Category: News Feeds

Biglaw firms across the country are implementing all manner of initiatives to bring attention to the importance of diversity and inclusion among their ranks. We’ve previously acknowledged Dorsey & Whitney, Hogan Lovells, Davis Wright Tremaine, Reed Smith, Cooley, Baker McKenzie, Ropes & Gray, and Locke Lord as firms where approved diversity and inclusion-related work will be billable for attorneys and will count toward bonus thresholds. We recently received word that yet another Biglaw firm rolled out a similar program in an effort to show just how dedicated it is to furthering diversity and inclusion within the legal profession.

There’s one very important difference about this firm’s program: there’s no hours cap whatsoever. Which firm is offering unlimited billable credit for attorneys’ diversity, equity, and inclusion work?

That would be Foley Hoag, a firm that brought in $223,512,000 gross revenue in 2019. Earlier this month, the firm announced that all attorneys and other timekeepers would be able to receive virtually limitless billable credit for their DE&I work as well as any and all legal recruiting activity. Here’s an excerpt from the firm’s memo on its new policy:

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is an integral part of the firm’s long-term strategic mission and goals.  The Executive Committee recognizes that the firm is at an important juncture in the advancement of its DE&I efforts.  A number of major internal and external DE&I initiatives have been launched over the past year. Many of our attorneys and other timekeepers are contributing significant time, effort and energy to these initiatives and the Executive Committee believes that crediting such time as billable hours is both appropriate and will enhance the firm’s efforts toward fulfilling our goals.  Because recruiting of new and lateral attorneys is also an integral part of the firm’s success, all time spent on legal recruiting activities will also count as billable hours.

There is no hours cap on the credit given for DE&I and legal recruiting activities, which is identical to our policy with regards to pro bono work.  Our goal is to fully recognize efforts spent advancing the firm’s DE&I initiatives and legal recruiting efforts.  We encourage all attorneys and other timekeepers to contribute in these areas, and suggest 25 hours each year as a minimum target.

Jeff Collins, Foley Hoag’s managing partner, emphasized to us that the firm’s new diversity billing policy doesn’t come with any “hurdle” expectations, meaning that there isn’t a set number of client billable hours that must be met before attorneys’ diversity, equity, and inclusion hours start to count. While other firms have reportedly taken this approach, Foley isn’t one of them.

Congratulations to Foley Hoag on its commitment to diversity, and for offering its attorneys a way to create a more inclusive workplace. With its virtually unlimited hours policy, the firm’s diversity billables are higher than every other firm that has announced such programming, including Baker McKenzie (125 hours) and Ropes & Gray (100 hours). What an admirable way to support diversity and inclusion efforts.

---

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.

Federal agencies withdrew a proposal that would have deregulated 83 different types of medical devices. The proposal, set in motion by the Department of Health and Human Services in the final days of the Trump Administration, would have removed dozens of class II medical devices from regulatory review, including software tools to flag lesions for suspected cancer, digital therapeutics for mental health, and ventilators designed for home use.

The sudden change seemed to contradict statements from the Food and Drug Administration at the time, including a high-level overview of how it planned to regulate medical AI in the future.

In a notice published in the Federal Register on Friday, both HHS and the FDA withdrew the policy change, saying the proposed exemptions were flawed and lacked adequate scientific support.

“We did not find any evidence that HHS consulted with, otherwise involved, or even notified FDA before issuing the Notice,” they wrote.

Between January and March, several public commenters urged the HHS to withdraw the sudden change. The American Medical Association wrote in, saying the decision to exempt medical devices should rest with the FDA.

Several digital health companies also wrote in to the agency, urging it to maintain the FDA’s regulatory review of software devices, from AI tools to flag potential cancers, to digital therapeutics for mental health. For example, AliveCor, which makes ECG monitors, opposed permanently exempting over-the-counter ECG devices.

Drugmaker Otuska, which is running a pivotal trial of a digital therapeutic for major depressive disorder, also raised concerns over the sudden change.

“…This is a new class of products which has only just begun being evaluated for safety and effectiveness (both prior to marketing and in the real world) and there is a need for patients to be able to distinguish between clinically-validated, high quality treatments and the myriad of unregulated general consumer health applications,” Otsuka’s senior director of regulatory affairs, Karen Ragland, wrote in a public comment.

