Akin’s Leader Picks Show Focus on Big Law’s ‘High-Rate Areas’

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP , a firm founded in Texas and with one of the largest lobbying practices in Washington, is looking elsewhere as it seeks to compete with top law firms.

New York restructuring partner Abid Qureshi and London dealmaker Daniel Walsh will take over as co-leaders of the firm next year, Akin announced. They replace Kim Koopersmith , the litigator who has steered the firm for more than a decade.

The firm is plucking its next crop of leaders from two high-revenue producing practices—bankruptcy and corporate transactions—as many of its competitors ramp up investments in those areas.

“It’s either get with the party or potentially get left behind,” said Jeffrey Lowe , a Washington legal recruiter. “But I think Akin has been pretty good at navigating it.”

Tapping new leaders in New York and London could signal that the firm is “prioritizing growth and retaining strong people and teams in high-rate areas beyond Washington,” where it is headquartered, said Kent Zimmermann , a legal industry consultant for Zeughauser Group.

Sullivan & Cromwell Threatens Student Funding Over Antisemitism

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP asked law school student groups to confirm they don’t support harassment or risk losing funding from the firm amid a surge of pro-Palestine protests on college campuses earlier this year.

The firm’s recruiting department in March contacted some 50 student groups at various schools via email, Dr. Milana Hogan, Ed.D. , Sullivan & Cromwell’s chief talent officer, said in an interview. A women of color affinity group at Yale Law School and a New York University Law school LGBTQ student group were among those contacted.

The groups were asked to confirm their support for a November 2023 letter from the leaders of Sullivan & Cromwell and several law firms. The letter raised concerns about “reports of anti-Semitic harassment” on campuses and condemned “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism or any other form of violence, hatred or bigotry.”

The firm said it would sponsor the groups “based on our understanding that the organization shares views that are consistent with those expressed in the letter,” according to an email obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The emails were part of the firm’s evaluation of its on-campus recruitment and group sponsorships, Hogan said.

Opioids Lawyers Offer Investors Piece of $100 Million-Plus Win

A law firm set to earn more than $100 million for its work on opioids cases is packaging its fees and selling it to investors as a security.

Napoli Shkolnik is pooling its portion of approximately $1.3 billion in settlements with major opioid manufacturers and pharmacies, including McKesson, Janssen, CVS and Walgreens, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The move is the latest sign of the growing intermingling of law firms and investors. Securitization is an increasingly common tool in litigation finance, a $15.2 billion industry in which outside funders back lawsuits or invest in yet to be paid settlements, and which has set its sights on large pools of money in mass tort cases.

“It’s getting more systematic, the sophistication level is rising and it’s bringing in new actors,” said Samir Parikh , a law professor at Wake Forest University who studies mass torts financing.

“Whether it’s good or bad is hard to say. What you could argue is it’s weaponizing mass tort litigation that must be terrifying to defendants.”

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