Law schools with most federal clerk graduates, landlord says Crowell not entitled to rent refund, firms flock to Munich, Blank Rome adds 7-lawyer team
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A quarter of Stanford Law School's 2022 graduates landed federal clerkships—the highest percentage among all U.S. law schools, according to new data from the American Bar Association.
Stanford replaced the University of Chicago Law School in the top spot. Chicago held the No. 1 position the previous two years.
Yale Law School moved up to No. 2, with nearly 23% of juris doctor grads in 2022 taking federal clerkships, after landing at No. 3 last year. Chicago slipped to No. 3, with just over 20% of recent graduates in such clerkships. The University of Notre Dame Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law round out the top five with 15% and nearly 13% of 2022 graduates in federal clerkships.
A relatively small number of law schools dominate the federal clerk hiring market. The 10 law schools with the highest percentage of federal clerks produced one-third of all clerks nationwide this year, according to the ABA figures.
Federal clerkships are prestigious, year-long positions that are viewed as key credentials for other sought-after jobs, such as large firm associate positions and law professorships.
But relatively few law graduates have the opportunity to snag those jobs. The latest ABA data shows that just 3% of the 36,078 law graduates in 2022 are clerking for federal judges.?
Not all clerks head to judicial chambers directly out of law school. Some federal judges hire law students for clerkships that won't begin for a year or two, allowing them to gain experience first.
Law firm Crowell & Moring is not entitled to recover $30 million in rent refunds for its diminished use of its offices in Washington, D.C., during the COVID pandemic, a landlord for the building told a District of Columbia Superior Court judge on Friday.
Lawyers for landlord The TREA 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue Trust said in a court filing that there was no provision in Crowell's lease — first signed in 1985 and later amended more than a dozen times — justifying the firm's claim it was entitled to rent abatement.
A Crowell spokesperson on Monday said the firm was "confident" that its breach of contract claim "based on the plain meaning of the lease, will be vindicated in court."
In its complaint, Crowell asserted that its lease contained a provision for rent abatement in the event of a "material interference" inhibiting its use of its rented office space. It also said that local D.C. orders directed businesses "to take all reasonable measures to enable their employees to work from home."
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International and U.S. law firms continue to invest in Germany, with cross-border M&A, finance, and private equity hires driving legal market growth in the country.
Reed Smith is the latest to add to its Munich office, roping in two partners from U.S. rival McDermott Will and Emery, including its German private equity group leader, Nikolaus von Jacobs, the firm said last week.
Other U.S. law firms have also grown in Munich, most notably Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which opened its second German office there in March with a 19-attorney group from rival Shearman & Sterling, including its country head and M&A leader Florian Harder.
Kirkland & Ellis, McDermott, Dechert, DLA Piper, Allen & Overy, Ashurst, and Dentons all added transactional partners in the Bavarian capital this year.
“The opening of a Munich office is strategically aligned with our global client base, as the city is home to many multinational companies, such as Amazon, Google, Siemens, Linde, Allianz, Audi, BMW, MunichRE, and Microsoft,” Morgan Lewis chair Jami McKeon said in a statement in March.
U.S. law firm Blank Rome said Monday that it snagged a seven-lawyer team specializing in international trade from McDermott Will & Emery in Washington, D.C.
The team is led by partners Joanne Osendarp, who will help lead Blank Rome's international trade group, and Eric Parnes. The group also includes senior counsel Alan Kashdan and Lynn Kamarck, along with three other attorneys and two non-lawyer professionals who work on trade issues, the firm said.
The group counsels governments, industry associations, and corporations on trade remedies, free trade agreements, and international trade disputes, Blank Rome said. Osendarp and Parnes have both represented the Canadian government in cases before the U.S. Court of International Trade, according to court records.
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