How Mintz revamped rainmaker pay, burnout and depression high in Mass. lawyer study, Dentons hires McCarthy ally Denham to lobby team from K&L Gates
Reuters Legal
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Boston-founded Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo has brought about a paradigm shift in its attorney compensation awards.
According to the firm's managing member Robert Bodian, most big firms follow the "coin of the realm" approach in deciding how much each partner gets.
Mintz's experiment, which began in 2015, has yielded a track record. Recounting how he revamped the law firm's system for awarding compensation linked to the clients or matters that a lawyer has brought into the firm, Bodian says the changes have proven key in growing the 550-lawyer, Boston-founded firm's business (he has stats to back it up), as well as promoting teamwork, diversity, and inclusion.
Almost invariably, overhauling compensation means "someone benefits and someone gets the short end of the stick," said legal consultant Janet Stanton, a partner at Adam Smith — or at least that's how it's likely to be perceived.
Historically, origination credit at Mintz was "largely in the hands of what I'll call older white guys," Bodian said. "Once you had it, it was yours, and it could go back in some cases decades to who originally initiated the client relationship."
Origination credit "rewards someone for going out and beating the bushes and getting a new client, but it doesn’t give younger partners anything for strengthening and expanding the relationships that you have with existing clients," said Bodian.
About "half a dozen" big law leaders have met with Bodian to talk about whether they can replicate the system at their own firms, he said.
"You have to have all the right circumstances and the right partners."
Research indicates that lawyers in Massachusetts are burnt out and are experiencing higher levels of anxiety and depression, besides high rates of unhealthy alcohol consumption.
Researchers with the Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and NORC at the University of Chicago surveyed 4,450 Massachusetts attorneys last year for the latest study. Across the state, 77% reported feeling burned out, 26% reported high rates of anxiety, 21% reported depression, and 7% reported suicidal thoughts — all higher than average for U.S. adults.
Figures for burnout, anxiety and depression were especially high among minority groups. The burnout rate among Black and Hispanic lawyers was 86% and 88%, respectively, compared to 77% among white lawyers.?
The survey found that nearly half of the lawyers who screened positive for depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts did not seek mental health care. The researchers attributed that to stigma surrounding mental health issues, as well as time constraints and fear of professional reprisals.
The research was conducted amid the COVID pandemic, which authors said may have contributed to higher rates of burnout and anxiety. It should be noted that these percentages were consistent with earlier findings that lawyers have higher rates of substance abuse and mental health problems than the general population and other professions.
A 2016 Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation survey found that more than 20% of respondents had potential alcohol dependency, with rates of depression and anxiety of 28% and 19%, respectively. More recent pandemic-era studies focused on lawyers in California, Washington, and Utah also identified elevated rates of burnout, anxiety, and alcohol use.
A pair of Florida class actions attempting to pin liability on celebrities who endorsed the now-collapsed FTX and Voyager crypto exchanges has led to a showdown between FTX outside counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell and plaintiffs' lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner and The Moskowitz Law Firm.
The plaintiffs' firms say they’re entitled to troves of documents and deposition testimony from Sullivan & Cromwell because the firm has represented FTX since 2021 and advised the now-bankrupt platform on a potential (but unconsummated) acquisition of Voyager assets.
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Sullivan & Cromwell says that rationale is “improper and harassing” and “textbook fishing expedition.”
On Wednesday, Sullivan & Cromwell?moved to quash ?a subpoena from the plaintiffs' firms in a Florida state court class action accusing NFL quarterback Tom Brady, CNBC star Kevin O’Leary and former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz of violating Florida securities laws by promoting FTX yield-bearing accounts as a safe way to invest in cryptocurrencies.
The?subpoenas ?issued to Sullivan & Cromwell in both the FTX and Voyager cases are focused on the question of whether FTX and Voyager yield-bearing accounts were securities. The subpoena in each case called for Sullivan & Cromwell to turn over documents related to both Voyager and FTX.
The fatal flaw in plaintiffs’ demands, according to Sullivan & Cromwell, is not just that the subpoenas demand privileged information, including communications with third parties who have no role whatsoever in the class actions, but also that Moskowitz and Boies Schiller haven’t shown any reason to believe that Sullivan & Cromwell even has information about FTX or Voyager yield-bearing accounts.
In an?email exchange ?with Sullivan & Cromwell that was attached as an exhibit to the quash motions, Moskowitz appeared to be unswayed by the law firm's arguments that it had no relevant information from its FTX representation and no information at all related to Voyager.?
Moskowitz justified the Voyager subpoena in a Jan. 17 email by citing “companies that Sullivan & Cromwell represented, where Mark Cuban and/or Voyager were directly involved (like in Polygon),” an apparent reference to blockchain company Polygon Labs, whose general counsel is a former Sullivan & Cromwell associate.
Dentons has hired former Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham to join its lobbying practice, the mega-law firm said Wednesday.
Denham, who lost re-election to his California U.S. House seat in 2018, has been a lobbyist with rival firm K&L Gates since 2019. While in office, Denham was an ally of House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a fellow California Republican.
Denham will be a senior policy director at Dentons. He will work alongside fellow former Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, who joined Dentons last year after a stint with competitor Squire Patton Boggs.
In a recent statement, Crowley said:
"Jeff comes to Dentons with a deep understanding of policymaking, extensive relationships on the Hill, and a strong background in delivering for clients."
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