Wake Up Call: Ousted Carlson, Lemon Said to Hire Same Lawyer

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

• Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon were both ousted yesterday and both have hired “famously combative” entertainment and media lawyer Brian Freedman. That’s according to reports citing a tweet by former CNN media reporter and anchor Brian Stelter. (Forbes) (Business Insider via Yahoo!) (Vanity Fair)
• Compensation for equity partners at big US law firms sank last year as a slump in dealmaking sapped firms’ revenues and profits. (Financial Times)
• Some law firms are cutting costs by asking junior lawyers to take a class-year reduction in a reversal of pandemic-era agreements, recruiters said. (The Recorder) Big Law signing bonuses are history but there are still opportunities for associates to advance at midsize firms, writes the managing partner of Pryor Cashman. (Law.com)
• The American Bar Association was hit by a lawsuit over its recent data breach. (Legaltech News)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• US News & World Report took down the preliminary rankings it issued earlier this month for top law schools, as questions loomed over their accuracy. (Law.com)
• Donald Trump hired Kansas City attorney Perry Brandt, a former Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner partner, to defend the former president against a writer’s lawsuit accusing him of rape and defamation. (Kansas City Star)
• A team of lawyers for Hunter Biden led by Winston & Strawn partner Abbe Lowe is taking an increasingly aggressive strategy in their defense of President Joe Biden’s son. (NBC News)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Paul Hastings poached a five-partner funds team from Kirkland & Ellis led by longtime partner John Budetti, who becomes global chair of Paul Hastings’ investment funds and private capital practice. (Paul Hastings)
• McDermott Will & Emory poached Baker McKenzie partner Peter Lu to be the London-based global head of its China practice. Three lawyers and a paralegal are making the move with him in bid to boost its Asia disputes and transactions practice. (MWE.com)
• DLA Piper grabbed McDermott finance partner Robert da Silva Ashley as partner in New York and Miami and a regional co-leader for Latin America and infrastructure. He said he’ll focus on deepening DLA’s US renewables reach and boosting its cross-border transactions in Latin America. DLA also got Allen & Overy finance attorney Joseph Stefano as partner in New York. (DLA Piper)
• Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft snagged Dechert leveraged finance and private credit partner Smridhi Gulati in London. (Cadwalader.com)
• Hogan Lovells’ Mexico City office brought in veteran environmental and ESG lawyer Mauricio Llamas as partner. Llamas was Mexico City head of government regulation, environmental, health and safety practice for Jones Day from which he arrives with three associates. (HoganLovells.com)
• Frost Brown Todd’s Cincinnati office picked up eight Ulmer & Berne emerging business and intellectual property partners to expand its venture capital law group. (FrostBrownTodd.com)
• Greenberg Traurig brought back a former restructuring and bankruptcy attorney at the firm, David Eastlake, who returns as shareholder in Houston, Texas, from Baker Botts. (GTLaw.com)
• Debevoise & Plimpton picked up artificial intelligence and cybersecurity counsel Matthew Kelly from Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. (Debevoise.com)
• Deutsche Bank AG hired veteran legal department leader Friederike Rotsch, group general counsel at Darmstadt, Germany-headquartered science and technology company Merck Group, to become the bank’s general counsel starting Sept. 5. She succeeds Karen Kuder, who moved to DWS Group, an asset management company, last year as chief administrative officer. (DB.com)
• Real estate private equity firm Madison International Realty hired Värde Partners chief compliance officer Mark Schein as its new chief operating officer and general counsel based in New York. He’s a former New York Stock Exchange trial counsel. (Institutional Real Estate Inc.)