Law firms shift focus toward litigation hires, Senate committee advances Biden's 9th Circuit nominee, UC Hastings is changing its name

???Good morning from the Legal File! On the docket today:

Litigation job postings have overtaken corporate openings according to a new report, Senate Republicans held back on opposing appellate court nominee Roopali Desai, despite conservative attacks on Desai's advocacy on behalf of progressive causes, the DOJ is looking into a cyber breach of the federal court records system?and UC Hastings is changing its name. We made it to another Friday – thanks for being here.?

?? Law firms shift focus toward litigation hires as deal work cools

The hiring market for attorneys moving from firm to firm remained robust in the first half of 2022, but the greatest action has shifted from corporate to litigation practices, new data shows.

Lateral hires of partners and associates by the 200 highest-grossing U.S. law firms both increased 16% in the first six months of 2022 from the same period last year, legal industry analytics company Leopard Solutions said Thursday.

Current legal hiring suggests that demand for corporate attorneys is waning after a?blockbuster 2021?that saw more than $5.9 trillion in M&A activity. The pace of corporate deals had?slowed?by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

The number of current job openings for litigation roles at law firms tracked by Leopard Solutions is just over 2,900—about 700 more than the number of postings for corporate attorneys, the company found.?Kate Reder Sheikh, a partner at legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa said that some firms may have hired too many corporate attorneys last year.

"Litigation is definitely picking up with a thunder right now, and corporate is quieting down at the same clip."

?????? GOP senators withhold opposition to Sinema-backed judicial nominee

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Arizona lawyer Roopali?Desai's nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, despite conservative attacks on Desai's advocacy on behalf of progressive causes and defense of the 2020 presidential election.

Her nomination was advanced on a voice vote, marking only the second time during President Joe Biden's tenure that the panel has moved a nominee out of committee without taking a roll call of its members.

Expected votes on other nominees, including 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pick Rachel Bloomekatz, were delayed until next week after the panel's chairman, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, tested positive for COVID-19 and could not attend.

Desai has served as a campaign attorney for Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona ?and also represented Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, in defending against multiple cases unsuccessfully seeking to overturn former President Donald Trump's 2020 electoral loss.

Also read: Biden taps former union official to lead Labor Dept. wage unit

?? Congressional watchdog faults judiciary's IT oversight, cost overruns

Insufficient oversight and agency guidance have hampered some of the federal judiciary's biggest tech projects and led to millions of dollars in cost overruns, including for a closely watched new system to process judges' financial disclosure reports, a Congressional watchdog said Thursday.

The Government Accountability Office in a?report?faulted the judiciary's administrative agency for inefficiencies in how its information technology workforce and projects are managed and for not having a chief information officer to oversee them.

The projects examined by the GAO include a new electronic filing system for judges' financial disclosure reports that was expected to cost $27.1 million and be done by 2024 but now has projected costs of $36 million.

Gabe Roth, executive director of the court reform group Fix the Court, called the GAO audit "a wake-up call" as the judiciary moves forward with plans to?modernize its online court records system, PACER, on its own.

?? UC Hastings is history as law school drops controversial namesake

The University of California Hastings College of the Law is on track to become the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, early next year.

The law school’s board of directors on Wednesday unanimously approved the new name, which eliminates reference to Serranus Hastings—a former California Supreme Court justice who founded the law school in 1878.

Historians say Hastings orchestrated the killings of Native Americans in order to remove them from ranch land he purchased in Northern California.

Both the California legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom still must approve the new name, which would become official in January 2023. Law dean David Faigman said of the name change in a Wednesday message to the school community:

"It best embodies the college’s core identity and is the overwhelming preference of students, staff, faculty, and alumni"

The Hastings name has been a source of debate since 2017, when law school adjunct professor John Briscoe detailed actions against Native Americans in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed.

?????????????????????????????????????????

?? That's all for today! Thank you for reading?The Legal File!

For more legal industry news, read and?subscribe?to?The Daily Docket.