Wake Up Call: Goldman Sachs’ Co-GC Palm Retiring; Seymour to Take Over as Sole GC

• Goldman Sachs executive VP and co-general counsel Karen Seymour is set to take over as the investment bank’s only general counsel, as co-general counsel Gregory Palm is retiring after 27 years in the role. Before joining Goldman Sachs in December 2017, Seymour was Sullivan & Cromwell partner, and before that headed the Justice Deparment’s criminal division. As Goldman’s sole GC, Seymour will have to deal with a scandal involving the Malaysian government. (Bloomberg News)

• Norton Rose Fulbright appointed Walied Soliman, who chairs its Canadian practice, to a one-year term as its global chair. Soliman succeeds Australian litigation partner Tricia Hobson, who became the firm’s first female global chair last year. (American Lawyer)

• More than a dozen companies that serve as U.S. Au Pair program sponsors agreed to pay $65.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of colluding to suppress wages. New York-based Boies Schiller & Flexner represented plaintiffs in the class action, which Denver-based Towards Justice filed in 2014. (Bloomberg News via BLB)

• U.S. government lawyers are working without pay as bankruptcy cases grind on during the federal shutdown. (Bloomberg News via BLB)

• The IRS’s decision to process tax refunds during a partial government shutdown would require calling employees back to work without pay and raise the possibility of more shutdown-related lawsuits. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• Perkins Coie grabbed Morrison & Foerster tech veteran John Delaney as a technology transactions & privacy partner in New York. Delaney, who joined MoFo in 1989, was previously co-chair of that firm’s media practice and former co-chair of its technology transaction practice. (PerkinsCoie.com)

• Amazon.com Inc., advised by Perkins Coie, won its bid in federal court to kill a technology company’s patent describing a system for storing copies of data files across a network. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• The National Football League, advised by Haynes and Boone and Fox Rothschild, got New Jersey’s top court to rule that its ticket allocation for the 2014 Super Bowl didn’t violate a state law. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

Lawyers, Law Firms, Deals

• Seyfarth Shaw said former Magic Leap GC Mark Albert joined the firm’s corporate department in Chicago. Prior to Magic Leap, Albert was a corporate partner at Perkins Coie and a founding member of its Palo Alto office. (SeyfarthShaw.com)

• MoFo client Fannie Mae isn’t liable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act for falsely informing potential mortgage lenders that customers had a prior foreclosure on a mortgage account, a federal appeals court ruled. (Bloomberg Law)

• New York-based Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings America Inc. asked a court to dismiss a gender-discrimination lawsuit filed by its former acting general counsel and chief compliance officer, on grounds the suit is based on privileged and confidential information. (Corporate Counsel)

• O’Melveny advised next-generation cloud infrastructure security company Avid Secure on its acquisition by Sophos, an endpoint security platform provider. Deal terms were not disclosed. (Solutions Review) (OMM.com)

Laterals, Moves

• King & Spalding said public finance lawyer Matthew Nichols joined the firm as Atlanta-based partner in the firm’s corporate, finance and Investments practice group. Nichols joins from Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, after spending the first 25 years of his career at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. (KSLaw.com)

• Holland & Knight said financial services regulatory attorney Kara Ward joined the firm’s public policy & regulatory practice group in its Washington office. She arrives from Venable. (Hklaw.com)

• Clark Hill hired estate-planning attorney Brian Della Rocca as senior counsel in its Washington office, in the tax and estate planning group. It also added business succession and wealth transfer attorney Mark Kossow as a member in Princeton, New Jersey, in the banking & financial services group. Kossow joins from Archer. (ClarkHill.com)

• Haynes and Boone said veteran corporate and M&A lawyer Megan Gess joined the firm’s Orange County, California, office. Arriving from Troutman Sanders, she was previously Sheppard Mullin’s co-chair of the food & beverage industry team. (HaynesBoone.com)

• Blank Rome said veteran Thompson & Knight real estate lawyers Michael Peskowitz and Lauren Scarantino joined the firm as partners in New York in its real estate group. (BlankRome.com)

• Sidley Austin added two lawyers to its global restructuring practice. Mark Knight, a former Kirkland & Ellis partner and Pillarstone GC, joins as partner in London. Charles Persons, who joins as counsel in Dallas, previously spent eight years at Weil. (Sidley.com)

Promotions

• Steptoe & Johnson LLP said it promoted five lawyers to partner, including two women, and elevated six partners from non-equity to equity status. It promoted two lawyers to of counsel. (Steptoe.com)

Legal Actions, Bankruptcies, Decisions

• Morgan Lewis client U.S. Bank defeated a lawsuit by investors in a residential mortgage-backed securities trust that lost more than $100 million in the 2008 housing market collapse. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• Georgetown University, advised by Mayer Brown, is the latest school to defeat a lawsuit challenging the fees and investment options in its retirement plan. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

Legal Market

• Wyoming is looking to compete with Delaware as a corporate-friendly destination by creating a specialized court that offers lower fees and speedy dispute resolutions. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)