Baker McKenzie Stays Atop US Headcount Rankings -

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

US law firms continued to expand their headcount overall in 2022, especially for associates and nonequity partners, despite slumping demand. Baker McKenzie was the top US law firm by headcount for the year, although its count shrank 0.3% to 4,779 full-time attorneys. DLA Piper, up 5.6% to 4,255, and Kirkland & Ellis, up 12.9% to 3,415, made up the rest of the top three. (National Law Journal)
San Francisco-based corporate immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden for the fifth-straight year topped the National Law Journal’s Women in Law Scorecard which ranks Big Law firms based on their percentages of women attorneys. (National Law Journal)
Washington US Attorney Nick Brown announced his resignation and is reportedly returning to Pacifica Law Group, where he previously was a partner. He’s expected to run for Washington state attorney general. (Seattle Times) (Justice.gov)

Lawyers, Law Firms

Hunter Biden’s deal to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax and gun charges yesterday elicited sadness and relief from President Joe Biden’s closest advisers. (Politico) Former President Donald Trump appointed the Delaware US Attorney who offered Hunter Biden the plea deal. (Newsweek)
When now-impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was promoting a program he touted as a way to fight opioid abuse, he partnered with a businessman who had twice pleaded guilty to felony theft. (Texas Tribune)
Goodwin Procter brought in longtime AmEx financial veteran Christina Wong in New York as its new chief financial officer. She was recently at Ankura Consulting Group, a global consulting company, where she was CFO. Goodwin’s previous CFO, Jon Kanter, left to take the same role at Public Consulting Group in January 2022. (GoodwinLaw.com)
Singapore Sovereign wealth fund GIC is making more deals in the US to offset a slowdown in China. (Financial Times)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

Holland & Knight picked up finance partners Hamid Namazie, Yoojin Lee, and Mark Spitzer to expand its financial services and asset-based lending teams in Los Angeles. They join from McGuireWoods, where Namazie was managing partner of the downtown LA office. (HKLaw.com)
Greenberg Traurig hired four labor and employment attorneys in Denver. Joining as shareholders from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck are Hannah Caplan and Martine Tariot Wells, while Julie Mitarotondo joins as associate. Rebecca Hudson joins as shareholder after close to 22 years at Holland & Hart. (GTLaw.com)
Texas firm Jackson Walker LLP started a public finance practice group by recruiting a four-partner team in Houston from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. The group is led by partner Rick Witte and includes partners Todd Brewer, who was Texas public finance vice chair at Orrick, Tanya Fischer, and Hoang Vu. Tax partner Russell Miller arrives from Hawkins Delafield & Wood. (JW.com)
Fox Rothschild added commercial litigator Thomas O’Connor as partner in New York. He arrives from Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan. (FoxRothschild.com)
Chicago-based Vivacity Infrastructure Group, a provider of communications infrastructure solutions and services, hired veteran in-house leader and regulatory affairs attorney Haran Rashes as vice president and general counsel. A former Clark Hill attorney, Rashes was recently associate GC at Extenet, also a communications infrastructure and services provider. (Vivacitygroup.com)

Promotions

Eckert Seamans promoted three attorneys to member, effective July 1. (EckertSeamans.com)

Education

Lathrop GPM announced the launch of a diversity opportunity program for first-year law students it says is aimed at attracting and retaining historically underrepresented groups. Under the program, a first-year law student each summer will receive a stipend and will have subsequent opportunities to get future retention stipends, totaling up to $20,000. (LathropGPM.com)