Wake Up Call: KPMG Launches Standalone Irish Law Firm

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

• Accounting giant KPMG’s Ireland branch launched a standalone law firm based in Dublin, joining the list of law firms that have opened offices in the Republic since Brexit. Led by managing partner John Given, a corporate and M&A specialist, the new firm is starting out with 60 employees, with plans to expand to 160 over the next three years. KPMG Law Ireland is the second Irish law firm set up by a Big Four accounting group after Ernst & Young made the move last year. (The Irish Times)
• The 78 Cooley attorneys laid off last week are getting three months’ severance pay, while the 72 staff let go are only getting one month, this report says.(American Lawyer)
• London lawyers should get ready for job cuts, as a slowdown hits the legal sector after last year’s boom. (Financial News)
• A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted Greenberg Traurig lawyers for Ye permission to withdraw as counsel from the antisemitic rap star’s defense against a production company’s contract suit seeking $7.1 million in allegedly unpaid fees. Ye was formerly known as Kanye West. (Spectrum News 1)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Tom Umberg, a California Democrat state senator and judiciary committee chair, proposed legislation that would require the state’s 266,000 lawyers to report misconduct by colleagues to the State Bar. Umberg, a practicing attorney, said the Tom Girardi scandal had exposed numerous shortcomings in the state’s legal system. (Los Angeles Times)
• Weil Gotshal and Kramer Levin are the latest law firms announcing year-end associate bonuses that match the Baker McKenzie/Cravath scale. (Above The Law)
• Federal authorities charged a California lawyer with 11 financial crimes linked to the Wisconsin law firm he owns through a holding company. (Justice.Gov)
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams is getting flak for using a city lawyer to fight a city fine for a rat infestation in a Brooklyn building he owns. (Associated Press via WHEC.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Casino gaming and entertainment company Bally’s Corporation hired gaming industry in-house veteran Kim Barker Lee as executive vice president and chief legal officer. She was recently global vice president of diversity and inclusion at International Game Technology and earlier was general counsel and vice president for legal and regulatory affairs at Northstar Lottery Group. (Ballys.com)
• WilmerHale recruited, Richard Burger, a former enforcement attorney at the UK financial services regulator, as a white collar defense and investigations partner in London. Burger, who was co-head of corporate investigations at big UK firm DWF, joins WilmerHale in January. (WilmerHale.com)
• DLA Piper grabbed veteran entertainment law attorney Richard Petretti from Sidley Austin as partner in L.A. in its media, sports and entertainment practice. Petretti earlier spent 21 years as partner at Morgan Lewis; DLA Piper also hired banking lawyer Trinh Hoang, a former Linklaters managing associate in Hong Kong, as partner in the city. (DLA Piper)
• Reed Smith brought in oil and gas deal attorney Luke Burns as partner in Houston on the firm’s global energy and natural resources group. He joins after a decade at Baker Botts, where he was recently special counsel. (ReedSmith.com)
• Brown Rudnick’s Paris office lost arbitration partner Hervé Le Lay to boutique firm Mourre Gutierrez Chessa Arbitration. (MGC-Arbitration.com)
• Insurance broker Lockton Companies Inc. hired former AT&T assistant vice president, legal Sara Romine as senior vice president, US general counsel, based in Kansas City, Missouri. (Lockton.com)
• Ad management firm Mediavine hired its outside general counsel Jamie Lieberman to come in-house as senior vice president and GC. (MarTech Series)

Promotions

• Dechert elected 17 lawyers to partner across nine of its offices worldwide and seven practice areas, effective Jan. 1, 2023. (Dechert)