Wake Up Call: Toxic Text to Colleague Costs Labor Attorney a Job

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

• A senior attorney at a Cleveland employment law firm is out of a job after his text slamming a female colleague found its way onto social media. The text attacked the colleague for “collecting salary from the firm while sitting on your ass” during her maternity leave and then leaving the firm. (Cleveland.com)
• Management-side worklaw firm Littler Mendelson has a new Paris office with 65 Lawyers, including 13 partners, grabbed from its former French partner firm Fromont Briens. Littler and Fromont, which joined Littler’s global network in 2016, recently announced they were ending their affiliation. (Law.com International) (Le Monde du Droit)
• Simpson Thacher said it expanded its environmental, social and governance and sustainability capabilities, hiring PricewaterhouseCoopers governance managing director Leah Malone as a partner in New York to lead the practice. The firm also added two counsel focused on certain ESG and sustainability areas: Matt Feehily from Sidley Austin in London and Emily Holland from White & Case in Washington. (STBLaw.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Day Pitney added Florida real estate boutique Diaz Leyva Group PLLC, including its chairman and CEO Daniel Diaz Leyva as a partner and leader of Day Pitney’s real estate and environmental practice in Miami. He arrives with another attorney and three paralegals. (DayPitney.com)
• Conservative law firm Consovoy McCarthy announced that its founder William Consovoy died at age 48. (National Law Journal)
• Corporate general counsel are only having moderate success at getting support from their companies for their efforts to advance diversity, a new survey finds. (Corporate Counsel)
• Jenner & Block appointed investigations, compliance and defense practices co-leader Christine Braamskamp as managing partner of its London office; Lowenstein Sandler named venture capital partner Anthony Raymundo managing partner of its Palo Alto, California office; Womble Bond Dickinson named complex disputes and investigations partner Sarah Motley Stone, who started her legal career at the firm, to be office managing partner in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nelson Mullins named partner Geof Vickers, co-chair of the firm’s technology, outsourcing, procurement and privacy team, to be its office managing partner in Nashville, Tennessee; Foley & Lardner appointed former Texas deputy attorney general Ed Burbach, co-chair of its national state attorneys general practice, to be Austin office managing partner. (Foley.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Epstein Becker Green’s Nashville office added health care restructuring attorney Ryan Cochran and employee benefits attorney Jeb Gerth as members. They were both partners at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis. (EBGLaw.com)
• Locke Lord hired Ropes & Gray private equity and venture capital attorney Jose DeMedeiros in Boston as a partner. (LockeLord.com)
• Clark Hill brought in diversity, equity, and inclusion adviser Karen Spencer Kelly in Philadelphia as senior counsel in its labor and employment group. (ClarkHill.com)
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana hired K&L Gates health care of counsel Lou Patalano as senior vice president and chief legal officer. A former federal prosecutor, Patalano was earlier top lawyer and executive at Sentara Healthcare. (Biz New Orleans)
• Carbon capture company LanzaTech NZ Inc. hired veteran industry in-house leader Joe Blasko as its next general counsel and corporate secretary, based in the Chicago area. (LanzaTech)
• Greensboro, North Carolina-based Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc., a real estate investment trust, said its general counsel and secretary Chad Perry plans to resign on April 3 to take a new opportunity in Washington. (Winston-Salem Journal)

Promotions Effective Jan. 1

• Outten & Golden promoted three lawyers to partner and one to counsel; Bressler, Amery & Ross promoted two to principal and two to counsel. (Bressler.com)

Legal Education

• The University of Mississippi School said Texas Wesleyan University president Frederick Slabach will become its law school’s new dean on July 1. (OleMiss.edu)