Wake Up Call: Florida Court Rejects Bar Investigation Into Bondi

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

• The Florida Supreme Court rejected a request made by dozens of attorneys and former judges to force the Florida Bar to investigate Attorney General Pam Bondi for alleged state ethics violations. The court’s five-sentence rejection sided with the Florida Bar and state Attorney General James Uthmeier in finding that the 70-odd legal experts lacked standing to ask a state-level organization to investigate federal officials, even if they’re certified to practice law in Florida. (Florida Phoenix)
• New York attorney Michael Fourte was caught using AI in filings in a New York Supreme Court commercial case, and then was caught using AI again in the brief where he had to explain why he used AI. Judge Joel Cohen wrote in a decision granting the plaintiff’s attorneys’ request for sanctions that Fourte not only submitted AI-hallucinated citations and quotations in the summary judgment brief that led to the filing of the motion for sanctions, but also included “multiple new AI-hallucinated citations and quotations” in the process of opposing the motion. (404 Media)
• Colorado lawyer Scott Oliver is facing two lawsuits accusing him of facilitating multimillion-dollar hypercar fraud schemes. Oliver allegedly helped broker luxury car “build slot” deals tied to convicted fraudster Traveon Rogers, including a $5.4 million Mercedes-AMG sale to Revolve CEO Michael Mente that never materialized. Oliver insists he was misled and unaware of any deception. However, a new suit by Superfast GmbH alleges Oliver continued similar activity even after Rogers’ arrest, taking $2.1 million for nonexistent Ferrari build slots. (BusinessDen)
• Danielle Sassoon chided NYU Law for forcing the school’s Federalist Society to cancel an Ilya Shapiro event (then reversing course amid criticism). Sassoon, who resigned as interim Manhattan US Attorney rather than drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is “worried that while law school leaders are eager for me to lecture their students,” they are “missing a key point: that these principles must be defended even when doing so is inconvenient.” (The New York Times)
• Manhattan-based boutique Sher Tremonte hired veteran federal public defender Deirdre von Dornum to fight the Trump administration over immigration and First Amendment cases. “Known as a smiling legal gladiator who’s won rare acquittals in a federal system where prosecutors prevail at trial 90% of the time,” von Dornum was shadowed by Julianna Margulies to prep for “The Good Wife.” (New York Daily News)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Carole Turcotte joined Baker McKenzie as a partner in its transactional practice in Toronto. She joins from Trans-Canada Capital.
• Jacqueline Mulryne joined Morgan Lewis as a partner in its life sciences and health care practice in London. She joins from Arnold & Porter.
• Randall Thomas joined Morgan Lewis as a partner in its tax-exempt organizations practice in Washington. He joins from the Internal Revenue Service.
• Jim Jensen has joined Orrick as a partner and head of the fund formation practice in Silicon Valley. He joins from Wilson Sonsini.
• Arun Birla and Jiten Tank joined White & Case as partners in its global tax practice in London. They join from Paul Hastings.
• Erika Maley joined Hunton Andrews Kurth as a partner and co-chair of the firm’s issues and appeals practice in Washington. She was previously the solicitor general for Virginia.
• Jay Taylor joined Stinson as a partner in its corporate finance practice division in New York. He joins from Anderson Kill.
• Matthew Van Hise joined BakerHostetler as a partner in its digital assets and data management practice group in Chicago. He joins from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
• JD Howard and Chad Sillman joined Barnes & Thornburg as partners in its real estate department. Howard joins from Morris, Manning & Martin, while Sillman joins from TotalEnergies.