• Most law firm offices in downtown Washington, D.C., will close for inauguration of President-elect Trump Friday, in anticipation of road closures and other access restrictions. Greenberg Traurig, Dentons and Crowell & Moring are among the exceptions and are planning parties. (National Law Journal)
• Wall Street’s expectations that Trump will quickly free banks from the grip of aggressive regulators could encounter a problem: Some of President Barack Obama’s top appointees aren’t planning to leave anytime soon. (Bloomberg)
• With the surprise of the U.K.’s Brexit vote and Trump’s election exacerbating currency problems for many law firms, some firms have been trying to hedge currencies to protect their increasingly international revenues. (Am Law Daily)
• Chicago-based litigation boutique Niro law, whose founder, Ray Niro, was known as the first “patent troll,” is going out of business five months after his death. Niro’s son and four partners are said to be launching a new firm with a wider focus. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
• Dentons partner Jeff Bleich has served in many roles — special counsel to Obama, U.S. Ambassador to Australia and California State Bar president — and now he’s joining the board of directors at data-processing company Nuix. (BLB)
Legal Market
• Automation technologies have enabled law firm administrative assistants to work with far more lawyers than they did in the past. But it still takes “soft skills” to be a good administrative assistant, Microsoft’s Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith noted on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Text and video. (BLB)
• Life-sciences company Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. only had a “paper effort” to comply with federal anti-bribery laws, the company’s ousted general counsel, Sanford Wadler, said on the second day of his whistleblower trial in California. (The Recorder)
• Global law firms have been moving into South Africa’s legal market, using Johannesburg as a base for clients throughout Africa. That’s providing a boost for local firms, too. (Law.com)
• The 10 London law firms cited as the most admired firms in a recent survey of 1,500 trainees and junior lawyers, with a winner to be announced later this month. (Legal Cheek)
• Bull Housser, a 126-year-old British Columbia firm, has “officially joined” Norton Rose Fulbright in a merger that was first announced in September. (Business Vancouver)
• Pinsent Masons was the top law firm for LGBT staff in a recent ranking of the 100 best U.K. employers for LGBT people overall by British nongovernmental organization Stonewall. The top 20 also included six other Big Law firms. (The Lawyer)
• Banks that settle government investigations often receive an outside monitor to ensure that they make good on their promises to reform. Deutsche Bank AG now has five. (Bloomberg via BLB)
• Mastercard Inc. preyed on more than 46 million unknowing consumers by unfairly charging card fees over a 16-year period, lawyers seeking to bring a $17.2 billion class-action lawsuit told a London court. (Bloomberg)
• State Street Corp. agreed to pay $64.6 million and cooperate in the U.S. prosecution of former executives, while admitting it overcharged six clients in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The Boston-based bank also agreed to appoint a compliance monitor. (Bloomberg)
More on the Transition to a Trump presidency
• Jones Day partner Noel Francisco is leaving the firm and speculation is that he could be headed for a post in the Trump administration. (National Law Journal)
• Perspective: The financial markets seem to believe that a President Donald Trump will be good for the U.S. economy. Does that mean it will be good for law firms, too? (Simons Advisors via BLB)
• With Trump about to take office, he has only appointed 28 people so far out of 690 positions requiring Senate confirmation tracked by the Washington Post and Partnership for Public Service. An “empty” administration bodes poorly for the start to Trump’s presidency, and the nation. (Bloomberg View)
• As a bill to increase sanctions on Russia is gaining bipartisan support in U.S. Congress, doubts have emerged about Trump in Moscow. (Bloomberg)
• Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to be the head the Environmental Protection Agency, softened his stances on climate change, federal biofuel requirements and the need to curb mercury pollution in a heated Senate confirmation hearing. (Bloomberg)
Brexit
• The U.K.’s Supreme Court will rule Jan. 24 on whether Prime Minister Theresa May can legally begin the process for the country to leave the European Union without first getting parliamentary approval. (Bloomberg via BLB)
• If Brexit curtails the U.K.’s access to Europe’s single market, London could become a far less attractive place from which to do business. The biggest questions about Brexit and the banks. Video. (Bloomberg via BLB)
Happening in SCOTUS and Other Courts
• The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday heard a case that casts a harsh light on real-world facts that we’d rather forget: the arrest and detention of innocent Muslims after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (Bloomberg View)
• Hearing arguments in a case involving an Asian-American band called The Slants, a skeptical U.S. Supreme Court questioned the constitutionality of a 70-year-old provision that lets the federal government withhold some legal protections for trademarks that officials conclude are disparaging. (Bloomberg) Greg Stohr, a Supreme Court Reporter for Bloomberg News, discusses the case, which could impact a similar case involving professional football’s Washington Redskins. Audio. (Bloomberg)
• Who’s on Trump’s shortlist to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court? Discussion. Video. (Bloomberg)
• “Like makeup, Florida’s doctrine of equitable estoppel can only cover so much,” Florida federal Judge Ed Carnes wrote in a pun-filled decision rejecting the Kardashian sisters’ bid to compel arbitration with a makeup company that had sued them. (Law.com)
• The normally staid Delaware Supreme Court got a bit of celebrity drama on Wednesday as famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz urged justices to reverse a decision forcing the sale of a profitable software company. (Bloomberg via BLB)
• A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. programmer, cleared of charges he stole the investment firm’s computer-trading codes, can’t prove he’s an executive entitled to have fees covered in legal disputes, one of the bank’s lawyers argued Wednesday. (Bloomberg via BLB)
Laterals and Moves
• Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP said it has added three attorneys to expand its domestic and international mergers & acquisitions/corporate practice. Joining the firm’s New York office, the team of Alan S. Jacobs, Brenda T. Simensky and Danila Duo, also brings a new Italian practice to SGR, it said. (SGR)
Technology
• On Friday when Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States he’ll inherit @POTUS, the official White House Twitter account from the Obama administration and its 13.6 million followers. Obama’s tweets will be at @POTUS44. (Recode)
• Cloudflare Inc., the California company that provides Internet network security and domain name server services, among other things, said it has been under a federal gag order for four years. Its legal team recently described what they called a fight with the FBI to protect their users’ privacy. (Legaltech News)
• Perspective: Blockchains and related technologies could help create new forms of royalty revenue for creators of music. And in a roundabout way, we will have Napster to thank for it. (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP via BLB)
• As drone technology evolves quickly, consumers, companies and government agencies are realizing its benefits. Lisa Ellman, a Washington-based partner at Hogan Lovells who chairs the firm’s unmanned aircraft systems practice, recently talked to Bloomberg BNA about laws, regulations and privacy and security concerns that may be preventing companies from capitalizing on the potential uses of drones. Video. (Bloomberg BNA via BLB)
• 3-D printers raise complex IP and liability challenges for inhouse counsel. (Legaltech News)
Legal Education
• Over 90 law school deans have asked their accreditor — the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar — to halt new standards that would hold schools accountable for very low bar passage rates. (Above the Law)
Miscellaneous
• A court in South Korea turned down prosecutors’ request to arrest Samsung Group’s Jay Y. Lee on alleged bribery, perjury and embezzlement, letting him stay in place atop the country’s most powerful company while they continue their investigation. (Bloomberg)
• A Kenyan court rejected a bank’s request to disqualify three law firms in a major fraud case. (The Star)
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Casey Sullivan.