Wake Up Call: Arent Fox Buys Digital Land for Metaverse Office

In today’s column, New York’s court system cut social distancing rules for criminal jury trials; London-based Ashurst reelected its CEO to another four-year term; a small London firm appointed a fertility officer.

• Leading off, Washington-headquartered Arent Fox, headed for a March 1 merger with Schiff Hardin, said it bought property in the metaverse, making it the first Big Law firm to establish a significant presence in the virtual world. Firm chair Anthony Lupo said the firm made the move after several clients, including PwC, Discovery Channel and NBA teams, started doing business in the digital world. (American Lawyer)
• Citing falling numbers of Covid-19 cases, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore of the New York Court of Appeals said the state’s court system has halved social distancing requirements for criminal jury trials. (New York Law Journal)
• London-based Burgess Mee appointed a surrogacy law specialist as its first-ever fertility officer, as the small family law firm aims to compete for talent with its larger rivals. (City A.M.)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• London-based Ashurst reelected its CEO, Paul Jenkins, to a third four-year term starting Nov. 1. He’s based in Sydney, Australia, and London. (Global Legal Post)
• The chief legal officer of San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, former Blockchain CLO and president Marco Santori, said he aims to hire 30 lawyers in three months. The idea is to help the company achieve its goal of making a dozen acquisitions this year. (Business Insider)
• A Minnesota lawyer who is an ex-county prosecutor is free on bail after three women who were his clients accused him of rape. (Star Tribune)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Stroock poached Baker McKenzie partner Tom Firestone, co-chair of that firm’s North America government enforcement task force, as a partner in Washington. Firestone, a former New York federal prosecutor and resident legal advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, joined Stroock as co-chair of its white collar & internal investigations practice group and partner in the national security, CFIUS, and compliance and litigation groups; Dentons said former Financial Industry Regulatory Authority principal enforcement counsel Deborah Renner is rejoining the firm as a commercial litigation partner in New York. She was a partner at Baker Hostetler and previously spent 14 years at Dentons’ legacy firm Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal; K&L Gates recruited former Securities and Exchange Commission senior counsel Keri Riemer as of counsel in New York in its asset management and investment funds practice. She was earlier executive director and assistant general counsel at JPMorgan Chase; Boies Schiller Flexner’s sports and gaming practice head Helen Maher is leaving to join Cadwalader in New York “within the next few months.” (New York Law Journal) Paul Hastings got Covington’s securities and capital markets practice co-leader Chris DeCresce as a partner in New York and vice chair of its securities & capital markets practice. (PaulHastings.com)
• Dykema opened a five-lawyer office in Houston led by business litigation partners Isaac Villarreal and Andy Green, who joined from McCathern; Alston & Bird grabbed Katten Muchin tax partner Sarah Ma as a partner in Washington. She advises clients on tax aspects of high-value and sophisticated real estate investment trust and structured finance and securitization transactions; Katten recruited Goodwin Procter corporate and M&A transactions attorney John Corrigan as a partner in its private credit practice in Los Angeles; McDermott Will & Emery grabbed the global co-head of Latham & Watkins’ power industry group, Clarinda Tjia-Dharmadi, to be its Asia transactions chair in Singapore; Greenspoon Marder hired international tax and estates planning partner Ruben Gotlieb in Miami. He was previously at GrayRobinson. (GMLaw.com)
• San Francisco-based vaccine developer Vaxart, Inc. hired veteran pharmaceutical industry executive and in-house leader Edward Berg as senior vice president and its first-ever general counsel; France-based aerospace, defense and technology company Thales Group said its group secretary and general counsel Isabelle Simon will also take on overall responsibility for matters relating to environmental societal responsibility for which it created a new corporate department. (ThalesGroup.com)