The law firm Bingham McCutchen last week filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of dozens of clients, arguing that outlawing same-sex marriage is bad for business. But Bingham’s own business practices don’t necessarily reflect this view.
As the high court prepares to hear cases seeking to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, various stakeholders have lined up to file such briefs advocating that the justices overturn the law.
In Bingham’s brief, filed by partner P. Sabin Willett, the firm argues for 278 different business clients that barring same-sex couples from marrying makes it difficult for an employer to administer benefits and dampens workplace morale.
“We want to show the perspective that DOMA is bad for business,” Willett told the New York Times. Among the problems created by DOMA, say lawyers involved in the issue, is a difficulty moving employees to locations where gay marriage is prohibited.
But Bingham McCutchen is doing exactly that to its own staff. The firm is opening a new “global services center” in Lexington, Kentucky, this spring, which will house its US administrative operations—and involve some 250 employees. Bingham committed $22.5 million to the project, and asked staff from its offices in New York, Washington, Boston, and other locales to relocate to Lexington. (Bingham is based in Boston, but has approximately 175 lawyers in Washington.)
The city of Lexington is a cultural outlier in the state of Kentucky—its mayor is openly gay. However, in general, Kentucky’s laws affecting the LGBT community are dismal.
The international law firm K&L Gates took the very unusual—if not unprecedented—step of posting its complete 2012 financial information to its website this week. The firm, which operates across Asia, Europe, and the US, has more than 200 lawyers and lobbyists in its Washington office, located at the corner of 16th and K Streets, Northwest.
You can peruse K&L Gates’s full financial report here but here are some highlights:
- Total 2012 revenue was $1.06 billion, a slight drop from 2011. Of that amount, nearly $925 million was generated by the firm’s US offices.
- The firm reports having zero bank debt.
- The average equity partner took home $899,960.
- The ratio of the highest paid equity partner to the lowest paid was 7.9:1.
Peter Kalis, the chairman of K&L Gates, told the Wall Street Journal that by disclosing his firm’s financials, he hoped to boost transparency within the legal profession. Law firms are under no obligation to report their financials, since they are not publicly held companies. However, The American Lawyer magazine completes surveys of the 200 highest-earning firms each year, in which firms voluntarily disclose pieces of their financial performance, such as gross revenue and profits per partner.
Photograph courtesy of Shutterstock.
Attention inventors: If you’ve got a new creation you’ve been keeping to yourself, you should file a patent application for it now. That’s the word that Washington research universities are trying to spread to their faculty and students.
A key provision of 2011 patent reform legislation goes into effect on March 16. On that date, the US changes from a “first to invent” to a “first to file” country. Under the old rules, people who invented something first, but were beaten to filing for US patents on their inventions had the ability to argue for the record to be corrected. After March 16, inventors who find themselves in that situation will be out of luck.
The nation’s roughly 250 research universities all have offices with the sole purpose of commercializing faculty- and student-produced inventions and making them available for the public’s benefit. Claudia Stewart, vice president of Georgetown University’s Office of Technology Commercialization, e-mailed a memo to students earlier this week advising them to be mindful of the looming “first to file” change.
“If you have—or expect to have soon—a new invention, it is most prudent for you to disclose it to the Office of Technology Commercialization immediately,” she wrote. She also advised that the weeks before the deadline “may be a very busy time for the office.”
Eric Holder and Kathryn Ruemmler.
Now that the President is into his second term, turnover in his administration is bound to increase—which means that competition for Obama’s best and brightest legal talent is heating up. The following Obama lawyers are among the most desirable private-practice prizes, and Washington legal recruiters estimate that their paychecks will be sizeable.
Eric Holder, US attorney general
Experience: Partner at Covington & Burling, where he made more than $2.5 million before leaving in 2009. Served as US deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton.
Prospects: His celebrity status, high-profile government career, and proven ability in private practice make him a low-risk, high-payoff investment for firms.
Expected Price Tag: Up to $5 million
Robert Khuzami, Enforcement director, SEC
Experience: Federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District, where he pursued financial crimes. Before joining the SEC, he was a general counsel at Deutsche Bank.
