Good morning. Britney Spears has a new lawyer, "Tiger King" Joe Exotic is getting a new sentencing hearing with the help of Bernie Madoff's attorney, and Bob Baffert could be back on the racetrack -- despite Medina Spirit's failed drug test. That's just a little of what we're following as we enter the week's downslope. Let's get going!
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Britney Spears' new lawyer says conservatorship 'not working'
In a major development in Britney Spears' conservatorship case, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny granted the pop star the right to choose her own attorney as she tries to unwind the 13-year-old arrangement that put her financial independence in the hands of her father.
Spears appeared by phone at the hearing, where she got the go-ahead to hire Mathew Rosengart of Greenberg Traurig as her new attorney after her court-appointed counsel resigned, Lisa Richwine reports. But Spears again begged Penny to remove her father, Jamie Spears, from the helm of the conservatorship, saying the judge was allowing him to ruin her life.
"I have to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse," Spears told the judge. Jamie Spears' attorney, Vivian Thoreen of Holland & Knight, countered that many of the singer's complaints about him were "the farthest from the truth."
Spears' legal situation has captured global headlines in the weeks since she first spoke out at a hearing before Penny. In those first comments, she called the conservatorship abusive and revealed that it governed her ability to remarry or have more children.
Rosengart made it clear he will move quickly to remove Jamie Spears and end the conservatorship as a whole. "This is not working," Rosengart said. "We know that." Learn more about yesterday's happenings.
Industry buzz
- A piece of legislation protecting the personal info of federal judges has been reintroduced in the wake of the murder of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas' son by an attorney who appeared before her. The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, named for Salas' son, would restrict the resale of judges' personal information and restrict access to it in federal databases. It has the support of the federal judiciary. (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)
- "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, called on a Vermont attorney known for his work representing Bernie Madoff and the creator of the dark web's Silk Road marketplace to appeal his convictions in a plot to murder an animal activist. Brandon Sample argued at the 10th Circuit on behalf of Exotic, the former operator of an Oklahoma zoo who was featured in a wildly popular Netflix documentary last year, and won him a resentencing on the charges. (Reuters)
- Gibson Dunn became the latest major law firm to unveil return-to-work plans for its attorneys. Managing partner Barbara Becker in an internal email conveyed a simple rule: "You are free to work remotely whenever it is appropriate." (The American Lawyer)
- James Moriarty, the co-chair of Kramer Levin's corporate department, has left the New York firm to join Goodwin Procter as a partner, helping bolster the Boston-founded firm's private equity practice amid a surge in deal work. He'll be based in its New York and Santa Monica offices. (Reuters)
- Boston-based LinkSquares, a contract management and analysis tool, raised $40 million in Series B financing. The legal tech company's raise follows contract management company Lexion, which raised $11 million in a Series A round that included Wilson Sonsini last month, and Ironclad Inc, which secured $100 million in a Series D financing in January. (Reuters)
- Myrna Pérez, a nominee to the 2nd Circuit, had to fend off questions about an article she wrote on voting rights that published the day before her U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Republicans seized on the title, "The GOP Campaign to Make Elections Less Free," to grill the director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program about her advocacy work, which Pérez said she would set aside if she takes the bench. (Roll Call)
- The U.S. Senate confirmed Obama administration veteran Seema Nanda as solicitor of labor and okayed a new five-year term for EEOC member Jocelyn Samuels. Nanda, who was the chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee during the Trump administration, served in several different roles at the U.S. Department of Labor under Obama. (Reuters)
Number of the day:
$943 million
Four years into Puerto Rico’s court-supervised bankruptcy-like process, its federally-appointed financial oversight board has been busy negotiating settlements to help bring an end to the proceedings as legal costs continue to balloon. The board, represented by Proskauer Rose, on Wednesday reached a tentative deal with two bondholders that long opposed its debt restructuring proposal, Ambac and FGIC. The agreement came a day after a related deal was announced with Puerto Rico’s official unsecured creditors’ committee. Hurdles to winding down the proceedings remain as legal fees keep mounting: A court-appointed fee examiner in a new report said fee requests now total about $943 million. (Reuters)
Coming up today
- The U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing to consider President Joe Biden's nomination of Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a veteran Texas law enforcement officer who criticized Trump-era immigration raids, to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- The U.S. Senate will also vote on whether to cut off debate and move toward voting on whether to confirm Perkins Coie patent litigator Tiffany Cunningham to become the the first Black judge on the patent-focused Federal Circuit.
