Wake Up Call: GRSM Adds 14 Lawyers to Pittsburgh Via Burns White

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

• Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, which refers to itself as GRSM, has added a team of 14 lawyers to its Pittsburgh office, including eight partners, as the firm continues to expand its “50 state platform.” The partners, who all previously with Burns White, include a mix of litigators and insurance defenders. (Gordon Rees)
• South Florida lawyer Brad Ira Schandler has been engaging in “unorthodox” foreclosure auctions in Broward and Miami-Dade counties that basically ensure “his clients will wind up owning the property.” Judges enable his behavior, despite other attorneys claiming he’s undertaken a “brazen manipulation of the court system.” (Miami Herald)
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has announced that Alexandra Kaplan and Brian Steinhardt are the new co-heads of the firm’s banking and credit practice. The pair replaced Patrick Ryan in the role. All three work out of the firm’s New York office. (Simpson Thacher)
• Oregon and Washington state family lawyer Michael McGrath, who attended the women’s NCAA basketball tournament in Portland Sunday, spotted a discrepancy between the lengths of the venue’s three-point lines. By Monday, after posting his findings on social media, officials corrected the mistake. “I’m a lawyer, so that’s what I do all day long, I proofread stuff,” he said. (ABA Journal)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Matthew Jones has joined Jones Day as a partner with the financial markets practice in Houston.
• Alex Gendzier has joined the corporate department at Seyfarth Shaw in New York. He joins from Arnold & Porter.
• Yechiel Belfer has joined Dentons as a banking and finance partner in Melbourne.
• Matthew Einbinder, Breen Haire, and Christopher May have been appointed co-managing partners of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Houston office.
• Giancarlo D’Ambrosio has joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as partner in the private capital group and global transactions practice in Milan, Italy.
• David L. Shaw has joined Alston & Bird as a partner with the mergers and acquisitions practice in New York. He was a partner at Fried Frank.
• Rebecca J. Bernhard has joined Barnes & Thornburg as a partner in the labor and employment department in the Minneapolis office.
• Avi Feinberg has joined Akin as a real estate partner in New York. He practiced at Fried Frank.
• Tim Maloney has joined Nixon Peabody as a partner with the intellectual property practice in Chicago.
• Jennifer Recine, Sarmad Khojasteh, and David Kupfer have joined King & Spalding as partners with the business litigation practice group in New York from Kasowitz Benson Torres.
• Neil Hare has joined Dentons as a partner with the public policy practice in Washington, D.C.
• Stephen Bentfield has joined Crowell & Moring as a partner with the health care group in Denver. He served as vice president and group general counsel at DaVita Integrated Kidney Care.
• Ian Goldberg has joined Akin as a partner in the energy transactions practice in the Houston office. He previously led the energy transactions practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth.
• Susan Ryba has joined McDermott Will & Emery as a partner in the tax practice group in Chicago.
• Sam Riesenberg has joined Mayer Brown as a partner with the tax practice in London. He joins from the Washington national tax practice of KPMG.
• Mark A. Snider has joined Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as a partner and a member of the mergers and acquisitions team in Cleveland. He joins from Porter Wright Morris & Arthur.
• Andrew M. Nerney has joined Blank Rome as of counsel in the tax, benefits, and private clients practice group in the New York office. Nerney joins from Day Pitney.
• Amy M. Van Fossen has been promoted to counsel at Brach Eichler, a law firm based in Roseland, N.J.