Wake Up Call: Small Law Firm Becomes a Leader of the New-Right

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

• Boyden Gray, a small conservative law firm, is becoming a leading legal force advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda during his second term. Originally focused on policy and lobbying, the firm shifted to litigation in 2020 and has since spearheaded lawsuits against diversity initiatives, environmental regulations, and pandemic-related mandates. (Politico)
• Federal prosecutors denied allegations that they intentionally eavesdropped on jailhouse phone calls between Luigi Mangione and his legal team, saying in a court filing that any recordings of privileged conversations were obtained inadvertently and never listened to by the prosecution. Prosecutors said a paralegal accidentally listened to one call recording between Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, and his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, but stopped upon realizing it was a conversation with an attorney. (AMNY)
• The top law schools for placing 2024 graduates in associate positions in Big Law were led by Northwestern University, with 71.85% of its class going into the industry. It was followed by the University of Pennsylvania (67.11%), the University of Virginia (66.33%), University of Southern California (64.71%), University of Chicago (58.29%), and New York University (58.13%). Columbia University, which led the ranking for a decade, dropped off the list as multiple T14 schools declined to participate in the ranking. (Above the Law)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Jared Whalen joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as a partner in its tax, employee benefits, and trusts and estates practice group in Houston. He joins from Kirkland & Ellis.
• Cassandra Borchers joined Squire Patton Boggs as a partner in its global financial services practice group in Cincinnati. She joins from Thompson Hine.
• Chris Campbell, Britton Davis, and Alfonso Garcia Chan joined Cahill Gordon & Reindel as partners in its intellectual property group in Washington.
• Janice Davis joined Haynes Boone as a partner in its mergers and acquisitions practice group in Dallas. She joins from Morgan Lewis.
• Laura Devane rejoined Littler Mendelson as a shareholder in its arbitration practice group in California. She joins from Whitney, Thompson & Jeffcoach.
• Peter Kaiser joined Hinshaw & Culbertson as a partner in its commercial transactions practice group in Minneapolis. He joins from Moss & Barnett.