Wake Up Call: A&O’s New AI Chatbot Helps Lawyers Draft Contracts

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• UK elite firm Allen & Overy says its new artificial intelligence chatbot “Harvey” can help its lawyers with such tasks as drafting contracts or client memos. The tool is based on GPT technology created by OpenAI. A&O is apparently the first magic circle firm to use so-called generative AI software company-wide for active cases, according to a report. (Financial Times)
• The New York City Bar Association said the state’s court system needs more funding to get it back to pre-pandemic speed. (New York Law Journal)
• Skadden poached longtime Morrison & Foerster litigation partner Mark Foster, who was co-chair of MoFo’s securities litigation, enforcement, and white-collar defense group, as a partner in Palo Alto. (Skadden.com)
• Two plaintiffs law firms specializing in securities class actions earned collectively close to $3 billion in fees between 2005 and 2018, according to a paper by three law professors. (Papers.SSRN.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Gibson Dunn and Arnold Porter, the only law firms participating in a three-year “Black equity at work” certification program, got certified for the first year. (American Lawyer)
• Norton Rose Fulbright re-elected health-care litigator Jeff Cody to his second four-year term as its US managing partner. (Globe Newswire)
• San Francisco-headquartered Hanson Bridgett said it opened an office in Costa Mesa, California, to serve its growing client list in the Orange County area. The new office is its sixth in the state. (HansonBridgett.com)
• Tampa, Florida-headquartered Carlton Fields appointed litigation shareholder Steven Weisburd as its Los Angeles managing partner. He takes over from shareholder Mark Neubauer, who served in the role for eight years. (CarltonFields.com)
• Locke Lord appointed New Orleans-based partner Victoria de Lisle co-chair of its finance, banking and real estate practice group. She joins existing co-chairs Paul Pruett in Houston and Sam Stempel in Chicago. (LockeLord.com)
• Memphis-headquartered Baker Donelson is reassessing its office needs across the firm as part of a national strategic plan that runs through 2028. (Memphis Business Journal)
• The Oregon State Bar defeated a challenge to its compulsory membership rules for attorneys in the state. (Courtroom News)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Entertainment industry worklaw attorney Grant Goeckner, recently Home Box Office vice president and senior counsel of labor relations, returned to Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp as a partner in Los Angeles. He was an associate at the firm earlier in his career and spent about four years as a professional ice hockey player. (MSK.com)
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Greenspoon Marder picked up veteran Big Law and in-house real estate attorney Daniel Balys as a partner in Chicago. (GMLaw.com)
• Saul Ewing said health-care lawyer Alyson Schaffer Leone joined the firm’s Princeton office as partner. She arrives from Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer. (SaulEwing.com)
• Womble Bond Dickinson recruited Allison Mayer, former deputy chief of staff and infrastructure director to then-Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, as senior adviser in its capital markets group in Baltimore. (WombleBondDickinson.com)
• Goodwin Procter hired Deloitte’s global private strategy and operations executive Bela Grover to be its chief client relationship officer. She’s based in San Francisco. (GoodwinLaw.com)
• Crypto exchange Binance hired crypto firm Gemini Trust Co.’s former chief operating officer Noah Perlman as chief compliance officer. According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s among other things a former federal prosecutor, federal district court clerk, and Davis Polk & Wardwell associate. (Bloomberg News)
• Digital banking and treasury management technology company Dragonfly Financial Technologies Corp. hired fintech in-house veteran La Dell Diaz as chief legal officer based in Omaha, Nebraska. She was previously senior vice president legal for ACI Worldwide Corp., a Miami, Florida-based payment systems company. (PR Newswire)

Legal Education

• Three law schools have programs to help students prepare for in-house jobs. (Legal Dive)