Washington Wrap is a weekly look at the biggest legal industry news and Big Law moves shaping the legal business in Washington, D.C. Send tips and lateral moves to Ryan Lovelace at [email protected].

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who set up Orbis Business Intelligence and compiled a dossier on President Donald Trump, pictured in London on March 7, 2017. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP)

The criminal wrongdoing of President Donald Trump's close associates dominated public attention this week, as his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges and Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort Jr., was found guilty on eight criminal counts.

But Trump's opponents notched a less-noticed victory this week in Washington, D.C. Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the eponymous dossier detailing alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, emerged victorious against three Russian oligarchs in D.C. Superior Court.

Steele, represented by Alston & Bird, won the dismissal of a defamation suit brought by the Russians, represented by Sperduto Thompson, against Steele for claims made in the dossier about money moving between the three oligarchs and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Judge Anthony Epstein dismissed the case, noting that the Russians failed to submit any evidence that Steele knew the information in the dossier was untrue or “acted with reckless disregard of its falsity.”

Following the ruling in favor of Steele this week, Trump indicated in a series of tweets that he would like U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to go after Steele—along with the president's other political opponents.

“[L]ook into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr…FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems – and so much more,” Trump tweeted. “Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”

While the country waits to see how Sessions proceeds, several other key developments in the legal industry this week could also change the way things work in Washington, D.C.

Venable absorbed Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto, an intellectual property firm that will double the acquirer's head count in New York.

James Paretti joined Littler Mendelson as a partner in Washington, D.C., where he will be a member of Littler's Workplace Policy Institute. Paretti most recently served as chief of staff and senior counsel to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission acting chair Victoria Lipnic. He has also worked as Workforce Policy Counsel to the Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Ballard Spahr added Chris Ford, a fintech and payment systems transaction lawyer, as a partner in its consumer financial services group in Washington, D.C. Ford advises clients on large-scale commercial transactions, co-brand and private-label card transactions, card processing and network-related deals, merchant acquisition and information technology issues. He previously worked as a partner at Morrison & Foerster.

Speaking of the Morrison & Foerster diaspora, Kirkland & Ellis added another lawyer from the firm this week in Ali Zaidi, who joined its corporate practice in Washington, D.C. Zaidi's move to Kirkland as of counsel comes about a month after Robert Fleishman joined as a partner in the same practice from Morrison & Foerster. Kirkland said the two lawyers were recruited separately and made the decision to join the firm separately.

Charles “Chuck” Wall has moved to Seyfarth Shaw in Washington, D.C., from Troutman Sanders in Richmond, Virginia. Wall will work in Seyfarth Shaw's public-private partnerships group and construction practice, which includes more than 35 lawyers advising clients on all phases of construction projects in the U.S. and around the world.

McDermott Will & Emery, which saw a large IP team leave its ranks this month, also lost leading trial lawyer Will Stute to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe this week. Stute, who has a son making headlines on the national high school basketball scene, is also national coordinating counsel for the National Collegiate Athletic Association in ongoing concussion litigation. His practice primarily focuses on white-collar and class action defense work.

Speaking of McDermott, the firm's former client, Michael Cohen, found a new way to pay his legal bills this week.

In the two days after Cohen's guilty plea, a fundraising campaign for “legal fees” created by his lawyer raked in more than $140,000. It has since continued to grow north of $150,000. For those keeping score, that's more than the $130,000 payment that Cohen routed to Stephanie Clifford, better known as adult film actress Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about her alleged tryst with Trump before the 2016 president election.

In its first 12 hours earlier this week, the fund for Cohen racked up $40,000.

Thomas Shannon Jr., a diplomat for approximately 35 years and acting U.S. secretary of state for all of 12 days following Trump's inauguration last year, has now joined Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer's global law and public policy practice as a senior international policy adviser in Washington, D.C. During the Obama administration, Shannon served as the U.S. ambassador to Brazil and under secretary of state for political affairs. He does not practice law.