- U.S. District Judge Judge Rya Zobel in Boston will hold a pretrial conference in the case of a Harvard University professor accused of lying to U.S. authorities about his ties to a China-run recruitment program. Lawyers for Charles Lieber, the professor, led by Marc Mukasey of Mukasey Frenchman on Tuesday moved to suppress statements he made during an FBI interview following his arrest. They say Lieber had requested a lawyer but the agents ignored his request and through trickery coerced involuntary statements from him.
- The California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, will hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a state statute which limits the number of hours that defense counsel can depose a mesothelioma plaintiff while placing no time limit on the number of hours that a plaintiff's own lawyer can depose him or her. A trial judge cleared the way for construction companies including Cahill Construction represented by Edward Hugo of Hugo Parker to pursue the pre-trial appeal, saying it raised issues common to numerous other defendants. Hugo will face Stephen Fishback of Keller, Fishback & Jackson, who is pursuing asbestos exposure claims for plaintiff Edwards Richards.
- U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan will hold a hearing in a proposed shareholder class action against vehicle electrification company Romeo Power Inc, which went public through a merger with a SPAC, on who should lead the litigation. Levi & Korsinsky, Glancy Prongay & Murray, Pomerantz and Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro have all filed motions asking for their clients to be named as lead plaintiff. Jason Hegt of Latham & Watkins is defending the company.
- The owner and president of a company that helps locate potential heirs to an estate is slated to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Tharp in Chicago after admitting he engaged in a scheme with a rival to suppress competition in the market for their services. Richard Blake Jr, the president of Blake & Blake Genealogists, cooperated with the DOJ, and the government is recommending that he be sentenced to probation and pay a fine of $411,291. He's being defended by Julian Solotorovsky of Kelley Drye & Warren.
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Florida, will hold a hearing concerning the production of records from GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim, including ones concerning human clinical trials GSK conducted related to the recalled heartburn drug Zantac. Plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation say the drug increases cancer risk. Tracy Finken of Anapol Weiss; Robert Gilbert of Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert; Michael McGlamry of Pope McGlamry; and Adam Pulaski of Pulaski Kherkher are leading the case for the plaintiffs. GSK and Boehringer are being defended by Marc Cheffo of Dechert and Andrew Bayman of King & Spalding, respectively.
Reporter's notebook: Wall Street bets on legal market
Business of law reporter Sara Merken on how stock market investors are gaining ways to trade on the law.
The legal market is evolving – and investors want a piece of it. While U.S. law firms can’t go public, investors are eyeing other ways to cash in on the industry via the stock market.
Legal technology and online legal services companies have recently seen some action as the pandemic has put a spotlight on how technology can be leveraged in the industry. LegalZoom's initial public offering, which valued the online legal services company at more than $7 billion, had the legal tech world buzzing last month.
"I think what investors see is an industry that really is one of the last large industries that's yet to have significant technological disruption," Noel Watson, chief financial officer of LegalZoom, told me on the day of the company's IPO. The same day, Intapp Inc, a software provider for professional services firms (including legal) also began trading on the Nasdaq. More public debuts may be on the horizon. Artificial intelligence-powered e-discovery company DISCO also signaled its intention to go public.
In another market debut touching the legal industry, litigation funding giant Burford Capital listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October, becoming the first legal finance firm to be publicly traded in the United States. Burford was already publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Earlier this week, MSP Recovery -- which helps recover money from Medicare and Medicaid secondary payments, often through litigation -- said it would go public via a combination with blank-check company Lionheart Acquisition Corp II. The deal with MSP, founded by plaintiffs' lawyer John Ruiz, and Lionheart would value the combined firm at $32.6 billion, marking the second-biggest SPAC merger.
"As technological capabilities advance, our confidence that the Fourth Amendment (as currently understood by the courts) will adequately protect individual privacy from government intrusion diminishes."
