April 12, 2021

Good morning. Labor activists doing an autopsy of the failed Amazon unionization vote in Alabama could look at a key strategic move its lawyers at Morgan Lewis made months ago. Representative Matt Gaetz is lawyered up, Holland & Knight and Thompson & Knight are putting in motion what could be the biggest law firm merger of the year, and Turkey's Halkbank is hoping a federal appeals court will let it escape from its U.S. sanctions indictment. Let's get this week going!

Our guest contributor today is Arriana McLymore. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.

How Amazon's lawyers at Morgan Lewis helped it win Alabama union vote

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Labor activists are still reeling from Friday's lopsided vote against unionization by workers at Amazon.com Inc's warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Among the potential culprits for the loss? Election parameters that the e-commerce company's lawyers at Morgan Lewis fought to put in place.

NLRB representatives counted 1,798 voting against forming a union, with 738 ballots in favor. Jeffrey Dastin and Mike Spector report that a key factor that may have contributed to that 2-1 vote was a move by Amazon's lawyers to have thousands of warehouse employees participate in the vote in addition to the 1,500 workers that the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union originally proposed.

Companies often try to pack such proposed bargaining units with additional workers to dilute union support, labor experts say. The move by Amazon's lawyers in December led the union to ultimately accept sending ballots to more than 5,800 workers.

Harry Johnson, a Morgan Lewis partner and former NLRB member who represents Amazon, said the company simply wanted "to make sure that everybody essentially doing the same job at the fulfillment center would have a chance to vote."

The union's president, Stuart Appelbaum, said the bargaining unit was "larger than we thought appropriate," but the alternative was "years of litigation if we didn't accept it." The union contends overall that Amazon interfered with the right of employees to vote and now plans to file objections with the NLRB in a fight that will likely land before a federal appeals court. Learn more.

Industry buzz

U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein in Central Islip, New York, was killed after being struck in what authorities say was a hit-and-run in Boca Raton, Florida, that also injured a 6-year-old boy. The suspected hit-and-run driver, Nastasia Snape, was charged with vehicular homicide over the tragedy, which authorities say was preceded by erratic driving. Police said she was found to have "bath salts" in her possession. (AP, ABC News)
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who helped shape U.S. civil rights law during the Johnson administration before going on to defend unpopular causes or people including Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein, has died at age 93. (Reuters)
Embattled Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida has tapped New York lawyers Marc Mukasey of Muksaey Frenchman and Isabelle Kirschner of Clayman & Rosenberg to represent him as he fights off sex trafficking accusations. Mukasey, the son of former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, is currently representing the Trump Organization in an ongoing criminal probe into the former president's taxes. (Reuters, CNBC)
Kirkland & Ellis saw a record spike in revenue for 2020 as M&A bounced back from the pandemic’s slowdown. The law firm raked in $4.83 billion in revenue, while profits per partner increased 19.2% to about $6.2 million. (The American Lawyer)
President Joe Biden is pulling in professors from the nation's top law schools including Columbia, Duke, Harvard and Yale for a bipartisan commission on the U.S. Supreme Court. The group, which is being co-chaired by former White House counsel Bob Bauer and former DOJ official Cristina Rodriguez, will look into expanding the bench and will explore the "merits and legality" of specific high court reform proposals. (Reuters, White House)
Gregg Shapiro, a former federal prosecutor who spearheaded an industry-wide probe into drugmakers' financial support of patient assistance charities that resulted in more than $1 billion in settlements, has left the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston to launch a whistleblower law firm, Newman & Shapiro, with another attorney, Jeffrey Newman. (Reuters)
Vice Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick appears poised to become the first woman to lead Delaware's Court of Chancery, the go-to venue for corporate litigation, after Governor John Carney nominated her to replace Chancellor Andre Bouchard, who is retiring. (Delaware Business Times)
With demand for deal work at top law firms high, Paul Weiss is beefing up its transactions team by hiring Brian Krause, a tax specialist who focuses on cross-border public transactions and restructurings from Skadden, and David Tarr, who was the co-chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher's finance practice group and represents private equity deal sponsors. (Reuters)

Number of the day:

1,600

Source: Holland & Knight/Thompson & Knight

Miami-founded Holland & Knight and Dallas-based Thompson & Knight on Friday announced they were in merger talks to create a law firm they said would have nearly 1,600 lawyers in 30 offices globally. If completed, the deal would be the largest announced so far into 2021, a year that has industry experts predicting a come-back for law firm mergers following a pandemic-prompted slowdown in combinations during 2020. Holland & Knight, with 1,400 lawyers and professionals, had revenues last year of nearly $1.05 million, while 300-attorney Thompson & Knight reported about $200 million in revenues. (Reuters)

Video: Legal Lookahead

Reuters video journalist Tom Rowe gives you an early view to the week ahead in legal news. Watch the video, or listen to a quick audio rundown of what's coming up this week in the law.

Coming up today

Trial will continue in the case of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who faces murder charges over the deadly arrest of George Floyd last year. Reuters over the weekend profiled Benjamin Crump, the civil rights lawyer who heads the Floyd family's legal team. "For us, it’s a case. It's a cause. It's a hashtag," he said. "For them ... it’s their family. This is their blood." See what else he said.
State-owned Turkish lender Halkbank will urge the 2nd Circuit in New York to dismiss a U.S. indictment accusing it of helping Iran evade American sanctions. The case has strained U.S.-Turkey relations. Halkbank’s lawyers including Simon Latcovich of Williams & Connolly argue it is entitled to foreign sovereign immunity from criminal prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sidhardha Kamaraju will argue for the government.
Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group Technologies will ask the 9th Circuit in San Francisco to throw out a lawsuit by Facebook’s messaging service WhatsApp alleging it sent malware through the app to about 1,400 mobile devices to spy on users, including diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and government officials. Jeffrey Bucholtz of King & Spalding will argue for NSO, and Michael Dreeben of O'Melveny & Myers do so for WhatsApp.
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, who has been turning the Western District of Texas into a go-to patent litigation venue, will oversee another trial pitting VLSI Technology, a non-practicing entity owned by the hedge fund Fortress Investment Group, against Intel over claims the tech company infringed two patents for integrated circuits. VLSI, repped by Irell & Manella's Morgan Chu, won a nearly $2.2 billion jury verdict in the same Waco federal court in March on claims that Intel infringed two other patents. WilmerHale's Bill Lee will once again defend Intel.
The Boy Scouts of America will go before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Wilmington, Delaware, for a status conference on any progress it has made in mediation with insurers, creditors and representatives of sex abuse survivors on its proposed reorganization plan. White & Case's Jessica Lauria represents the BSA. Brown Rudnick's David Molton represents a group of sex abuse victims, and Tancred Schiavoni of O'Melveny & Myers reps the insurers.
California utility customers will urge the 9th Circuit to revive a lawsuit challenging a state law that requires ratepayers to underwrite a $10.5 billion liquidity fund established to help cover losses from future wildfires caused by public utilities. Utilities contributions and a state loan to start up the fund, meanwhile, total $9.8 billion. Michael Aguirre of Aguirre & Severson will argue for the ratepayers and will face California Deputy Attorney General Gabrielle Boutin. Learn more about the case.
The convicted former movie producer Harvey Weinstein is expected to appear by video at an initial proceeding in a New York state court in Buffalo before Judge Kenneth Case to determine whether to extradite him to California face sexual assault charges there. Weinstein is imprisoned in upstate New York and appealing his conviction and 23-year sentence for sexually assaulting one woman and raping another.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner in Los Angeles will consider whether to grant final approval to a settlement resolving claims by by members of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team against their employer, the U.S. Soccer Federation, over workplace conditions. If approved, the players' lawyers led by Winston & Strawn's Jeffrey Kessler say they plan to appeal the judge's decision to rule against them on their pay-discrimination claims. Latham & Watkins' Jamie Wine is defending U.S. Soccer.

