Private equity lands inside a law firm, and a Big Law recruiting chief walks

Massumi + Consoli, a midsize Los Angeles firm started in 2015 by two Kirkland & Ellis alums, launched a private equity backed management services organization called ElevenHundred+ with Dallas based Trive Capital. Massumi + Consoli says the new structure and equity incentives will let them recruit aggressively, and that the organization will invest in artificial intelligence, workflow automation, knowledge management and data science. They also poached a corporate partner from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP who managed lateral partner recruitment firmwide there, and he joins as a partner in New York. Mayer Brown poached an insurance partner from Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago. Mayer Brown says the hire strengthens their insurance transactions platform. On the talent side, Law.com reports that AI companies are increasingly recruiting lawyers away from major firms, and Firm Prospects counts 46 who left AmLaw 200 firms for legal engineer and product development roles in the first half of this year.