Wake Up Call: Latham Client Walmart Gets Mexican Bribery Allegations Thrown Out

• Walmart Inc.'s Latham & Watkins lawyers convinced a federal appeals court to throw out an investor’s suit that alleged bribery schemes involving the retailer’s Mexican subsidiary. (Bloomberg Law)

• Carlton Fields grabbed a Fox Rothschild team of real estate & housing finance lawyers to expand its Washington office. The former co-chairs of Fox Rothschild’s practice, Gina A. Hough and Samantha T. Schneck, join Carlton Fields as shareholders. Also joining as attorneys are Marsha M. Baumgarner, Duy Duc “Dewey” Nguyen, and Vincent D. Weinert-Baumann, plus three paralegals and three other professional staff are also moving from Fox Rothschild. The team has experience advising on public and private mortgage lenders on all Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD/FHA financing products. (CarltonFields.com)

• Morgan Stanley will have to pay $10 million after a self-regulatory body found that problems with the firm’s automated anti-money laundering system could have allowed tens of billions of dollars in wire and currency transactions to slip through undetected. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, also alleged that Morgan Stanley did not adequately monitor customers’ penny stock trades and deposits for suspicious activities. (Bloomberg Law)

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the national bank regulator, hired Senate banking counsel Jonathan Gould as its new top lawyer. Gould, previously an in-house attorney at BlackRock Inc. and Promontory Financial Group, takes the OCC chief counsel job vacated when Amy Friend retired in 2017. (Bloomberg Law)

• Big tech companies such as Facebook Inc. and Google can keep transferring valuable data out of the U.K. amid the Brexit chaos, under a deal struck by the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.K.'s privacy office. (Bloomberg Law)

• Uncertainties over Brexit made Dublin, Ireland, the hottest international destination for law firms in 2018. Frankfurt, Germany, and Shenzhen, China, also attracted firms. (American Lawyer)

• Meanwhile, 2018 looks to be another record year for law firm mergers, with 2019 likely to continue at a high pace. (American Lawyer)

• Cooley client Mindbody, a software company that provides technology platforms for fitness and wellness studios, announced an agreement to be acquired for about $1.9 billion by private equity company Vista Equity Partners, advised by Kirkland & Ellis. (StreetInsider.com)

• Willkie client Paramount Group, Inc., a New York City-based real estate investment trust, agreed to buy a 293,000 square foot office tower in San Francisco’s North Financial District, for $227 million. (ReBusinessonline.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Kirkland & Ellis and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles helped reach a $1.25 million settlement for a group of displaced residents and homeless who sued a landlord couple over their effort to convert their rent-controlled apartments to hotel units. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• Dr. George Wheeler, a psychologist, working part time at Hogan Lovells in Washington, previously worked at other firms including Wiley Rein and WilmerHale. “I have never seen a law firm where stress wasn’t high,” he said. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)

• Attorneys at the nonprofit firm Whistleblower Aid are demanding that retiring Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Mel Watt be disciplined over findings that he allegedly sexually harassed a female employee. (GovExec.com)

• WilmerHale is representing a Chinese American scientist suing several government agencies for allegedly leaking information about her to Fox News. (National Law Journal)

• Giving until it hurts: Schiff Hardin trial lawyer and partner John Worden donated a kidney to a stranger, after his wife did the same for a friend of their daughter. (The Recorder)

Laterals, Moves, Promotions

• Snell & Wilmer said 10 attorneys, including four women, were elected to its partnership, effective Jan. 1, 2019. Three attorneys, all men, were elected to counsel. (SWLaw.com)

• Houston-based Spark Energy Inc. said its vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, Gil Melman, is is leaving the company Dec. 31. It appointed C. Alexis Keene, the company’s deputy general counsel, as interim GC and corporate secretary, during the search for a replacement. (Houston Business Journal)

• With significant moves by Orrick, Robins Kaplan, Boies Schiller, and others, a slide show of 2018’s biggest intellectual property lateral hires. (The Recorder)

Legal Actions, Bankruptcies, Decisions

• A Washington state appeals court struck down a Seattle law that aimed to increase low-wage hotel workers’ health care benefits and mandate additional safety and job protections, on grounds it violates the state constitution and city charter. Davis Wright Tremaine represented the hotel associations challenging the law. (Bloomberg Law)