Wake Up Call: Nasdaq Promotes Top Lawyer Edward Knight to Vice Chairman

• Nasdaq Inc. executive vice president and global chief legal and policy officer Edward Knight is in line for a promotion to vice chairman, effective Oct. 1, the company said. Previous roles for Knight, who became the stock exchange’s top lawyer in 2001, include general counsel at the Treasury Department and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA). He was also a member of President Barack Obama’s transition team. Nasdaq’s general counsel for North America, John Zecca, is moving up to chief legal officer. (Nasdaq) (Linkedin.com) (BN)

• Lawyer staffing firm Axiom said it’s dropping plans for an initial public offering, after getting an investment from private equity firm Permira Funds. It didn’t say how much it got. Cooley advised Axiom, while Permira got advice from Skadden. Weil Gotshal & Manges represented Barclays, which provided committed financing for the deal. (BLAW via BLB)

• Although Allen & Overy’s merger talks with O’Melveny & Myers came up empty, the London elite firm said it’s still open to a transatlantic tie-up. But there are lot of stumbling blocks to such combinations. (BLAW via BLB)

• Meal-kit delivery service Blue Apron Holdings Inc. hired former Jones Day capital markets lawyer Meredith Deutsch as general counsel and corporate secretary, to start next Monday. Deutsch, an in-house veteran who most recently was special counsel at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson, replaces former G.C. Christina Halliday, and will be busy with active and potential shareholder litigation the company faces. (Corporate Counsel)

• The Justice Department’s antitrust division chief in New York, Jeffrey Martino, has taken a job at BakerHostetler, as a partner in the city. (BLAW via BLB)

• Milbank hired telecom and satellite lawyer Patrick S. Campbell as a partner in Washington in its transportation & space group. Campbell arrives from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he was head of the communications & technology practice. (Milbank.com)

• Contract review platform Luminance has been working with Ernst & Young, and alternative legal services provider Relativity participated in a legal tech program run by Deloitte. Meanwhile, Baker & McKenzie and Bird & Bird are mulling how they can continue to be trusted advisers in an artificial-intelligence-powered world. Those are some of the examples cited in this five-slide look on how law firms and legal services providers are adapting to Big Four accounting firms’ entry into the legal profession. (Legaltechnews.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms, Deals

• The ex-head of Eversheds Sutherland’s white collar crime practice group in Paris, Sophie Scemla, moved to Gide Loyrette Nouel as a partner, along with her team. She joined Eversheds in 2015 from Heenan Blaikie and previously was at Orrick’s French branch. (Gide.com)

• Goodwin Procter, DLA Piper, Kirkland & Ellis, Greenberg Traurig, and Mayer Brown top this ranking of real estate firms, based on their self-reported data on practice size and growth, deal size, and market share among other factors. (Commercial Property Executive)

• After Prince Andrew claimed that a purported photo of him with an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim is a “fake,” David Boies, of Boies Schiller Flexner, was among the woman’s lawyers who wrote to the prince to protest. (New York Post)

• DLA Piper said New York-based litigation partner Abigail Reardon was appointed by the First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court to a three-year term as a chair of the department’s attorney grievance committee. (DLAPiper.com)

• The Hispanic National Bar Association named Holland & Knight its “2019 Corporate Partner of the Year.” (HNBA.com)

Laterals, Moves, Promotions

• Barnes & Thornburg hired former Environmental Protection Agency regional criminal investigations counsel Richard Glaze as a partner in Atlanta. (BTLaw.com)

• Dentons grabbed Bratislava, Slovakia-based corporate and M&A partner Juraj Gyarfáš, who was Allen & Overy’s competition practice chief for that city. Gyarfáš brings expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, and competition and antitrust. (Dentons.com)

• Greenspoon Marder hired timeshare industry pioneer, executive and in-house legal leader Craig M. Nash as of counsel in the firm’s national corporate real estate timeshare & resort practice group. (GMLaw.com)

• Blank Rome added litigator Nicole Bartz Metral as an associate in L.A. She joins from Plante Lebovic. (Blank Rome)

Legal Actions, Bankruptcies, Decisions

• The fight over when taxpayers can challenge Treasury regulations could be headed for the Supreme Court. (BLAW via BLB)

• Michigan State University will be fined a record $4.5 million over its bungled handling of sexual abuse allegations against sports doctor Larry Nassar, Education Secretary Betsy Devos said. Nassar’s in jail for 40 to 175 years after his conviction in the case. (Politico)

Pro Bono

• The ACLU of Massachusetts, with Goodwin Procter and Lawyers for Civil Rights, filed a lawsuit challenging what they called the Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of a government program that defers action for immigrants getting medical treatment for life-threatening health conditions. (ACLUM.org)

• Arent Fox filed an amicus brief in California federal court on behalf of over 20 child health and welfare organizations fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate protections for immigrant children under the so-called Flores Settlement Agreement. (ArentFox.com) (New York Times)

Technology

• To better protect confidential client information, law firms need to strengthen their controls on the “privileged access pathway” into their networks, according to a report. (Security Boulevard)

Legal Education

• Fordham Law School hired legal education veteran Jordana A. Confino to manage its programs for developing students’ professional capabilities, and improving their non-academic skills and quality of life. She arrives from Columbia Law School, where she was assistant director of academic counseling and clerkship advisor. A former federal appeals court clerk, she was also an instructor in the Federal Appellate Court Externship program. (Law.Fordham.Edu)