Wake Up Call: Lawyers use NFT to service orders in Blockchain suit

In today’s column, Goodwin and Simpson Thacher led a private equity-funded deal for legal tech company MyCase; Mayer Brown’s London managing partner told partners not to ruin employees’ holidays with non-urgent work; Holland & Knight took on a five-partner private equity team in Charlotte.

• Two Holland & Knight property recovery attorneys in Miami say they are the first to use a non-fungal token to announce a temporary restraining order against anonymous defendants. The lawyers said that, with the approval of a New York judge, they used an NFT to service the order in a case over $ 8 million in allegedly stolen virtual Ethereum blockchain assets. They said the new strategy helps to circumvent weaknesses in trying to physically serve anonymous defendants. (Daily Business Review)
• Goodwin Procter advised the professional services payment group AffiniPay, a portfolio company of TA Associates and the parent company of LawPay, on the acquisition of the software company MyCase for legal practice. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised the seller, private equity firm Apax Partners and its portfolio company MyCase. TA Associates continues as the majority owner of the merged company, and Apax retains a minority stake. (Businesswire.com)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Mayer Brown’s managing partner in London asked partners not to ruin employees’ vacations by contacting them with work requirements, unless it is a “real emergency.” (Roll on Friday)
• O’Melveny and Myers represented the company’s online training and resource company Go1 in a $ 100 million round of funding that brings the Hong Kong – based company’s valuation to over $ 2 billion. AirTree Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Five Sigma, Madrona, Salesforce Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 participated in the round. (Globe Newswire)
• “Brand and reputation” are the most important qualities business leaders look for in a potential M&A goal, according to a new survey report of Eversheds-Sutherland. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)
• The city of Philadelphia published a 257-page report on the catastrophic police bombing in 1985 of the headquarters of a black liberation group and the city’s subsequent handling of the victims’ remains. The independent report was conducted by law firms Dechert and Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads. (Axios)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Holland and knight took a five-partner corporate and private equity team in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Moore & Van Allen. The group includes partners Rick Bange, John Gilson, Mike Miller, Emerich Gutter and Ben Weadon; Latham and Watkins snagged veteran Clifford Chance insurance transactional attorneys Gary Boss and Analyze Dillingham in New York as business partners in its merger and acquisition practices; New York firm Moses & Singer hired commercial lawyer Eliad Shapiro as a partner. (MosesSinger.com)
• The British law firm Addleshaw Goddard said it had hired a lawyer for companies and mergers and acquisitions David Lambert as a partner in Paris where he will head the office’s private equity department. Lambert has been with Willkie, Farr & Gallagher and Allen & Overy and recently came from Jeausserand Audouard, where he was a partner; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer said the leader of his London conflict resolution group, Partner Sarah Parkes, is now its Global Dispute Resolution Manager. She took over after London-based partner Andy Hart, who return to focus on their practice. (Freshfields.com)
• Many years of intellectual property lawyer Charles Wielanda partner in Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and co-chairman of the IP section, left this firm after over 33 years for Philadelphia-based Panitch Black Belisario and Needle. He joins the IP store as a partner, bringing with him a partner, patent agent and four assistants; Tomt Roma employed Venable consumer finance lawyer Daniel Funaro in Washington; Loeb and Loeb caught McDermott Will & Emery trusts & estates lawyer Michael Rosen-Prinz as a partner in Los Angeles; Quarles and Brady brought in a corporate, securities and finance lawyer Jeremy Jarrett in Phoenix as a lawyer. (Quarles.com)

Legal education

• Harvard Law School is a corporate bankruptcy specialist Jared Ellias begins at Harvard Law School as a professor, July 1st. Ellias, a former Big Law attorney, is leaving the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, where he has been Bion M. Gregory’s head of business law and faculty director of the Business Law Center. (Harvard.edu)