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Good news for associates at Hogan Lovells — a firm that took in $2,246,050,000 in gross revenue last year, making an impressive 8th on the latest Am Law 100 ranking — the COVID-19 salary cuts are a thing of the past.

Back in May, the Hogan Lovells announced a pu pu platter of salary cuts. Equity equity partners’ monthly draws were slashed by 15 to 25 percent, and they also deferred the payment of profits. Nonequity partners and highly compensated senior counsel and specialists got a 15 percent cut. While the rest of the counsel, associates, attorneys, specialists and knowledge lawyers saw a 10 percent cut.

Now, thanks to a “solid performance” over the summer, HoLove is reversing most of those salary cuts — and making the change retroactive to May, meaning a tidy little make-whole payment is on its way. So who is lucky enough to benefit from this retroactive salary change? Associates, counsel, attorneys, specialists, and knowledge lawyers in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil. As reported by Law.com, for the Asia-Pacific region, Dubai and the U.K., the salary reviews postponed from May will be scheduled, and any payments will be retroactive. As for 2020 bonuses, they’ll be made in the “normal course of business, applying the normal standards.”

Not everyone is seeing the benefits of the firm’s performance gains right away. Equity partners are still going to have draws and bonus payments reduced through 2020. And the cuts for nonequity partners and senior counsel will be reviewed later this year.

Hogan Lovells CEO Miguel Zaldivar made the following statement on the salary reversal:

Having looked carefully at our work over the summer, we have seen a solid performance and now is the time to start a step-by-step approach to reverse some of the prudent measures we implemented earlier this year around compensation. This is a strong testament to the work which we have all been doing under very challenging conditions and we are looking towards a continued solid performance through to the end of the year.

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries or restoring previous cuts, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Year in and year out, we watch law firm after law firm pay lip service to their commitment to diversity in the legal profession, with promises to put women attorneys on equal footing with their male counterparts, whether it be through hiring and retaining more women attorneys, promoting more women attorneys to equity partnership ranks, providing more leadership positions to women attorneys, or adopting more family-friendly policies to ensure that women attorneys are able to excel at their jobs while maintaining a stable work/life balance. Despite these continued assurances, and despite the fact that a number of firms have made great efforts to improve women’s stature in the law, there is still much more to be done.

Today, Working Mother released its thirteenth annual list of the 60 Best Law Firms for Women. These law firms are considered pioneers in the field when it comes to attracting, retaining, and promoting women lawyers. These law firms not only stand out as being family-friendly workplaces, but they also ensure that women shine in their equity partnership ranks.

Which firms made the cut for this year’s ranking?

To earn themselves a spot on the Working Mother Best Law Firms list, self-selected applicant firms with 50 or more lawyers must complete an extensive application (more than 300 questions long) with topics ranging from attorney representation, schedule flexibility, paid time off and parental leaves, and development and retention of women. Working Mother then selected the 60 best firms based on data provided by those firms from the year 2019 (i.e., pre-pandemic data). “Law firms on this year’s list were better prepared to respond to the effects of the pandemic because of their continued support of flextime and remote work for working parents and caregivers,” said Subha V. Barry, president of Working Mother Media. “We are proud to recognize their resilience and steadfast commitment to supporting gender equality.”

Here are some of the interesting results gleaned from Working Mother’s study:

Flexibility Has Been Increasing

• Pre COVID-19, all these firms offered reduced hours and remote work for lawyers. Thirty-nine percent of female lawyers used remote work in 2019.

Top Law Firms Hold Leaders Accountable for These Factors

• Career progression of women lawyers who are direct reports…72%
• Managing work-life issues of direct reports…67%
• Career progression of lawyers working reduced hours who are direct reports…66%

Advancement Matters

• The number of women lawyers promoted to equity partner has increased by almost 25% in the past five years.
• All firms on the list offer formal mentoring and 50 percent of mentees are women.
• Two-third of the firms on the list have formal sponsorship with 62% of participants female.

