Judges Start at the Beginning After Leaving Bench for Big Law

Roy Strom looks at how a group of former judges are building their own books of business in Big Law.

Abdul Kallon has a resume that plenty of his partners at Perkins Coie would love to have: He was a federal judge for a dozen years.

But since leaving the bench last year and rejoining private practice, Kallon has found that he needs his partners’ help to succeed at something he’s not done for over a decade: “business development.” Building a book of business takes time, even for a former federal judge.

“You essentially have to start from ground zero,” said Kallon, who was nominated to the bench by President Obama in 2009. “It takes a while for relationships to gel and foster to the point where people will call you routinely.”

Kallon, 54, is among a wave of former federal judges who resigned from the bench for Big Law over the past two years. The judges were all appointed at relatively young ages and are in their late 40s or mid-50s, meaning they still have long working lives ahead of them. These transitions are likely to become more common. Presidents have been appointing judges at younger ages, and those who take the bench before age 45 resign before reaching senior status at a disproportionately high rate.

Paul Hastings Adds Eight Vinson & Elkins Partners in Texas

Paul Hastings is poised to hire an eight-partner finance group in Texas from Vinson & Elkins, according to a source familiar with the move.

Included in the move are current and former co-chairs of Vinson & Elkins’ global finance practice, including Brian Moss, Christopher Dewar, Erec Winandy, and Guy Gribov, the source said. They will be joined by partners Bailey Pham, James Longhofer, Rafael Alvarado, and Alex Cross.

The move is yet to be announced and the precise timing is uncertain. But it is expected to include roughly two dozen lawyers in total, the source said.

Some of the lawyers will join Paul Hastings in a new Dallas office, while the rest will be in the firm’s Houston outpost, which opened in 2012.

The group hire continues a string of splashy moves for Paul Hastings under chair Frank Lopez and managing partner Sherrese Smith , who’ve led the firm since late 2022. It’s focused on building out its finance practice in particular.

Kirkland, Jackson Walker Hit With Suit Over Judge Romance

Kirkland & Ellis and Jackson Walker are facing new allegations that they helped keep secret a former Texas bankruptcy judge’s relationship with a local attorney.

The former CEO of petroleum barge company Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc. accused the two firms of filing multiple “misleading and dishonest” court papers in the company’s Chapter 11 case without disclosing the relationship between former Southern District of Texas bankruptcy court Judge David R. Jones and attorney Elizabeth Freeman.

“Freeman, Jackson Walker and Kirkland Ellis used this secret relationship to bolster prestige and collect tens of millions of dollars or more in fees at the expense of those affected by the bankruptcies,” Bouchard told the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Kirkland, a behemoth of the corporate restructuring community, and Jackson Walker represented Bouchard Transportation in its bankruptcy, which was filed in September 2020.

The former CEO, who was removed as head of the company during the bankruptcy, said the failure to disclose the relationship amounts to bankruptcy fraud, honest services fraud, mail and wire fraud, and obstruction of justice under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.

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