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3. 59 partners leave A&O Shearman outside Asia…

Layoffs

59 partners leave A&O Shearman outside Asia since decision to trim 10% of equity partnership

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 28, 2025, 3:19 pm CDT

Twenty-five U.S. partners are among the 59 partners who left A&O Shearman since its decision last year to trim 10% of its global equity partnership, according to a count by Law.com.

The count does not include 15 partners who left A&O Shearman in Asia, as previously reported by Law.com. Butit does include partners who left in the United States, London, Europe, Africa and Australia.

A&O Shearman said last year the partner cuts were “a difficult but necessary step forward” following the merger between Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. About 45 partners who left joined other law firms.

A&O Shearman said it currently has around 800 partners worldwide, which is about the same number that it had when it announced the cuts. It is unclear why the current number isn’t lower, according to Law.com.

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3. Firm failed to honor exit package after retaliating…

Law Firms

Firm failed to honor exit package after retaliating for bias complaint, former BigLaw partner alleges

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 29, 2025, 10:53 am CDT

A former salaried partner at Womble Bond Dickinson has filed a lawsuit alleging that the law firm cut her pay by half and offered her an exit package—which it didn’t honor—after she complained about a hostile work environment.

The April 25 suit filed by Wilka Toppins alleges race and gender discrimination, retaliation, misrepresentation and breach of contract.

Law360 has a story on the suit, filed in Harris County, Texas.

Toppins, who is Hispanic, said she accomplished “a great deal of origination and a large book of business” after she began work at the firm’s Houston office in November 2021, despite receiving inadequate support.

For a majority of her time at the firm, Toppins “had no associate help and no secretarial help,” the suit said. She was also subjected to a “very hostile work environment” by firm members and support staff in her corporate and securities practice group, according to the suit.

“The disparity in treatment included not providing sufficient support, attempting to take away plaintiff’s immigration clients and business, speaking to plaintiff in a derogatory and condescending manner, and failing to fulfill basic promises to her,” the suit said.

Toppins was the only Hispanic female in the entire firm at the time of her hiring, according to the suit.

After Toppins complained, the firm said it would investigate. Eventually, Toppins was told that the firm found that she was subjected to a hostile work environment, but it was not because she was a member of a protected class.

A pattern of retaliation followed, the suit said. Toppins’ pay was cut from $350,000 to $175,000, and she was told that if she did not like the new salary, the firm would be happy to “transition her off,” according to the suit.

After Toppins sought restoration of her pay, Womble Bond Dickinson offered her an exit package consisting of a 10% referral agreement, a contract position for immigration work and a severance agreement. Relying on the agreement, Toppins resigned in January 2024.

The firm then failed to honor the agreement under the exit package, the suit said.

A spokesperson for Womble Bond Dickinson did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s request for comment made in an email and a voicemail.

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3. Former Thompson Hine partner won’t have…

Law Firms

Former Thompson Hine partner won’t have to arbitrate surviving sex bias claims, federal judge rules

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 7, 2025, 9:28 am CDT

A federal judge in New York City has refused to dismiss several claims against Thompson Hine in a lawsuit brought by a fired income partner, who alleged that the law firm’s New York office was run “like a toxic boys club locker room.”

In a March 31 opinion, U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. on the Southern District of New York allowed lawyer Rebecca Brazzano’s claims for a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, sex discrimination, retaliation, and aiding and abetting violations of anti-discrimination laws. Some of the claims were brought under New York state law and New York City law, and some were brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The tossed claims included defamation, abuse of process, retaliation based on a response to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. As a result of the dismissals, Ohio partner Thomas Feher, accused of involvement in the EEOC response, is no longer a defendant.

Law360 and Law.com covered the decision.

Carter said the firm could not compel arbitration because the firm’s arbitration clause was invalidated under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The law applied because Brazzano was fired in April 2022, a month after the law took effect.

The suit had alleged that partner Richard De Palma perpetuated an “old boys’ network” and “horded” incoming work or sent it to male equity partners. He was the New York litigation vice chair at the time of the alleged events; he is now the chair of international arbitration, according to Law.com.

A Thompson Hine spokesperson commented in an email to Law.com.

