Good morning. Norwegian Cruise Line is heading to court today in an early battle over vaccine passports, as more businesses look to them to protect employees and customers from the Delta variant. A group of women who have served as American Bar Association presidents had a dire warning for law firms hoping to stave off an exodus of female talent; the 6th Circuit upheld Tennessee's 48-hour waiting period before abortions; and President Joe Biden nominated the first LGBT woman to serve on a federal circuit court. Let's finish out the week strong!
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Florida, Norwegian Cruise Line to battle over 'vaccine passports' ban
As a growing number of businesses move to adopt vaccine requirements in response to the quick-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus, a major court battle is shaping up in Florida that will test whether the state can ban "vaccine passports."
Lawyers for Norwegian Cruise Line will go to court today to ask U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami to block enforcement of a law that bars it and other companies from requiring customers to show proof of vaccination, Tom Hals reports.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed the law, has been staunchly against COVID-19 restrictions, even as his state has become a hotbed of infections. Norwegian faces a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation of the ban, and its lawyers, led by Quinn Emanuel's John O'Sullivan, say the law could upend the cruise line's plans to make its first post-pandemic departure from Miami on Aug. 15.
The company argues the statute is preempted by the CDC's cruise restrictions, under which it needed to attest that at least 95% of passengers have been vaccinated. Florida counters that the restrictions were suspended last month in the state after it challenged them in court. But Norwegian says it remains subject to them in other states and territories where its ships dock. Learn more.
Industry buzz
- Paul Weiss, Cravath and Debevoise & Plimpton, three of New York's most elite law firms, have become the latest in the industry to adopt vaccination requirements for employees to enter their offices or postpone their plans for employees to return to the office in September. "Unfortunately, cases of infection by the Delta variant are surging, especially among the unvaccinated," Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp noted in an internal memo. (Reuters)
- President Joe Biden nominated Vermont Supreme Court Justice Beth Robinson to the 2nd Circuit, potentially making her the first openly LGBT woman to serve on a federal appeals court. The nomination came as the U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to limit debate on the nomination of public defender Eunice Lee to join the New York-based court and as the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a largely party-line vote, advanced the nomination of voting rights lawyer Myrna Pérez of the Brennan Center for Justice. A final vote on Lee is expected on Saturday. (Reuters)
- Seth Waxman, a top appellate lawyer at WilmerHale who served as solicitor general during the Clinton administration, has joined the legal team representing the Democratic-led U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in its fight to obtain former President Donald Trump's tax returns. Trump's lawyers at Consovoy McCarthy are fighting to block their release after the DOJ backed the committee's request. (National Law Journal)
- Former Secretary of State John Kerry, currently serving as the first-ever U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, warned attorneys at the American Bar Association's annual meeting that attorneys across all practice areas need to make the fight against climate change part of their work. That's true for bankruptcy attorneys, who need to examine the infrastructure risks of their clients, and for transactional attorneys, who negotiate the deals that push green energy forward, he said. (Reuters)
- The extra stress and responsibilities shouldered by women during the pandemic could spur them to depart law firms unless leadership pays attention to their specific needs, a group of current and former women presidents of the American Bar Association said. Acknowledging the outsize impact the pandemic has had on women could prevent a massive loss of female talent, said former ABA President Judy Perry Martinez of Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn at the organization's annual meeting. (Reuters)
- Penn National Gaming Inc and sports-gambling company Score Media and Gaming Inc are calling on five firms to prep their $2 billion cash-and-stock tie-up. Penn National is turning to Wachtell and to Blake, Cassels & Graydon, while Score Media is relying on Paul Weiss and a McCarthy Tétrault team for guidance on the deal. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt is advising the Levy family, which owns Score Media and will continue to oversee the company after the sale. (Reuters)
REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht
Those are the hours that the Republican-led state of Tennessee requires women to wait before they can obtain an abortion. Brendan Pierson reports that the full 6th Circuit on Thursday ruled 9-7 to overturn a lower-court judge's decision to strike down the law. Lawyers for abortion providers including Autumn Katz of the Center for Reproductive Rights had argued the law violates a woman's right to have an abortion. U.S. Circuit Judge Amul Thapar, a Trump appointee, countered that "before making life's big decisions, it is often wise to take time to reflect." In a dissent, Justice Karen Nelson Moore, a Clinton appointee, said the law "peddles in stigma, forces women into unnecessary and invasive surgical procedures, and forces low-income women to sacrifice basic necessities for themselves and their families in order to obtain an abortion."
Coming up today
- U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in D.C. has ordered the Biden administration to respond by today to an emergency motion by landlord groups, including the Alabama Association of Realtors and Georgia Association of Realtors that want him to block the new eviction moratorium that the CDC recently put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The groups and their attorneys, led by Jones Day's Brett Shumate, in May had convinced Friedrich to strike down the earlier eviction ban, but ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to allow it to remain in effect until it expired on July 31. Learn more about the case.
