Big changes jolt law schools, Baker McKenzie's associate bonus, top patent partners launch new firm and a 'substantial' legal fee request
Reuters Legal
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More than half of the 14 top-ranked law schools in the United States — ?including those at Yale, Harvard and Stanford — ?have said over the span of just days they will?no longer participate?in U.S. News & World Report’s influential rankings. The movement, however, is just one of several changes set to reshape law school admissions in the coming years. Legal educators are calling the moment unprecedented.
On Friday, the?American Bar Association?moved ahead?with a plan to stop requiring law schools to use the LSAT or other standardized test when admitting students, although the rule change will not come into effect until 2025. And the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to?strike down affirmative action?at colleges and universities across the country after hearing several challenges to race-conscious admissions policies last month.
Meanwhile, U.S. News has said it will continue to rank law schools even without their participation.
The impact will be felt immediately, said Sarah Zearfoss, senior assistant dean at No. 10-ranked University of Michigan Law School, which said on Sunday that it would no longer participate. Of the combined changes, Georgetown University Law Center admissions dean Andrew Cornblatt said:
“This is the biggest jolt I’ve had in the 40 years I’ve been at this.”
Baker McKenzie has confirmed that it will pay associates end-of-year bonuses up to $115,000, becoming the first major law firm to go public with annual bonuses in a leaner year for the legal industry.
The firm will hand out bonuses based on seniority, with a range starting at $20,000 for the class of 2021 up to $115,000 for its most senior associates.
The global firm's 2022 scale matches its 2021 range but does not appear to offer last year's additional payouts to associates who billed more than 2,300 hours, nor one-time bonuses that ranged by class year.
While large firms typically rush to match or one-up their rivals with bonuses, the race is more uncertain this year as firms face economic headwinds, with?falling demand and rising expenses.
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American Airlines is vying to recoup more than a decade of "substantial" legal fees from Sabre Corp after winning a $1 antitrust verdict at trial in May against the flight booking service.
Lawyers for American Airlines at O'Melveny & Myers argued in a filing?in Manhattan federal court that the air carrier should be awarded fees after 11 years of litigation. The filing did not identify an amount, but O'Melveny partner Andrew Frackman previously in court described it as "very, very substantial."
The company's fees, however, could be expected to be at least tens of millions of dollars, given the length of the litigation, which included two trials and an appeal. Sabre plans to oppose the fee demand. It has said their attorneys?should not get anything, since the company won a $1 nominal verdict.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield has said she will first decide whether fees are available before weighing a demand for a specific amount.?
Four partners have left law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to open up a new firm focused on patent litigation work.
The lawyers - Nicholas Groombridge, Jennifer Wu, J. Steven Baughman and Eric Alan Stone - are setting up shop in New York and Washington, D.C. under the name Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone LLP.
Paul Weiss chairman?Brad Carp?called the lawyers 'extraordinary patent litigators' in a statement, adding the firms expect to collaborate.
It has been a busy year for intellectual property lawyer moves. Just last week Greenberg Traurig added a?31-person IP team?from FisherBroyles, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe hired?four IP litigation partners?from Milbank.
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