“We are gratified that the court has agreed with us and taken the first step of dismissing many of Ms. Brazzano’s claims on their face,” the statement said. “We will continue the process of demonstrating, through evidence, that there is no basis for the remainder of Ms. Brazzano’s outlandish allegations, in whichever forum the courts ultimately determine is appropriate.”

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3. 2 Irell & Manella lawyers should be sanctioned…

Ethics

2 Irell & Manella lawyers should be sanctioned after witness ‘was tricked’ with altered document, special master says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 20, 2025, 3:02 pm CDT

An Irell & Manella associate who decided to alter a date on a schematic drawing to prove a point during a deposition should be sanctioned, along with a partner who missed an email revealing the plan, a special master has recommended.

The associate, Benjamin Manzin-Monnin, came up with the idea to show that such dates can be unreliable, according to the March 18 opinion by special master David Folsom. Manzin-Monnin questioned a witness about the document before revealing that it had been altered.

Law360 has the story.

Folsom noted that all lawyers from Irell & Manella attend in-house ethics seminars. Folson said Manzin-Monnin should be required to attend 30 additional hours of ethics courses, along with the partner he notified in an email chain, Jason Sheasby.

Folsom also recommended that Irell & Manella pay fees and costs incurred by the special master and defendant Samsung Electronics in connection with the sanctions motion. And he said Irell & Manella’s client, CogniPower, should lose an hour of trial time in its patent infringement case, filed against Samsung Electronics in federal court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The deposition witness was an executive at a company that, according to Samsung Electronics, had an invention that predates CogniPower’s patents, Law360 explains.

A law firm employee had advised Manzin-Monnin in September 2024 to “get clear directions” from a senior attorney regarding the “mocked up dates on evidence floating around.” Manzin-Monnin replied that he had emailed “Jason,” an apparent reference to Sheasby.

But Sheasby said he “missed” the email from Manzin-Monnin while acknowledging that it was his responsibility to read it.

In a declaration, Sheasby said during the deposition, Manzin-Monnin had shown the expert witness “the correct document, then later the altered version, and then immediately the correct and altered side by side, and then told the witness he altered on[e] of the documents.”

The witness “was tricked” and “obviously confused” by questions about the altered date, Folsom said in the opinion. The fact that Manzin-Monnin did not mark the altered document as an exhibit during the deposition “is immaterial,” Folsom said.

Sheasby said in the declaration Manzin-Monnin has been subject to “professional strictures” as a result of his behavior. In addition, the firm’s general counsel had scheduled a mandatory March 19 ethics seminar for all the firm’s attorneys to address the events and to “ensure that nothing of this nature happens again.”

Neither Manzin-Monnin nor Sheasby immediately responded to the ABA Journal’s email request for comment. Nor did a firm spokesperson immediately reply to a Journal email.

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3. Lateral hiring bounced back in 2024, especially…

Careers

Lateral hiring bounced back in 2024, especially for associates in BigLaw, new NALP report says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 26, 2025, 3:49 pm CDT

Lateral hiring of law firm associates increased nearly 25% in 2024, far outpacing a much smaller increase of about 2% in lateral hiring of partners, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association for Law Placement.

Overall, lateral hiring in firms increased nearly 14%, according to a March 26 press release and a report in the April NALP Bulletin.

The increase was highest in firms with more than 1,000 lawyers, which had an overall 21% increase in lateral hiring and a 41% in lateral associate hiring.

The increase follows two down years “characterized by a retreat of BigLaw firms from the marketplace, which created an opportunity for savvy small firms to pick up some top-notch talent,” said Nikia Gray, executive director of the NALP, in the press release. “In 2024, the lateral market began to stabilize, and with that, we saw the BigLaw firms reentering the fray, largely driving the smaller firms out of the market.”

Lateral hiring increased 110.9% in 2021, decreased 11.5% in 2022, decreased 35% in 2023 and increased 13.9% in 2024.

The average number of lateral hires per office or firm was 16 in 2021, 15.9 in 2022, 9.3 in 2023 and 9.9 in 2024. The lowest average in the last 25 years was was 5.1 lateral hires per office or firm in 2009.

The report is based on a survey of 434 law offices that supplied hiring information on 4,295 lateral lawyers. Most of the respondents were from midsize and larger firms. Only 11% of the survey respondents came from firms of 250 or fewer lawyers.

