Wake Up Call: Ginni Thomas Praises Anti-Court Reform Legal Group

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

• Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in an email privately heaped praise on First Liberty Institute, a major religious-rights legal group, and its president, Kelly Shackelford, for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court. Those reform efforts are sparked, in part, by questions about her husband’s ethics. (Documented)
• Latham & Watkins has appointed corporate lawyer Ed Barnett as the new managing partner of its London office. He succeeds Stephen Kensell, who took over as office managing partner in March 2020 and will retire from practice at the end of the year. (Global Legal Post)
• Directors UK has hired ex-Disney general counsel Peter Wiley ahead of negotiations with big US players over royalties for its members. The group had written to Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, Apple, and Warner Bros. Discovery in August that they could potentially withhold members’ copyright from the streamers if they don’t attempt to reach a deal. (Deadline)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Maureen Sweeney joined King & Spalding as a partner in its finance and restructuring practice group. She joins from PSP Partners, where she was general counsel.
• Sonali Patel joined Mayer Brown as a partner in its global investigations and white collar defense practice. She joins from the Justice Department.
• Andrea Spellerberg joined K&L Gates as a partner in its finance practice. She joins from Norton Rose Fulbright.
• Victoria Callicott joined Squire Patton Boggs as a partner in its litigation practice. She joins from Eversheds Sutherland.
• Solomon Pantuch joined GRSM as as a partner in the environmental and toxic tort, health-care, commercial litigation, and insurance practice groups.
• Michael Torkin joined Linklaters as restructuring and insolvency partner and head of US capital solutions and special situations.
• Chris DeCresce joined Freshfields as a capital markets partner in New York.