Wake Up Call: Gibson Dunn Advising Walmart in U.K. Supermarket Merger (Corrected)

• Gibson Dunn and elite U.K. firms Slaughter and May and Linklaters have roles advising on a proposed merger of U.K. supermarket giants, one of which is a unit of Walmart. ( Bloomberg ) ( Legal Week ) The proposed 7.3 billion pound ($10 billion) deal, which could create a new retail giant, faces antitrust hurdles. ( Financial Times )

• Paul Manafort lost his civil lawsuit attacking special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority to charge him with crimes unrelated to his role as President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. ( Bloomberg )

• Crowell & Moring announced a new digital transformation practice that in particular aims to help corporate clients in technology- and innovation-related industries to speed launches of innovative products or internal processes. The team will be lead by an 11-attorney steering committee drawn from several practice groups. ( Legaltech News )

• Hogan Lovells and Sullivan & Cromwell say they see an advantage in the pushby a growing number of corporate clients to see more diversity in their outside law firms. ( American Lawyer )

• Lawyers for AT&T Inc. and the Justice Department today will make closing arguments on whether the telecom giant should be allowed to buy Time Warner Inc. Federal Judge Richard Leon’s decision in the case will almost immediately have a major impact on other pending deals, such as Cigna Corp.’s proposed $54 billion purchase of Express Scripts Holding Co., and Walt Disney Co.’s proposed deal with 21^st Century Fox. ( Bloomberg Law )

• As CFPB interim chief Mick Mulvaney pushes to rename and refocus the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he’s getting support from banking industry lobbyists but not from consumer advocacy groups. ( National Law Journal )

• Husch Blackwell beat a suit by a former school board candidate who alleged the law firm tried to silence his criticism of a municipal bond campaign that the firm’s client was underwriting. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )

• Former Bank of America Corp. prime brokerage executive Omeed Malik seeks more than $100 million in a defamation claim against the bank and plans to sue it for discrimination too, according to his lawyer. ( Bloomberg )

• Southwest Airlines Co. faces a lawsuit by a passenger who witnessed an engine explosion that killed a passenger on a flight out of New York’s LaGuardia airport. ( Bloomberg via BLB )

Lawyers and Law Firms

• Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, won a temporary halt of the lawsuit by porn star Stormy Daniels while a criminal probe of Cohen is under way. Daniels’ alleges she had a tryst with the president and was threatened to keep quiet about it. ( Bloomberg )

• A New York lawyer’s defamation suit against a former client suing him for legal malpractice can proceed, a judge ruled. ( New York Law Journal )

• Women with powerful jobs in the legal profession should use that power to fight gender discrimination and improve diversity, top corporate lawyers from Columbia Sportswear Company and Santa Fe Group said at the recent Corporate Legal Operations Consortium. ( Bloomberg Law )

Laterals, Moves, Law Firm Work

• Texas technology company AmpThink hired veteran Microsoft IP attorney and former software engineerJim Banowsky. ( Corporate Counsel )

• Crowell & Moring’s Los Angeles office lost two founding partners, Janet Levine and Jeff Rutherford, to local litigation boutique Kendall Brill & Kelly. ( The Recorder )

• Kansas City-founded Polsinelli poached Arent Fox’s technology transactions group co-head William Tanenbaum as a New York-based partner and vice chair of its health care technology and innovation group. ( American Lawyer )

• Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby hired a five-lawyer group away from Wilson Elser for its medical malpractice practice in New Jersey. ( Legal Intelligencer )

• Nashville-based healthcare finance company CarePayment said it hired Brian McCarthy as senior vice president and general counsel. McCarthy previously served as vice president and general counsel at OccuSystems Inc., which administers occupational injury claims backed by MedCare Investment Funds. ( Nashville Post )

Legal Actions

• A group of former au pairs represented by Boies, Schiller & Flexner can go forward with their class action alleging their visa sponsors engaged in wage-fixing, a federal appeals court ruled.( Bloomberg Law )

• A unit of Smithfield Foods, represented by McGuireWoods, said it will appeal a North Carolina court’s $50 million punitive damages award to neighbors of a 15,000-hog farm. The plaintiffs complained of smells, flies, and other nuisances. ( Bloomberg Law )

• Med tech giant Medtronic must face a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a male former top seller, a court said. ( Bloomberg Law )

Regulators and Enforcement

• Management-side labor attorneys have high hopes for new Deputy Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella. ( Bloomberg Law )

Technology

• The Democratic National Committee’s lawsuit alleging a conspiracy among the Trump campaign, Russia, and WikiLeaks, and others, could lead to an eDiscovery battle with risks for both sides. ( Legaltech News )

• Goodwin Procter client Coinbase Inc., a digital currency wallet, faces class civil claims in court after a federal appeals court shut down the company’s attempt to move the dispute into arbitration. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )

(Third entry corrected to reflect that the digital transformation practice at Crowell & Moring will be led by an 11-lawyer steering committee as opposed to being made up of 11 attorneys.)

Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Tom Taylor.