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3. Former Duane Morris partner arrested on outstanding…

Criminal Justice

Former Duane Morris partner arrested on outstanding warrant related to Michigan assault case

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 10, 2025, 3:16 pm CDT

Updated: A former Duane Morris partner was arrested on an outstanding Michigan warrant at his condo in Chicago’s South Loop on Friday, the same building where his wife’s body was found in a stairwell in October 2024.

Adam Beckerink, 46, was ordered extradited to Michigan at a court hearing Monday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The warrant was based on charges of domestic abuse and assaulting police officers arising from incidents at the home in Berrien County, Michigan, where Beckerink’s wife, 36-year-old Caitlin Tracey, lived before her death, WGN-TV reports.

Initial media reports said the warrant was issued after Beckerink did not show up for a pretrial hearing in the Michigan case in October 2024. He also missed his trial that was set to happen days later, the reports said.

But Chicago police said the warrant was for alleged violation of pretrial conditions in the Michigan case, without providing further information, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Beckerink has not been charged in Tracey’s death. But in the extradition hearing Monday, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Danny Hanichak referred to Beckerink as a suspect, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Beckerink’s lawyer, Jonathan Brayman, said Monday and at a court hearing Saturday the warrant was not valid, according to the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Brayman said Monday that his client had attended all his hearings and had not violated any conditions of pretrial release, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Beckerink “is the absolute opposite of a fugitive from justice,” Brayman said on Monday, pointing out that Beckerink was arrested at home.

Beckerink was ousted from Duane Morris after the law firm became aware of domestic violence allegations against him made in court proceedings, including allegations made by his wife when she obtained an order of protection against Beckerink in 2023.

See also:

Duane Morris partner ousted after wife found dead in stairwell and her parents allege domestic violence

Judge denies bid by former Duane Morris partner to stop his wife’s funeral

Updated March 11 at 8:02 a.m. to add lawyer Jonathan Brayman’s assertion that former Duane Morris partner Adam Beckerink had attended all court hearings in Michigan.

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3. Former law firm partner censured over sex…

Ethics

Former law firm partner censured over sex with associate and legal assistant, stay-quiet offers

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 26, 2025, 8:55 am CST

A former partner at a Boise, Idaho, law firm has been publicly censured after he allegedly tried to entice an associate and a legal assistant to keep quiet about an incident in which he had sexual relations with them at the office.

The Idaho Supreme Court publicly censured Boise lawyer W. Dustin Charters in a Feb. 6 order, the Idaho Statesman recently reported.

The enticements involved money and a lightened workload, according to the public censure.

Charters was a mentor for the associate and supervised her work. She had joined the firm in August 2023, the month before the sexual incident, according to the censure order. The associate was 26 years old, and Charters was 37 years old, according to allegations cited by the Idaho Statesman.

Afterward, the order said, Charters offered compensation to both women if they did not report his conduct. He also offered to complete work for the associate that she could bill as her time and suggested that she falsely bill his completed work on a case as client development, according to the order.

Both women turned down the offers, and the associate did not falsely bill her time. They reported Charters’ conduct to the firm Sept. 26, 2023, three days after the incident, according to the allegations. Charters was fired two days later.

A stipulation in the case said Charters had no previous discipline and had acknowledged his misconduct, according to the Idaho Statesman. The stipulation also said he had received counseling and agreed to perform 100 hours of community service.

Charters did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s request for comment made in an email and a voicemail.

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3. Former practice chair allegedly overbilled…

Ethics

Former practice chair allegedly overbilled clients by over $3.5M at 2 BigLaw firms, ethics complaint says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 26, 2025, 12:13 pm CST

A former partner in the Chicago offices of two large international law firms is facing an ethics complaint alleging that he falsified billing records and caused clients to be overbilled by more than $3.5 million over a period of 20 years.

William Michael Doyle Jr. is accused in a Feb. 19 ethics complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the Legal Profession Blog reports.

The ethics complaint does not name the firms. But an online press release from 2022 said Doyle was the trusts and estates practice chair at Winston & Strawn before he joined Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder in August 2022.

“Doyle is a renowned tax and estate-planning expert with more than four decades of experience representing many of the wealthiest families in the United States and around the world,” the press release said.

