Wake Up Call: Top Firms Hiring Energy Partners as Policies Shift

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

• Akin Gump Stauss Hauer & Feld, Hogan Lovells, and Sidley Austin have been hiring energy practice partners as federal policy evolves and clean energy deals are announced. Akin Gump said on Wednesday that it had hired DC partner Vanessa Richelle Wilson from DLA Piper. (Reuters)
• A US Department of Veterans Affairs lawyer is being investigated for posting a message on social media that mocked Israelis over their concerns about hostages taken to the Gaza Strip. Shekeba Morrad, an appellate attorney with the agency’s general counsel office, has since taken the message down after it was posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. (Fox News)
• According to Miss Manners, here’s how you should respond “within the bounds of good manners” when the next person insults you for being a lawyer: “I hope you’ll never need one.” (Washington Post)
• The American Bar Association has chosen Jennifer Rosato Perea, the dean of DePaul University College of Law since 2015, as its new managing director of accreditation and legal education. Rosato Perea will become the first Latina head of ABA legal education when she takes her post next June 1. (ABA)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Vanessa Richelle Wilson has joined Akin as a partner in the projects and energy transition practice in Washington, D.C.
• Peter Farrell has joined Brown Rudnick as a partner in the tax group in Washington, D.C. He joins from Baker Botts.
• Robert P. Demchak has joined McCarter & English as a partner in the firm’s real estate practice group in both the Indianapolis, Ind., and New York offices.