Women have made great progress at Biglaw firms in recent years, but which firms have been most receptive to their advancement? This year’s list highlights firms that averaged 23 percent women among equity partners, compared with only 20 percent five years ago. Women of color make up 14 percent of equity partners (up from 11 percent five years ago). Here’s the list of the 60 Best Law Firms for Women in 2020:

Akerman
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
Baker McKenzie
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz
Ballard Spahr
Bass, Berry & Sims
Blank Rome
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Chapman and Cutler
Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete
Cooley
Crowell & Moring
Culhane Meadows
Davis Graham & Stubbs
Davis Wright Tremaine
Day Pitney
Dechert
DLA Piper
Dorsey & Whitney
Duane Morris
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath
Fenwick & West
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner
Fish & Richardson
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Goodwin Procter
Hanson Bridgett
Holland & Hart
Holland & Knight
Jackson Lewis P.C.
Katten
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Littler
Lockridge Grindal Nauen
Lowenstein Sandler
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
McDermott Will & Emery
Michael Best & Friedrich
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Morrison & Foerster
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart
O’Melveny & Myers
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Perkins Coie
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Quarles & Brady
Reed Smith
Ropes & Gray
Seyfarth Shaw
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
Shook, Hardy & Bacon
Sidley Austin
Steptoe & Johnson
Stinson
Taft Stettinius & Hollister
Vinson & Elkins
Wiley
WilmerHale

Congratulations are in order for all of the firms returning to the list this year, as well as the firms that are new to the 2020 list. Way to represent your women attorneys!

If your firm didn’t make the cut, do you think it should have? If your firm did make the cut, was it deserved? What can be done to improve work/life balance for women and working mothers? If you’d like to let us know what you think, you can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. Congratulations to all of the law firms that made this important ranking!

2020 Best Law Firms for Women [Working Mother]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

We have some unfortunate news to report today from New York, where over the long holiday weekend, a young prosecutor was killed after being hit by a bus.

Sarah Pitts was a senior assistant district attorney with the King’s County District Attorney’s Office. The New York Daily News has additional details on the Penn Law graduate’s death:

Pitts, 35, was biking east on Wythe Ave. near Williamsburg St. when she was hit at about 12:35 a.m. Medics rushed her to Bellevue Hospital, where she could not be saved. …

The bus that hit Pitts belonged to Excellent Bus Service, police said. The driver had no alcohol in his system, and had a valid license, cops said.

He remained on the scene, and police were still investigating the crash Monday afternoon. He has not been charged.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez released the following statement via Twitter:

Manhattan D.A. candidate Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who used to work with Pitts, described her friend as an “extraordinary person,” saying, “For me, she was the beating heart of the Post-Conviction Justice Bureau.”

We here at Above the Law would like to extend our sincere condolences to Sarah Pitt’s family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time.

‘She was really a light’: Friend, Brooklyn DA mourn prosecutor killed in bicycle collision with bus [New York Daily News]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

In my most recent Above the Law post, I discussed the recent publication of an interim final rule (the Rule) by the DEA, which, I argued, threatens the hemp industry by treating partially processed hemp extract not intended for consumption as a Schedule I controlled substance.

But the Rule does more than menace partially processed hemp, it also has the potential to destroy the flourishing delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-8 THC) industry.

Here is why.

The Rule provides that:

For tetrahydrocannabinols that are naturally occurring constituents of the plant material, Cannabis sativa L., any material that contains 0.3% or less of D9-THC by dry weight is not controlled, unless specifically controlled elsewhere under the CSA [the Controlled Substances Act]. Conversely, for tetrahydrocannabinols that are naturally occurring constituents of Cannabis sativa L., any such material that contains greater than 0.3% of D9-THC by dry weight remains a controlled substance in schedule I. The [2018 Farm Bill] does not impact the control status of synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols (for Controlled Substance Code Number 7370) because the statutory definition of “hemp” is limited to materials that are derived from the plant Cannabis sativa L. For synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols, the concentration of D9-THC is not a determining factor in whether the material is a controlled substance. All synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols remain schedule I controlled substances. (Emphasis added).

