In today’s column, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton got a slap-down from the Texas House over his spending on outside counsel; the SEC named a Paul, Weiss partner to be the agency’s enforcement head; a Minnesota law school dean wants to start a prison-to-law school pipeline.

• Leading off, Foley Hoag is offering unlimited billable hours credit for diversity and inclusion work by associates and other timekeepers, according to a report. Several other Big Law firms also accept D&I work toward their billable hours targets for bonuses and other incentives, with Baker McKenzie’s 125 hours limit apparently the biggest. Until now. (Above the Law)
• The Texas House of Representatives Thursday adopted a budget amendment aimed at controlling how much Attorney General Ken Paxton spends on outside attorneys. He’s been shelling out as much as $3,780 per hour and the amendment would limit that to $500. (Houston Chronicle)
• Big Law’s non-equity tier share of the overall partnership has about doubled in the last 20 years to reach 45.7% last year. The non-equity tier’s per firm average aggregate compensation rose 9.2%, from $92.5 million to $101.1 million in 2020. There’s debate about whether that growth is a positive or negative for the profession. (American Lawyer)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Hogan Lovells appointed London-based partner James Doyle as global corporate & finance practice group leader starting July 1, taking over from partner David Gibbons, who’s returning full time to his practice. Doyle will work with Baltimore- and Washington-based partner David Bonser, who takes on the firm’s new role of corporate practice managing partner starting May 1. Doyle and Bonser are among several new appointments the firm announced to its international management committee and board; Dykema promoted labor & employment member and litigator Elisa Lintemuth to managing member of the firm’s Grand Rapids office. (Dykema.com)
• The Securities and Exchange Commission named Paul Weiss partner and former federal prosecutor Alex Oh as head of enforcement. (Bloomberg News via BLAW)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium said Intel’s director of legal operations, Mike Haven, a CLOC board member, is taking over as its head in May from Mary O’Carroll, who’s leaving her job as Google’s director of legal operations for another job; financial services law firm Murphy & McGonigle hired veteran banking in-house leader and former SEC lawyer and branch chief Steve Gannon, most recently executive vice president, general counsel, and chief legal officer of Citizens Financial Group, in Boston. Gannon’s previously been GC at Wachovia Securities and deputy general counsel and EVP at Capital One; legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa hired former PepsiCo Inc. legal director for anti-corruption compliance Thanh Nguyen as director for in-house legal recruiting based in Los Angeles. (MLAGlobal.com)
• Goodwin Procter poached its third London tax partner this year from Kirkland & Ellis, this time getting David Irvine. Irvine was earlier at Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Akin Gump hired hired Schulte Roth & Zabel investment funds attorney Brian Daly as a partner in New York; Sheppard Mullin hired bankruptcy lawyer Paul Harner in New York as a partner. He arrives from Ballard Spahr where he led the New York restructuring practice. (SheppardMullin.com)
• Former California federal prosecutor Alexander F. Porter joined Davis Wright Tremaine as a partner in Los Angeles; Four former Florida local government lawyers at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, including Saul Ewing’s Florida government relations practice co-chair, Keith Poliakoff, left to start their own firm. (GovLawGroup.com)

Technology

• Seward & Kissel said it advised Sotheby’s on the auction house’s recent first sale of blockchain-tech-based non-fungible tokens, in a partnership with digital artist Pak that yielded $16.8 million in total; Womble Bond Dickinson signed on as an early adopter of Reynen Court’s new “full-service” offering for law firms. (Artificial Lawyer)

Legal Education

• The dean of a Minnesota-based law school recently proctored the Law School Admission Test for two law school candidates who are prison inmates. The dean, with two local prisoner-advocacy groups, wants to establish a prison-to-law school pipeline. (Law.com)

To contact the correspondent on this story: Rick Mitchell in Paris at rMitchell@correspondent.bloomberglaw.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebekah Mintzer at rmintzer@bloomberglaw.com; Darren Bowman at dbowman@bloomberglaw.com

Link: Wake Up Call: Foley Hoag Offers Unlimited D&I Hours Credit
Author: Rick Mitchell in Paris at rMitchell@correspondent.bloomberglaw.com