The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Lanny Breuer Returns to Covington & Burling in New Leadership Role

Lanny Breuer, one of the longest-serving leaders of the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division, is returning to Covington & Burling to take on a newly created role as vice-chairman of the firm.

Breuer is joining his former firm on Thursday, after nearly four years as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division. "As I said to my wife, this will be my third first day at the firm," Breuer said during an interview this week.

In the role of vice chair, Breuer will serve as a liaison for the firm, its clients and government officials. He'll resume his former practice in white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation, representing both companies and individuals. "In that way, those are some things I did for the division," Breuer said. "I do think there will be a balance and I'll have to figure it out."

National Propane Gas Association Names New General Counsel

Updated at 4:35 p.m.

Less than a year after former American Gas Association senior managing counsel Jeff Petrash started consulting for the National Propane Gas Association in Washington, the trade group for the U.S. propane industry tapped him to serve as its first general counsel.

Petrash became the National Propane Gas Association's vice president and general counsel this month after starting as a consultant for the group last fall. As a senior managing counsel at the American Gas Association from 2000 to 2011, he helped the U.S. natural gas industry trade organization on federal regulatory and legislative work, becoming the group's chief lobbyist on climate change matters. He left the group in 2011 following the arrival of Dave McCurdy as the organization's president and chief executive officer.

Petrash said Monday he is "very flattered" that the National Propane Gas Association created a vice president and general counsel position that will allow him to work on legislative, regulatory and litigation matters, including gas issues concerning exportation, cost and climate change.

Daily D.C. Lateral Roundup: Quinn Emanuel

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has added a former U.S. Justice Department prosecutor to the Washington office. Sam Sheldon, formerly deputy chief of the Criminal Division’s fraud section, joins the firm as a partner. Sheldon supervised DOJ’s health care fraud unit. He will lead Quinn’s health care fraud group.

At DOJ, Sheldon was one of the lead prosecutors in the "largest health care fraud prosecution against a single United States doctor," according to the firm. In October 2012, the Arlington, Texas doctor admitted to being part of a $374 million scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare for services.

Law Firm Diversity Panel Highlights Role of Corporate Legal Departments

On a panel about law firm diversity, Joseph West, president and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, said diversity has become a numbers game, which he called "a blessing and a curse."

On the one hand, West said, the legal profession clearly had ramped up efforts in recent years to recruit minorities and women. But those numbers didn't reflect the poor job many firms and corporate legal departments were doing at keeping and promoting those lawyers, said West, a panelist at the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts annual conference in Washington.

The panelists highlighted how diversity affected their bottom line. Grace Speights, managing partner of the Morgan, Lewis & Bockius office in Washington, said she found that lawyers from different backgrounds approached cases and client matters in different ways, all for the better.

Energy partners bounce back to Hogan Lovells from DLA Piper

Four energy partners have returned to Hogan Lovells after defecting to DLA Piper last year.

Kevin Lipson, Stefan Krantz, John Lilyestrom, and Christopher Schindler have rejoined Hogan Lovells’ Washington office. The quartet, along with Lee Alexander, left Hogan Lovells in January 2012. Alexander, a partner who focuses on federal regulatory and transactional energy issues, will remain at DLA Piper.

Lipson, co-chair of Hogan’s energy industry group at that time, focuses his practice on energy-related enforcement and compliance issues that arise before FERC and the CFTC.

At Arent Fox, New Highs in Revenues and Profits in 2012

Arent Fox, bolstered by a strong year in the firm's intellectual property, civil litigation and government contracts practices, saw revenue per lawyer increase 2.7 percent to $750,000 in 2012 and profit per partner rise to $850,000, a 2.4 percent increase over last year, our reporting shows.

"The year that wrapped up was another very good year, a record year, for Arent Fox," said the firm's managing partner, Matthew Clark, whose practice focuses on international trade proceedings. "We had strong performances all across the firm."

Gross revenue at Arent Fox increased to $242.5 million, up 5.2 percent from the previous year. Net income stayed relatively flat, inching up less than 1 percent to $85 million. The firm increased to 323 total lawyers, eight more than our reporting showed in the previous year.

Clark said regulatory work in the import-export control and health care arenas was "up pretty significantly" for the firm. Food and drug litigation was strong, he said. Arent Fox had a "spectacular" year on the intellectual property front, he added.

FCC Chairman Genachowski Announces Resignation

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, today announced his plan to resign from the agency he's led since September 2009.

"Over the past four years, we've focused the FCC on broadband, wired and wireless, working to drive economic growth and improve the lives of all Americans," Genachowski said in a statement issued this morning. "And thanks to you, the Commission's employees, we've taken big steps to build a future where broadband is ubiquitous and bandwidth is abundant, where innovation and investment are flourishing."

The FCC said Genachowski plans to leave his post "in the coming weeks." President Barack Obama has not named his pick for a successor. Genachowski did not identify his post-FCC plans.

Earlier this week, Robert McDowell, a Republican member of the commission, and the FCC chief counsel, Sherrese Smith, announced their intent to leave the agency in the next several weeks.

Daily D.C. Lateral Roundup: Locke Lord

A former partner at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle has moved to Locke Lord's Washington office. James Alford has joined the firm as a partner in the firm's energy and corporate practice. He has more than 25 years of on-the-ground experience in all phases of international project development and finance worldwide, with a current focus on renewable energy, water, and toll road and port projects in Central and Latin America. Alford focuses his practice on helping U.S. and foreign private and public sector clients design, develop, and finance energy, infrastructure, construction and related operations and transactions in the United States and abroad.

Akin Gump Signs Former Congressman to Bolster Indian Law Practice

Updated at 2:37 p.m.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has secured former Representative Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), expanding its roster of former members of Congress to seven, the firm announced on Thursday.

Kildee, who left Congress in January after not seeking reelection, will join former representatives Victor Fazio (D-Calif.), Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.) and Tom Loeffler (R-Texas), as well as former senators Phil Gramm (R-Texas), Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.) and John Sununu (R-N.H.), at Akin.

He will be a senior consultant in the firm's American Indian law and policy practice and a policy adviser at Ietan Consulting. Ietan, which specializes in federal government relations work for tribes, has a strategic alliance with Akin and is located in the law firm's Washington office.

FCC Commissioner and Chief Counsel Announce Departure

Updated 5:55 p.m.

A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission and the FCC's chief counsel both announced today that they are stepping down.

Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell was re-appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. He was the senior member of the FCC's Republican minority.

"Rob McDowell has been an extraordinary colleague – deeply knowledgeable about the vital and growing communications and tech sector, creative, wise, and a great partner on the Commission," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement.