Good morning. The long dominance of defense-side law firms on law school campuses during recruiting season is being challenged by some in the plaintiffs' bar like Keller Lenkner; a former Morrison & Foerster staffer is headed to prison for misusing a law firm credit card on luxury purchases; and Michael Avenatti is starting his defense case today in his latest criminal trial. Oh, and did we mention it's the one-year anniversary of the Daily Docket? Thank you for reading -- now let's get going!
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Plaintiffs' bar competes for law students' attention
After decades of on-campus dominance by big name defense-side firms, the plaintiffs' bar is stepping up its law school presence.
Firms like Edelson PC and Keller Lenkner are turning their focus to law schools for the next generation of plaintiffs' attorneys, and law students are forming their own groups focused on that side of the "v," Karen Sloan reports.
Fred Messner knew he wanted to join the plaintiffs' side from the moment he arrived at Harvard Law School, but he had trouble finding professional development programming that discussed that career path. So he started the Harvard Plaintiffs' Law Association, which hosted panels focused on the plaintiffs' bar and ran its first job fair last year.
Keller Lenkner hired Messner as its first-ever summer associate last summer. And Edelson has been running a summer associate program that recruits about a dozen students at a time, an unusual tack for a plaintiffs' firm.
"Law students want a job that aligns with their values," Edelson chief of staff Kelsey McCann said. "It has been really exciting to see the change in this landscape. We're seeing more applicants than we ever have." Read more.
Industry buzz
- A former office operations manager at Morrison & Foerster was sentenced to 41 months in prison for using a law firm credit card to make at least $425,000 in retail and other unauthorized purchases. Andrew Robertson was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in D.C. after pleading guilty to a mail fraud charge arising from purchases he made including $250 Prada jeans, watches, and more than a dozen pairs of Air Jordans. (Reuters)
- LegalZoom, hot off of its recent IPO, has applied for an alternative business structure license in Arizona after the state last year relaxed law firm ownership rules. The move would allow the company to hire attorneys as employees to provide advice directly to consumers instead of relying on a network of lawyers who operate independently and contract with the company. (ABA Journal)
- Sarah Solum, who left Davis Polk last year to help launch Freshfields' fast-growing Silicon Valley office with a group of partners from Latham & Watkins, Sidley Austin and Wilson Sonsini, has been tapped by the UK-based firm as its new regional managing partner in the United States. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Corporate Counsel are siding with efforts by Buckley LLP to convince North Carolina's top court to overturn a ruling that would force the firm to hand over records of its communications with Latham & Watkins related to alleged misconduct by its former leader, Andrew Sandler. Buckley is in the midst of litigation with an insurer over a $6 million claim it filed after Sandler left in 2018. (Reuters)
- In the hot competition by major law firms to hire Supreme Court clerks, Sullivan & Cromwell can now boast three new additions. They include Daniel Richardson, who just wrapped up clerking for Justice Stephen Breyer; Leslie Arffa, who clerked under Chief Justice John Roberts; and Zoe Jacoby, who clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (National Law Journal)
Number of the day:
$700,000
That's the maximum amount that Paul Weiss can earn under a contract that the New York-based law firm signed with Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor's office to provide legal services on matters related to last year's 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which recognized about half of the state as Native American reservation land. Mike Scarcella reports that the contract was signed by appellate specialist Kannon Shanmugam on July 9 -- a month before the firm on the state's behalf asked the justices to overturn their ruling, arguing that it led to a "criminal-justice crisis" that has allowed thousands of prisoners to challenge their convictions. Paul Weiss' work has sparked criticism from some lawyers about the involvement of a major law firm in a case that could result in a death row inmate's punishment being reinstated. Shanmugam is charging $912 an hour, a 50% discount, according to the contract. Read more.
Coming up today
- The Biden administration is due to file a brief urging the D.C. Circuit to leave in place the CDC's new COVID-19 residential eviction ban. Landlord groups, including the Alabama Association of Realtors and Georgia Association of Realtors, through lawyers led by Jones Day's Brett Shumate are asking the court to intervene after U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich on Friday declined to block it, saying her hands were tied by an earlier D.C. Circuit decision.
- Michael Avenatti is expected to begin presenting his defense case after federal prosecutors on Friday rested in presenting evidence to a federal jury in Santa Ana, California, to support their charges that the celebrity lawyer embezzled nearly $10 million of settlement proceeds from five clients. Avenatti was previously sentenced by a federal judge in Manhattan to 2-1/2 years for trying to extort Nike.
- The DOJ will urge the 2nd Circuit in New York to revive a former Alstom SA executive's convictions on foreign bribery charges. In a cross-appeal, Lawrence Hoskins will challenge his remaining convictions on money laundering charges. U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton in Connecticut threw out a jury's guilty verdict on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribery counts in 2020, saying prosecutors had failed to show the UK citizen who had worked for Alstom in Asia was an agent controlled by the company's Connecticut-based subsidiary, as required by the law. Defense lawyers Christopher Morvillo and Daniel Silver of Clifford Chance will face Assistant U.S. Attorney David Novick.
- The 2nd Circuit will also consider whether to revive a proposed class action accusing Stanley Black & Decker of making false and misleading claims about the horsepower of Craftsman-brand wet and dry vacuums on their labels and packaging. Frederick Klorczyk of Bursor & Fisher and Anne Voigts of King & Spalding are repping the plaintiffs and company, respectively.
- Greensill Capital's bankrupt U.S. arm will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles in Manhattan to approve its sale of its subsidiary, Finacity Corp, to White Oak Global for $7 million. Greensill Capital Inc, represented by Al Togut of Togut Segal & Segal, filed for bankruptcy during the headline-grabbing collapse of the specialty lender in March.
"The majority begins its opinion by saying that this is an ordinary case of an ordinary police search. That, unfortunately, is all too true. But though ordinary, and very common, the facts of this case, and the fact that a strong majority made up of thoughtful judges comes out as it does, demonstrates beyond peradventure why this area of the law is so disastrous."
U.S. Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, who dissented from a decision of the full 2nd Circuit holding that a police officer's pat-down frisk of a Black man during a traffic stop for weapons was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The majority rejected Calvin Weaver's argument that the search began when the officer ordered him out of the car after seeing him tug at his pants, rather than when he physically placed his hand on Weaver for the pat-down search. Calabresi said the facts suggested officers decided to search Weaver "based on a hunch or a stereotype," and U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who also dissented, questioned whether racial bias was a factor.
Read the full opinion, and check out Hassan Kanu's preview of the case from April.
In the courts
- Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin sued the U.S government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX. Blue Origin's lawyers, led by Scott Pickens of Barnes & Thornburg, in their complaint called the contracting process flawed. (Reuters)
- The 8th Circuit revived nearly 6,000 lawsuits alleging that 3M's widely used Bair Hugger device to keep surgical patients warm caused them to develop infections, finding that a lower-court judge wrongly excluded testimony from the plaintiffs' expert witnesses. Michael Sacchet, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Ciresi Conlin, said the ruling guarantees they "will now have their day in court." 3M, represented by Aaron Van Oort of Faegre Drinker, said it was considering challenging the decision. (Reuters)
- The American Petroleum Institute and 11 other oil industry groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in Lake Charles, Louisiana, challenging the Biden administration's decision to halt drilling auctions on federal lands and waters this year. Represented by Peter Schaumberg of Beveridge & Diamond, they argue the government is required by law to hold regular sales. A federal judge issued an injunction ordering the Biden administration to issue the leases in June, but the Interior Department had yet to comply. On Monday, the administration said it would issue the leases while it appeals the injunction. (Reuters)
- The Federal Circuit upheld the validity of three of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's patents while affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision to invalidate six others at the request of Eli Lilly, which is battling a lawsuit by Teva alleging Lilly's medication Emgality infringes the patents. Goodwin Procter's William Jay and Finnegan Henderson's William Raich argued the appeal for Teva and Eli Lilly, respectively. (Reuters)
- Construction began on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Monday after the 7th Circuit rejected an emergency motion from environmental advocacy group Protect Our Parks, which hoped to block the project over concerns it would require cutting down too many trees. The Obama Foundation is represented by David Hoffman of Sidley Austin, while Protect Our Parks is represented by Richard Epstein and Michael Rachlis of Rachlis Duff Adler & Peel. (Reuters)
- The Boy Scouts of America wrapped up its case urging U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Wilmington, Delaware, to approve an $850 million settlement of sex abuse claims by arguing the deal was the best way to compensate survivors while protecting the organization's mission. Boy Scouts attorney Jessica Lauria of White & Case went up against attorneys from O'Melveny & Myers, Gibson Dunn and several other firms representing insurers that have attacked the settlement as improper and unfair. (Reuters)
Industry moves
- Elizabeth Hermann Smith has jumped from Katten to Mayer Brown, where she'll be a partner in the firm's banking and finance practice in Chicago. (Mayer Brown)
- Boston-based employment boutique Bello Welsh has decided to wind down and dissolve, with its five partners dispersing to other law firms. Founding partner Kenneth Bello has joined Barclay Damon, while partners Justin Engel, Alexandra Thaler, John Welsh and Martha Zackin have joined Armstrong Teasdale along with associate Hayley Cotter. (Boston Business Journal)
- David Sewell, who advises banks and financial institutions on federal banking laws and regulations, has joined Perkins Coie as a partner in New York from Debevoise & Plimpton, where he was counsel. (Perkins Coie)
- Withers is launching a family law practice in the U.S. with the addition of partner Samatha Klein in Los Angeles. Klein joins from California family law firm Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles. (Withers)
 SCOTUS explanation for lifting New York's eviction pause is wanting. With a single sentence of analysis, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday lifted New York state’s temporary bar against evicting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hassan Kanu writes that, on close scrutiny, the cases the court’s conservative majority cites as the basis for its ruling don’t actually provide much support for their conclusion. Given the high stakes of evicting tenants during the pandemic, for the sake of protecting landlords from financial hardship, the short, "shadow docket" decision doesn't cut it, Kanu writes. Read more about the court's ruling.
 Epic's disclosures in sealing dispute leave Google bristling. We don't know yet if video game maker Epic Games will persuade U.S. District Judge James Donato to allow the disclosure of the internal Google documents Epic cited in its amended complaint accusing Google of operating an illegal monopoly on app distribution. But we do know that Epic got under Google’s skin when it described some of the documents in a brief opposing Google's motion to seal nearly 300 lines of text in Epic’s complaint. Alison Frankel digs into the confidentiality brouhaha. Read here to find out why Google is accusing Epic of breaching a protective order -- and why Epic says Google is the one behaving improperly.
Lawyer speak: New EU marketing rules -- implications for fund managers
The EU's cross-border distribution of funds rules went into effect earlier this month, materially impacting the way in which fund managers carry out fundraising activity with European investors. Owen Lysak of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett writes that there will "need to be changes to fundraising planning and timelines, as well as changes to marketing to non-professional investors and the content of marketing communications, which managers will need to think about." Read more.
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