Wake Up Call: Meet the Lawyer Suing Tech Giants On Kids’ Behalf

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

• Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, has become a leading force in efforts to hold tech giants accountable for alleged harms to children. Drawing on a product-liability theory that targets platforms’ design and safety representations rather than their hosted content, Bergman has filed thousands of lawsuits on behalf of families whose children died, were abused, or suffered severe mental-health harms they link to social media. (Time Magazine)
• California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s reelection campaign confirmed it paid $468,000 to Wilson Sonsini for legal counsel to assist him in responding to federal investigators as they probed a bribery scheme involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and a major political donor. The campaign initially claimed the funds were to “help” investigators, but later clarified they paid for Bonta’s own attorneys, making it the largest legal outlay by any statewide California candidate. (KCRA)
• Barnes & Thornburg is suing former Colorado Buffaloes player Shilo Sanders, alleging he owes more than $164,000 in unpaid legal bills and interest for work the firm performed while representing him in a personal injury case. According to the complaint, the firm provided services between May and August 2024 but Sanders failed to pay multiple invoices, even after being notified that the attorney handling his matters—Victor Vital—was leaving for Haynes Boone. (USA Today)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Faris Al Amoudi joined Baker Botts as partner and global head of Islamic finance in Riyadh. He joins from STAT Law Firm.
• Sebastian Ma’ilei joined Baker McKenzie as a partner in its tax practice in London. He joins from Deloitte.
• Andrew Radsch joined Munger, Tolles & Olson as a partner in its intellectual property practice in San Francisco. He joins from Ropes & Gray.
• Daniel Bubar joined McGuireWoods as a partner in its government investigations and white collar litigation practice in Raleigh and Richmond. He joins from US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.