Neither the Rule nor Federal law, including the CSA, expressly define “synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols.”

However, some of the DEA regulations address the issue of “synthetic THC” in the context of “synthetic marijuana,” also known as “Spice” or “K2,” which is listed under Section 812(c)(d) of the CSA; and in the context of the schedule I listing of “Tetrahydrocannabinol” (THC), under Section 812(c)(c)(17) of the CSA.

In the context of “synthetic marijuana,” which the DEA describes as a “synthetic version of THC,” “synthetic THC” refers to a mixture of plant material sprayed with synthetic psychoactive chemicals. In a 2017 Resource Guide, the DEA further explains that “[s]ynthetic cannabinoids are not organic, but are chemical compounds created in a laboratory.” (Emphasis added).

In the context of the schedule I listing of “Tetrahydrocannabinol,” the DEA revised its regulations in 2003 to specify that the term refers to both “natural” and “synthetic” THC; however, the agency’s clarification did not touch on the actual meaning of “synthetic.”

Therefore, based on the information found in the DEA regulations and publications, it appears the agency refers to the ordinary meaning of “synthetic,” which the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines as a substance “relating to, or produced by chemical or biochemical synthesis.”

As a result, this definition suggests that the Rule, specifically the text highlighted in bold herein, may extend to hemp-derived THC cannabinoids with a Delta-9 THC concentration that does not exceed 0.3%.

This, in turn, would mean that the hottest cannabinoid currently found on the U.S. market, Delta-8 THC, would probably be treated as a schedule I controlled substance by the DEA.

This is because Delta-8 THC, which is not expressed in sufficient concentrations in most hemp cultivars to make its extraction economically viable, is produced through a chemical reaction initiation by a catalyst that converts hemp-derived CBD (Hemp CBD). As such, Delta-8 THC would be a “synthetically derived THC” substance, in accordance with the Rule.

Although such interpretation of the Rule would suggest a total disregard of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill), which legalized hemp, including hemp derivatives (a “derivative” is defined as “a substance that can be made from another substance”), it is also fairly clear that the 2018 Farm Bill did not intend to legalize any form of cannabis that gets users high, as reflected in the provisions imposing a Delta-9 THC limit of no more than 0.3%.

Moreover, given the similarities between Delta-8 THC and Delta-9 THC’s chemical structures, molecular formula and molecular weight, their psychoactive effects, and the DEA’s position on and its historical control of all forms of THC, the Rule only confirms what many of us expected: that hemp-derived cannabinoids with psychoactive effects, even if less potent than those of Delta-9 THC, would be deemed unlawful by federal enforcement groups.

Ultimately, the Rule and the issues raised in this blog post and in the prior one bring to light lingering confusion and statutory ambiguities surrounding hemp, its derivatives, extracts and cannabinoids, which should be addressed by Congress or by the courts before the DEA gets to adopt such regulations.

It is abundantly clear through this Rule that the DEA is attempting to impede on the hemp industry, so it is vital for hemp stakeholders to submit their comment by October 20 to halt the DEA and help the hemp industry follow its course and succeed.

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Nathalie Bougenies practices out of Harris Bricken’s Portland office and focuses on the regulatory framework of hemp-derived CBD (“hemp CBD”) products. She is an authority on FDA enforcement, Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and other laws and regulations surrounding hemp and hemp CBD products. She also advises domestic and international clients on the sale, distribution, marketing, labeling, importation and exportation of these products. Nathalie frequently speaks on these issues and has made national media appearances, including on NPR’s Marketplace. For two consecutive years, Nathalie has been selected as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers Magazine, an honor bestowed on only 2.5% of eligible Oregon attorneys.  Nathalie is also a regular contributor to her firm’s Canna Law Blog.

