Wake Up Call: ‘Jailhouse Lawyers’ Work to Humanize Incarceration

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

• Jhody Polk was inspired by the women she encountered while serving time in prison, specifically in the law library. These women were self-taught legal advocates who provided assistance to fellow inmates despite having no formal training. After her release in 2014, she has worked to elevate the voices of more than 1,000 “jailhouse lawyers” across the country with the Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative. (NPR)
• The New Jersey Supreme Court ordered that former New Jersey lawyers who are disbarred will in most cases be allowed to apply for reinstatement after five years, overturning a 45-year precedent. The state joins 41 others and the District of Columbia in allowing disbarred attorneys to seek readmission, 31 of which also have a five-year waiting period. (ABA Journal)
• Julie Edelstein and David Raskin, two prosecutors who worked on the classified documents case against Donald Trump, have left special counsel Jack Smith’s office. According to people familiar with the departures, Edelstein has returned to the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section and Raskin to the DOJ’s national security division. (The New York Times)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Gurbir Grewal joined Milbank as a partner in its litigation and arbitration group in New York. He joins from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bloomberg Law was the first to report the move earlier this month.
• Stephanie Keen and Sylvia Taslim joined O’Melveny & Myers as partners in its mergers and acquisitions practice. They join from Hogan Lovells.
• Diego Ortega joined Faegre Drinker as a government and regulatory counsel in Washington. He joins from the Treasury Department.
• Christine Soares joined Polsinelli as a shareholder in its energy practice in its Philadelphia office.
• Cameron Weil joined Polsinelli as a real estate and capital markets shareholder in its New York City and Miami offices.
• Matt Pietsch joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as a commercial litigation partner in Nashville.
• Jad Sheikali joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon as a partner in its privacy and cybersecurity team in Chicago.
• Emory Moore joined Thompson Coburn as a partner in its labor and employment practice in Chicago.