Wake Up Call: Hertz Poaches New General Counsel From Conagra

In today’s column, McDermott is advising Elon Musk on his hostile bid for Twitter; New York’s February bar exam, which went back to in-person administration, fell sharply from last year; legal tech company Filevine raised $108 million in new funding.

• Leading off, Hertz Global Holdings said veteran food industry in-house leader Colleen Batcheler will become its executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, effective May 20. According to her LinkedIn profile Batcheler has been a Jones Day associate, Albertsons Inc. in-house attorney, and since 2006 has been at food company Conagra Brands. (Hertz)
• Batcheler is replacing M. David Galainena, a former longtime Winston & Strawn partner who’s retiring after a busy three years as top lawyer at the Florida-based car rental giant. In May 2020, slammed by the pandemic, Hertz filed for bankruptcy. The company emerged from bankruptcy in July 2021 and went public on the Nasdaq in November 2021, with advice from White & Case, and with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advising underwriters. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)
• McDermott Will & Emery is representing Elon Musk is on his $43 billion hostile bid to buy Twitter, according to an SEC filing. (SEC.gov)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A constantly lengthening list of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine is keeping national security lawyers busy advising their clients. (National Law Journal)
• With enormous profits pocketed from Big Law’s huge year in 2021, some partners, as their firms start returning to the office, are looking to retire early or reduce their time. (American Lawyer) A new survey finds over a quarter of legal workers responding said they want raises and will quit if they don’t get them. (American Lawyer)
• Dechert appointed partners Catherine Botticelli, based in McLean, Va., and Jonathan Streeter, based in New York, as co-chairs of the firm’s global litigation practice group. They take over from former litigation chair Hector Gonzalez, who was recently confirmed as a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York. (Dechert.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Buchalter said it’s adding four attorneys in Salt Lake City, Utah, giving it more than 20 lawyers in the six-month-old office. The new arrivals include patent attorney Jason Croft, who was in San Francisco at Maschoff Brennan. Croft joins as shareholder and global chair of Buchalter’s patent procurement and strategy practice group. Litigator Chad Pugh joins from Stoel Rives as a shareholder; Faegre Drinker added finance & restructuring attorneys Jim Park, as partner, and Allison Seeley, as counsel, from Greenberg Traurig in Minneapolis. According to his LinkedIn profile, Park was co-leader of Faegre’s corporate trust group and had a stint as a Wells Fargo senior counsel. (FaegreDrinker.com)
• Dorsey & Whitney hired veteran energy company top lawyer and former Cravath corporate associate Margaret Bae as a partner in its merger & acquisitions practice in New York. She was recently a partner at Olshan Frome Wolosky; Womble Bond Dickinson grabbed Norton Rose Fulbright M&A attorney Damian Georgino as a partner in Charlotte, N.C.; Greenberg Traurig hired cross-border tax lawyer Scott Bakal as a shareholder in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He arrives from Neal Gerber Eisenberg in Chicago, where he was partner and co-chair of the taxation practice group. (GTLaw.com)
• The Netherlands based NXP Semiconductors added “chief sustainability officer” to the list roles held by its vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, Jennifer Wuamett; Duluth-Minnesota based hospitality real estate company Oliver Companies hired former New York Big Law attorney Tom Lynn, who was a National Hockey League team chief legal officer and executive, as its general counsel, a report says. (Duluth News-Tribune)

Technology

• Salt Lake City-based legal workflow tool platform Filevine said it took in $108 million in a fundraise led by StepStone Group. (Filevine.com)

Legal Education

• The passage rate on New York’s February 2022 bar exam, which returned to in-person administration, was down sharply from the February 2021 test, which was taken remotely. (New York Law Journal)