Davis Polk Rescinds Three Job Offers After Israel Statements

Davis Polk & Wardwell rescinded job offers to three law students at Harvard and Columbia universities after organizations they were part of made controversial statements about the Hamas attack on Israel.

“The views expressed in certain of the statements signed by law school student organizations in recent days are in direct contravention of our firm’s value system,” the firm said in a statement viewed by Bloomberg Law.

The statement didn’t identify the students, who were leaders of groups that signed on to the Joint Statement from Palestine Solidarity Groups at Columbia University and the Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine.

A group of 31 Harvard University organizations signed on to an Oct. 9 declaration that “hold(s) the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The Joint Statement from Palestine Solidarity Groups at Columbia University said that “The weight of responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government and other Western governments.”

• Davis Polk’s decision mirrors Winston & Strawn’s move last week to pull an offer to Ryna Workman, an New York University law student and then-president of its student bar association.

Quinn Emanuel Gives Extra Bonuses Up to $32,900 for Top Billers

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is giving its associates a special fall bonus , the first additional bonus given to Big Law associates since the bonus bonanza of 2021.

Quinn Emanuel is handing out special fall bonuses to its associates calculated by seniority and billable hours, the firm announced in an internal email by its global co-managing partner William Burck . These special bonuses are in addition to the traditional year-end bonus, Burck said.

Quinn Emanuel’s special bonuses are the first announced this year on what has been an otherwise quiet bonus front for Big Law associates.

Big Law firms typically announce year-end bonuses in late November. Last year, firms handed out annual bonuses ranging from $15,000 to $115,000 for their most senior associates.

Musk-Wachtell Fight Over Twitter Legal Bills Sent to Arbitration

Elon Musk’s fight with Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz over $90 million in legal fees billed to X Corp. is headed to arbitration.

A San Francisco judge on Tuesday granted Wachtell’s request to arbitrate the dispute, over a “success fee” for the law firm’s work on Twitter Inc.'s successful bid to force Musk’s purchase of the company. The law firm and Twitter—which Musk later rebranded X Corp.—previously agreed to arbitrate such disputes, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer Jr. said.

“The parties clearly and unmistakably” delegated the issue to arbitration, Ulmer wrote in a decision.

The ruling came a day after Ulmer issued a tentative decision siding with Wachtell.

X Corp. sued Wachtell in July, challenging the $90 million fee paid to Wachtell following the closing of Twitter’s $44 billion sale to Musk amounted to “unjust enrichment.” The company claimed that it had agreed to pay the firm’s lawyers on an hourly basis.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of?Inside Big Law. Want the biggest stories daily??Subscribe to our Business & Practice newsletter.