“PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging age discrimination in hiring by paying out $11.625 million, an amount that is not even a blip on the radar screen of a firm that reports annual revenues in excess of $41 billion,” reports Patricia Barnes in Forbes’ Leadership.

“Moreover, PwC seems somewhat tentative with respect to its commitment to change the hiring practices the plaintiffs have argued since 2016 were grossly discriminatory to older workers.”

“Both sides released a carefully worded press release earlier this month stating that PwC has agreed ‘to enhance certain of its recruiting procedures geared toward further attracting qualified older applicants for entry level jobs.’”

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“In an important lesson for both employers and employees a California superior court judge affirmed a $179 million arbitration award against a former Uber executive, Anthony Levandowski, for stealing Google’s trade secret information and soliciting its employees to benefit Uber. See Google LLC v. Levandowski et al., Case No. CPF-20-516982. Levandowski, who also faces criminal charges from the U.S. Attorney’s office for theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, filed for bankruptcy following the judge’s order,” reports Aaron Goldstein and Jasmine Hui in Dorsey’s Publications.

“The court’s ruling underscores the importance of well-crafted confidentiality, non-compete, and non-solicit agreements. Over the course of Levandowski’s employment with Google, he signed at least four separate agreements which included either non-compete, non-solicit, confidentiality, and nondisclosure provisions, or a combination thereof. The panel of arbitrators in the underlying case held, among other things, that Levandowski breached these employment contracts with Google by misusing Google’s confidential information and attempting to solicit Google employees.”

“Google hired Levandowski in 2007, where he co-founded the company’s autonomous vehicle project, which later became Waymo, LLC. In 2015, Levandowski left Google and formed a new self-driving company, Ottomotto, Inc. In 2016, Uber acquired Ottomotto, Inc. and hired Levandowski to head its autonomous vehicle department. Shortly thereafter, Google filed two arbitration demands against Levandowski and another former Google employee who moved to Uber.”

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“Cascade County has hired a private law firm to assist the Cascade County Attorney’s Office, which is experiencing a significant number of attorney vacancies with two major civil cases pending,” reports Kari Puckett in Great Falls Tribune.

“At a special meeting Friday, commissioners approved a legal service agreement with Ugrin, Alexander and Zadick in which attorneys for the firm will serve as independent contractors to provide legal representation to the county.”

“Costs for the initial six-month term is $7,500 a month for a total of $45,000.”

There are three vacancies in the office.

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“If you’re an Ohio in-house attorney and you value your freedom to make career moves, then you’re in luck. On Feb. 7, the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct issued an opinion letter stating that in-house counsel cannot be bound by non-compete agreements.” reports Douglas M. Oldham in The National Law Review.

“Ohio Rule of Professional Conduct 5.6(a) states that a lawyer may not participate in an “agreement that restricts the right of a lawyer to practice after termination of the relationship, except an agreement concerning benefits upon retirement.” There is a strong public policy allowing parties to be represented by the counsel of their choice, and any agreement that restricts an attorney’s ability to practice would undermine that public policy.”

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“Have you ever considered the possibility that you might be the next person your contract attorney sues?” asks in Vinson & Elkins’ Insights.

“As frightening as that sounds, that’s exactly what happened in the bizarre dispute leading up to a recent Fifth Circuit  decision, Faludi v. U.S. Shale Solutions, L.L.C. There the plaintiff was an unlicensed attorney who contracted with the defendant to be a legal consultant. The defendant paid him on a day rate basis, required him to sign a non-compete, and treated him as an independent contractor. Once the plaintiff left the company, he immediately filed a Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) lawsuit where he claimed that he had actually been an employee who was misclassified as exempt and was entitled to unpaid overtime wages.”

“Fortunately for the defendant, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the plaintiff had been properly classified as an independent contractor. Fortunately for us, the case demonstrates several lessons about certain business practices and FLSA compliance.”

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“Stephanie Apostolou has been elected general counsel and secretary of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Koppers and Koppers Holdings, effective March 1,” report Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Apostolou is at present deputy general counsel and assistant secretary with the NYSE-listed company, which is a global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals and carbon compounds.”

“Her promotion follows the announcement that Steven Lacy, chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary of Koppers will retire at the end of this year after a 20-year career with the company. In the period between March 1 and December 31, Lacy will hold a new position as assistant to the president of Koppers.”

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“Jones Day has hired five Supreme Court clerks from the October 2018 term, continuing its recent tradition of recruiting top talent from the nation’s highest court,” reports Roy Strom in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“For nearly a decade, the Cleveland-founded firm has been a leader in the prestigious competition to land young lawyers with a Supreme Court pedigree. Last year, Jones Day hired nearly a third of all the clerks, 11, from the 2018 term. Jones Day has now hired 55 Supreme Court clerks since the 2011 October term. It’s 2019 class includes clerks for Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

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“It was major legal industry news last April when international business and legal services powerhouse EY entered into an agreement with Thomson Reuters to acquire Pangea3, the legal managed services business.” reports Robert J. Ambrogi in LawSite’s blog.

“Now, 10 months later, EY has laid off at least some of the U.S.-based lawyers who came with the deal.”

“While precise details remain uncertain, reports indicate that EY has let go some 20-30 lawyers who work for it in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota and the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.”

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“Coinbase Inc., a San Francisco-based digital currency exchange specializing in bitcoin transactions, has gone on an in-house hiring spree a little more than a year after recruiting former Fannie Mae general counsel Brian Brooks to serve as its chief legal officer.” reports Brian Baxter on Bloomberg Law’s Corporate Law News.

“Within the last three months Coinbase has brought on three more top in-house lawyers. One of those additions, former JPMorgan Chase & Co. assistant general counsel Rachel Nelson, was named in January to co-chair a new market integrity working group for the Blockchain Association, a trade association for the U.S. blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.”

