Wake Up Call: Stiffing Lawyers May Hurt Bannon in Criminal Case

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

• Steve Bannon’s decision not to pay his attorneys could cause problems in a separate criminal case that involves allegations that he defrauded donors to a privately funded US-Mexico border wall. Bannon lawyer Harlan Protass said in a court filing that if Davidoff Hutcher & Citron can access Bannon’s bank accounts, it could “potentially reveal information that could affect his criminal cases.” (Newsweek)
• Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman has signed a lease for a new 28,000-square-foot office space in Houston that will span the 20th floor of a downtown office building. The 5,000-square-foot upgrade from its old building follows a months-long trend of law firms propping up the Houston office market as they migrate to “the most updated, amenitized spaces.” (Bisnow)
• Billing rates for partners, associates, and paralegals have continued their “steady upward climb,” a report released Friday found. The mean rate for partners saw the most significant increase, from $768 in 2022 to $784 in 2023, a 2% rise. (Wolters Kluwer)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Michelle Scheffler has joined Skadden as a litigation partner in Houston.
• Aliza Karetnick has joined Morgan Lewis as a partner in the Philadelphia office. She joins from Ballard Spahr.
• Christopher Schaffer and Tony Bramian have joined FisherBroyles as partners with the intellectual property, patent prosecution, and technology licensing practices in Los Angeles. They join from Kilpatrick Townsend.
• Rajan Singh has rejoined Womble Bond Dickinson as part of the corporate and securities practice in Tysons, Va.
• Issaku Yamaashi has joined Lathrop GPM as a partner with the business transactions practice group in Kansas City, Mo.
• Chris Wootten has joined Jones Walker as a partner in the tax practice group in New Orleans.