Later this week

Two former Deutsche Bank traders will urge the 2nd Circuit on Wednesday to overturn their fraud convictions related to a scheme to manipulate the Libor benchmark interest rate. Matthew Connolly, who once led Deutsche Bank’s pool trading desk in New York, and Gavin Black, who worked on the bank’s London desk, avoided prison sentences and instead were sentenced to six and nine months of home confinement, respectively. Their lawyers, Kenneth Breen of Paul Hastings for Connolly and Seth Levine of Levine Lee for Black, will argue the appeal and will face Sangita Rao of the DOJ.
Satellite operator Intelsat SA will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips in Richmond, Virginia, for a nine-month extension of its exclusive period to file a Chapter 11 plan at a virtual hearing on Wednesday. Though Intelsat's lawyers led by Edward Sassower of Kirkland & Ellis filed a plan in February, it says the additional time is necessary to ensure that it maintains control of its case, which is especially complicated due to the various types and levels of debt at Intelsat's multiple bankrupt entities. Learn why it is struggling to gain support from some creditors for its plan.
The 8th Circuit on Wednesday is poised to become the first federal appeals court to hear arguments in one of the many lawsuits filed by businesses seeking to force their insurers to cover losses they sustained due to COVID-19 shutdowns. U.S. District Judge Charles Wolle in Iowa ruled in favor of Cincinnati Insurance Co in finding that oral surgery practice Oral Surgeons PC's losses could not be covered under its property insurance policy. Tyler Smith of Peddicord & Wharton will argue for the practice and Daniel Litchfield of Litchfield & Cavo will argue for the insurer.
Former Braskem CEO Jose Carlos Grubisich is slated to plead guilty on Thursday before a federal judge in Brooklyn after being charged with violating the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act over his role in a bribery and money laundering scheme involving the Brazilian petrochemical company and its parent Odebrecht. The DOJ said hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted from Braskem into a secret slush fund used in part to pay bribes to government officials, political parties and others in Brazil to win business. Edward Kim of Krieger Kim & Lewin and Paul Shechtman of Bracewell are defending him.
Lawyers for WeWork and its co-founder Adam Neumann on Friday will ask U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. in Oakland, California, to dismiss a proposed class action brought on behalf of investors in the privately-held company alleging it violated California law through a scheme to inflate the co-working space company's valuation. Debevoise & Plimpton’s Maeve O'Connor and Paul Weiss’ Jaren Janghorbani are defending the company and Neumann, respectively. Robbins Geller’s Shawn Williams is pursuing the case.

The latest law firm benefit? How Akin Gump is helping lawyers create a college nest egg

Meg Meserole
Akin Gump

Law firms are pulling out all the stops to keep lawyers happy and increase retention during the pandemic. And that includes not only big bonuses but also family-friendly benefits - something Akin Gump is doing with a new program to help them save for their children's college education.

Akin Gump last week rolled-out a 529 college savings plan benefit through the fintech company SoFi for its lawyers and employees that can be used for students’ tuition and other educational expenses.

Meg Meserole, Akin Gump’s chief human resources officer called the benefit "a natural next step" with SoFi, which the firm previously partnered with on student loan refinancing and repayment programs. SoFi has worked with more than 120 partners in the legal space, mostly with firms that have about 1,000 employees.

Akin Gump in announcing the benefit said only "very few" of its peer large law firms offer a similar 529 program. Meserole said the benefit plan offers a "convenience factor" for lawyers and staff who want to be more intentional about setting money aside for their children’s futures.

"This particular benefit is especially important to promote, for the most part, for parents who are planning for a very large financial commitment," she said.

"It's the continuation of a terrible history that we believed was going to change. So we are really disappointed to hear this news from the Army Corps."

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes at the environmental legal group Earthjustice, in reaction during a hearing on Friday to learning that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would allow Energy Transfer's Dakota Access oil pipeline to keep running, even after the D.C. Circuit upheld a decision sought by the tribes to scrap a key environmental permit. The decision shocked activists who hoped the Biden administration would shut the line down and leaves the decision with U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in D.C., who said he too was "a little bit surprised" by the news. (Reuters)