U.S. Circuit Judge Joel Flaum, who writing for a 7th Circuit panel sounded a "note of caution regarding the current trajectory of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence" in the increasingly digital world. He did so as the court ruled the government's warrantless use of pole cameras outside the home of a drug trafficking suspect did not violate his rights. Flaum called the case a "harbinger" of future cases but said U.S. Supreme Court precedent compelled its decision. (Reuters)
In the courts
- Amazon.com Inc urged Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Nancy Bannon to throw out a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James over the retailer's handling of worker safety issues around the COVID-19 pandemic at two warehouses. Defense lawyer Jason Schwartz of Gibson Dunn said the court should defer to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rather than wading into a "quagmire" by allowing James to pursue her state law claims. (Reuters)
- That wasn't Amazon's only legal headache yesterday. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 3-1 to file an administrative complaint to force the retailer to recall hundreds of thousands of hazardous products that it had distributed on its platform. (Reuters)
- The 11th Circuit on a 2-1 vote became the latest court to reject a bid by a group of landlords seeking to overturn the CDC's nationwide freeze on many residential evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding they had not shown irreparable injury. The ruling marked a loss for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative legal group that’s pursued other challenges to the freeze. The NCLA's Caleb Kruckenberg argued the case. (Reuters)
- A different 11th Circuit panel on a 2-1 vote threw out an injunction won by female inmates with psychiatric disabilities in a Georgia jail that required jail officials to allow them out-of-cell time. The appeals court found that the injunction expired automatically, thanks to a federal law limiting lawsuits over prison conditions. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte in Los Angeles delivered a victory to the city of Pasadena, California, by dismissing trademark and other claims against it by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, which hosts the historic Rose Bowl college football game. The judge called the trademark claims that the association's lawyers led by John Nadolenco of Mayer Brown were pursuing "puzzling" in siding with the city's attorneys, who included Kent Raygor of Sheppard Mullin. (Reuters)
- Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz is suing his home state for a tax refund, arguing changes to federal tax law that were part of Congress' pandemic bill the CARES Act should shift Colorado tax law and give him some cash back on his 2018 state income tax bill. The state has pushed back, saying that interpretation could upend tax law across Colorado. Anschutz is repped by Frederick Baumann, James Lyons, James Walker and Lindsey Herzog of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. (Colorado Sun)
- A Brooklyn federal judge voided the suspension of horse trainer Bob Baffert after finding that the New York Racing Association violated his constitutional right to due process. U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon agreed with Baffert's argument that he should have been afforded a hearing before the suspension, which was handed down after his Kentucky Derby-winning horse Medina Spirit failed a drug test. Baffert's lawyer, W. Craig Robertson III of Wyatt of Tarrant & Combs, welcomed the decision. (AP)
Industry moves
- Two prominent Nigerian American lawyers have joined McDermott Will & Emery as partners in New York. Emeka Chinwuba is joining McDermott's transactions group from Baker McKenzie, where he was a partner. Nexus Sea, who was of counsel at Orrick, will be a part of the firm’s litigation group, though the pair will partner together on client matters. (Reuters)
- Olesya Barsukova-Bakar has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in D.C. and as head of real estate fund formation. She was previously at Hogan Lovells, where she was co-head of its real estate funds group. (Reuters)
- Corporate attorneys Brandon Booth, Megan Parpart and Tim Lee have joined Honigman LLP as partners in its Bloomfield Hills, Michigan office from Howard & Howard. (Honigman)
- Construction attorney Virginia Trunkes has joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as a partner in New York. She was previously counsel at Robinson & Cole. (Gordon Rees)
- Patent prosecution attorneys Ngai Zhang and Drew Schulte have joined Perkins Coie as partners in D.C. and New York, respectively. They were previously at Pillsbury. (Perkins Coie)
Columnist spotlight: Bias in the anti-bias office -- San Francisco finds problems and solutions
An independent review commissioned by San Francisco Mayor London Breed found that Black and Hispanic city government workers are disciplined disproportionately, according to a report released last week. The analysis also shows that San Francisco’s internal process for handling discrimination complaints is fundamentally flawed, including policies that enable equal employment officers to serve as "neutral" fact-finders when workers allege bias, while also representing the city’s interests exclusively in other stages of the very same proceedings. Hassan Kanu writes that San Francisco’s uncommon moves toward reforming EEO policies are the beginnings of a blueprint other cities may want to follow. Find out more.
Lawyer speak: Understanding executive arrangements in private equity
Private equity management teams are in hot demand amid growth and expansion in transactions nationally and abroad. Wendi Lazar and Katherine Blostein of Outten & Golden write that executives at publicly-traded companies are increasingly leaving their jobs to go private, making it critical that they know the rules of engagement when negotiating compensation packages. Read more.
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