While working at both firms, Doyle directed other lawyers and staff members to perform tasks for clients and reviewed their time-keeping records. Doyle was supposed to review the records and approve them for submission to the accounting department, which then billed clients.

The ethics complaint alleges that Doyle caused clients to be overbilled for the work that he oversaw and performed by recording time for services not provided, by inflating the hours worked, by billing for time spent on other clients, and by recording time that should have been written off.

The ethics complaint alleges that Doyle caused Winston & Strawn clients to be overbilled by $2,529,378 over 18 years. He is accused of causing Greenberg Traurig’s clients to be overbilled by $973,910 over a period of less than two years.

After learning of the time misrepresentations, both firms reviewed client invoices and offered to refund the amounts based on false information.

“Some, but not all, of the clients agreed to accept the refunds offered by the firms,” the ethics complaint says.

When reached by phone, Doyle said he could not comment without first speaking with his lawyer.

A Greenberg Traurig spokesperson gave this statement to the ABA Journal: “Mr. Doyle was with our firm for less than two years. As soon as we became aware of questionable billing practices, we investigated, and within weeks, took corrective actions, including notifying the Illinois bar [the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission], fully cooperating with the ARDC and offering a full refund of amounts that appeared to have been questionably billed to impacted clients. By the conclusion of our investigation, Mr. Doyle was no longer associated with our firm.”

A Winston & Strawn spokesperson gave this statement to the ABA Journal: “Bill Doyle left Winston & Strawn in August 2022 and has not been associated with our firm since that time. We are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards and have zero tolerance for any actions that compromise our integrity or the trust our clients place in us. The complaint does not name Winston or cite any misconduct by the firm but instead alleges that Mr. Doyle made misrepresentations to the firm’s billing department that resulted in the improper invoices. Since learning of this matter, we have conducted a thorough investigation and taken appropriate measures to address any harm to our clients.”

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3. This law firm bills as much as $3,000 per…

Law Firms

This law firm bills as much as $3,000 per hour

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 26, 2025, 1:46 pm CST

Some partners at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan bill as much as $3,000 per hour, according to court filings cited by Reuters.

The law firm bills between $1,860 and $3,000 per hour for partners, between $1,775 and $2,725 per hour for counsel, and between $1,035 and $1,665 per hour for associates, Reuters reports.

“Quinn Emanuel’s $3,000 top rate marks a milestone for leading U.S. law firms as lawyers’ hourly fees continue to soar,” the article reports. “Law firms routinely raise their rates each year, and top rates at some of the largest U.S. firms have pushed past $2,500 an hour or higher in recent years, court records show.”

The court filings did not indicate which partners are billing $3,000 per hour, but unnamed sources told Reuters that the lawyers are Alex Spiro, who has represented billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and William Burck, the firm’s global co-managing partner.

A Quinn Emanuel spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

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3. Co-founder of defunct firm LeClairRyan may…

Law Firms

Co-founder of defunct firm LeClairRyan may be able to avoid tax liability after 4th Circuit decision on his exit

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 12, 2025, 10:44 am CST

The co-founder and former CEO of the defunct law firm LeClairRyan may be able to avoid tax liability in connection with the firm’s collapse because of a ruling Friday by a federal appeals court.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, ruled for former partner Gary LeClair in a Feb. 7 opinion, Law360 reports.

The Legal Profession Blog published highlights.

The 4th Circuit ruled that LeClairRyan’s operating agreement didn’t bar LeClair from withdrawing as a partner after a vote to dissolve in July 2019. Bankruptcy and federal courts had reached the opposite conclusion, which made LeClair liable for some tax obligations because he was considered a partner on the day that the firm filed for bankruptcy in September 2019.

The firm had included LeClair on a list of equity holders filed with the bankruptcy court. LeClair wanted to amend the list to remove his name.

The 4th Circuit remanded for a determination.

“We leave it to the bankruptcy court on remand to determine whether any equitable considerations warrant denial of the motion to amend despite LeClair’s correct interpretation of the operating agreement,” the appeals court said.

See also:

Too big too soon: How LeClairRyan went under

LeClairRyan bankruptcy trustee targets firm co-founder, compares firm to movie ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’

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