• Until recently plaintiffs have faced difficulties demonstrating material injury caused by data breaches, however several recent high-profile cases look likely to make it easier for consumers to bring individual suits and class actions against companies in the event of such attacks. (Financial Times)
• Following a disappointing financial year in 2015, litigation associate headcount is falling at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, and the firm is bringing back a billable-hours cutoff for associate bonuses. (Above The Law)
• Patent cases filed in federal court surged in 2015, and the Eastern District of Texas emerged as the single most popular place to file cases, according to a report. (Big Law Business)
• In Asia, U.S. law firms are rapidly attracting laterals from U.K. firms, according to an analysis of 362 partner-level moves in Asia and Australia during the past 14 months. (Asian Lawyer)
Legal Market
• Kaye Scholer’s revenue and profits were down in 2015, due in particular to slowdown in transaction work in the last quarter, the firm’s managing partner said. (American Lawyer)
• Europe’s largest independent law firm, Paris-based Fidal, reported a slight drop in financial results for 2015. (The Lawyer)
• A New Hampshire state court judge has ruled that a contingency fee agreement between state Attorney General Joseph Foster and plaintiffs law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll is invalid. (Forbes)
• As part of its strategy to expand in China, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman said it is applying for a license to open an office in Hong Kong — after hiring an aviation finance lawyer from Clyde & Co. — on top of its existing offices in Beijing and Shanghai. (Big Law Business)
• After the U.K. Serious Fraud Office dropped a nearly two-year-old investigation into currency rigging, citing insufficient evidence, lawyers suggested that courtroom setbacks in the authority’s Libor-manipulation probe had reduced its appetite for high-profile financial cases. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg News)
• Authorities in Moscow last month arrested a former shareholder of Promsberbank, a Russian lender that had its license revoked last year, as regulators probe trades handled by Deutsche Bank AG that may have been used to launder money, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg News)
• Caesars Entertainment Corp and its private equity backers could be liable for as much as $5.1 billion in damages linked to corporate transactions that a report by a court-ordered examiner said caused a $18 billion bankruptcy protection filing by the casino company’s operating unit. (New York Times/Reuters)
• Richard Davis, the former Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP partner whose report Tuesday criticized two private equity firms for their part in the bankruptcy of Caesars Entertainment Corp unit, worked on the congressional Watergate investigation and, while at U.S. Treasury Department, participated in dealing with the U.S.-Iran hostage crisis. (New York Times)
• With three new federal taskforces showing that the government is expanding “aggressive and creative “cross-border white-collar crime enforcement, companies and white-collar counsel must be prepared, writes a Washington-based litigator at Dechert. (Big Law Business)
Laterals and Moves
• Evelyn Kim, who advises on the financing for renewable energy projects joined Baker & McKenzie as a partner in San Francisco from Morgan Lewis & Bockius. (Baker & McKenzie)
• UK law firm Eversheds has stepped up as the first firm to offer a six-year paid apprenticeship as a path to a training contract, as part of a government program, starting with eight apprenticeships this year. (The Lawyer)
Technology
• Some 114,000 legal sector jobs will likely be “automated” in the coming 20 years as technology transforms the profession, but the future looks brighter for highly skilled lawyers, a new Deloitte report says. (Financial Times)
• In a legal brief, Apple Inc. criticized the FBI for not asking hackers at the National Security Agency to help it break into the iPhone of a San Bernardino terrorist, instead of trying to force the company to do so. (Wired)
• WhatsApp has become the latest tech company to fight a federal wiretap warrant, suggesting that the FBI plans to widen its “war” on encryption to apps. Meanwhile, President Obama has called on technology companies to help with criminal investigations, adding to pressure on app operators to take sides in the issue. (Wired)
• In response to recent high-profile standard violations, regulators are increasing their scrutiny of audit firms, accounting offices and other compliance consultants, and this has led law firms and other consultants to turn to technology to upgrade their business management while also improving compliance management for their clients. (Legaltech news)
• Though cyber attacks are a big risk for data loss, many law firms and legal departments face potentially more dangerous data loss during operations to update systems or migrate data, in particular because of failed efforts to restore backed up data, according to a new report by Kroll Ontrack. (Legaltech news)
• The committee of federal judges who oversee a pilot program to allow cameras in courtrooms concluded that the benefits do not outweigh the negatives of using cameras in courtrooms, and “will not consider” lifting the prohibition on cameras in trial courts. (National Law Journal)
Legal Education
• Law schools at Pepperdine University and University of Tennessee lose 13 places, while Texas A&M gains 38 places and New York Law School jumps 16: a look at law schools that rose or fell in the new U.S. News & World Report’s new rankings. (Above The Law)
• American University Washington College of Law said its next dean will be former Suffolk University Law School Dean Camille Nelson. (American Lawyer)
• Harvard Law School announced on Monday it will remove the controversial “family coat of arms” of Isaac Royall, Jr., from its shield. Royall was at onetime the largest slaveholder in Massachusetts and an early donor to the school, but students have taken to protesting the use of his family’s coat of arms. (National Law Journal)
Miscellaneous
• Jim Brochin, a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison who helped win the exoneration in Brooklyn court last week of a man wrongly imprisoned nearly 25 years for murder, talks to BLB about how persistence paid off in the case, and what he thinks Big Law’s role should be in pursuing reform in criminal law. (Big Law Business)
• A spokesman for President Barack Obama said the president would sign a Freedom of Information Act reform bill that the Senate passed Tuesday, if it reaches his desk intact. (Politico)
• An Ohio federal judge is keeping a deep-sea treasure hunter in jail on civil contempt charges in an effort to force him to give details about the location of about 500 gold coins from an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of South Carolina. (ABA Journal)
• Commuters in Washington faced chaos getting to work Wednesday, as the Washington Metrorail shut down a full day for emergency inspection of 600 electrical cables, amid concerns over the system’s ability to deliver safe and reliable service. (Washington Post)