Wake Up Call: LSAT Rival Sold Amid Alternative Admissions Push

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

• Aspen Publishing bought alternative law school admissions program JD-Next from the University of Arizona’s College of Law. Aspen purchased the program, developed at the Arizona law school in 2019 as an alternative to the LSAT, for an undisclosed amount. So far, 56 law schools—more than a quarter of all American Bar Association-accredited campuses—have received permission to use JD-Next test scores when admitting students. (Reuters)
• Kuwait’s Meysan and Saudi Arabia’s Hammad & Al-Mehdar have formed a strategic partnership that could lead to a merger within two years. The alliance will bring together 70 fee-earners in offices across nine locations in the Middle East. (Law.com)
• Sidley Austin hired 10 associates to its leveraged finance team from Latham & Watkins, making the running total of lawyers it has hired from Latham recently to 17, comprising seven partners and 10 associates. (FN London)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Elizabeth Stotland Weiswasser and Anish Desai joined Paul Weiss as partners in its litigation department. They join from Weil Gotshal & Manges.
• Lance Shea joined Foley Hoag as a partner in its Food and Drug Administration practice in Washington. He joins from BakerHostetler.
• Lorrie Hargrove joined Thompson Coburn as a partner in its higher education practice in Birmingham, Ala.
• John Kulback rejoined Loeb & Loeb in its entertainment department in Los Angeles. He joins from Autograph.
• Wes Scott joined Frost Brown Todd as a partner in its business combinations and capital transaction practice group in Nashville.
• Maya Grassi joined Barnes & Thornburg as a partner in its corporate department in Washington.