The price of fighting Trump

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By Caitlin Tremblay

REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who is fighting an effort by President ‌Trump to fire her over mortgage fraud allegations she says are untrue, disclosed on Thursday almost $1.2 million in legal ⁠services payments as her case has made its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The payments, including $696,346 to the State Democracy Defenders Fund and $477,951 to Contina Impact, were noted in ‌an ⁠updated annual financial filing to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

In New York:

Executive compensation partner Linda Barrett left Simpson Thacher for Paul Weiss … Sidley hired global finance partner Sumita Ahuja from Wachtell … Cadwalader added finance partner Robert Hayes from Morgan Lewis … Financial services litigation partner Craig Haughton joined Thompson Coburn from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management … Fund transactions partner Zhiyan Cao moved to Simpson Thacher from Debevoise & Plimpton … Milbank added tax partner Stuart Alter from Akin … DLA Piper hired private equity partner Kevin O’Mara from Willkie … Labor and employment partner Steven Nevolis joined Thompson Hine from Ellenoff Grossman & Schole … Greenberg Traurig added litigation partner Curtis Leitner from McCarter & English … Orrick added structured finance partner Victor Liang from Morrison & Foerster.

In D.C.:

K&L Gates added former DOJ digital currency counsel Sanjeev Bhasker as partner in its public policy practice … Health regulatory partner Margaux Hall moved to Gibson Dunn from Ropes & Gray … BakerHostetler added tax partners Richard Slowinski and Stefanie Kavanagh from Alston & Bird … Former senior DOJ trial counsel Susan Carney Lynch joined BCLP as a healthcare litigation partner … Dykema added financial services litigation partner Brent Procida from Venable.

In Los Angeles:

Davis Wright Tremaine added employment partner Emilie Woodhead from Winston & Strawn … Employment litigation partners Jennifer Jambor-Delgado, Leslie Joyner and Alexander Spellman moved to Jackson Lewis from Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani … Insurance partner Diana Winfrey moved to Hinshaw & Culbertson from Selman Breitman.

In Houston:

Bracewell added oil and gas transactions partners Kevin Brophy and Ming Lei from Winston & Strawn … Energy and infrastructure partner Denny Lee moved to Simpson Thacher from Latham.

In London:

Corporate partner Sarah Pearce moved to K&L Gates from Hunton Andrews Kurth … Orrick added structured finance partner Polly O’Brien from McDermott.

Across other cities:

Healthcare transactions partner Kelly Kluka moved to Honigman in Detroit from Kirkland … Orrick added structured finance partner Brittany Fox in Austin from Morrison Foerster. The firm also added structured finance partner John Paul in Charlotte from Mayer Brown … Real estate partner Richard Pensinger joined Baker Donelson in Nashville from K&L Gates … Corporate and tax partner Sam Grimes returned to Burr & Forman in Birmingham, Alabama, from Storyteller Overland … Quarles & Brady added commercial real estate and leasing partner Hillary Bean in St. Louis from Armstrong Teasdale.

Law firms spent years vying for a stamp of approval from Diversity Lab, which pushed them to consider women and minority attorneys when making new hires and promotions. Then diversity became politically fraught, and law firms backpedaled away from the program as quickly as they had once rushed to support it. In her latest Power of Attorney, Sara Randazzo discusses the near-total silence from big law firms since Diversity Lab announced its closure earlier this month, after failing to reach an accord with the Trump administration. Of the 60 firms Randazzo reached out, just two had anything to say about the state of diversity in the profession.

caitlin.trembay@thomsonreuters.com