Wake Up Call: Georgetown Law Gets Record $30 Million Donation

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

• Georgetown Law received a $30 million gift from a Taiwanese business leader who graduated from the school in 1979, Georgetown University said. The gift, the largest the university has ever received, will support construction of a new 200,000 square foot state-of-the art academic building on Georgetown Law campus, the school said. (Georgetown.edu)
• As his legal problems pile up, former President Donald Trump has been shunting a growing percentage of contributions made to his 2024 campaign to a political action committee he uses to cover his legal fees. (New York Times)
• Flexible lawyering service Axiom Law announced the launch of Axiom Advice & Counsel LLC in Arizona. Axiom said that, while it has mainly focused on serving businesses that have an in-house legal team, its new unit will target organizations that don’t have dedicated internal legal resources. (Digital Journal)
• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner raised pay for its recently licensed UK junior lawyers by 10,000 pounds to 105,000 pounds ($133,610). The raise makes BCLP competitive with some of its rivals in London, but it trails Magic Circle firms Linklaters LLP, Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Those firms are all paying junior lawyers 125,000 pounds, and several big US firms are paying 170,000 pounds, according to a report. (Roll On Friday)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Facing a decline in US and EU dealmaking, Big Law firms have been attracted to the M&A market in Saudi Arabia, where the kingdom recently changed its rules for the legal profession. (Financial Times)
• Shook Hardy & Bacon said it’s expanding its civil rights practice. (SHB.com)
• Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has only gotten one proposal from a law firm interested in taking over as litigation counsel from the big Democratic-connected plaintiffs firm from Florida he fired earlier this year. That could force Kobach to make an awkward hire for outside counsel in the state’s $50 million gas price-gouging litigation against energy companies. (CJonline.com)
• US Attorney General Merrick Garland denied two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers’ accusations that the Justice Department interfered with a tax investigation into Hunter Biden. (CBS News)
• A Florida federal judge Friday sided with restaurant chain Hamburger Mary’s in finding the state’s restrictions on drag performances likely violate the First Amendment. The judge blocked the state from enforcing the restrictions, citing “vague language” in the statute creating them. (Billboard)

Pro Bono

• Freshfields said it has signed a memorandum of understanding to provide pro bono legal advice to Ukraine as it establishes a development fund to attract public and private sector capital for the reconstruction and recovery of its economy. (Freshfields.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Dykema Gossett hired corporate finance lawyer Peter Waltz, specializing in securities compliance and transactional matters, as a member in Milwaukee. He arrives from Polsinelli PC’s Denver office, where he was a member of the fintech practice. (Dykema.com)
• Fox Rothschild picked up commercial litigator Kevin Peters as partner in Boston. He arrives from Gesmer & Updegrove, where he was partner. (FoxRothschild.com)
• Husch Blackwell snagged Stoel Rives renewable energy attorney Sara Bergan as partner in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (HuschBlackwell.com)
• Daimler Truck AG said associate general counsel Florian Hofer will be its new chief legal and compliance officer starting in July. He replaces Thomas Laubert who is joining Bayer AG as head of law, patents, compliance. (DaimlerTruck.com)

Technology

• Legal tech company Aderant said its new artificial intelligence-powered “virtual associate” automates routine, repeatable tasks and provides insights and behavioral prompts. (Aderant.com)