Wake Up Call: Blanche Leaves Cadwalader to Represent Trump

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

• Todd Blanche, formerly a Cadwalader partner and “registered New York Democrat,” has “bet his professional future” by representing Donald Trump as a Florida Republican who runs his own firm. With Cadwalader’s blessing, Blanche in recent years had represented other Trump associates like Paul Manafort and Boris Ephsteyn. (New York Times)
• The UK-founded Magic Circle firm Linklaters has hired consultancy giant Accenture in an artificial intelligence push to “boost client service.” Accenture has been studying Linklaters’ “technology, templates and processes” in a bid to improve client interactions. (Financial News)
• Harvard University has hired King & Spalding and partner Sally Yates, a former US deputy attorney general, to represent the school in its fight with a US House of Representatives committee as it probes the school’s response to reports of antisemitism on campus. King & Spalding will bolster Harvard’s existing “fleet” of lawyers in the matter from WilmerHale. (Harvard Crimson)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Daja Apetz-Dreier will join Morgan Lewis as a litigation partner in Munich, Germany. She was the managing partner of Reed Smith’s Munich office.
• Lisa Fitzgerald has joined Norton Rose Fulbright as technology partner in Melbourne, Australia. She was co-head of the national digital economy practice and a partner at Lander & Rogers.
• Emmett Weindruch has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in the intellectual property group in Charlotte, N.C. He joins from Moore & Van Allen.
• Joseph Maher has joined Nixon Peabody as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office. He previously worked for the Department of Homeland Security.
• Ghislaine Torres Bruner has joined Squire Patton Boggs as a partner with the environmental, safety, and health practice in Denver. She previously practiced at Polsinelli.
• Chiara Anceschi has joined K&L Gates as a partner with the finance practice in Milan, Italy from DLA Piper.
• Raja Sékaran, John Puente, Melissa Borrelli have joined Epstein Becker Green as members of the health care and life sciences practice in San Francisco.