Wake Up Call: Amidst Brexit Fears, U.K. M&A on Track for Record Year

• Deals involving British companies have soared to more than $275 billion this year, on track for an annual high. Hogan Lovells’ global head of private equity, Tom Whelan, said U.K. companies concerned about growth and business prospects in post-Brexit Europe are taking steps to get a foothold in the EU. ( Bloomberg )

• Pinsent Masons passed Eversheds Sutherland atop Acritas’ annual U.K. law firm brand rankings for the first time. Acritas, a market research and analysis company, said that, despite domestic and international political uncertainty, its latest survey finds “buoyancy” in the U.K. legal market with considerable increases in legal spending from buyers with international needs. ( Acritas )

• U.K. elite firm Linklaters set up an external whistleblowing hotline for staff to anonymously report harassment and discrimination complaints, The Lawyer reports. ( The Lawyer )

• Loeb & Loeb poached a Winston & Strawn team of advertising, digital media, privacy, and brand protection lawyers in Chicago, led by partners Brian Heidelberger, Monique Bhargava, and Robert Newman, with nine associates expected to join them. Loeb & Loeb said the hires expand its advanced media and technology department to over 50 lawyers firmwide and continue its growth in Chicago. ( Loeb.com )

• Littler, the management-side employment and labor law firm, said Dutch labor and employment law boutique CLINT is joining its global platform, adding a fifth European country to the California-based firm’s roster, after France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. ( Littler )

• Starbucks Corp. got grilled yesterday by justices on California’s Supreme Court who wanted to know why the coffee shop giant couldn’t get technology to keep track of minutes employees work off the clock performing required tasks. Starbuck’s Akin Gump lawyer, partner Rex Heninke, told the court the company doesn’t get to say what’s on the technology market. ( Bloomberg Law ) Starbucks asked the court to throw out the case.( Bloomberg )

• Lawyers for AT&T and the Justice Department clashed Monday at the close of a six-week trial over the government’s effort to block AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner Inc. The judge overseeing the antitrust case has said he’ll rule in a month and a half whether to block the deal. ( Bloomberg )

• Law firm Saul Ewing said lawyer April Doss is returning after a year as senior Democratic counsel in the U.S. Senate’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Doss re-joined the firm as a partner and chair of the cybersecurity and privacy practice in its Washington and Baltimore offices. ( Saul.com )

• Volkswagen Group of America will pay West Virginia $2.65 million to resolve allegations that it used illegal emissions cheating technology in diesel vehicles. ( Bloomberg Environment )

Lawyers and Law Firms

• Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who’s overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, said he won’t be “extorted” after a group of House Republicans drafted articles of impeachment against him. ( Bloomberg )

• A former Cantor Fitzgerald bond trader on trial in a fraud case has a theatrical lawyer better known for helping clear accused killers than defending white-collar cases. ( Bloomberg )

• Amidst reports of alarmingly high rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the legal profession, the American Bar Association recently held a workshop to brainstorm ideas for a national model policy on the well-being of lawyers. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )

Laterals, Moves, Law Firm Work

• Michael Best said it hired a former Defense Department cybersecurity adviser to its privacy & cybersecurity practice group, getting Velvet Johnson as senior counsel in Washington. Johnson’s arrival comes after former DLA Piper lawyer Ryan Sulkin joined the practice as a partner in Chicago in April, and former Greenberg Traurig shareholder Elizabeth Rogers joined as a partner in Austin in March. ( MichaelBest.com )

• Snell & Wilmer said litigator Aloke Chakravarty, a former federal prosecutor who investigated and prosecuted the Boston Marathon bombing case, joined the firm in Denver as a partner in its white collar defense and investigations group and cybersecurity, data protection and privacy practice. ( Smlaw.com )

• Cole Schotz P.C. said it added veteran trusts and estates lawyer Christopher Gagic as a member in Boca Raton, Florida, in its tax, trusts & estates department. He was previously a partner in a local firm. ( ColeSchotz.com )

• Philadelpia-based Blank Rome said attorney Louis Meng joined the firm’s Shanghai office as a partner in the corporate, M&A, and securities group, head of the firm’s Greater China practice, and chief representative of its Shanghai office. Meng comes from Haynes and Boone, where he served as co-chair of the Asia practice group. ( BlankRome )

Legal Actions

• The California Supreme Court’s new test for whether someone is an employee or independent contractor may first be applied in a lawsuit against GrubHub Inc. ( Bloomberg Law )

• New York-based Holwell Shuster & Goldberg said it is participating in a pro bono civil lawsuit , filed with Muslim Advocates and Ellahie & Farooqui LLP on behalf of a prominent Pakistani doctor who was “suddenly and without warning” added to the U.S. government’s no-fly list and prohibited from entering the United States. ( Holwell Shuster )

Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Tom Taylor.