Wake Up Call: Meta Fined $24.7 Million in Campaign Finance Case

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

• A Washington county superior court judge fined Facebook parent company Meta the maximum possible $24.66 million in a campaign finance transparency lawsuit, finding the company intentionally violated state law 822 times. The office of state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who had asked the court to impose the penalty, called the fine a US record for a campaign finance penalty. (Washington State)
• The UK’s elite Magic Circle law firms may need to reinvent themselves to focus on a mid-market position, as they increasingly lose ground in their own market to deep-pocketed US firms that are pricing them out for top junior talent, according to a new report by brokerage firm Arden Partners. (Arden)
• UK elite firm Slaughter and May hiked pay for junior lawyers by 8,000 pounds to 115,000 pounds ($133,000) and introduced a new work-life balance code as part of a review of its working practices for associates. (Law.com International)
• A New York-based investment firm is suing Morgan, Lewis & Bockius for at least $12 million in damages on claims the firm botched its legal work. (Reuters)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• General counsel who got degrees from a Top 20 law school earn significantly more than GCs who didn’t. That’s among key findings in a recent survey report on law department compensation by the Association of Corporate Counsel and consulting firm Empsight. (Corporate Counsel) Another survey report found most in-house attorneys at venture capital and private equity are spending more on legal services this year and they expect to spend more next year. (PR Newswire)
• The New York judge who presided over Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial and sentenced him to 23 years in prison is leaving the bench after failing to win reappointment, reportedly because of the way he treated lawyers arguing before him. Lawyers told New York Law Journal that they found acting Supreme Court Justice James Burke of Manhattan intellectually competent but confrontational and rude, to both the defense and prosecution. (New York Law Journal)
• The district attorney for California’s Riverside County criticized a move by the county’s superior court to dismiss hundreds of felony and misdemeanor cases that had piled up during the pandemic. The court’s presiding judge blamed the dismissals on a shortage of judges, according to a report. (The Recorder)
• A trial over the death of a retail executive at a Colorado strip club was delayed after the club’s lawyer died there, too. (The Guardian)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Perkins Coie reappointed Bill Malley to a second four-year term as firmwide managing partner, starting July 1. (Perkins Coie)
• Jones Day promoted 45 lawyers, including 22 women, to partner, effective Jan. 1, 2023. (Jones Day)
• Management-side worklaw firm Littler Mendelson added two shareholders in Chicago. Commercial litigator Richard Kienzler joins the firm’s unfair competition and trade secrets practice, arriving from Freeborn & Peters. Former Littler attorney Marissa Ingley, recently chief counsel employment and labor law at Archer Daniels Midland Company, returns as a shareholder. (Littler)
• Quarles & Brady announced real estate partner Jason Wood will take over as managing partner of its Phoenix, Arizona, office, effective Nov. 1. He recently served five years as Arizona chair of its real estate practice. (Quarles.com)
• New York City museum The Frick Collection named in-house veteran Alexis Sandler, former associate general counsel at The Museum of Modern Art, as its new general counsel. She arrives from Pace University, where she spent seven months as vice president and GC. (Frick.org)