Alternative Legal Services Market Tops $20 Billion

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

• The market for alternative legal services grew 45% in the two fiscal years through 2021 to reach $20.6 billion in revenues, as law firms and corporate legal departments increased their use of them, according to a new report. Independent providers at about $18 billion in revenues and the Big Four accounting firms, at $1.5 billion, still lead the market, but so-called law firm captive units are growing the fastest as a segment, the report said. (Thomson Reuters)
• Husch Blackwell’s liability insurance is covering the $62 million awards the firm recently got tagged with by an arbitration panel over its representation of an engineering firm whose bid on Kansas City, Missouri’s airport construction failed. That’s according to a report citing an internal email sent by the firm‘s leaders. (Above The Law)
• Twitter Inc.’s former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadda and deputy general counsel James Bakerboth fired by Elon Musk, are slated to testify next week to a House committee. The committee is investigating the social media platform’s handling of reports on President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. (Associated Press)
• Houston police said two people who died in a murder-suicide last week were both associates at law firms. One of them was at Chamberlain Hrdlicka. (Houston Chronicle)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• New Jersey federal courts are starting to make a headway on case backlogs that piled up during the pandemic. Some attorneys think the district still needs more judges. (New Jersey Law Journal)
• A Texas judge ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must face an ethics lawsuit by state attorney regulators over a case Paxton filed challenging results of the 2020 election. (Reuters)
• As lawyers continue to be “bombarded” by job offers, recruitment is “by far the biggest obstacle” to the growth of law firms in 2023, a report says. (Legal Futures)
• McDermott Will & Emory advised San Francisco-based digital insurance wholesale broker Pathpoint, Inc. on the $12.5 million follow-on investment it received from existing investors led by venture capital firm Caffeinated Capital. (pathpoint.com)
• Fish & Richardson named Atlanta-based intellectual property principal Corrin Drakulich global head of litigation. (FR.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Kohl’s Corp. retail chain struggling. hired in-house legal and Big Law veteran Jennie Kent, outgoing top lawyer and executive at marketing and printing company Quad/Graphics, to be its next chief legal officer and corporate secretary. She replaces Jason Kelroy who announced he’s leaving at the end of the company’s fiscal year. (legal-official-kohls.html”>Milwaukee Business Journal)
• Goodwin Procter grabbed Simpson Thacher antitrust and competition counsel John Gohen as a partner in Washington. (GoodwinLaw.com)
• Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders hired commercial real estate attorney Donna Beezhold as a partner in Atlanta. She arrives from Nelson Mullins LLP. She has particular expertise advising health care providers and national real estate developers. (Troutman.com)
• Eversheds Sutherland brought back state and local tax attorney Todd Betor as partner in New York. He spent eight years at the firm earlier in his career and returns after two years as counsel at Winston & Strawn. (Eversheds-Sutherland)
• Hinshaw & Culbertson added environmental trial lawyer Bessie Antin Daschbach, an adviser on environmental, social, and governance matters, as partner in the firm’s government practice in New Orleans. She arrived from Jones Swanson, where she was a managing member. (HinshawLaw.com)
• New York-based real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman Realty promoted in-house attorney Devi Roberts to executive vice president and general counsel. Roberts, who earlier spent a decade as a Kasowitz Benson Torres litigator, takes over from Kenneth Haber, who has had the job since 2004 and is staying on as senior managing director. (PR Newswire)

Legal Education

• The dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Amy Wildermuth, resigned abruptly. (Law.com)