• Most law firms got “perfect” scores on the Human Rights Campaign’s annual assessment of large law firm and company policies regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, while a handful lagged or didn’t participate in the evaluation. (The American Lawyer)
• Another recent report found that at UK law firms disability remains the least represented area of diversity, with under 1 percent of lawyers at the largest firms reporting that they have a disability, although 16 percent of the country’s working age population have disabilities. (The Lawyer)
• The UK’s Legal Services Act of 2007 has increased the share of Big Four accounting firms in the UK legal services market, writes columnist Mark Cohen. (Big Law Business)
• Recently hired general counsels at Silicon Valley companies are getting equity packages potentially worth millions of dollars. (The Recorder)
Legal Market
• The U.S. Department of Justice is fighting two journalists’ lawsuit to gain access to allegedly racist and inappropriate emails about President Obama sent by now-retired Montana federal district judge Richard Cebull from his courthouse account. (National Law Journal)
• The $200 million malpractice verdict that Texas law firm Andrews Kurth faces from a Houston court’s judgement could swallow about two-thirds of the firm’s reported gross revenue in 2014. (Big Law Business)
• Maryland’s attorney general, investigating possible violations of the state Consumer Protection Act, is seeking the records of two attorneys who participated in the sale of millions of dollars of structured settlements linked to victims of lead paint poisoning. (Washington Post)
• Lawyers are in the front line in the bitter bankruptcy battle pitting the biggest U.S. casino group, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., against its bondholders. (New York Times/ Reuters)
Laterals and Moves
• A trio of partners have departed Albany’s largest lobbying firm, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, to start their own shop in New York’s capital. (Big Law Business)
• Paul Hastings has hired a senior finance partner David Ereira away from Linklaters, as part of plans to expand its London finance practice. (The Lawyer)
• A senior partner, an executive legal recruiter, and an associate recently made partner give their views on what it takes to become to make partner at a major law firm. (Big Law Business)
• Winston & Strawn has moved to grow its corporate and finance practice in London, with the hires of Pinsent Masons partner Paul Amiss and Gide Loyrette Nouel finance partner Rebecca Finn. The firm has also hired Jason Parker, formerly of counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. (The Lawyer)
• Gary LeClair, who founded the law firm LeClairRyan in 1988, said his decision to step down as chairman figures in a succession plan going back 10 years to when the firm started thinking about building around a new wave of leadership. (Big Law Business)
• An inventory of chairs, chief executive officers and managing partners that have given up leadership status at prominent law firms in the past five years. (Big Law Business)
Technology
• Zerodium, a broker in secret hacker techniques known as “zero day exploits,” has published a price list for different categories of breach techniques and their target applications and operating systems, which it buys from hackers and resells as a subscription service. (Wired)
• Apple Inc. has hired Weil, Gotshal & Manges to defend it against a suit over a new iPhone Wi-Fi Assist feature that consumers claim inflated their bills. (The Recorder)
• Speaking at the Microsoft Government Cloud Forum in Washington, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella set out the company’s security strategy for dealing with an explosion of data security breaches worldwide, as well as the tools and technologies the security strategy includes. (TechCrunch)
• Defense attorneys want access to the source code of a computer program that law-enforcement authorities are using to sort out mixed up DNA from crime scenes, but the developer says it’s a trade secret. (Wall Street Journal)
• Design software maker Autodesk Inc. and its attorneys at Morrison & Foerster and Freshfields have won a rare apology from its Chinese adversary in an intellectual property suit. (The Recorder)
Miscellaneous
• A federal court in San Diego has permanently enjoined Lawrence Preston Siegel from working as a tax adviser, and Siegel also faces a 20-count California criminal complaint alleging that, although he resigned from the bar and lost his accountant license decades ago, he has been falsely claiming to be a licensed tax attorney and certified public accountant. (Forbes)
• Death notice: Lewis Kaster, a 1954 Columbia Law School graduate and adjunct faculty member, and real estate and tax attorney, died Nov. 12. (New York Times)
• A 46-year old Texas lawyer has been charged with pressuring clients to have sex with him in return for his legal advice and services. (ABA Journal)