Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.
- Goodwin Procter has reportedly let go an unspecified number of associates as part of a recent performance review process in what would be the latest law firm job cuts as the industry deals with sagging demand. Goodwin, which laid off about 5% of its associates and professionals earlier this year in response to a fall-off in demand, told American Lawyer it has made no layoffs since then. (American Lawyer)
- As law firms become more open to remote work by their employees, firms whose leases are up for renewal are taking 13% less office space than previously, according to a report. (Commercial Observer)
- Big Law firms arriving in South Florida fueled expansion of headcounts at firms in the state in 2022. (Daily Business Review)
Lawyers, Law Firms
- Longtime “Wheel of Fortune” co-star Vanna White has reportedly hired “famously combative” entertainment & media litigator Bryan Freedman on the heels of an announcement by the game show’s host, Pat Sajak, that he is retiring. (New York Post)
- Donald Trump aide Walt Nauta can’t find a Florida lawyer to represent him in the classified documents criminal case against him and the former president. (CNBC)
- A federal judge said he would likely reject Trump’s bid to move a criminal case stemming from a hush money payment to a porn star from state to federal court. (Reuters)
Laterals, Moves, In-house
- Shearman & Sterling, headed for a merger with Allen & Overy, lost a four-lawyer intellectual property litigation team to trial boutique Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg in Silicon Valley. The team includes partner Matthew Berkowitz and Shearman counsel Patrick Colsher joining as partner and associates Yue (Joy) Wang, and Aaron Morris. (ReichmanJorgensen.com)
- Winston & Strawn LLP grabbed Alston & Bird commercial litigator Stephanie Clouston as partner in Dallas. (Winston.com)
- Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr snagged commercial litigator Peri Berger in New York as partner. He arrives from Harris Beach. (Saul.com)
- DLA Piper added corporate and securities litigator Richard Zelichov as partner in Los Angeles. He arrives after close to 17 years at Katten Muchin Rosenman, where he was partner co-chair of the securities litigation practice. (DLAPiper.com)
- Dentons LLP hired Steptoe & Johnson (DC) IP litigation partner Stephen Yang as partner in New York. (Dentons.com)
- Reed Smith brought in veteran crypto in-house leader Celisa Morin, recently executive at digital currency asset manager Grayscale Investments, as counsel in its financial industry group and head of its crypto and digital assets group. (Reed Smith)
- Holland & Knight recruited Simon Coon, a former professional staff member on the US Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, as senior policy adviser in Washington. He’ll be a member of the firm’s national security, defense and intelligence team and focus on advising defense contractors. (HKLaw.com)
- Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck picked up employment counsel Luke Glisan, recently at financial services firm Macquarie Group, as shareholder in Denver in its corporate and business group. He’s a former US Department of Education senior counsel. (BHFS.com)
- Health tech platform Solera Health, Inc. hired in-house veteran Zachary McBride as general counsel. He was recently general counsel at Galileo, a telehealth platform. (GlobeNewswire)
- Telecommunications data center company T5 Data Centers hired data center industry veteran in-house leader Karen Stein, a former PGA Tour in-house attorney, as general counsel. (PR Newswire)
Promotions
- Eckert Seamans promoted three senior counsel attorneys to members. (EckertSeamans.com)
Legal Education
- Brigham Young University law professor and associate director David H. Moore will become the school’s dean next week. (Law.com)
