Wake Up Call: Aging Attorneys Reluctant to Step Away From Firms

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

• Aging attorneys often can’t bring themselves to leave their jobs and retire, including Big Law partners who try to find ways around their firms’ mandatory retirement ages. “Intellectually, they may know they need to let go, but emotionally, they can’t bring themselves to do it,” said one consultant. “That’s when the firm must intervene.” (ABA Journal)
• Dinsmore & Shohl is launching a new office in Houston with a team plucked from rival Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith. (Reuters)
• Kellye Testy, president and CEO of the Law School Admission Council, is moving to take on a similar role with the Association of American Law Schools. Testy will join AALS as the group’s executive director and CEO in July, following the retirement of Judy Areen, who has served as AALS’ executive director for the last decade. (Law.com)
• Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. on Thursday announced the indictment of Pablo Israel Ortega Cuenca for falsely posing as an immigration attorney and defrauding clients out of thousands of dollars. From February of 2017 until at least October of 2019, Cuenca misled clients about his professional status and the fees required to file certain immigration applications. (Manhattan DA)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Jorge Medina has joined Vinson & Elkins as a partner in the tax practice. He was a partner at Shearman & Sterling in the project development and finance practices as well as head of renewables (Americas) and also served as associate general counsel-tax at Tesla Inc.
• James Newell has been announced as the CEO-elect of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.
• Megan Lopp Mathias has joined Hinshaw & Culbertson as a partner in the commercial transactions practice in the Chicago office.
• Dale Smith has joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner with the corporate and financial services department in Houston. He previously practiced at Mayer Brown.
• Stephanie Sebor has joined Jenner & Block as a partner with the environmental and workplace health and safety practice in Chicago.
• Jad Davis has been named managing partner of the Orange County, Calif., office of Shook Hardy & Bacon.