Wake Up Call: Latham Five-Partner IP Lawyer Group Joins Cleary

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

• Cleary Gottlieb hired a team of five intellectual property partners from Latham & Watkins to join the firm’s New York, Washington, and California offices. The hires include Clement Naples, Giri Pathmanaban, and Bert Reiser. (Cleary Gottlieb)
• The February bar exam’s multiple-choice results were the lowest on record and suggest that pass rates for the entire test will be down. The average score on the 200-question Multistate Bar Exam was 130.8, which sank below the previous low of 131.1 in 2023, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. That’s lowest since its debut in 1972. (Reuters)
• New England immigration attorneys are responding to increased scrutiny from the Trump administration, as Boston is the site of several enforcement actions that are being contested in court. One lawyer dubs the attempt to continue representing immigration cases the “Boston Tea Party Effect,” saying New England has a long history of supporting individual rights. (New Hampshire Public Radio)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Michael MacPhail joined Spencer Fane as a partner in the litigation and dispute resolution practice group in Denver.
• Kristy Fields joined Sterlington as a partner in the executive compensation practice in New York. She joins from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
• Samuel Ng joined Pillsbury’s corporate practice in Hong Kong as a partner. He joins from DeHeng Law Offices.
• Michael Neri and Adam Greenberg joined Coffey Modica as partners in Tarrytown, N.Y.