Wake Up Call: Conflict Concerns Raised Involving WilmerHale, EPA

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

• An EPA lawyer managed the cleanup of the toxic freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio last February while WilmerHale, her husband’s law firm, represented Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train that crashed. EPA Deputy General Counsel Natalia Sorgente was permitted to stay on the case by the agency’s ethics office after conflict questions were raised that involved husband Joel Millar, a DC-based WilmerHale special counsel. (Washington Times)
• Fox Rothschild has hired a three-lawyer transactions team from Blalock Walters to open its third Florida office in Sarasota. Robert Stroud, the new chair of Fox’s health care transactions practice group, also will lead the office. (Global Legal Post)
• The American Bar Association’s criminal justice section has launched the Prosecutorial Independence Task Force, to be aided by advisors including former US attorney’s general Alberto Gonzalez and Loretta Lynch. The new panel comes in the wake of the ABA adoption of a resolution urging state and local officials to “to respect the independence and discretion inherent in the prosecutorial function.” (ABA)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Louis Fogel and Shaun Van Horn have joined Fish & Richardson as part of the litigation group and members of the life sciences industry team in Chicago. They join from Jenner & Block.
• Richard Rahm has joined Ogletree Deakins as a shareholder in the San Francisco office. He joins from Littler Mendelson.
• Mira Dewji has been appointed chief inclusion and diversity officer at Seyfarth Shaw in New York.
• Mark Quiroz has joined FORVIS with the tax specialty practice as as a managing director focusing on tax transformation in Chicago.
• Neena Shenai has joined WilmerHale as a partner with the international trade, investment, and market access practice group in Washington, D.C. She joins from Medtronic, a medical technology company.
• Paul M. Kaplan has joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as a partner in the commercial litigation and antitrust practice groups in the New York City office.
• Clifford Chance is expanding its use of AI technologies—Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Viva Suite—for employees globally.
• Alison Radecki has joined Norton Rose Fulbright as a partner in the New York office. She joins from Orrick.