Wake Up Call: Law Students Decry Early Recruitment in ABA Letter

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

• Students from 18 US law schools urged the American Bar Association to address increasingly accelerated law firm recruiting timelines, warning that early hiring—sometimes beginning in the first months of students’ first year—is undermining education, student well-being, and the recruitment market. Organized by Yale student senators, the letter asks the ABA to engage in dialogue on the issue, noting that recruiting has crept earlier since the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2018 retirement of timing guidelines. (The Yale Daily News)
• A Reed Smith lawyer was removed after falsely claiming his cancer had returned to secure a week of holiday. Soham Panchamiya, who previously had cancer, told the firm in 2023 that he needed chemotherapy leave for a rare spinal cancer, but HR flagged inconsistencies in the document and his doctor later confirmed it was false. Panchamiya admitted the misconduct and was suspended before being struck off and ordered to pay £22,000. (The Daily Mail)
• A new documentary revisits the landmark 1925 libel case Sapiro v. Ford in which Jewish lawyer and labor leader Aaron Sapiro sued Henry Ford over antisemitic attacks published in The Dearborn Independent. Often described by historians as the first modern hate speech trial in the US, Sapiro took action after Jewish merchants reported economic harm linked to the articles, framing the lawsuit as a defense of both his reputation and his community. (Forward)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Jeff Norton joined Pillsbury as a partner in its debt finance practice in New York. He joins from O’Melveny & Myers.
• Christopher McLaughlin and Alastair McVeigh joined Sullivan & Cromwell as partners in London.
• Mehtap Cevher Conti joined Morgan Lewis as a partner in its finance practice in New York. She joins from Hogan Lovells.
• Michael Vernick joined Jenner & Block as a higher education compliance partner in Washington.
• Jeffrey Michalik joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner in its restructuring practice in Chicago. He joins from Kirkland & Ellis.
• Jane Norberg and Joseph Ashman joined Ogletree Deakins as shareholders. Norberg joins from Arnold & Porter. Ashman joins from Booz Allen Hamilton.
• James Salerno joined Eversheds Sutherland as an energy partner in New York.
• Diego González-Aguirre joined FisherBroyles as a partner in its employment practice group in Mexico City. He joins from EY Law.