Wake Up Call: Perkins Coie Creates AI Mentor for Gen Z Lawyers

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

• Perkins Coie is introducing AI training avatars to help junior lawyers practice workplace conversations with senior colleagues. The system uses simulations that allow new hires to role-play different scenarios with AI bots to build soft skills. (FN London)
• Women dominate rankings of the most-cited US legal scholars, holding seven of the top 10 spots—more than double the number in the previous year, according to a study from George Mason University. Privacy scholar Danielle Citron of the University of Virginia School of Law topped the ranking again, joined by former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan and Brooklyn Law School’s Jocelyn Simonson. (Reuters)
• Maine’s public defense agency has run out of money to pay the hundreds of private attorneys who handle most indigent defense cases in the state, leaving them unpaid for work already completed. The crisis stems from years of underfunding and threatens to worsen a system already strained by constitutional challenges after a court found the state was failing to meet its obligations under the Sixth Amendment. (Maine Morning Star)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Scott Heard and Matthew Murphy joined Skadden as partners. They join from Paul Hastings.
• Andrew Schulz joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as a partner in its litigation practice in Austin. He joins from Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom.
• Zach Howe joined Manatt, Phelps & Phillips as a partner in San Diego. He joins from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.