Wake Up Call: AT&T Lobbyist Out Over Cohen Payments, GC Steps In

• AT&T Inc.'s Washington-based chief of lobbying, attorney Bob Quinn, is getting pushed out in fallout over revelations that the company paid $600,000 to a firm founded by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for advice on the new administration. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB ) Quinn, a former trial attorney at Mayer Brown & Platt (now Mayer Brown) in Chicago, started as a regional lawyer for AT&T in 1993. ( AT&T Public Policy ) With Quinn out, AT&T General Counsel David McAtee, a former Haynes & Boone partner, will step in to temporarily lead the company’s public policy, according to reports. ( Politico ) ( Corporate Counsel )

• In a case of really bad timing, news about AT&T’s payments to Cohen came out as a judge mulls his decision in a trial over the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner Inc. ( Bloomberg Law )

• Mayer Brown partner Lori Lightfoot is one of eight candidates hoping to oust Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel in elections early next year. With a decent chance of getting to an expected April 2019 runoff, Lightfoot is asking the legal community for money. ( Crain’s Chicago Business )

• A former Hogan Lovells partner, Lewis Cohen, and a tech industry in-house lawyer, Angela Angelovska-Wilson, started a new law firm--DLx Law LLP--focused only on the blockchain industry with offices in New York and Washington, D.C. ( Coindesk )

• The American Bar Association’s section for law school accrediting approved a plan that would open the way for accredited law schools to accept the Graduate Record Exam and other tests besides the Law School Admission Test. ( Law.com )

• President Trump knew five years ago about sexual abuse allegations against former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a lawyer told a Manhattan judge in the discovery battle over documents linked to the recent FBI raid on Michael Cohen. ( Bloomberg )

• Madeline Singas, the prosecutor appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to investigate the allegations against Schneiderman, has experience investigating sex crimes. The appointment could test her political skills, too. ( New York Times )

• Law firmBaker Donelson says it had nothing to do with an investment company that is owned by two figures linked to the firm and that reportedly loaned money to a man who admitted to a $100 million Ponzi scheme. A lawyer for Jon Seawright, a tax and healthcare shareholder at Baker Donelson, and lobbyist Brent Alexander, not a lawyer, say they were taken in by confessed fraudster Arthur Lamar Adams. ( American Lawyer )

Lawyers and Law Firms

• California lawyers will be responsible for harassment and discrimination--not just by them, but by any employees of their firms--under ethics rules approved by the state’s top court. Among other things, the rules require a lawyer sued for harassment to notify the state bar. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )

• Alfred Rava, a San Diego lawyer, counts himself as a fierce warrior in the fight against gender discrimination, but not in the way most people think. His targets have been women’s organizations and women-only events that, he says, are illegally biased against men. ( Bloomberg )

• Labor Department Secretary Alexander Acosta’s past involvement in a politicized hiring scandal may affect the department’s effort to replace four retiring senior lawyers. The really low pay for the positions will also likely be a factor, an O’Melveny & Myers partner, Gregory Jacob, said. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )

• New York-based Kleinberg Kaplan said legal operations executive and business strategist Rina Sproat has joined the firm as its first full-time chief operating officer. ( Kkwc.com )

Legal Actions

• A Seattle federal court ruling Friday that hobbled the city’s trailblazing effort to help Uber and Lyft drivers organize unions may still offer a bright spot for labor advocates. ( Bloomberg )

Technology

• The Trump administration is creating a new committee to help steer the federal government’s policies on artificial intelligence, in what it bills as an effort to keep the U.S.'s edge in technology. ( Bloomberg Law )

Legal Education

• Graduates from Washington, D.C., law schools fared worse than the national average for getting full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage or a law degree. Only Georgetown University Law Center beat that average, according to recent ABA data. ( National Law Journal )

Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Tom Taylor.