- Drugmaker Endo International Plc must go before Suffolk County Justice Jerry Garguilo in New York to show cause as to why he should not enter default judgment holding the company liable for claims that it fueled an opioid epidemic, after New York Attorney General Letitia James accused it and its lawyers at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer of "concealing vast troves of smoking-gun evidence evidence." The arguments come amid a closely-watched trial of Endo and other drugmakers accused of deceptively marketing painkillers. Endo last month agreed to pay $35 million to settle opioid claims by counties in Tennessee after a judge there entered a default judgment against it based on similar accusations. Check out how Endo is responding to New York's request.
- Bankrupt Virgin Islands oil refinery Limetree Bay through lawyers led by Elizabeth Green of BakerHostetler will seek protection for its non-bankrupt private equity investors against pollution-related litigation brought by personal injury and property damage claimants. The request, which will be heard by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston, is opposed by a group of class action plaintiffs.
- Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman will hold an emergency hearing in litigation over the June 23 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, that left 98 people dead. The judge will consider granting the condo association's receiver, Akerman partner Michael Goldberg, authorization to sign a permit application sought by Miami-Dade County to allow a construction company to carry out emergency work to brace the retainment walls at the property.
- U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan will hear arguments over whether he should disqualify prominent trial attorney Jan Schlichtmann from continuing to serve as counsel to the trustee for the bankruptcy estate of biotech company Inpellis Inc in litigation against Alexander Capital over its failed IPO. Schlichtmann gained prominence after his pursuit of toxic tort claims against WR Grace and Beatrice Foods became the subject of Jonathan Harr's book "A Civil Action." Lawyers for Alexander Capital led by Bryan Ward of Holcomb + Ward say that Schlichtmann's earlier roles with Inpellis and its parent company BioChemics create a conflict and will make him a necessary witness in the case.
Video: Challenges in challenging the NYC vaccine mandate
New York City will require people inside restaurants and gyms and at performances to be vaccinated starting in September. Video journalist Alex Jones caught up with legal experts including Dorit Reiss of UC Hastings College of Law and Eric Feldman of University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School who say that overturning the measure may be a long shot for potential plaintiffs. Watch the video.
What to catch up on this weekend
- Attorneys who are parents of young children are increasingly wary of office reopening plans as the Delta variant poses a new threat to those too young to be vaccinated. Dave Thomas writes what that dynamic could mean for office policies and how those policies could affect firms' competition for talent.
- After the release of New York Attorney General Letitia James' report concluding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women, Cuomo has resisted calls for his resignation from President Joe Biden and other heavyweights. Regardless, he is facing a potential impeachment from the state Assembly, and Reuters has this explanation of how that might go.
- Jody Godoy is keeping tabs on two suits she says are of particular importance to banking lawyers regarding their potential impact on lending rules. The cases, both in California, pertain to rules involving interest rates that some say are needed to increase certainty in lending, while others criticize them as opening the door for abuse.
- Conservatives have taken control of the U.S. Supreme Court, but Republican opinions of the court have taken a hit, notes columnist Hassan Kanu. We might have to look to former President Donald Trump to understand why, he says.
- The rise of Zoom court has come with an unexpected benefit for junior attorneys, who have traditionally struggled to get speaking time in front of judges, writes columnist Jenna Greene. Novice attorneys are also getting a boost from judges who are encouraging more participation, she says.
- Columnist Alison Frankel takes a look at the upcoming Supreme Court case Servotronics v. Rolls-Royce, which she says is shaping up to be one of the biggest business disputes in the next term. The case questions whether American courts have the statutory authority to order discovery in private arbitrations overseas, which could have a dramatic impact on the many expensive disputes decided in international arbitration, she says.
"The Court's decision today is a victory for Muriel Bescond. But our Circuit's law is a silent loser."