“The additions by Coinbase come at the same time as a series of departures from Circle Internet Financial Ltd., a Boston-based blockchain payments company backed by The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Several in-house lawyers have left Circle since last summer amid a series of layoffs and divestitures by the company as it reshapes its business around stablecoins.”

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Irell & Manella “announced to all attorneys that the firm was pursuing an ‘alternative business model.’ According to the email sent by partner Jonathan Kagan, they are ‘focus[ing] on areas where we have a clearly demonstrated record of success and excellence when compared to other firms.’” reports Kathryn Runbino in Above the Law’s BigLaw.

An email was sent to explain what this means. “We therefore plan to focus our future growth and investments in our litigation practice areas, particularly IP and complex business litigation. Although we will continue to have lawyers in other practice areas at the Firm (particularly in certain transactional areas), we do not anticipate making significant investments in non-core practice areas in the near future.”

Read the article.

Read the ABA Journal’s article.

“Latham & Watkins is a January bonus player who understands the pain of waiting while your peers at other firms celebrate holiday bonuses. So again this year, Latham is offering a sliding scale of bonuses that top the market base for most associates.” reports Joe Patrice in the Above The Law Biglaw.

According to a Latham memo providing the median and top bonuses by class year there was a bump for the big revenue firm. Bonus payments kicked in at a 1900-hour minimum.

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Suzie Scanlon Rabinowitz writes in the ABA Journal that “Both the perception of and reality for women attorneys is disheartening. According to the National Association for Law Placement, women accounted for 20% of equity law firm partners in 2018. That’s while women have constituted about half of law school graduates for the past 20 years, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on advancing women’s professional progress. By many other key metrics, the law is still male-dominated, especially at its highest levels.”

“In a profession where cultural change happens at a creeping pace, how can we change the perception—and the reality—that success for women at the upper echelons is the exception, rather than the rule? Just as important, how can we elevate the practice of law by fostering diversity in the profession?”

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“Teenagers aren’t being imaginative enough with their ambitions as they aspire to a short list of 20th-century occupations in their future careers, according to the OECD.” reports Carolynn Look in Bloomberg.

“Huge changes in the world of work — driven by developments in technology and social media — are having too little impact on the job expectations of young people, according to a report presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos by the Paris-based organization.”

“The report cited a survey of 15-year-olds showing that career ambitions narrowed in the last two decades. Roughly half of boys and girls from 41 countries said they expect to work in one of just 10 jobs by the age of 30. Such roles originate overwhelmingly from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as doctors, teachers, veterinarians, business managers, engineers, police officers, and lawyers.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

The 2020 Lateral Partner Satisfaction Survey, released by legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, reveals that the top reason for law firm partners to make lateral moves is lack of confidence in firm management and strategy.

“The next most-often cited reasons were a lack of support to build their practice (about 35%), dislike of their firm’s culture (about 31%) and compensation (about 31%). The lawyers were allowed to choose more than one factor,” reports the  ABA Journal.

The survey also shows that many partners are making life-changing decisions with very little due diligence.

Read the survey.

Read the  ABA Journal‘s report.

Above the Law reports that Reed Smith has announced a global Mental Health Task Force to help Reed Smith’s team address mental health issues as they arise.

Partner Kimberly Gold, inaugural chair of the task force, describes the firm’s plan:

“The mission of this task force is to ensure that our lawyers and professional staff have access to help whenever they or their family members experience or are at risk of experiencing mental health or substance use issues. We will also challenge the well-documented stigma surrounding these issues and cultivate a workplace culture that promotes psychological wellness and positive help-seeking behaviors.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Bloomberg Law takes a look at the hundreds of Kirkland & Ellis hard-working, non-share partners who live in a sort of limbo—a solid step above associate status, but still well-short of achieving the coveted position of equity partner, where they are able to share in the firm’s largesse.

Bloomberg’s Roy Strom explains:

“It’s an exchange that helps fuel the bottom line at one of the world’s richest law firms: Kirkland gets non-share partners’ blood, sweat, and tears, and billable hours. And in return, non-share partners bank on the experience and contacts gained at Kirkland in hopes that despite the significant blow of not getting coveted Kirkland shares, they can land well elsewhere.”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

“Clauses in employment contracts may appear benign when a contract is signed, but then later balloon into serious problems.” warns Devin R. Bates and Lauren Grinder in Mitchell Williams’ Between the Lines.

This article addresses several commonly litigated issues. They caution that “There is no one-size-fits-all solution for employment contracting, but it would be wise to heed the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Read the article.

The former general counsel of Faraday & Future Inc. sued the company for $106 million Jan. 3, according to a Bloomberg Law article.

Hong Liu, a China expert, claimed in Manhattan federal court that the electric car startup lured him away from a Mayer Brown LLP partnership by fraudulently overstating its prospects.

He alleges top executives made false claims about a pending $2 billion investment to persuade him to abandon his lucrative practice and move his family from New York to California. The investment didn’t materialize, and Liu alleges he was fired after less than a year without receiving the compensation he’d been promised: $6 million in cash and 20 million shares—valued at $100 million—in Faraday affiliate Smart King Ltd.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Careful drafting of employment arbitration agreements due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision affecting an employer’s ability to enforce such agreements is critical, warn Art Silbergel and Kacey Riccomini in a post on Thompson Coburn’s website.

The publication states “In the interim, employers and their counsel need to carefully consider options in drafting arbitration agreements that address the new law that may help in compelling a court complainant to arbitrate the claims. Anyone creating, revising or reviewing agreements to arbitrate employment disputes should consider” their 23 tips.

Read the article.