Prospects: As the nation’s chief investigator of Wall Street wrongdoing, Khuzami—who left the SEC in January—gained insider perspective that financial clients will pay top dollar for.
Expected Price Tag: Up to $5 million
Meredith Cross, Corporation Finance director, SEC
Experience: Was chief counsel and deputy director of the Corporation Finance Division before joining WilmerHale as a securities partner in 1998.
Prospects: Cross, who left the SEC in December, had a leading role in rebuilding the agency post-Wall Street meltdown. Securities clients will clamor for her counsel.
Expected Price Tag: $2 million to $3 million
Lanny Breuer, Assistant US attorney general, Criminal Division
Experience: Partner at Covington & Burling, where he made more than $2.4 million before leaving in 2009. As special counsel to the President, he defended Bill Clinton during his Senate impeachment trial.
Prospects: The preeminent litigator oversees Justice’s 600 criminal prosecutors. Any white-collar defense practice would be lucky to have him.
Expected Price Tag: Up to $5 million
Donald Verrilli, US solicitor general
Experience: Cochair of the Supreme Court practice at Jenner & Block before joining the administration in 2009. Prior to becoming SG, he was associate deputy attorney general.
Prospects: Few government lawyers are as hotly pursued as the solicitor general. But Supreme Court practices aren’t typically moneymakers—a reason recruiters vary in their estimates for Verrilli.
Expected Price Tag: $2 million to $5 million
Kathryn Ruemmler, White House counsel
Experience: Most recently a partner at Latham & Watkins. Served in the Clinton White House and was a member of the Enron Task Force.
Prospects: Ruemmler, just 42, doesn’t have the profile of her recent predecessors. But her prestigious government and private practice experience make her an asset.
Expected Price Tag: $1.5 million to $2.5 million
This article appears in the February 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
One of Washington’s largest, most prestigious law firms is getting sued for $5 million in DC Superior Court for gender discrimination. Pamela Levinson, a lawyer at WilmerHale until last February, claims in her complaint that she was fired while on leave to care for her newly adopted daughter, and was denied salary increases and bonuses that she had earned.
Levinson, 53, alleges that the firm terminated her because of her gender, age, and family responsibilities. Levinson adopted a 22-month-old from China in 2011 and took four and a half months of paid leave. She went to law school later than most, and joined WilmerHale in 2004 as a 45-year-old fourth-year associate. Typically, fourth-year associates are in their late twenties or early thirties.
Levinson’s complaint cites positive performance reviews from her superiors as evidence that she was wrongfully fired. She names partner Randolph Moss, the chair of WilmerHale’s regulatory and government affairs department and one of its most prominent lawyers, as her mentor. She says that in a 2008 performance review, Moss said she made “invaluable contributions,” demonstrated “strong interpersonal skills,” and had “well-organized, clear, and concise” work. Levinson says that in 2010, four of five partners who evaluated her work recommended her for a promotion, yet she was informed that her future at the firm was “not promising.” In February 2012, while still on adoption leave, she says she was told the firm expected her to find another job .
For more than a year, the media news and gossip website FishbowlDC made Washington publicist Wendy Gordon the subject of a weekly feature called “Wendy Wednesday.” This included posting a photo of her, often taken from her Facebook page, and making up a story about what she was doing in the picture. A little strange? Definitely. Harmless fun? Maybe not.
Gordon has had enough. She filed a defamation lawsuit last week in DC Superior Court seeking $2 million in damages. Fishbowl’s made-up stories about her often involved a sexual theme, describing her as provactively dressed and promiscuous. In her lawsuit, Gordon says “Wendy Wednesday” has caused her emotional distress, embarrassment, and mental anguish. She claims that the postings have caused “substantial injury” to her business interests and reputation.
In one example, cited in Gordon’s legal complaint, the website commented that “the sultry look on her face says it all. Wendy is DTF [“Down to F**k].” The same post also implied that Gordon could have an STD, according to her lawsuit.
