Wake Up Call: Ex-NYC Elections GC Pleads Guilty for Harassment

In today’s column, a Salt Lake City-born law firm said it added 31 attorneys from a rival; the lawyers who firebombed an NYPD police vehicle in 2020 BLM protests pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges; a deposit late by “30 minutes” cost a UVA Law applicant his seat at the school.

• Leading off, the former general counsel for the New York City Board of Elections pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges for abusing his office by sexually harassing an intern and a job applicant. (New York Post)
• With half a dozen Big Law firms recently setting up in its home turf, Salt Lake City-based firm Parsons Behle & Latimer announced Thursday that it has brought in 31 attorneys from rival firm Jones Waldo Holbrook & McDonough. Parsons, which describes itself as a “full service” firm, said the additions make it one of the region’s biggest firms with over 180 attorneys and a new office in Park City, Utah. (Utah Business)
• Food brands giant Conagra Brands, Inc. said it promoted VP and chief counsel Carey Bartell to executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, effective June 6. She replaces Conagra’s former top lawyer, Colleen Batcheler, who left for Hertz Global Holdings in April. According to her LinkedIn profile, Bartell, a former Reed Smith partner, has been at Conagra for about six years and was earlier in-house at pharmaceutical and medical device company Hospira. (ConagraBrand.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• The two lawyers who firebombed an empty New York Police Department vehicle during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 in Brooklyn pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy charges in a deal with federal prosecutors. (WSJ)
• Kyle Rittenhouse’s new lawyer, Todd McMurtry, said his team plans to file “at least 10" defamation lawsuits against large companies and prominent individuals, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. (Fox News)
• A Washington ethics case accuses two law firm founding partners of imposing anti-competitive provisions in lawyers’ employment agreements. (Reuters)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Goodwin Procter recruited two private equity partners from big rival firms, getting Andrew Kimball from Kirkland & Ellis in Washington and Andrew Cheng from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Santa Monica, California; Norton Rose Fulbright snagged Morrison & Foerster renewable energy attorney Elizabeth Sluder as a partner in Los Angeles on its projects team; Troutman Pepper hired veteran cybersecurity and data privacy attorney Brent Hoard from Fenwick & West as a partner in its “virtual office.” He’s based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; Perkins Coie grabbed a five-lawyer government contracts group from Womble Bond Dickinson in Washington. The group is led by partners Kelley Doran and Gary Campbell; Alston & Bird grabbed longtime McGuireWoods commercial real estate attorney Stephen Peterson as a partner in Atlanta. (Alston.com)
• Atlanta-based management-side worklaw firm Fisher Phillips elected California-based partner John Polson as its new chairman and managing partner. He’s the first West Coast-based chair in Fisher’s 80-year history; Hogan Lovells named M&A partner Jane Ross office managing partner for its Silicon Valley office; Akerman named partner Jacqueline Arango, co-chair of the white collar crime & government investigations practice and former federal prosecutor, chair of its Miami office’s litigation practice; Dentons announced practice and sector group leadership appointments for its Europe region locations. (Dentons.com)
• Jones Day litigation partner Benjamin Mizer took a job as general counsel in the Biden administration’s Office of Personnel Management. He earlier served in several roles in the Justice Department during the Obama-Biden Administration, including head of the civil division. (OPM.gov); the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. hired former Rockefeller Financial general counsel and chief compliance officer Michael Solomon to be senior vice president of its national examination program. Solomon, a former Morgan Lewis attorney, New York Stock Exchange trial counsel, and Manhattan prosecutor, replaces Thomas Nelli, who retired in March. (InvestmentNews.com)

Legal Education

• A law school applicant said he lost his place at University of Virginia Law because he missed his deposit deadline by “30 minutes.” (Law.com)