In January, under former secretary Alex Azar’s leadership, HHS proposed the exemptions based on a review of devices that had few or no reported adverse events in the FDA’s Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database since the start of the pandemic. But researchers have raised concerns about adverse events being underreported in the database.

HHS also sought to exempt 50 devices from review based on a lack of death-related adverse events reported during this time period. But this would miss critical information about injuries and malfunctions. For example, for one type of device that would have been exempted, there were no reports related to deaths, but there were 52 reported injuries and 13 malfunctions.

In the notice recently published in the Federal Register, both agencies acknowledged these problems. For instance, an inaccurate reading from an electrocardiogram or a seizure monitoring system might contribute to an erroneous medical decision, but that might not necessarily be reflected in the database, they wrote.

Listen, full disclosure. I’m not a plant person. I’ve tried, really I have. Especially during quarantine, keeping some houseplants alive and thriving seemed like an admirable hobby. I even downloaded the Planta app to remind me when they need to be watered or misted or re-potted. But, it was mostly a disaster more likely to draw gnats than grow new leaves. I’ve since move on to bird watching and the Merlin app, which I’m much more successful at (I spotted 4! American Goldfinches this morning), but my failure to develop a green thumb still sticks in my craw.

In any event, Kramer Levin is the latest firm to give associates and staffers a little token of appreciation. We’ve seen hats, an RV visit, take out, and stress balls so far. And Kramer Levin has decided to gift plants, which, for fellow brown thumbs like me, is basically a guilt trip waiting to happen as you slowly watch the flora die.

But, the thing is, associates at the firm are already salty about the hours requirement linked to their special bonuses. And, well, plants aren’t going to change that.

But listen, don’t take my word for it. Let’s check in with some tipsters at the firm.

After special bonuses tied strictly to client billable hours which was a higher requirement than customary yearly threshold, Kramer Levin shows “appreciation” by sending everyone a plant.

LOL Kramer levin giving associates plants for “staff appreciation day” what an absolute joke. The firm is consistently out of touch with its associate base and is increasingly off market in its comp structure

Folks sure don’t seem pleased.

I get that the gesture was well intentioned, but when associates feel like they’re getting the shaft on bonuses, these gestures will continue to frustrate.

---

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).

Nothing’s more annoying than the notion that “everyone deserves a lawyer” is a catch-all to protect attorneys from criticism of the work they take on.

Criminal defendants have a right to a lawyer, but unless you’re a public defender, they don’t have a right to you as their lawyer. That’s not to say criminal defense lawyers willing to take on the unpleasant cases aren’t hugely important, but that’s not a constitutional duty, it’s a business decision. And it’s a business decision that lawyers should be able to defend without resorting to romantic pablum about the role of attorneys in society. Gideon is there to protect the defendant, not the attorney’s feelings. If you take the case, you take the side-eye that comes with it.

But let’s agree that in the aftermath of the Derek Chauvin trial, we should all give Eric Nelson some slack.

Not that one… this one:

That’s from the homepage of divorce lawyer Eric C. Nelson, where the completely unrelated attorney has doubtless been fielding some heat from his namesake’s efforts to explain why auto exhaust is more dangerous than having a man choke you to death.

TMZ caught up with the other Nelson:

We’re told Nelson has been getting BLOWN-UP lately — both online and over the phone. He says about 95% of calls coming in these days are from randos who think he’s the other Nelson, and just wanna talk about the case. Nelson says he’s also getting nonstop hate mail.

Be it via email or phone, Nelson tells us he’s getting a mix of unsolicited advice from would-be experts … plus, a ton of hateful voicemails too.

Speaking of those … TMZ has obtained samples of the messages being left on Nelson’s phone, and they’re ominous to say the least. People have called him a “piece of s***” and levied veiled threats against his practice … suggesting he’s running a crooked business.

Although, maybe we need to cut the defense attorney Nelson some slack too. Criticism is one thing, but threats aren’t appropriate under any situation.

