Corporations inch closer to gender parity, elite law school adds need-based scholarships, law firm defends $80 mln legal fee award

Good morning! In today's Legal File: Gender parity improves as report finds that more women ascended to leadership roles at some of the top companies across the globe. A New York law firm settles racial bias lawsuit brought on by former employee. An elite law school brings out fresh financial aid measures for low-income students. And a plaintiffs' law firm defends an $80 mln legal fee in class action against iPhone.

??????Almost half of new top lawyers at largest U.S companies last year were women

According to the Annual Fortune 500 General Counsel Report 2022, released by executive search and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates, 59 Fortune 500 companies in total named new general counsel last year — and 29 of those were women, a sign of some diversity progress across large corporate legal departments.

This 49% figure exceeds the 42% of total Fortune 500 general counsel appointed in 2020 who were female. It's a larger leap from the 28% of female general counsel appointees in this cohort of companies that Russell Reynolds reported in 2018.

Growing attention on social and racial justice, as well as increased turnover in the general counsel ranks due to COVID-19 may have spurred diversity increases since 2020, according to the report.

"In the last four years, we've seen a total of the Fortune 500 GCs go from around 28% female to 36% female," said Cynthia Dow, a consultant at Russell Reynolds and an author of the new report.

??????Quinn Emanuel settles race bias lawsuit brought by former IT exec

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has settled claims from an ex- regional IT director who alleged he was the victim of years of racial discrimination and retaliation at the law firm. The terms of the settlement, however, have not been disclosed.

According to a 21-page complaint by Hispanic-American former employee Nicholas Mondelo, an IT director at Quinn used racial slurs against him and tried to sabotage him and the firm violated local, state and federal law by allowing discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment, leading to him having a mental breakdown in 2019.

The firm in its response said that Mondelo's claims were insufficiently pleaded and time-barred, as well as without merit.

??Stanford Law scraps all tuition for low-income students, joining Yale

In an email Wednesday to students, Dean Jenny Martinez announced a series of new financial aid measures, including full-tuition scholarships for current and incoming students whose family income is below 150% of the poverty line. That works out to $41,625 for a family of four, or $20,385 for an individual.

Only the second elite U.S. law school to make the commitment, Stanford will implement the measure from next year. Annual tuition at Stanford Law is currently $64,350.

Yale Law School announced a similar program in February, with full-tuition scholarships for students with family incomes below the poverty line and whose assets are below $150,000. At the time, Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken said she hoped to spark a wider movement away from merit-based scholarships based on Law School Admission Test scores and undergraduate grades and toward need-based financial aid.

As of now, Stanford Law isn’t sure how many students will qualify for the new scholarship as its freshman class for next year has not been finalized yet, but Yale Law, which is similar in size to Stanford, predicted its program would cover 45 to 50 students a year.

?? In Apple iPhone class action, plaintiffs' lawyers defend $80 mln fee

National plaintiffs’ firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy asked a U.S. appeals court in California to uphold a nearly $80 million legal-fee award that was part of a $310 million settlement resolving class claims over the performance of certain Apple iPhones.

Lawyer Mark Molumphy spurned objectors' allegations that the attorneys' fee award, which was 26% of the settlement, was too high, depriving the class of tens of millions of dollars, and other claims over the settlement notice process.

Molumphy told a 9th Circuit panel that during the two days of hearings, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California "did not rubber-stamp the settlement," and instead weighed objections to the compensation award and to the settlement, one of the largest class resolutions in California, before approving them in March 2021.

The panel raised concerns about whether Davila used the wrong legal frame before approving the settlement. Ryan Nelson, one of the Circuit judges, said to Molumphy: "It doesn't look to me like the district court engaged to the degree that we might expect the court to do on the substance of some of the arguments that were raised."

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