Wake Up Call: Quinn Emanuel Takes Team Bonding to the Extreme

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

• Quinn Emanuel’s annual hiking tradition is a demanding team-building retreat that pushes employees to their physical and mental limits in extreme environments around the world. Last month, over 250 participants trekked through Peru’s Andes, choosing between an 18-mile hike over the 15,000-foot Salkantay Pass or a shorter but still intense 8.5-mile journey. The tradition, started in 1993 by founder John Quinn, aims to simulate the pressure of litigation and foster camaraderie across the firm. (Fortune)
• Yair Listokin will serve as the interim dean of Yale Law School starting Aug. 1, replacing Heather Gerken. Gerken announced she would leave her position to join the Ford Foundation as president. Listokin, who graduated from Yale Law in 2005, has most recently served as deputy dean of the school and also serves as director of the Brodie Center for Jewish and Israeli Law. (Yale Daily News)
• Civil rights lawyer James Ferguson II died at 82 Monday morning. Ferguson, who co-founded North Carolina’s first interracial law firm Ferguson, Stein, Watt, Wallas, Adkins & Gresham, represented a 6-year-old Charlotte boy who in 1969 wanted to leave his all-Black school for a nearby, integrated one. Justices in the case ruled that the school board must create a busing plan to desegregate the school district, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in 1971 that began the use of buses to integrate schools nationwide. (The Charlotte Observer)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Richard Roper joined Vartabedian Hester & Haynes as leader of its new white collar and investigations team. He joins from Holland & Knight.
• Agnès Dunogué joined Freshfields as co-head of US securities and shareholder litigation in New York. She joins from A&O Shearman.
• Glenn Luinenberg and Todd Rumberger joined Pillsbury as partners in its emerging companies and venture capital practice in Silicon Valley. They join from WilmerHale.
• Breen Schiller joined Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder in its state and local tax practice in Chicago. She joins from EY.
• Ranajoy Basu joined Squire Patton Boggs as a partner in its financial services practice in London. He joins from McDermott Will & Emery.
• Mark Abate joined Pillsbury as a partner in its intellectual property practice in New York. He joins from Goodwin Procter.
• Benjamin Kelly rejoined Baker McKenzie as a partner in its intellectual property practice in Dallas. He joins from Forrest Weldon Law Group.
• David Pratt joined McDermott Will & Emery as a partner in its private client practice in Boca Raton, Fla. He joins from Proskauer.
• Colin Andrews joined DLA Piper as a partner in its real estate group in Toronto.
• Harry Upcott joined Vinson & Elkins as a partner in its finance practice in London. He joins from A&O Shearman.
• Megan Roberts joined Paul Hastings as a partner in its structured finance practice in Chicago. She joins from Sidley Austin.
• Andra Troy joined O’Melveny as a partner in its public company advisory practice in New York. She joins from Latham & Watkins.
• Ken Wiggins, Santiago Assalini, and Sam Ramos joined Orrick as deals partners in Miami. They join from Akerman.
• Scott Sheffler joined Venable as a partner in its government contracts practice. He joins from Feldesman Leifer.
• Cheryl Blount joined Fisher Phillips as a partner in Houston. She joins from Reed Smith.
• Vikas Khanna joined Sills Cummis & Gross as chair of its white collar practice group in Newark, N.J. He was previously the acting US attorney for in New Jersey.