The autumn of COVID is rapidly turning into a season of layoffs in Biglaw, and administrative staff has been particularly hard hit. It’s long been a trend for Biglaw firms to reduce the amount of staff that is needed to support Biglaw attorneys, but the economic upheaval of the novel coronavirus seems to have supercharged the issue.

The latest firm to take a carving knife to its staff ranks? Cleary Gottlieb.

Last week, the elite law firm laid off staff members. According to sources at the firm, this follows a voluntary severance package that was offered back in June. It’s unclear how many people took that voluntary package which saw them depart the firm in July, but given the recent involuntary layoffs, it doesn’t seem like it was enough.

And the salt in the wound? Above the Law understands the voluntary severance package was more generous than the one given to those laid off. Ouch. Guess the firm is sending a message that it mean business when it offers a voluntary package.

A spokesperson for Cleary provided the following statement in response to Above the Law’s layoff inquiry:

Following a comprehensive review begun early last year, we have restructured some operations to align our business functions with the needs of our lawyers and our clients. These changes reflect long-term trends in the legal market and have been made with careful thought and consideration for those directly affected by this transition.

Best of luck to those who find themselves involuntarily out of work.

Now the real question is, which other firms — even ones without any previous COVID-19 austerity measures — have decided layoffs are the way to go?

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries or restoring previous cuts, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

When Robinhood was building is pioneering Millennial trading app, it knew it would have to be bold to attract the affections of that notoriously Wall Street-averse generation. How bold? Free bold. Free everything: Free trades, free banking, free money, accidentally and for a little while.

And it worked: Robinhood’s valuation jumped sixfold in just two years, as it garnered nearly as many users as E*Trade in 23 fewer years. Even better, its success forced everyone else to give up their commissions on trades, putting a pretty serious crimp in its rivals’ revenue.

* Lady Gaga’s father has joined a lawsuit seeking to end New York City’s indoor dining ban. Now that litigation is on “the edge of glory.” [Fox Business]

* A lawyer for the accused Kenosha shooter has resigned his position from a defense fund that has raised around $700,000 for the defense team. [Yahoo News]

* A Senior District Attorney in the Brooklyn DA’s office was killed by a bus while riding her bike yesterday. Sending our deepest sympathies to the family of the deceased. [New York Post]

* A South Carolina attorney has been disbarred after taking a plea on an indecent exposure charge. [NBC News]

* A Texas Supreme Court decision may open the door to service of process through email or social media accounts. Think of all the filters that can be used when serving process through insta… [KSAT.com]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Oklahoma 1Ls threw themselves a party and… oops someone has COVID. And the law school didn’t tell most of the class what was going on. As law schools return to campus and frighteningly few are going completely remote, this is something that’s going to come up again and again. How should law students should approach the semester.

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts on motherhood in the legal profession, in partnership with our friends at MothersEsquire. Welcome Elise Elam to our pages.

I have a tattoo of a phoenix with its head held high, wings outstretched as if taking flight. It’s pretty cliché — okay, a lot cliché — but clichés resonate with us because they evoke imagery to which we can relate. The “phoenix rising from its ashes” image evokes hope, perseverance, and resilience. The phoenix was not my first tattoo, nor my last, but it was the one I spent the most time designing — trying to get it just right. Despite its being cliché, I sometimes feel like a phoenix: rising above after a challenge or ordeal only to be stronger and brighter as a result.

From a surprise pregnancy at 17 during my parents’ divorce, to graduating from law school during an economically challenging time (with the student debt to prove it), to a difficult pregnancy, emergency C-section and newborn preemie in the NICU, to finding myself laid off from the job I thought I was going to have forever — I am no stranger to adversity.

After each of these tough experiences, I found myself stronger and more resilient than before. It seems — and here comes another cliché — that each of these hard things prepared me for the next hard thing.  In December 2018, I realized I had an opportunity to reinvent myself professionally, to pivot my career into something — hopefully — that would provide more stability.

