Wake Up Call: DLA Grabs Faegre Drinker Team for New AI Practice

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• DLA Piper poached 10 data scientists from Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath to expand its new practice that advises clients on emerging laws addressing artificial intelligence and on their AI systems. The Faegre group is led by former CIA official Bennett Borden, a regulatory compliance adviser and litigator who joins DLA in Washington as chief data scientist. DLA’s Dallas, Texas-based partner Danny Tobey is chair of the practice. (Financial Times)
• King & Spalding posted double-digit revenues for the third straight year in 2022, getting past the $2 billion mark for the first time. (Daily Report) Big Midwest firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister’s merger last year with Detroit-based Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss drove a 32% expansion of its gross revenues to $549 million. (American Lawyer)
• The managing partner of Baker McKenzie’s Belgium office left the firm in the wake of an internal investigation into a former lawyer’s allegations that she faced discrimination while working in the office. (Roll on Friday)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Gross revenues at Boston based intellectual property firm Fish & Richardson rose 9.6% to a record $512 million, as complex IP disputes contributed to “tremendous growth” in its litigation practice in 2022. (American Lawyer) McGuireWoods’ revenue grew slower in 2022, gaining 2.5% to $977.37 million, as sagging demand for M&A work was offset by strong performance in middlemarket private equity and health care and steady demand for IP and employment litigation. (American Lawyer)
• Locke Lord’s revenues fell 2% to $500.1 million and average PEP dropped 9.7% to $1.137 million in 2022, but the firm had some “strong spots” during the year. (American Lawyer)
• Saudi Arabia granted licenses to Clifford Chance, Latham & Watkins, and Herbert Smith Freehills under new rules that let foreign law firms operate in the kingdom via joint ventures with Saudi firms. (Arab News)
• An appeals court rejected a New York plaintiffs law firm founder’s bid to force his homeowners’ insurance provider to cover litigation with his former general counsel. (Reuters)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Nelson Mullins LLP grabbed 12 lawyers, including 10 partners, from Porter Wright to open an office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group includes seven litigators and five corporate attorneys. (NelsonMullins.com)
• Greenberg Traurig added real estate litigator Charles Markle, specializing in condominium termination transactions, as a shareholder in Phoenix, Arizona. He arrives from Fennemore Craig, where he was commercial litigation director. (GTLaw.com)
• Crowell & Moring’s international government affairs and public policy affiliate, C&M International LLC, brought in attorney Kate M. Growley, a former privacy & cybersecurity partner in the law firm’s Washington office, as director and adviser in Hong Kong. (CMINTL.com)
• Gordon & Rees hired former US Hockey League finance director Haylee Culver as partner in North Dakota in its business transactions, bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors’ rights, and real estate practices. She was recently a managing attorney at Marinosci Law Group. (GRSM.com)
• Greensfelder Hemker & Gale brought back health-care attorney Christina Randolph in St. Louis as an officer. She spent 14 years at the firm earlier in her career and returns from Thompson Coburn. (Greensfelder.com)
• Management-side worklaw firm Littler Mendelson said attorney Jay Athey joined the firm as associate in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arriving from Jackson Lewis P.C. (Littler.com)

Promotions

• Sheppard Mullin promoted 10 attorneys to partner, nine in California and one in New York; Baker Botts promoted eight lawyers to special counsel. (BakerBotts.com)

Legal Education

• Louisiana State University named legal education veteran Alena Allen to take over as dean of its law center on July 17. She’ll be the first Black person to have that role. She’s a former interim dean of the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) School of Law, where she is a tenured professor. (Law.com)