Wake Up Call: Wells Fargo Counsel Joins ACH Network Manager

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

Nacha, which runs the Automated Clearing House Network payment system, recruited Wells Fargo senior lead counsel Jennifer Stokley as its new general counsel. A veteran Big Law litigator, Stokley was associate general counsel consumer marketing at Bank of America. (Nacha.org)
Plaintiffs’ attorneys in a $725 million data privacy settlement with Facebook parent company Meta Platforms petitioned a San Francisco federal judge for more than $181 million in legal fees. At 25% of the settlement amount, the requested fees are “within the range awarded in comparably sized cases,” the attorneys said. (Reuters)
Malaysia’s government said it will take legal action against Meta for failing to remove undesirable and harmful content from its social media platform. (Associated Press)
Davis Wright Tremaine represented the group of media organizations that successfully sued to learn identities of the two parties who guaranteed George Santos’ $500,000 bail bond. (Business Insider)

Lawyers, Law Firms

Dykema Gossett said its partners elected chair and CEO Len Wolfe to a second three-year term starting Jan. 1, 2024. (Dykema)
Around a dozen law firms have begun accepting a“universal” questionnaire for prospective lateral partner candidates. The form is aimed at streamlining the candidate screening process. (American Lawyer)
Penn State University, which has a 26-member in-house legal team, paid more than $4.3 million to five law firms, including Ballard Spahr, Duane Morris, McGuireWoods, McQuaide Blasko, and Saul Ewing Arnstein & Leh last year, according to a report citing a filing to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. (Altoona Mirror)
Former federal Judge H. Lee Sarokin has died at age 94. He was known for his ruling exonerating boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter for the 1966 killing of three white people in a bar in Paterson. (New Jersey Law Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

McGuireWoods appointed new office managing partners in Los Angeles, Washington, Austin, Pittsburgh, and Tyson, Virginia, continuing its policy of rotating key leadership positions. (McGuireWoods.com)
Hinshaw & Culbertson named Chicago-based partner Adam Guetzow as co-practice group leader of its national health-care practice. (HinshawLaw.com)
Norton Rose Fulbright hired Kirkland & Ellis corporate finance lawyer Kimberly Perdue as partner in Dallas. She’s a former vice president and corporate counsel at Prudential Capital Group. She represents private equity funds, financial institutions, institutional investors, and public and private issuers. (NortonRoseFulbright.com)
Lowenstein Sandler’s former crypto practice vice chair Eric Swartz moved to virtual law firm Sterlington LLC as partner and head of its Web3 practice, focused on crypto asset matters. He was earlier at Goodwin Procter in its private equity group. (SterlingtonLaw.com)
Baker Botts snagged Dubai-based projects and project finance lawyer Shane Wilson as partner. He arrives from Squire Patton Boggs. (BakerBotts.com)
New York-headquartered Tarter Krinsky & Drogin said it hired business attorney Emily Ayoob to launch a French practice. It’s also launching a Canadian practice. (TarterKrinsky.com)
BlueLinx Holdings Inc., a Georgia-based US wholesale distributor of building products, hired former Kimberly Clark executive and deputy general counsel Tricia Kinney as general counsel and corporate secretary effective July 31. She was recently chief legal and compliance officer of residential and commercial services provider ServiceMaster Brands. (BlueLinxCo.com)
Permira named former Clifford Chance private equity lawyer Peter Gibbs, currently managing director at the London-based investment firm, to take over as its global general counsel when current GC Ulrich Gasse retires at year’s end. (Private Equity News)
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota hired former Target health-care compliance officer Miaja Cassidy as chief legal officer. She’s been in-house at medical tech company Medtronic and Hennepin Health System. (PR Newswire)