Wake Up Call: Paxton Paid Lawyers $3.2 Million Over Impeachment

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

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton paid lawyers and law firms $3.2 million in fees from his campaign funds over the last six months to defend him during his impeachment trial, records show. Paxton made payments to his lead defender, Anthony Buzbee, and three firms, including Hilton Stone, Scheef & Stone, and Cogdell Law Firm. (Texas Tribune)
• Target Corp. has announced the retirement of Don Liu, its chief legal and compliance officer. Target is searching for a successor to Liu, who joined the company in 2016, and expects to share an update on the search later this year. (PR Newswire)
• Husch Blackwell has been praised for designing its St. Louis metro area office with an aesthetic that’s “more hospitality chic than staid corporate.” The office in Clayton, Missouri is touted for its “velvety drapes in confab rooms, fiber art in lounges, and custom totems in corridors.” (Interior Design)
• Duane Morris has signed a lease for a nearly 10,000-square office at a mixed-use building called Wills Wharf, near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor neighborhood. The building is a component of Harbor Point, the waterfront mixed-use campus of the real estate investment trust Armada Hoffler. (Rebusiness Online)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Stacey Grigsby, former deputy White House counsel to President Biden, has rejoined Covington & Burling as a litigation partner in Washington.
• Shane Foster has joined Greenberg Traurig as shareholder in the financial regulatory and compliance practice in Phoenix, Ariz.
• Binta Niambi Brown has joined Manatt Phelps & Phillips as an entertainment partner in the New York office.
• Warren T. Allen II and Ray D. McKenzie have joined Miles & Stockbridge as principals with the white collar, fraud, and government investigations practice group in Washington, D.C.
• Stephen Aschettino has joined Steptoe as a partner in New York.
• Joshua Lee and Edward Casmere have joined Norton Rose Fulbright as partners in Chicago. They join from Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila.
• Irwin P. Altschuler has rejoined Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder with the international trade practice in Washington, D.C.
• Chuck Cotter and Finity Jernigan have joined Morrison Foerster as partners with the emerging companies and venture capital group in Denver, Colo.
• Adrian Azer has been named office managing partner of Haynes and Boone’s Washington, D.C., office.
• Terra Cothran has joined King & Spalding as a partner in Houston, Texas.
• Alfred Weightman has joined Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe as a partner with the global renewable PPA practice in London.
• Jennifer Speck has joined Bracewell LLP as a partner in the tax department in the Houston office.
• Mark David McPherson has joined Goodwin Procter as a partner with the complex litigation and dispute resolution practice in New York.
• Gavin Weir has been appointed a partner at Ashurst LLP in its corporate practice in the UK.
• David Nisbet is joining Squire Patton Boggs as a partner with tax strategy and benefits practice group in London. He has been a partner and lead for the private equity tax team at Osborne Clarke.