Category: News Feeds

Our client, a Vault 20 US law firm, is actively looking for a mid-level M&A lawyer to join its office in Seoul (3-6 years PQE).

The ideal candidate needs to have attended a US law school for JD or LLM with good grades and have BigLaw experience at the associate level on M&A/PE investments.

The US law qualification is a must-have for this position.  This is a great role for Asian background lawyers who want to stay closer to home, as well as a great opportunity for international lawyers to explore Korea/Asia – Korean language skills would be a bonus but are not required for this position (although, tbh, Seoul’s a lot more fun if you can parlez).

Deals-wise, you will be working on a mix of inbound PE investment on Korean targets and Korean outbound M&A transactions.  Reach out to asia@kinneyrecruiting.com to inquire.

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!

According to data collected by Law.com’s 2020 Go-To Law School Ranking, which law school did Skadden hire the most associates from last year?

Hint: A whopping 23 members of the Class of 2019 went to Skadden from this top law school — the largest cohort to go to a single firm in last year’s graduating class.

See the answer on the next page.

Eileen Murray has moved on from Bridgewater Associates, to the less–Principled pastures of FINRA and HSBC. Well, almost moved on.

Bridgewater Associates and former co-Chief Executive Officer Eileen Murray are still negotiating an exit package three months after she left the world’s biggest hedge fund — a fight that has dragged on because Bridgewater’s offer is both less than what has been paid to men who left the firm and below the status of her position, one of Murray’s advisers said…. Her adviser, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation, said this was the third time since 2017 that Bridgewater offered her compensation that was lower than male colleagues at comparable levels.

Among the lessons for law firms that came out of the recession of 2008 was that diversity and inclusion initiatives suffer during an economic downturn, says Bryan Parker, chief executive officer of alternative legal services provider Legal Innovators.

It took a decade before the numbers of Black and LatinX attorneys at large law firms returned to pre-recession levels, Parker told me. “We are committed to working with leaders in the law to address diversity and inclusion at every stage of the talent recruitment and development process, to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Bryan Parker

Last December, I wrote about the launch of Legal Innovators, a company that aims to enhance diversity and inclusion in larger law firms and legal departments by changing how lawyers are recruited, hired, priced and trained.

Now, in recognition of the staffing challenges legal organizations face as a result of the coronavirus crisis, and with the goal of avoiding a repeat of 2008, the company is introducing two services designed to help — one a free assessment of an organization’s diversity and inclusion and the other a staffing program to help organizations meet shorter-term needs for attorneys in high-demand practice areas.

Free Diversity Assessment

The company is providing its Diversity and Inclusion Talent Assessment at no cost to law firms and legal departments. It will review an organization’s processes, procedures, and cultural approach, and conduct stakeholder interviews and anonymous surveys.

Within 30 days, Legal Innovators will deliver a written report that will address recruiting, development, retention, promotion, and enablement of legal talent, as well as recommendations to measure and track performance against metrics.

If the assessment identifies a need, the organization can optionally work with Legal Innovators to be matched with diverse junior legal talent.

I asked Parker why a firm should have his company perform this assessment rather than do it itself.

“Why does a lawyer not have himself for a client?” he replied. “There is something about a fresh set of eyes coming in and being dispassionate.”

Beyond that, he said, he and his cofounder Jonathan L. Greenblatt, a longtime, now-retired partner at Shearman & Sterling, are large-firm veterans who understand the staffing and diversity issues firms face.

Flexible-Term Lawyers

Legal Innovators standard model is recruit diverse law school graduates and match them for terms of one-to-two years with law firms and legal departments. Legal Innovators employs them during that period and provides training and mentorship.

Under the service announced today, Legal Innovators will provide these attorneys for shorter terms of three-to-six months, with the attorneys working either remotely or in an organization’s offices.

The service is targeting high-demand practice areas where firms and legal departments are likely to need additional staffing, including regulatory, bankruptcy, restructuring and litigation.

The lawyers will come from diverse and non-diverse backgrounds and have initial training rele vant to support these high-demand business areas, Legal Innovators says.

After the initial term, employers would be free to continue to work with Legal Innovators for the standard, longer-term duration, or to hire the lawyers permanently.

In Parker’s view, these initiatives are win-wins for both the firms that participate and the lawyers who get placed.

The data is clear that more diverse firms are more profitable firms, he says, and in the times in which we find ourselves, diversity is both a moral imperative and a business imperative.

For the lawyers who get placed in firms or legal departments, this is an opportunity to get valuable experience that can fuel their careers. And for some, it could lead to permanent placements.

Legaltech Week 6.5.20: Guest Bryan Parker Joins the Panel for A Conversation on Diversity

Yesterday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued an Executive Order striking down mask requirements in at least fifteen local jurisdictions.

While the governor has encouraged Georgians to mask up to prevent the spread of coronavirus, he has called mandates “a bridge too far.” So despite growing evidence that masks work, and Kemp’s own exhortation that people should mask up if they want to watch college football this fall, the newest order explicitly makes them optional.

[A]ny state, county, or municipal law, order, ordinance, rule, or regulation that requires persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields, or any other Personal Protective Equipment while in places of public accommodation or on public property are suspended to the extent that they are more restrictive than this Executive Order.

The ordinance also caps indoor gatherings at fifty persons and suspends the requirement that Georgians renew their gun permits during the pandemic. So if anyone needs to shoot a virus, they’ll be able to do it. Phew!

Next door in Alabama, Republican Governor Kay Ivey instituted a mask mandate yesterday. Mississippi’s governor Tate Reeves tweeted a long thread on dangers of a herd immunity approach, encouraging his constituents to wear masks, and allowing municipalities to enact their own mask regulations.  But in Georgia, this abridgment of personal liberty will not stand!

