Wake Up Call: UK Firm Clyde & Co. Looks for Merger Partner in Miami

• UK firm Clyde & Co. is reportedly in talks with potential merger partners in the Miami area , part of its plan to build its U.S. presence, on top of its existing insurance-focused offices in New York and Los Angeles. (The Lawyer)

• As mergers talks continue between Reed Smith and Pepper Hamilton, some Pepper Hamilton attorneys have reportedly expressed concerns about what could happen to them in a tie-up with a firm that shed 45 lawyers earlier this year. (Legal Intelligencer)

• A look at the four Baker & McKenzie partners vying to become chairman of the global firm. (Big Law Business)

• European Union data protection watchdogs declined to give their full backing to the new EU-U.S. “Privacy Shield” transatlantic data transfer pact, citing several concerns with the framework, aimed at replacing one struck down by EU’s top court last year, and asking the bloc’s executive authority to avoid ratifying the deal before they are resolved. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg Com)

Legal Market

• With the latest “huge cloud” hanging over transatlantic data transfers, companies that need to make such transfers may be wise to consider alternative mechanisms to the Privacy Shield to comply with EU rules, with some attorneys saying that litigation is “all but certain.” (The Recorder)

• Federal regulators’ rejection of five big banks’ so-called living wills, and the resulting threat that these banks could be broken up, looks to be a good source of future business for law firms , but banks aren’t talking. (Big Law Business)

• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Davis Polk & Wardwell are advising on the IPO of stock exchange operator Bats Global, a mini-splash of good news in an IPO market for which 2015 was the slowest year since 2009. A scan of law firms that have advised on the most recent IPOs in the U.S. (Big Law Business)

• A former Dentons client has filed a multimillion-dollar malpractice suit in Ohio state court alleging that two Denton lawyers ignored a conflict in a patent case, leading to a costly disqualification. (Law 360)

• The teetering law firm Slater & Gordon, which is listed on the Australian Security Exchange, has posted a loss of 6.93 million pounds ($9.74 million) for the 2014/15 financial year, up 75 percent from the previous year.(The Lawyer)

• U.S. sanctions against Russian entities have scared big Western banks away from doing business in that country, but U.S. law firms are doing good business there, with firms including White & Case and Squire Patton Boggs maintaining Moscow offices . (Big Law Business)

• Although bar associations and legal groups have taken a stand against China’s crackdown on human rights lawyers, major U.S. law firms with offices in China have remained silent on the issue, so far. Big Law hasn’t stepped up to speak out against North Carolina’s law lifting protections based on sexual orientation either. (Big Law Business)

SCOTUS

• In his 19 years on the D.C. Circuit Court, Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, has hired clerks from an unusually “narrow” field, with all but eight of his 75 current and former clerks graduates of Harvard Law School, Yale Law School or Stanford Law School. A group of less elite schools would like to see Garland and other federal judges widen the selection range a bit. (National Law Journal)

• Garland’s former law clerks talk about his “weakness” for chocolate, card tricks for students, appreciation for April Fool’s Day pranks, and other recollections . (National Law Journal)

Laterals and Moves

• McDermott Will & Emery announced Wednesday it has added a partner for its antitrust group in Washington, D.C. Bilal Sayyed joins from Kirkland & Ellis and previously worked as a Federal Trade Commission attorney. (Big Law Business )

• Meagan Newman is leaving as Seyfarth Shaw’s co-chair of the firm’s environmental, safety and toxic tort practice to join Chicago litigation boutique Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, where she becomes chief administrative officer and will no longer work as a lawyer on behalf of clients, her new firm said. (American Lawyer)

• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has hired white-collar defense attorney Barry Berke, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, to handle interaction with prosecutors for the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office reportedly looking into fundraising for the mayor’s 2013 campaign. (New York Law Journal)

• Clifford Chance said its Singapore managing partner Geraint Hughes, who is head of the firm’s Asia Pacific energy and resources group, will move to Hong Kong in June to become its new Asia Pacific regional managing partner starting in September. (The Lawyer)

Technology

• Washington-based law firm Redgrave said it has hired four legal technology specialists, including two of counsels and two litigation advisers, for various offices within its information law practice, which has expertise in eDiscovery and information governance, among other areas. (Legaltech News)

• The Federal Trade Commission’s new web-based tool aimed at helping developers of health-related mobile apps understand the complex set of laws and regulations that apply to them, and hopefully avoid problems like data breaches, could signal tougher enforcement coming down the road. (Legaltech News)

• Federal agents don’t need a warrant to obtain cellphone records that reveal a caller’s location, an Ohio-based federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. (Wall Street Journal)

• A report claims that the FBI paid a group of hackers a “one-time flat fee” to crack iPhone encryption, after Apple Inc.'s refusal to help. (Information Week)

• A California federal court sentenced a former Reuters social media editor, Matthen Keys, to two years in prison under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for aiding a hack of the Tribune Company that allowed changing a Los Angeles Times headline. (Wired)

Legal Education

• The University of California has set up a $4.5 million annual public interest fellowship program open to students and recent graduates of four of its law schools. (National Law Journal)

Miscellaneous

• Psychologists, therapists and other experts offer advice on how to cope with “hard-charging” Big Law personalities who can be both big earners and big jerks . (American Lawyer)

Written by Rick Mitchell with assistance from Gabe Friedman.