Biden not renominating two judicial picks, Atlanta, Chicago law firms merge, Judge hands Proskauer an early win, and Reed Smith's global leader leaves
Reuters Legal
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President Joe Biden is not renominating two of his picks to serve as federal judges whose nominations had stalled in the last Congress after a key Republican senator objected to one and a vacancy another was nominated to fill disappeared.
William Pocan and Jorge Rodriguez are among 45 judicial nominees who had not won Senate confirmation before 2022 ended. By the end of Monday,?only three nominees had not been renominated , including Pocan and Rodriguez.
A White House spokesperson said Biden is not ruling out resubmitting the third nominee, Jabari Wamble, a federal prosecutor in Kansas who in August was nominated for a seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Wamble is the son-in-law of Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri and would be, if confirmed by the Senate, the first Black judge from Kansas on the 10th Circuit.
Pocan, a state court judge in Milwaukee and brother of U.S. Representative Mark Pocan, was nominated to serve in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and would have become the first openly gay federal judge in the state.
But his nomination was blocked by his state's Republican senator, Ron Johnson, who?declined in February ?to return a necessary "blue slip" supporting him, despite initially jointly recommending to Biden with his Democratic Wisconsin colleague, Senator Tammy Baldwin.
In the case of Rodriguez, a lawyer in the New York Attorney General's Office, his nomination to a seat in the state's Northern District was derailed when the judge he was nominated to succeed, David Hurd,?rescinded his decision ?to take senior status, eliminating the vacancy.
Atlanta-founded Smith, Gambrell & Russell and Chicago-based Freeborn & Peters said Tuesday that they will merge on March 1, creating a 400-attorney law firm.
Freeborn entered into the latest merger with more than 110 attorneys and offices in Chicago, New York, Tampa, and Springfield, Illinois. Smith Gambrell has about 290 attorneys and 12 offices. The combined firm will have 11 U.S. offices and three international locations in London and Southampton in the UK, and Munich. It will operate under the Smith, Gambrell Russell name.
Large and midsize law firm mergers have?accelerated ?as the pandemic recedes, with a steady stream of deals already this year. Among them,?Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe ?said it is planning to merge with Buckley, adding 100 lawyers to Orrick's existing 1,000-plus attorneys. That deal is set to be finalized in February.
Alabama-based Maynard Cooper & Gale and Carolinas-based Nexsen Pruet said they would form a 550-attorney law firm called?Maynard Nexsen . Two?midsize Ohio law firms , Columbus-based Bricker & Eckler and Cincinnati-based Graydon Head & Ritchey, said last week they will form a 200-attorney firm by April.
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A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to bar Proskauer Rose’s former chief operating officer from accessing confidential data that the law firm?claims ?he stole before resigning in December, and to limit his pool of prospective new employers.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan said the “balance of harm” alleged in Proskauer’s?lawsuit ?against Jonathan O’Brien weighed in the firm’s favor, and that its claim that he violated trade secrets and fiduciary duty laws had met the threshold for a preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit alleges he downloaded 34 gigabytes of data before his departure, including financial performance, client lists and profitability metrics, compensation, and evaluations of every one of Proskauer’s more than 200 partners.
O’Brien has?denied ?the firm’s claims that he planned to take its secrets to another employer, countering that he downloaded the data in order to be able to work during a two-week vacation to Mauritius that coincided with his planned final days at the Proskauer. The firm?countered last week ?that the amount of data downloaded far exceeded what anyone would need to work remotely.
Law firm Reed Smith said Tuesday that its global managing partner and executive committee chair Alexander (Sandy) Thomas is stepping down for a new job at a nonprofit, sparking the first top leadership change at the firm in a decade.
Thomas, who has helmed the Pittsburgh-founded global firm since 2013, will depart effective March 1 for a role as the first chief legal officer of Washington, D.C.-based nongovernmental organization Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), the firm said. Reed Smith's executive committee has appointed Catherine (Casey) Ryan, who is currently the firm's global head of legal personnel, to succeed Thomas.
His departure comes as several other major U.S. law firms have announced a leadership shakeup in recent months, including?Seyfarth Shaw ,?Dechert ,?Jones Day ,?Dentons ,?and?Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath .
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