Still, for Eric C. Nelson, he’s at least still able to keep some sense of humor about it, noting that he’d rather been named Thor. On the other hand, there are some high-profile screw-up Thor lawyers out there too, so he should be careful what he wishes for.

---

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.

A Supreme Court expansion proposal is officially out there. It’s not going to pass, it’s not a particularly good idea, but might proposing it be a smart tactic? Meanwhile, as we get new insights into Biglaw finances from the Am Law 100 release, we got a hefty clue into Covington & Burling’s business plan when we learned Eric Holder’s hourly rate. Is this too much to bill a client or are people overreacting? Finally, the bonus wars continue, but are counsel and income partners getting left out?

Yesterday, former Morrison & Foerster office operations manager, Andrew Robertson, pleaded guilty to felony mail fraud. Appearing via video in federal court Robertson admitted to for using a firm credit card to make $425,000 of unauthorized personal purchases.

Robertson’s job at MoFo included having a purchasing card and he was able to approve certain orders, including office supplies, renovation matters, and catering. But Roberston now says he took advantage of that and instead used firm funds to buy things for himself. Robertson’s haul reportedly included Prada jeans, watches, a 60-inch television, more than a dozen pairs of Air Jordans, an Apple laptop, a sleeper sofa from Crate & Barrel, a 24-inch gold chain necklace, a 1980s-style prom king costume, and a white-gold pinkie ring.

During the plea hearing, assistant U.S. attorney Kathryn Rakoczy detailed Robertson’s scheme, saying the defendant doctored receipts to make them look like they were for offices expenses. For example a $250 pair of Prada jeans purchase was submitted as computer monitor-related equipment.

Robertson worked at MoFo from February 2017 to November 2018, when he was fired. When the allegations first became public, the firm offered a comment:

A spokesperson for Morrison & Foerster last year told ALM that the firm terminated Robertson and told law enforcement after it “discovered his alleged stealing of firm property” during an internal audit. “Mr. Robertson’s actions did not impact any of the firm’s clients. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement on this matter,” the firm said.

Sentencing will take place on August 16th.

---

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).

Teamwork makes the dream work!

In February of 2020, Troutman Sanders announced bonuses that associates described as “a slap in the face.” Two months earlier, Pepper Hamilton enraged its associates by offering a bonus structure where “8th years are still making the same bonus as a first year at other firms with market bonuses.” But then these two maligned firms got together to create Troutman Pepper and 2021 is a whole different story.

First, some bonuses:

Those are market bonuses, folks! And there aren’t any limits based on which office associates serve in — all associates in good standing with 1950 in annualized billables (up to 100 pro bono hours) will qualify. The first payment will be in July 2021 and the second in January 2022. Associates will have the opportunity to catch up if they miss out on the first payout.

That’s great news all by itself, but, as they say, just wait, there’s more! The firm announced base salary raises across the country:

This isn’t the first firm this cycle to announce upward adjustments to salaries in less-than-marquee markets, but this is epic news considering where associates were last year. I ended my piece on last year’s bonus situation at the two firms with the line, “Hey, maybe 1+1=3!” and wouldn’t you know it, sometimes the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Full memo on the next page…

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

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

---

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.

Autonomous vehicular control is a technology still in its infancy. The kinks, as it were, are still being worked out.

* Legal tech startup Rocket Lawyer has raised $223 million to fund its expansion. This should send the company’s valuation to the moon… [Fortune]

* The St. Louis lawyer who is accused of pointing a weapon at protesters last year is considering a U.S. Senate run. [Politico]

* The Manhattan District Attorney says his office will no Longer prosecute prostitution offenses. [NPR]

* Check out this interesting article on how Courts of Appeals cite to opinions from Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg. [Juris Lab]

* Peloton may be facing a class action lawsuit related to purported defects in its treadmills. [WTAE]

* The lawyer for an New York man accused of threatening Congress argues that his client’s statements bordered on comedy. Not sure about that, but the argument itself is kind of funny… [Hill]

---

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.

Butt Injections During Court? That’s one way to multitask.

Stop Using The N-Word In Classes: Seriously, people.

The Chauvin Verdict Isn’t About Law Schools: Not that they won’t try.

Peep These Employment Stats: COVID really took its toll.

Good Biglaw News: Bonuses and raises!