Wake Up Call: Ogletree Deakins Stops Bills in Transparency Suit

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

• Richmond’s legal costs in a transparency lawsuit have become difficult to track because Ogletree Deakins has not submitted invoices for about four months, despite being contractually required to bill monthly. The gap means the city cannot provide an updated figure beyond the $234,711 billed through May, even though significant legal work has since been done. Ogletree attorney Jimmy F. Robinson Jr. attributed the delay to an internal technical problem with the firm’s billing system. (Richmonder)
• University of Michigan and the University of Miami law schools both introduced optional essay questions incorporating AI on their applications this year. Miami’s essay asks applicants to submit a prompt for a large language model to generate an analysis that will help them make an decision about which law school to attend. Michigan requires applicants to use AI to answer the question: “How much do you use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT right now?” The essay also asks them to predict how much they will use generative AI by the time they graduate from law school and why. (Reuters)
• A Utah court has finalized the legal team behind suspected Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson, adding California criminal defense attorneys Michael Burt and Richard Novak. Burt defended Joseph “Lyle” Menendez during the Menendez brothers’ first trial in 1993. (New York Post)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Kathy Wunderli rejoined Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner in its private wealth group in Los Angeles. She joins from Wealth.com.
• Kimberly Hamm joined Morrison Foerster as a partner in its investigations and white collar defense group and co-chair of its congressional investigations group in Washington. She joins from Mayer Brown.
• Christopher Ludwig joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as a partner in its mergers and acquisitions practice in New York. He joins from Barclays Capital.
• Matthew Welling joined Holland & Knight as a partner in its data strategy, security and privacy team in Washington. He joins from Crowell & Moring.
• Amar Meher joined Norton Rose Fulbright as a partner in its banking and finance practice in Riyadh. He joins from Addleshaw Goddard.
• Kendra Newman was named general counsel at Keller Williams Realty.
• Dennis Hoffman was named general counsel at Greif Inc.
• John Boxer rejoined Morgan Lewis as a partner in its private client group in Boston and Philadelphia. He joins from Metropolitan Wealth Management.
• Andrew Kessler joined Cozen O’Connor as a member in its commercial litigation department in Philadelphia. He joins from Wood Smith Henning & Berman.
• David Berek joined Venable as a partner in its private wealth planning practice in Chicago. He joins from Mayer Brown.
• Tom Sundlof joined Blank Rome as a partner in its life sciences industry team and corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and securities practice group in Washington. He joins from the Food and Drug Administration.
• Joshua Wes joined Barnes & Thornburg as a partner in its product liability and mass torts practice in Los Angeles. He joins from Tucker Ellis.
• Robert Lustrin joined Eckert Seamans as a member in its corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and securities practice group in New York. He joins from Reed Smith.
• Geoffrey Derrick joined Boies Schiller Flexner as a partner in its asset recovery litigation practice in Washington. He joins from Kobre & Kim.
• George Evans joined BCLP as a partner in its real estate practice in New York. He joins from Goulston & Storrs.
• Aleava Sayre joined Husch Blackwell as a partner in its energy and natural resources practice in Minneapolis. She joins from Medtronic.