Biglaw

The Biglaw Firms On A Lateral Hiring Spree, Despite The Pandemic

Plus, the hot practice areas of the pandemic.

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Even though COVID-19 continues to rock the legal world (yes, coronavirus austerity measures are still happening), not every firm is cutting back. Indeed, some Biglaw firms are going the opposite direction and hiring more attorneys, pandemic be damned.

As reported by Law.com, Lowenstein Sandler is one of those firms, and they are even holding (socially distant) interviews in managing partner Gary Wingens’s Livingston, New Jersey, backyard. And they’re looking to hiring in a number of different practice areas:

Wingens, whose firm added a new head of life sciences transactions in late April, views the current moment as the start of a brand new economic cycle. That means a focus not just on the “practice of the moment,” but those expected to grow in coming years, like privacy and cybersecurity, investment management and technology.

“We’re trying to figure out where that proverbial puck is going, rather than where we are today in this somewhat surreal work world,” he said.

Cozen O’Connor is another firm going on a lateral hiring spree. Since the beginning of March, they’ve added 25 new attorneys, eight of whom are partners, mostly in the transactional and class-action litigation spaces,

Haynes & Boone is also in growth mode, adding 39 attorneys in 2020 with a focus on health care, IP, and fund formation practices. Eleven of those hires are partners, the most recent of whom are life sciences attorneys, and the firm is using the tumultuous times to their advantage:

“We’ve stuck with the plans that we’ve had, and we’ve been able to maximize those,” [Managing partner Tim Powers] said. “Any time there is a market disruption and you are a beacon of stability within that disruption, you can show that stability.”

Sound finances are critical, too. Haynes & Boone had its best first quarter in the firm’s history, according to Powers, who added that the firm, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, was already looking to grow moving into 2020.

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo’s managing partner Bob Bodian also expressed that the pandemic was a time for his firm to surge forward, and not be conservative:

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Mintz, which announced the hire of a former Boies Schiller & Flexner partner Monday, had the benefit of closing its fiscal year March 31. According to Bodian, the firm beat its budget for equity partner profits by 25%. That allowed the firm to increase hold backs while keeping distributions above what would have been expected at budget. This follows a five-year spell where the firm is up 50% in both profits and revenues.

“We sort of hit the pandemic running,” said Bodian, who promised several more announcements in the coming weeks.

So despite how bleak the legal landscape may seem, there are definitely some firms out there taking advantage of COVID-19.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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