Wake Up Call: Cleary, Willkie, Latham Dial T-Mobile’s Mint Deal

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

• Cleary Gottlieb is advising T-Mobile US Inc. on its agreement to buy budget wireless provider Mint Mobile for as much as $1.35 billion. Willkie Farr & Gallagher said it is advising actor Ryan Reynolds, who’s part owner of Mint and makes commercial appearances on its behalf. Latham & Watkins is serving as lead legal counsel to Ka’ena Corp., Mint’s parent company, with New England-based Bernstein Shur also advising Ka’ena on the deal, expected to close later this year. (Businesswire)
• Dallas, Texas-based financial services company Comerica Incorporated “quietly” paid $2.5 million to separate with its former chief legal officer. (Corporate Counsel)
• DLA Piper said it’s using Casetext’s CoCounsel, a new AI legal assistant powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 engine. Casetext said GPT-4 has passed both the multiple-choice and written portions of the Uniform Bar Exam. (DLA Piper)
• The US Securities and Exchange Commission told a federal court in a filing that precedent and a Congressional mandate justify its subpoena for Covington & Burlington’s client list after the firm was hacked in 2020. The firm has refused to turn over the list. (National Law Journal)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• A former Justice Department paralegal who uploaded to YouTube the post-arrest statements of gang members who testified against her son was sentenced to 33 months in prison. (Justice.gov)
• Cleveland-based Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff said thriving middle-market private equity work helped grow its revenues 11.7% to $236.9 million in 2022. (American Lawyer)
• Private equity fund Permira, instead of taking a portfolio-wide approach to setting environment, social, and governance targets for investments, is setting specific ESG targets for its $17.7 billion eighth fund. (New Private Markets)
• In Boeing Co.’s legal fight over a 737 Max crash in Ethiopia, attorneys for families of the dead are arguing the plane maker should pay more to compensate for terror they say the victims endured minutes before the aircraft slammed into the ground. (WSJ)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Baker Botts snagged former Paul Hastings global corporate vice chair Neil Torpey as corporate partner in New York and Austin, Texas. Torpey was among things Paul Hastings’ senior partner for Asia and chair of its Hong Kong office. He advises on M&A, private equity, and venture capital transactions. (BakerBotts.com)
• DLA grabbed Kirkland & Ellis health-care transactional attorney Melesa Freerks as partner in Chicago in its regulatory and government affairs practice group. (DLAPiper.com)
• FisherBroyles hired management-side worklaw attorney Denise Delcore as partner. She joins from Polsinelli PC, where she was shareholder. (FisherBroyles.com)
• Reed Smith brought back data privacy and cybersecurity partner Wendell Bartnick in Houston in the life sciences health industry group. He returns after about eight months at Holland & Knight. (ReedSmith.com)
• Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider added Steptoe & Johnson (DC) patent litigator Brian Johnson as partner in Washington in its intellectual property group. (Axinn.com)
• Fox Rothschild hired Morgan Lewis litigator Karen Prodromo as partner in San Francisco (FoxRothschild.com)
• Greenberg Traurig recruited former Georgia federal and state prosecutor Irina Khasin as of counsel in Atlanta in its litigation practice. (GTLaw.com)
• Gordon & Rees picked up appellate attorney Lindsey Peck as partner in Detroit. (GRSM.com)
• Crowell & Moring hired government contracts lawyer Lou Chiarella, former US Government Accountability Office deputy assistant general counsel, as senior counsel in Washington. (Crowell.com)
• AutoCruitment, which provides digital patient recruitment for clinical research, hired experienced information tech and life sciences industry in-house leader Kathy Twiddy as general counsel and chief compliance officer based in its new North Carolina office. She’s a former K&L Gates partner and was recently GC at e-commerce company ChannelAdvisor. (AutoCruitment.com)