Wake Up Call: US Searches for Bankruptcy Lawyers Hits Record

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

• Google searches for “bankruptcy lawyer” surged to record highs this year, as polling shows that Americans are facing a growing probability of missing minimum debt payments and fewer expect their finances to improve next year. Federal Reserve survey data show the perceived probability of missing payments climbed from 12.6% in September to 13.7% in November, while optimism about being “much better off” has fallen to just 4%. (Newsweek)
• Former paralegal Kiera Greenslade received a six-month suspended sentence for illegally accessing and sharing confidential case information about her then-boyfriend from the Crown Prosecution Service’s database in 2021. Greenslade searched his police records, monitored court listings, and later viewed and recorded a case file tied to the investigation into him—despite clear system warnings prohibiting such access. (Legal Cheek)
• Cincinnati immigration attorney Trisha Chatterjee was indicted on three counts each of forgery and tampering with records for allegedly falsifying documents to support a false claim that her impairment during a drunk driving stop was caused by a date-rape drug. Prosecutors say that while her case was pending, Chatterjee emailed fake medical records to the city prosecutor’s office on three occasions, in what they characterize as an effort to “corrupt” the outcome of the case. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Jeff Lane joined FisherBroyles as a partner in its corporate practice in Milwaukee. He joins from Foley & Lardner.
• Elizabeth Glasgow and Jennifer Van Duzer joined Buchalter as shareholders in its trusts and estates group in Los Angeles. Glasgow joins from McDermott Will & Schulte. Van Duzer joins from Van Duzer Law.
• Steven Groopman joined DiCello Levitt as a partner in its antitrust and competition litigation practice group.
• Charles Mulaney joined Goldberg Kohn as a principal in its litigation practice group in Chicago. He joins from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.