In the courts

South Korean battery makers LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation Co agreed to settle disputes over electric-vehicle battery technology ahead of a Sunday night deadline for the Biden administration to decide whether to take the rare step of reversing a ITC decision to ban the importation of SK's products for 10 years. SK, represented by Sturgis Sobin of Covington & Burling and Blaney Harper of Jones Day, agreed to pay 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) to LG, a subsidiary of LG Chem Ltd repped by Latham & Watkins' Bert Reiser. (Reuters)
Is it possible another bank made an even bigger payment error than Citigroup's flub of sending $894 million of its own money to Revlon lenders? According to Hogan Lovell's Neal Katyal, Citi's lawyer, yes. He made that claim without providing further details during a Friday hearing where he urged a Manhattan federal judge to extend a freeze on $504 million that it has been unable to recoup while it appeals a ruling allowing the lenders to keep the money. (Reuters)
Amazon.com Inc suffered a setback in its fight against New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit claiming it prioritized profit over worker safety during the COVID-19 pandemic at two New York City warehouses, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan granted her request to send the case back to state court and not move it to Brooklyn federal court, where the online retailer's lawyers including Gibson Dunn's Zainab Ahmad had sued James to stop her from suing. (Reuters)
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco dismissed two related proposed privacy class actions that accused weight loss technology company Noom, online jewelry retailer Blue Nile and their vendor FullStory illegally wiretapped the communications of visitors to their websites. She said the vendor was not a third-party eavesdropper, and as a result Noom and Blue Nile could not be sued for "aiding and abetting" its wrongdoing. Cooley's Michael Rhodes, Noom's lead lawyer, called the ruling "well-reasoned." (Reuters)
Video game giant Activision filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking to have a judge declare that its "Call of Duty: Warzone" doesn't infringe trademark rights owned by Warzone.com LLC, which makes a web-based strategy game also called "Warzone.” Activision lawyers Marc Mayer and Karin Pagnanelli of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in the complaint said Warzone.com had threatened to seek "massive damages" from it. (Reuters)
Christopher Comstock, better known as the electronic dance music DJ Marshmello, escaped claims that he stole elements of another DJ's remix of a song by the band OneRepublic for his hit song "Happier." Marshmello's attorney, Robert Jacobs of Manatt Phelps & Phillips, said the decision by U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez in Los Angeles affirmed "longstanding industry practice recognizing that remixers do not acquire ownership interests in the remixes they prepare." (Reuters)
Credit Suisse's U.S. brokerage unit in a federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco disclosed that former employees' personal data was leaked last month. Credit Suisse's lawyers led by Baker & McKenzie's Jessica Nall said unknown individuals sent a "spoof" email in the name of the unit’s CEO disclosing information to media outlets, law enforcement and former employees and have threatened to disclose other data. (Reuters)

Columnist spotlight:

Why NY parole hearings need video to meet due process. The Legal Aid Society of New York has sent a letter demanding that New York corrections officials use video in hearings for alleged parole violations, out of due process concerns with audio-only proceedings amid the pandemic “I think most people can imagine how disengaged and dehumanized our clients feel being sent back to state prison over the phone,” Legal Aid staff attorney Laura Eraso told Hassan Kanu in his latest column. Kanu lays out the problems with audio-only proceedings for parolees and how the procedure can deny access to justice. Read the full column here.

Bayer, class counsel tweak proposed Roundup settlement, tout benefits ahead of May hearing. With a month to go before a May 12 hearing on preliminary approval, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco has said nothing about the framework of Bayer's proposed multipronged, $2 billion settlement to resolve future claims by people exposed to the weedkiller Roundup. That's probably a good thing, Alison Frankel writes, given the deep concerns he expressed about an earlier proposal, prompting them to re-negotiate. But Bayer and the lead plaintiffs' lawyers are still facing complaints about the revised settlement proposal from a bevy of plaintiffs' lawyers and groups like the American Association of Justice, Public Citizen and Public Justice, who argue the proposed Roundup class settlement compromises the litigation rights of future plaintiffs who may not even yet know they have claims. Late Wednesday, class counsel responded with some amendments while also urging the judge to consider its benefits. Frankel in her latest column takes a close look at that brief. Find out what they argue.

Check out other recent pieces from all our columnists: Alison Frankel, Jenna Greene and Hassan Kanu.

Lawyer speak: The PREP Act now covers authorized government contractors

There have been a number of amendments added to the The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton attorney Keeley McCarty digs into the ways in which government contractors are now protected from liability in pandemic response efforts under the PREP Act. Read more here.

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