Wake Up Call: Akin Gump to Exit Austin After Departures

• Faced with the departure of of two intellectual property partners, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld said it plans to close its five-lawyer office in Austin, Texas, at the end of June. (Texas Lawyer)

• A lawsuit in California is testing questions regarding the extent of corporate liability , examining MetLife’s alleged responsibility for a Ponzi scheme sold by agents and brokers affilated with the insurer. (New York Times Dealbook)

• Former Dewey & LeBoeuf executive director Stephen DiCarmine, who had planned to defend himself in the criminal retrial on charges linked to his firm’s collapse in 2012, designated Rita Glavin, of Seward & Kissel as his new defense lawyer. (American Lawyer)

• Andrea Kramer, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery and co-author of “Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work,” says stereotypes and biases put women lawyers in a “ Goldilocks ” bind at their firms. She makes suggestions on how to overcome these challenges. (Video) (Big Law Business)

Legal Market

• After the revelation that PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s successful lawsuit against Gawker, some of the largest litigation finance companies are on the defensive. “It is uncommon,” said Jim Batson of Bentham IMF, of Thiel’s financing of the suit. (Big Law Business)

• Thiel has been paying Hollywood entertainment firm Harder Mirell & Abrams to conduct lawsuits targeting Gawker Media, on behalf of former wrestler Hulk Hogan. (Forbes)

• The Justice Department’s push to hold individual executives accountable for corporate wrongdoing could backfire by discouraging cooperation from companies, a report by the top U.S. business lobby warned. (Bloomerg News)

• The U.S. Department of Education announced last week it okayed Squire Patton Boggs as the “ independent monitor ” for a unit of non-profit debt collection company ECMC, which took over the bankrupt for-profit Corinthian Colleges, known for allegedly predatory student recruitment practices. But Patton Boggs once represented Corinthian, leading to objections by one writer. (Huffington Post/AP)

• Law schools don’t teach how to compensate partners , so it’s not surprising that law firms struggle with that issue, says the chief operating officer of a large law firm, offering what he calls six important lessons about compensation approaches. (Big Law Business)

• A look at the practices of some of the prominent trusts and estates lawyers whose clients take in such “ glamorous” clients as rock and movie stars, famous business people, Internet entrepreneurs and billionaires. (American Lawyer)

• In comments Friday in San Diego, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump attacked the federal judge overseeing the civil litigation against his defunct adult education program, calling him a “hater of Donald Trump.” (WSJ Blog)

• Forty-five years ago New York City divorce lawyer Barbara Handschu was listed first among plaintiffs in a Vietnam-era lawsuit challenging how New York City police officers conducted surveillance of political activities. The so-called Handschu Guidelines that resulted from that lawsuit, limiting how the city conducts surveillance, are now being tightened. (Washington Post)

• Justices on California’s Supreme Court seemed seemed doubtful about arguments Friday that the court should create safeguards to avoid windfall fees for class-action attorneys. (The Recorder)

SCOTUS

• The U.S. Supreme Court is a “ paler place”without its late justice Antonin Scalia, who was not only a cherished colleague and friend but witty and a sharp-eyed shopper, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in remarks Thursday. (National Law Journal)

Laterals and Moves

• Debevoise & Plimpton partner Sophie Lamb is leaving the firm to lead Latham & Watkins’ arbitration practice in London. (The Lawyer)

Technology

• The Obama Administration said the government should start preparing for the need to to regulate artificial intelligence while the powerful technology still depends on people. (Wired)

• Tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. looking to expand use of facial-recognition technology could soon find that effort significantly less obstructed, if Illinois follows through on a move to weaken a 2008 biometric privacy law. (National Law Journal)

• In a continuing government effort to get big tech companies to help more in the fight against terrorist propagranda and racism online, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have signed up to new EU “code of conduct” rules on hate speech. The rules require them to review most flagged hate speech within 24 hours, take it down, and sometimes post “counter narratives.” (Financial Times)

• Protecting sensitive data and privacy is a key concern for almost half of large companies and organizations, according to a recent survey some 580 professionals in risk management, legal, regulatory compliance, security, and IT in government, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, education, and financial services. (Legaltech News)

• E-discovery technology service company Compliance said it is expanding in Minneapolis, Washington and New York City, adding three senior e-discovery experts. (Legaltech News)

• A federal appeals court ruled Friday that federal law enforcement authorities can search for criminal evidence on computer hard drives they seized years before in a separate investigation. (Wall Street Journal)

Miscellaneous

• A former Barclays Plc trader on trial for rigging Libor was admonished for interrupting a co-defendant during questioning by a prosecutor when he shouted “no, no, no, no,” from his seat. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg)

• The American Bar Association’s cancellation of a Chinese human rights lawyer’s book deal “is an enabling of a dictatorship,” a Congressman said last week in a hearing on Capitol Hill, resuming Congress’s attack on the controversial ABA move. (Big Law Business)

Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Gabe Friedman.