Another gem quoted in the complaint: “This week we have found the scariest Wendy picture to date. It’s a shot of Wendy wishing she was working the waxy wang of one time Washington mayor, Hizzoner Marion Barry.”
You know what? If someone wrote things like that about us on the Internet, we’d call a lawyer, too. But does Gordon have a strong case against FishbowlDC and editor Betsy Rothstein and writer Peter Ogburn, both of whom are named in the lawsuit?
We talked to Michael Rothberg, a partner at Dow Lohnes, who specializes in representing newspapers, magazines, online ventures, TV stations, and other media outlets. He is not involved in this particular matter, and stresses that with his limited knowledge of the case, he can’t make a definite judgment about its merits. But he did help us dissect the key legal questions involved.
You can add filling 33 federal judgeships to the list of
things the historically terrible
112th Congress failed to accomplish.
President Obama today renominated his picks for the positions, some of whom have been languishing without confirmation for more than six months, in the hopes that the 113th Congress will finally get the job done. In a statement, Obama said his nominees have been left waiting “even though they all enjoy bipartisan support.”
Among the most powerful available jobs are the vacancies on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. This is the court where Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas presided before they joined the high court.
The President’s picks for the open spots are Caitlin Halligan and Sri Srinivasan.
Halligan is the general counsel of the New York County District Attorney’s Office. She also teaches at Columbia Law and was previously head of the appellate practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
Srinivasan is one of the most highly regarded appellate lawyers in Washington. He currently serves as the principal deputy solicitor general of the United States. He was previously a partner at O’Melveny & Myers.
Eric Bernthal is focused on helping stray dogs and producing a movie about street gangs, race relations, and riverboat gambling in Shreveport, Louisiana. He’s not some idealistic college kid out to change the world—until last week, he was a top partner at mega law firm Latham & Watkins.
Bernthal, who served as the firm’s DC managing partner from 2000 to 2011, retired Friday after 40 years as a lawyer. He worked for 26 of them at Latham, where he built a thriving telecommunications practice. He could spend the rest of his days ambling around his four acres in Potomac, but there’s too much he wants to accomplish in the coming months and years.
Bernthal has been active in the Humane Society of the United States for the past five years, and became chairman of its board in March. He now plans to devote even more time to the organization, and the dog lover has a big goal for 2013—to launch an initiative that will curb the huge stray dog populations that roam the streets of the world’s poorest cities.
Paul Clement is the GOP’s unofficial super lawyer. Solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration and currently a partner at the DC law firm Bancroft, he has recently argued some of the biggest pieces of the Republican agenda. The trouble is, he can’t seem to win.
His losses certainly aren’t due to a lack of skill. Clement’s peers across the political spectrum consider him one of the nation’s most talented appellate advocates. When he argued against President Obama’s health-care reform law at the Supreme Court earlier this year, the chattering class largely agreed he had wiped the floor of One First Street with his opponent, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. But in spite of Clement’s seemingly flawless delivery, the justices upheld Obamacare.
He also argued in favor of Arizona’s controversial immigration law at the high court last term. Though the justices upheld the most contentious piece of the law, which allows police to check people’s immigration status, they struck down other key parts of the statute.
The Supreme Court’s new term began today, and in the coming months, the justices will likely weigh decisions on such contentious issues as same-sex marriage and affirmative action. But they couldn’t handle the workload without their clerks—the usually young lawyers who help them write opinions and select which cases the court will hear.
Landing a Supreme Court clerkship has never been more valuable. Only 39 attorneys get the honor every year—the nine sitting justices hire four clerks each, and retired justices Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter, and John Paul Stevens hire one each. The budding legal stars gain unparalleled experience and exclusive knowledge. Last term’s clerks, for example, knew the outcome of the landmark challenge to health-care reform well in advance of the public.
Once they’ve completed their year at One First Street, the clerks have rare insight into the secretive world of the justices—and Washington’s top firms compete fiercely to recruit them. The astronomical signing bonuses that await the current term’s clerks will make this group the richest on record.
