Wake Up Call: LA Hires Munger Tolles Olson for Fire Defense

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

• The Los Angeles Board of Water and Power hired Munger, Tolles & Olson to investigate anticipated claims related to the recent fires and respond to lawsuits from residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged. Under the deal, firm partners will charge the city up to $1,975 per hour for their work and associates will bill up to $1,180 per hour. (Los Angeles Times)
• William & Mary Law School mistakenly sent acceptance emails to 410 applicants—the result of what school officials said was a technological problem. Some of the incorrect acceptance letters were sent to people on the law school’s wait list or to those whose applications were still under review, while a “small” number went to applicants who had been denied. (Reuters)
• The New York City Bar Association sent a letter to city officials calling for the immediate transfer of elephants Happy and Patty to a sanctuary from their current home of the Bronx Zoo. The elephants, who have lived at the zoo for nearly 50 years, have been the subject of public concerns after a lawsuit in 2018 claimed Happy had been “unlawfully imprisoned.” (Gothamist)
• Frank Butselaar, a former partner at Greenberg Traurig, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for helping wealthy clients conceal tens of millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service. Butselaar has already served 21 months in custody, and so the prison term will add a nine months of additional incarceration. (Reuters)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Jiang Liu joined White & Case as a partner in its global debt finance practice, financial services regulatory practice, and global financial institutions industry group in New York.
• Bronwen Jones, Douglas Murning, and Matthew Worth joined Cadwalader as partners in its fund finance practice in London.
• Benjamin Wilson joined Akerman as a partner in its real estate practice group in Miami. He joins from The Viera Company, where he was general counsel.
• Chad Baker joined Holland & Hart as a partner in its environmental and natural resources practice in Salt Lake City.