⚖️ Clinton-aligned lawyer heads to trial, judicial diversity, European expansion and law firm merger ➡️
Reuters Legal
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☀️ Good morning! Indicted ex-Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann loses bid to end prosecution, Biden nominates Judges John Lee and Salvador Mendoza to the 7th and 9th Circuits, Goodwin Procter opens its 14th global office in Munich, and Kaufman Dolowich merges with a small firm to enter Dallas and New Orleans. Here's a look at the latest in the industry from Reuters Legal 👇
Indicted lawyer Michael Sussmann, with links to the Democratic Party, will have to face a jury trial scheduled for May 16 after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in the District of Columbia denied a motion to dismiss the criminal case against him, where he has been accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Sussmann was charged as part of U.S. Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI inquiry of suspected ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Sussmann is accused of lying to the FBI about who he was representing when he met with the agency in September 2016. He has pleaded not guilty and denies that he lied to the FBI.
Sussmann is a former lawyer for the Perkins Coie firm who previously worked for 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign against Republican Trump.
Sussmann had argued as grounds for dismissal that he never made a "material," or consequential, misstatement to the FBI. But Cooper said he needed to hear the government's evidence before resolving the "materiality" issue.
"The battle lines thus are drawn, but the Court cannot resolve this standoff prior to trial," Judge Cooper wrote.
The Biden White House made further moves to diversify the bench by announcing five new judicial nominees on Wednesday, bringing the total number of federal appellate and district court picks that President Joe Biden has made since taking office a year ago to 87.
The nominees include U.S. District Judge John Lee in Chicago, who would be the first Asian American person to serve on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Judge Salvador Mendoza in Richland, Washington, who would be the first Hispanic judge from that state to ever serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Biden also nominated U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Locher to serve as a federal judge for the Southern District of Iowa; Miner, Barnhill & Galland partner Nancy Maldonado to serve in the Northern District of Illinois and Fox Rothschild partner Gregory B. Williams to become the only judge of color currently serving as a federal district court judge in Delaware.
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Goodwin Procter is looking to fortify its European private equity practice by formally opening an office in Munich, its second in Germany, after Frankfurt.
The new 11-lawyer office will be led by Jan Schinkoeth, who joined Goodwin in May 2021 from Sidley Austin.
"It's a very, very important market for private equity in Europe," said Erik Dahl, a London-based partner who helped set up the office.
Last year, New York-founded Shearman & Sterling and UK-founded Clyde & Co. opened their own offices in the Bavarian capital. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, a Washington, D.C.-founded intellectual property firm, opened an office in Munich in January.
New York-based midsize firm Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck (KDV) has added two new offices in Dallas and New Orleans by absorbing the Myers Law Group, a small law firm that had five attorneys in Dallas and one working out of New Orleans before merging with KDV.
After the merger, KDV will have a total of about 200 attorneys and 17 offices in nine states. The new additions include Dallas-based Myers Law partners Angella Myers and Janice Parker, along with New Orleans-based partner Mark Carver.
Co-managing partner Michael Kaufman in a statement:
“Texas is one of the largest and busiest legal jurisdictions in the country, while Louisiana presents an opportunity to expand our bench and services to clients, which makes this another important step in expanding KDV’s national presence."
A number of midsize law firms have moved into Dallas this year. Los Angeles-based firm Michelman & Robinson opened there in January, closely followed by Phoenix-based Snell & Wilmer and Atlanta-based litigation firm Freeman Mathis & Gary.
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