New MP Soars into VA

Carol Honigberg's specialization in aviation-related real estate helps planes soar. As the newly-appointed Reed Smith Falls Church managing partner, she's planning to do the same for the office.

We caught up with Carol yesterday. She's taking over as managing partner from Karen Fagelson, who held the position for eight years. (Above, Karen passes the baton microphone.) She tells us she'll focus on "recruiting and the growth of the office." She'll also keep up her commercial real estate practice, where she sees a lot of activity along the new Silver Line. Apartment deals, however, may be slowing in some markets as folks start to get nervous about oversupply.

Carol's been with Reed Smith and Hazel & Thomas (which merged into Reed Smith in '99) since '80, including six years as corporate secretary. Along the way, a client snagged an RFP to develop cargo facilities at Dulles, which were used by FedEx, DHL, United, and Lufthansa. It was so successful that the client ended up spinning off a new company specializing in airport development work, the legal aspects of which Carol took on around the country. She works often with private parties that develop or own airport facilities for corporate fleets and private planes. One current project is developing a new hangar facility in Manassas; another is working with a client to sell an existing facility in Florida. (And if her MP duties become too stressful, somehow we think a quick airborne getaway wouldn't be too hard to find.)

Yesterday, President Obama nominated former SDNY US attorney Mary Jo White (the first woman to hold that role) to lead the SEC. It comes a year after we heard Mary Jo, along with Eliot Spitzer and Lanny Breuer, discuss whether financial felons got a free pass after the financial crisis. Then a Debevoise partner who repped some of the institutions in the meltdown, Mary Jo stated concern about a "frenzy for scalps" overtaking reason in the aftermath of the crisis.

Mary Jo and the others did agree that moving through the revolving door, which is sometimes maligned, can create innovative attorneys. She's excelled in whichever post she's taken: from acting US attorney in Brooklyn to US attorney in Manhattan to chair of Debevoise's 225-lawyer litigation department. She's done everything from prosecuting John Gotti and the '93 World Trade Center bombing mastermind to defending corporate hot-shots including former Bank of America head Ken Lewis. Incidentally, Lanny Breuer, who was part of the panel (where he defended the DOJ's reaction to the financial crisis), was announced Wednesday to be stepping down as head of the DOJ's Criminal Division.

Lateral hiring can be a bellwether for the legal industry. What's to come for DC? Abshire Legal Search head Jordan Abshire first looks backward to '12. The Harvard Law alum and former Troutman attorney says lateral associate opportunities in IP far outpaced those in litigation and corporate—106 IP postings to 59 in corporate and 56 in litigation. Litigation openings led in 2011, but fell dramatically in '12 to around half of their '11 total. Corporate openings seemed to concentrate in Q2 and Q3.

Jordan's an LSU Tiger alum (he's had this ceramic tiger, painted by his mother, since birth). Though his team didn't finish at the top this year, DC nearly led the way in associate opportunities, second to only NY. After a substantial uptick in lateral associate openings in '10, '11 saw another bump, which largely maintained pace last year. Now that firms have had the holiday season to assess workloads, and associates have started to pursue new opportunities after picking up their year-end bonuses (or making New Year's resolutions), we'll see busy lateral markets in Q1 and Q2.

Jordan grew up in Louisiana, so receiving Mardi Gras masks for Christmas is standard practice. Across geographic markets, he says, different firms in the same city often post openings for the same practice group within a few weeks—and sometimes days—of each other. One explanation: a particular catalyst pushing multiple firms to simultaneously recognize a need in a particular group. Another could be firms seeing their competitors dip their toes the lateral market and wanting a slice of whatever talent is stirred up by their competitors' openings. For instance, last year, 5 of 6 environmental openings came out in Q3; 10 of 15 tax postings in Q1.

Check out The Scene Bisnow DC for all the celebs who were in DC this week. Sunday, we went to the Latino Inaugural at the Kennedy Center and spotted Eva Longoria.

Extra's Mario Lopez stopped by.

Hellooo, Newman! We snapped Seinfeld fave Wayne Knight arriving with his wife at the Creative Coalition Inaugural Ball. More pics here.

Send story tips and scoops to Roksana@bisnow.com.