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who was gearing up to enforce his city’s mask ordinance with warnings and fines, was outraged.

But the governor was unmoved.

“We’ve been clear in previous orders and statements that local mask mandates are unenforceable,” Kemp spokeswoman Candice Broce told the Savannah Morning News yesterday, when the state reported 3,871 new COVID infections. “The Governor has encouraged Georgians to wear them voluntarily for months now.”

Because Brian Kemp really wants to protect his constituents’ health and stop this pandemic in its tracks. Just not enough to actually do anything at all about it.

Check out the Executive Order here.

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Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

New York moved quickly to cancel the July examination and move the test to September. At the time, it signaled an abundance of caution. Now the state has come to terms with the fact that even September will be too soon for an in-person exam.

The BOLE announced the change today:

In light of accelerating public health concerns and continuing governmental restrictions, the Board of Law Examiners has concluded that an in-person bar exam cannot be safely administered on September 9-10, 2020. Participants’ health and safety must remain our top priority and, because conditions have not sufficiently improved, the September exam has been cancelled. Please continue to monitor this website for updates regarding the New York bar exam. Additional information can be found in the Court of Appeals’ statement, available here.

When a determination is made as to a future exam, the Board will announce how the application fees paid by candidates currently registered for the September exam will be handled.

This was probably inevitable after New Jersey pulled the plug on the Fall examination. While the statement leaves open the possibility of a further delayed exam, now that the state legislature is pondering diploma privilege, this move might just be a formality on the path to a fully canceled 2020 exam.

For now, applicants no longer have to worry about studying up to September 15 and having the rug pulled out from under them.

Earlier: New York Legislature Gets Involved In Push For Diploma Privilege

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

We don’t see this as work-from-home. We see this as work-from-anywhere. It’s very liberating. You don’t have to live near a physical office location or in a city where there is a physical office location. You have the freedom to live where you want to be. We are enabling people to organize their work around their life rather than their life around their work. And at the end of the day, those people are going to be more happy and more successful.

— J.Y. Miller, managing partner of Husch Blackwell’s brand new virtual office (referred to as “The Link”), commenting on all of the pros of the firm’s remote work offering. This week, the firm launched the new office with 50 staff members and nearly 40 lawyers, whose compensation remains unchanged. “I am convinced that this will be permanent,” Miller said. “It will expand. And it will be one of our largest offices in the firm.”

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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.

The rapid collapse of many American companies due to the ongoing COVID pandemic means that bankruptcy and restructuring practices will be seeing a lot of action in the foreseeable future. In a recent program Restructuring and Bankruptcy Strategies in an Economic Crisis, bankruptcy attorney Michael J. Riela addresses the most important considerations for businesses obtaining new funding or restructuring their debts right now (such as when and why to turn to Chapter 11), the  legal and strategic considerations for creditors, and the skills and knowledge that attorneys will need to guide them through this process.  Check out the three main takeaways below:

1. Cash is King: Conserve, Collect, Project.

• Conserve cash whenever possible.
• Follow up on outstanding payments due (be the “squeaky wheel”).
• Create a cash-flow projection, including an inventory of what you have, what you expect to collect in the short term, and what you absolutely need to operate during the next several weeks.

2. Collect Your Data: Here’s what you need to obtain new funding.

• Analyze the 2020 and 2021 financial projections – with COVID adjustments made.
• Identify how much debt you can actually assume.
• Discuss the type of loan covenants that will allow the company to survive.

3. Chapter 11 is Available: Should you go for it?

• Maximize the value of a business’s assets and distributions to creditors.
• Grant a debtor the time to prepare a new business plan and plan for reorganization.
• Rehabilitate a financially viable business to preserve its operations and save jobs.

There is so much for law firms and companies to consider during this unprecedented, stressful time, especially as businesses continue to struggle and guidelines for reopening change in light of new outbreaks. Remember to take a step back, breathe, and be mindful of your company, your employees, and your clients during this time. Stay safe and healthy, encourage your employees to do the same, and tune in to Lawline CLE and Lawline Free Resources for ongoing updates during the pandemic.

Related Content

1. How to Shift – and Grow – Your Legal Practice in an Economic Downturn
2. Seven Great #lawtwitter Tweets from the Age of Coronavirus
3. All the States That are Changing Their MCLE Rules Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic

It’s basically every Zoom-fueled nightmare over the last four months — what would happen if you spoke your mind, but it turned out you weren’t on mute. And you called your boss a liar. And it turned out it was a public call. Yikestown.

That’s what happened to Mark Brodsky, a senior assistant state’s attorney in Hartford, Connecticut, during a June 26th reappointment hearing for Hartford State’s Attorney Gail Hardy. During that hearing, Hardy was asked how many cases she’s taken to trial, and she responded an estimate of a maximum of three trials a year. After that answer, Brodsky could be heard on the Zoom call saying, “Oh, come on … liar.”

So, yeah, he’s in some hot water for that. Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. reprimanded Brodsky, forcing him to forfeit two vacation days, and writing in the reprimand:

“It is very important for you to keep in mind that as prosecutors, we are judged not only on our behavior during the workday, but also for how we conduct ourselves outside of the workplace. Your actions and the public comments during the hearing on June 26 not only reflected poorly on you but on the division as well. As ministers of justice, we have an obligation to act professionally at all times.”

Hardy has since withdrawn from seeking reappointment, and she’ll have “a new role in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney to foster diversity in the Division of Criminal Justice.”

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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).