BIG LAW’s clash with President Donald Trump highlights that firms heavily reliant on rainmaker partners and corporate dealmaking are more vulnerable to Trump’s threats — and more likely to settle to avoid a drawn-out legal fight with the president, Justin Henry reports.

• The firms that have cut a deal with Trump — Paul Weiss, Skadden, Willkie, and Milbank — built premier transactional practices by hiring star lawyers that rivals would be likely to poach if the firms were embroiled in a fight with Trump, said John Morley, a Yale Law School professor.
• Those firms agreed to collectively provide $340 million in pro bono work to causes supported by Trump. Profits and revenue at these firms are on average twice the levels of the more litigation-heavy firms that have taken the Trump administration to court.
• “Firms that do a lot of transactional work are most heavily exposed to Trump’s orders because their lawyers leave more easily,” Morley said. “If the people whose practices are affected depart, other people might suffer because of an overall decline in profits.”
• By contrast, the three firms that sued Trump — Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale — are best known for litigation practices that aren’t as exposed to poaching, he said. “There’s a team-based apparatus involved in litigating a case that makes it harder to move firms,” Morley said. Read More

BIG TECH ties are fueling a Silicon Valley law firm’s mergers and acquisitions work in a rocky deals market beset by sinking public company values and trade uncertainty, Mahira Dayal reports.

• Fenwick & West guided nearly $40 billion in M&A transactions in this year’s first quarter, including Wiz’s $32 billion sale to Alphabet, Bloomberg Law’s league tables show. The tally landed the firm in the 16th spot, overtaking deals stalwarts like Sidley Austin, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and Weil Gotshal & Manges.
• Founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1972, Fenwick is known for incorporating Apple Computer and views long-time client relationships as crucial to getting deals work. Going back a decade, the firm steered WhatsApp in its acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion. “In many cases, we have been in the boardroom of companies that ultimately sell for billions of dollars since their inception,” said Doug Cogen, a San Francisco-based corporate partner at Fenwick.
• To retain clients, the firm aims to provide a full-service offering. That ranges beyond general corporate services into commercial transactions, protecting intellectual property, helping structure executive and equity compensation, and doing tax work, Cogen said. “Part of our mantra at Fenwick is to never let a client outgrow us,” he said. Read More
  

• Also Read: M&A Deal Insurance Avoids Typical Legal Wrangling Over Coverage

THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT cleared the way for more employees to challenge medical examinations and potentially win damages — regardless of their disability status — under a landmark US law barring disability discrimination, Khorri Atkinson reports.

• In a case of first impression, the court ruled that a former Illinois corrections officer could recoup back pay in an Americans with Disabilities Act case accusing his employer of requiring an unlawful fitness-for-duty test. But the worker never claimed a disability, or perceived disability, as is typically required for an ADA discrimination claim.
• The Seventh Circuit ruled that a violation of the ADA’s prohibition on medical exams or inquires about a worker’s disability status is itself disability-based discrimination, triggering other statutory provisions allowing back pay awards. That reversed a district court, which had denied the worker back pay for not showing “discrimination on account of disability.”
• The decision could drive similar ADA lawsuits in the circuit, which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, from workers who realize they can seek back pay regardless of disability, attorneys said. “This could lead not only to an increase in ADA-related litigation, but to confusion for employers as to when and how to accommodate qualified individuals with a disability,” said Amy Epstein Gluck, a partner at management-side firm Pierson Ferdinand. Read More

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