U.S. Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livington, who dissented from the 2nd Circuit's holding that a former Societe Generale banker in France could remain overseas while seeking the dismissal of U.S. charges that she tried to rig the Libor benchmark interest rate. The majority agreed with Muriel Bescond's lawyer, Laurence Shtasel of Blank Rome, that she could not be considered a fugitive while remaining at home in France, where she was during the alleged scheme. Livingston said the ruling opened the door to many other foreign defendants mounting similar challenges. (Reuters)
In the courts
- The former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, who was convicted of embezzling nearly $54 million from the small town west of Chicago was freed from prison eight years early. Rita Crundwell, who infamously spent the money she embezzled on a horse breeding business, was serving a nearly 20-year sentence in a downstate Illinois prison but was released to a halfway house early. (Chicago Sun-Times)
- The Federal Circuit on a 2-1 vote ruled for a second time that a $235 million jury verdict that GlaxoSmithKline won should be reinstated in a lawsuit accusing Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd of infringing a patent related to the heart drug Coreg. The decision, which concerned generic drugmakers' use of so-called "skinny labels" that omit patented uses of drugs, marked a victory for Juanita Brooks of Fish & Richardson, who argued the case in February against William Jay of Goodwin Procter. (Reuters)
- The 9th Circuit held that people who are erroneously perceived to be gang members can be part of a "particular social group" making them eligible to stave off deportation. The court joined with the 7th and 10th Circuits in reaching its conclusion as it overturned a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals involving an El Salvadoran citizen. (Reuters)
- Barge operator Bouchard Transportation's lawyers led by Christine Okike of Kirkland & Ellis secured the approval of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston to sell its assets in a deal valued at $245 million. The sale of the company's vessels to Rose Cay GP and JMB Capital Lending Partners had drawn objections from Bouchard's owner and the committee of unsecured creditors. (Reuters)
- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost moved to add new defendants to a state court lawsuit against FirstEnergy Corp stemming from its bribery scandal, including ex-CEO Charles Jones and former Public Utility Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo. Yost is seeking to recover a $4.3 million bribe that FirstEnergy recently admitted that it paid Randazzo, as part of a $230 million deal with the DOJ. Jones Day's Stephen Sozio repped the company in the DOJ probe. (Reuters)
- A Michigan law that bars intimidation based on gender applies to transgender people, a state appellate court said. The court had originally sided with defendant Deonton Rogers, agreeing that the state's intimidation statute doesn't apply to situations involving transgender people. But the Michigan Supreme Court vacated the ruling and remanded it back to the appeals court for reconsideration after the U.S. Supreme Court said in Bostock v. Clayton County that employment discrimination protections apply to transgender people. (AP)
Industry moves
- Litigator Matt Kanny has joined Goodwin Procter in Santa Monica as a partner and co-lead of its litigation practice in Southern California. He was previously at Manatt, Phelps, where he chaired its national litigation and trial practice and served as a member of its executive and compensation committees. (Goodwin)
- Labor and employment attorney Brian Turoff has joined Perkins Coie's New York office. He was previously at Manatt Phelps, where he led its New York employment and labor practice. (Perkins Coie)
- Jenni Krengel has joined Buchalter as a shareholder and chair of its employee benefits and executive compensation group. She will work out of the firm’s San Francisco and Sacramento offices and was previously at Reed Smith. (Buchalter)
- Private equity attorney Thomas Horenkamp has joined Mayer Brown as a partner along with counsel Adam Arnett. They arrived from White & Case. (Mayer Brown)
- Products liability litigators Nicole Narotzky and Thomas Pack have joined Greenberg Traurig as shareholders in Minneapolis from Maslon LLP. (Greenberg Traurig)
 Even with do-over vote at Amazon, unionizing is arduous path. Workers and organizers looking to unionize the first Amazon facility in the U.S. are a step closer after a labor board hearing officer on Monday recommended a rerun of an union election they had lost. The NLRB reached initial findings that Amazon usurped its role as the administrator of union elections by having the U.S. Postal Service install a mailbox for ballot collection on its campus, within view of surveillance cameras. Hassan Kanu writes that the path to the union's ultimate goal remains long and difficult, but the NLRB's findings nevertheless cast a light on the extraordinary campaigns that some companies use to combat worker organizing. Read more about the next steps in the effort to unionize at Amazon.
 Brutal sanctions ruling ends lawyer's 10-year campaign against BP MDL. Florida plaintiffs' lawyer Brian Donovan has spent years alleging a massive conspiracy and cover-up in the multibillion-dollar litigation over BP's responsibility for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In three successive lawsuits filed on his own behalf, Donovan has accused plaintiffs' lawyers leading the case of colluding with BP to limit the company's liability. Two of those cases roped in settlement administrators and even the New Orleans judge overseeing the BP MDL. But after a brutal opinion this week calling his claims "shameful and appalling," Donovan’s days of suing BP MDL plaintiffs' lawyers and judges are over. Still, two mysteries remain from Donovan’s ill-fated campaign, Alison Frankel reports. Read here to find out what they are.
Lawyer speak: Taking care of legal professionals from the top with a chief talent officer
In today’s hot legal job market, many major law firms have been adding C-suite professionals known as chief talent officers dedicated to recruiting and retaining skilled lawyers. Lou Ramos with the recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa in a new article examines the role that CTOs have to play in helping firms expand globally and diversify their practice groups. Read more.
Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly stated that a trial set to start in the multidistrict litigation over testosterone replacement treatments in Chicago concerns AbbVie's AndroGel. The case instead involves AbbVie predecessor Allergan's testosterone replacement drug Androderm.
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