As it happens, my husband had just started grad school — he is a disenchanted chemist, also hoping to pivot into something else. One day, he suggested I go back to school, too. I thought, “Obviously, this man is unhinged.” And then, “Or … maybe there is something to what he is saying.” My husband is no dummy — he didn’t just suggest it on a whim or out of the blue. He had done pretty extensive research on the job market, including both legal and legal-adjacent jobs. He researched grad school programs and certifications and laid it all out there. My husband convinced me to do something I thought I would never do: go back to school.

I knew I wanted to find a career — not just a job. I knew I wanted something challenging and interesting. I also knew I wanted to be in a role where I could grow professionally and at an organization that supported me. Of course, I also wanted a pay increase, but that was last on my list of priorities. Based on all of these things, I was surprised to realize that my “dream” job was now “cybersecurity incident response attorney.” The great thing about this dream is that there are many legal or legal-adjacent jobs related to cybersecurity — such as privacy attorney and privacy program manager — that would be great stepping stones on (or alternatives to) the path to my ultimate goal. However, I also knew that I couldn’t just start asking people to hire me — a psych major practicing workers compensation defense — for my dream job without having the credentials to prove my interest in this field. I talked over my plans with many people, including an attorney I looked up to who had pivoted from litigation to cyber insurance. She also encouraged my plan to go back to school.

So, 2019 was a whirlwind year for me. I was working — sometimes part time, sometimes full time or more, depending on the amount I was able to cobble together — and going to grad school full time. In May, my toddler was hospitalized for several days with RSV (a respiratory infection) and was on supplemental oxygen and IV fluids (he’s fine now). In June and July, my grandfather became ill, and we knew it was only a matter of time before he would say goodbye to us forever. A World War II Navy vet, his greatest fear at the end of his life was dying alone in a nursing home. Although I was incredibly busy, I was working and going to school remotely. As a result, I was able to grant my grandfather his last wishes: for the last five weeks of his life, I cared for my grandfather during the day while my dad was working out of the house and couldn’t be with him.

In December, I graduated from Virginia Tech with a Master’s in Information Technology (my bachelor’s is in psychology). Throughout the year, I studied for and obtained three privacy certifications through the IAPP (CIPP/US, CIPM, and CIPT). During the entire program but especially during that last month, I barely knew what sleep was, and I drank a worrisome amount of coffee. There was one particular day where I was attempting to juggle all of my competing responsibilities — work and school deadlines, sick kids — all with a 102-degree fever. I am not exaggerating when I say I seriously considered divorcing my husband that day.

Fast forward to March 2020. Schools and businesses were starting to close because of the pandemic. And I had just started a new job in a new practice area — my “dream” job. My story is not a blueprint. It is not a step-by-step guide on how to achieve your professional goals. Instead, my story is meant to give you hope. I am not going to lie — my professional “rising from the ashes” was not easy. It took a lot of work and effort, not to mention additional costs for the certifications and tuition. It also required belief in myself and in my dream. Of course, as in everything else I’ve ever achieved, it took the support of many people, family, friends, mentors, and colleagues. And it wasn’t immediate — it took time to build my credentials and find a position. But I am proof positive that if you put your mind — and your grit — to it, you can achieve your goals. Another cliché — but a true one, nonetheless.

So, if you find yourself at a professional crossroads — unhappy with your practice area, your workload, your hours; facing a lay-off or wanting to increase your salary; or simply just needing a change to reinvigorate your passion for being a lawyer — you can reinvent yourself just like I did.

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Elise Elam is an associate at BakerHostetler in Cincinnati, Ohio. As part of the Digital Risk Advisory and Cybersecurity practice group, she works closely with clients across various industries to prepare for and respond to data security incidents. Elise enjoys staying connected to her community, serving on the Ambassador Board of a local children’s nonprofit – the organization through which she was adopted as an infant – and is the President-Elect of her high school’s Alumni Association Board. Outside of work, Elise loves to run, albeit slowly, and can always be found with a book and a cup of coffee. She is the proud (and tired) mother of a teenager and two toddlers.