this scale have been in “high disfavor” since Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP’s implosion — which was sparked, in part, by promises of extravagant pay made to incoming partners — but Kirkland is getting “proven quality” for those big dollars, according to Latourette.
“Other firms can be pressed to guarantee sort of questionable things if they are trying to buy market share,” he said. “The difference with Kirkland is it’s making pretty reasonable bets.”
Akin Gump Lands International Crew From Sinking Bingham
Two months before its shotgun marriage with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Bingham McCutchen LLP suffered one of the single biggest blows in its monthslong partner exodus.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP revealed on Sept. 17 that it had hired away 22 partners from Bingham’s London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong offices, including the ailing firm’s high-profile London financial restructuring group led by James Roome, Barry Russell and James Terry.
The coup allowed Akin Gump to gain a foothold in Frankfurt, with two former Bingham restructuring specialists launching its first office there. The hirings included a pair of Hong Kong lawyers, restructuring partner Naomi Moore and corporate partner Charles Rogers.
The blow may well have been one of the “final straws” that broke Bingham’s back, according to Jack Zaremski, president of Hanover Legal Personnel Services Inc. The additions will buoy Akin Gump’s stature in Europe and Asia, he said.
“When you get 22 lawyers, that will inevitably have tremendous impact,” Zaremski said. “Just by the sheer numbers of the pickup, it will make a real difference in terms of the ability of Akin Gump’s offices in those cities to serve their clients in a more significant way.”
Ballard Spahr Embraces BigLaw Reform With DuPont GC
In a surprise move that experts said may help the firm attract new clients, Ballard Spahr LLP brought on Thomas Sager, a lifer at chemical giant DuPont and vocal critic of BigLaw’s bill-first, ask-questions-later philosophy.
In September, Sager joined Ballard as a partner in the Wilmington, Delaware, office and Philadelphia headquarters, where he has a relatively unusual role as a kind of internal counselor on the needs and desires of corporate counsel.
During his tenure at DuPont, Sager was a key designer of the company’s “convergence” approach to outside firms and what came to be called the DuPont legal model. The system acts as a kind of road map for partnering between law firms and the company, with data-driven reviews of legal and business goals, costs and budgets; the use of alternative fee deals; and firm engagement with minority- and women-owned businesses.
Fitzpatrick Cella Chief’s Stealthy Exit to Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown LLP bolstered its growing intellectual property practice in July with the arrival of Colleen Tracy, the former managing partner at Fitzpatrick Cella Harper & Scinto, a surprise move that apparently caught Tracy’s former firm off guard.
Tracy, who became Fitzpatrick Cella’s first female managing partner in 2009, abruptly resigned her post atop the 177-lawyer boutique in late June without explanation and resurfaced days later at Mayer Brown’s New York office.
The move came in the wake of staff and associate layoffs that Fitzpatrick Cella announced in April. The firm suffered an 8.8 percent drop in gross revenue in 2013, according to data compiled by the American Lawyer, the biggest year-to-year drop among the second hundred U.S. firms by size.
Against this bleak backdrop, Tracy’s departure was likely a bigger loss for Fitzpatrick Cella than it was a gain for Mayer Brown, Zaremski said.
“They’re not only losing a great manager but a productive business generator for the firm,” he said. “And Fitzpatrick Cella is an IP boutique, so they’re sort of in tenuous waters to begin with because they’re not diversified like general practice firms.”
Lehman Judge Leaves Bench to Co-Chair MoFo Bankruptcy Practice
Morrison & Foerster LLP can be assured that its global business restructuring and insolvency group won’t be intimidated by complex cross-border matters after the firm’s February hiring of Judge James M. Peck, who presided over the epic $600 billion bankruptcy saga of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. for five years.
A little over a month after issuing his final orders in the Lehman case, Peck joined Morrison & Foerster as co-chair of its restructuring group, bringing invaluable bankruptcy experience he earned as both a judge and a trusted mediator.
Peck’s arrival may take some weight off the shoulders of Larren Nashelsky, a MoFo bankruptcy ace who took over as the firm’s chair in 2012 and obviously has increased managerial responsibilities, according to Larry Watanabe of legal recruiting firmWatanabe Nason LLC.
The pickup was all the more notable because as the U.S. economy gains steam and restructuring work dries up, fewer firms are looking to make a big splash on their bankruptcy teams as Morrison & Foerster did, Watanabe said.
In California, the only market where Watanabe operates, “firms are not paying attention to bankruptcy,” he said. “It’s not currently a relevant practice, but it will be down the road when the economy hits some speed bumps.”
Covington & Burling Snags DLA Piper Managing Partner
Frank M. “Rusty” Conner III in February left a distinguished position as the managing partner of DLA Piper’s Washington office for Covington & Burling LLP, boosting that firm’s already formidable M&A and capital markets practices.
Conner and fellow DLA Piper partner Michael Reed, who joined him in the move, said in a joint statement at the time that they relished the opportunity to combine their practice with one of the nation’s pre-eminent financial regulatory teams.
Having worked on more than 300 transactions with an aggregate deal value in excess of $100 billion, Conner has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions of both public and privately held entities, including joint ventures and strategic alliances, according to Covington.
Manatt Woos Dickstein IP Co-Chair
In another move that highlights the priority firms are placing on intellectual property, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP lured the co-chair of Dickstein Shapiro LLP’s IP group to head its own national IP practice.
Joined in the move by two other accomplished patent and trademark litigators, Robert W. Dickerson Jr.took the reins of Manatt’s expanding IP group in October, setting up shop in the firm’s Los Angeles office.
Watanabe handled Manatt’s search, calling it “very important and strategic” for the firm.
“[Manatt] has a thriving digital media and venture practice. They needed to find someone who could lead their IP group firmwide,” he said. “Dickerson is an experienced IP litigation partner and was brought on to build that group for Manatt on a national basis.”