Good morning. As Facebook battled a major outage across its platforms on Monday, the social media giant’s attorneys were busy waging war against the FTC, which in a landmark lawsuit is trying to force the company to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. Plus, we talked to Neal Katyal about what it was like to be on set with Paul Giamatti shooting the season finale of “Billions,” and we’ve got new data on which law firms are surfing the M&A surge. Also, consider this your notice: If you have one of those 12-foot skeletons for your front yard, it’s time to put it up!
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Facebook’s lawyers at Kellogg Hansen have renewed their bid to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s blockbuster antitrust lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court in a fight that is unfolding amid broader scrutiny of the company’s business practices.
Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen is expected today to urge Congress to step up its oversight of the company, David Shepardson and Diane Bartz report.
In the court case pending before U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who earlier dismissed the FTC’s lawsuit, lead Facebook lawyer Mark Hansen argued on Monday that the agency had failed to provide a "plausible factual basis for branding Facebook an unlawful monopolist." The company said it appears the FTC "had no basis for its naked allegation that Facebook has or had a monopoly," Shepardson and Bartz write.
Facebook also claimed FTC Chair Lina Khan should not have participated in the vote authorizing an amended complaint, given her prior statements before she became head of the agency that were critical of the social media company. The FTC declined to comment.
Kellogg Hansen, meanwhile, is facing its own ethics spotlight in Manhattan federal court. The firm is denying that its plaintiffs’ work for the Daily Mail in an antitrust MDL — where client Facebook faces liability over alleged market power abuses — poses any conflict. A judge last month raised his concern and said he wanted to hear more from the firm.
Read more to find out how Facebook is fighting back against the FTC.
- How did Hogan Lovells’ Supreme Court ace Neal Katyal end up on the season finale of “Billions?” A meeting at a conference. (Reuters)
- Former Duane Morris cannabis practice leader David Feldman has launched a new law firm focused on the fast-expanding cannabis and psychedelics industries. (Reuters)
- Paul, Weiss will provide two annual $25,000 scholarships to Berkeley Law students involved in the firm’s new ESG research initiative at the school in a bid to boost the number of young lawyers versed in ESG practice. (Reuters)
- Two former federal judges are among a bipartisan group that asked the California bar association to investigate John Eastman, the Trump advisor who drafted a legal strategy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Eastman responded that “asserting a constitutional right is not a disbarrable offense.” (Washington Post)
That’s the number of global deals Boston-founded Goodwin Procter has advised on this year to date, beating out Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins, both of which have advised on more than 600 deals apiece, according to new data from Refinitiv. Learn about deal-making for the first three-quarters of 2021.
The parents and sister of an American teenager killed in the 2014 downing of a flight over Ukraine were able to assert unusually detailed allegations about two Russian banks’ use of U.S. accounts to route money to the Russian supremacist group accused of shooting down the plane. The banks tried to turn that detailed evidence to their advantage in arguments that New York had no jurisdiction. But that red herring, as Alison Frankel reports, belly-flopped.
Video: Judge's $6.1M award to Clint Eastwood seen as strong warning to online advertisers
A U.S. district judge's $6.1 million default judgment in a lawsuit brought by Clint Eastwood against a CBD company is being heralded as a sign that the U.S. courts will uphold the rights of celebrities when their images and likenesses are used without authorization to sell products online. Watch the video.
- Opening statements are expected to continue in a trial that pits two Ohio counties against pharmacy chains including Walgreens, CVS and Walmart. Represented by Mark Lanier of the Lanier Law Firm, Lake and Trumbull counties allege the retailers failed to prevent large quantities of prescription opioids from hitting the black market. Lanier told jurors the companies should have recognized and acted on red flags as they dispensed the drugs. CVS is represented by Zuckerman Spaeder, Walmart is represented by Jones Day and Walgreens is represented by Bartlit Beck.
- A group of insurers are going before the 3rd Circuit to challenge a U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s appointment of James Patton of Young Conaway Stargatt and Taylor as the Future Claimants Representative in the Imerys Talc bankruptcy. The Cyprus Historical Excess Insurers, which provided excess coverage to Imerys, a talc supplier that filed for bankruptcy protection after a flood of lawsuits claiming that asbestos in talcum powder causes ovarian cancer, say Patton has a conflict of interest representing the claimants. Cyprus is represented by Anton Metlitsky of O'Melveny & Myers. The future claimants representative will be defended by Edwin Harron of Young Conaway.
- The 2nd Circuit is hearing arguments in an appeal by a class of investors whose shares in Bristol-Myers Squibb fell 16% in August 2016, when the company announced that its existing cancer treatment Opdivo had not performed as expected in a late-stage clinical trial. The investors are represented by Salvatore Graziano of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Bristol-Myers is represented by Yosef Riemer of Kirkland & Ellis.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
"[Q]ualified immunity properly shields police officers from liability when they act reasonably to protect themselves and the public. It does not protect an officer who inflicts deadly force on a person who is only a threat to himself."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in dissent in the qualified immunity case James v. Bartlet. The court turned down a petition to hear a bid to revive a lawsuit against a New Jersey state trooper who fatally shot a mentally ill man who was pointing a gun at his own head. A 2020 investigation from Reuters showed how Supreme Court refinements have made it easier for police officers to kill or injure civilians without consequence.
- The U.S. Supreme Court has taken a pass on taking up a dispute over the question of "shareholder" employment status, which has arisen frequently in bias claims filed against law firms. Nathaniel Pencook of Nelson Mullins was counsel of record on the petition. (Reuters)
- A New York state judge has given former U.S. President Donald Trump a Dec. 23 deadline to undergo questioning in a defamation lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, the Wilkinson Stekloff client and former contestant on "The Apprentice," after he denied her sexual assault accusations. Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, said “we will be vigorously defending the President against this frivolous lawsuit." (Reuters)
- The story of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” has found its way into Maryland federal court after the estate of Lacks, a Black woman whose cervical cells were taken from her decades ago without her permission, sued Thermo Fisher saying it made a "conscious choice" to mass produce the cells and profit from a "racially unjust medical system." The Lacks estate is represented by Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss and Ben Crump of Ben Crump Law PLLC. (Reuters)
- The 2nd Circuit revived a lawsuit by investors who claimed they were defrauded into buying the HelbizCoin cryptocurrency. The panel held the lower court was wrong to hold it lacked jurisdiction to review the company’s $38.6 million initial coin offering because the coins were not listed on a U.S. exchange or bought domestically. The investors are represented by Michael Kanovitz of Loevy and Loevy and Helbiz is represented by Robert Heim of Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin. (Reuters)
- The Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by litigation funder RD Legal Funding challenging the CFPB’s authority to pursue enforcement actions that were brought before the high court last year deemed the agency’s structure unconstitutional. RD, which is represented by Anne Voigts of King & Spalding, was sued by the CFPB in 2017 over its arrangements to front cash to participants in the 9/11 victim compensation fund and the NFL concussion settlements. (Reuters)
- Goodwin Procter has turned to the International Association of Privacy Professionals and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for two new partner recruits. Omer Tene joins Goodwin's Boston office from the IAPP, where he was vice president and chief knowledge officer, and Lore Leitner, formerly of counsel at Wilson Sonsini, is joining Goodwin in London. (Reuters)
- King & Spalding said Lazar Raynal has joined the firm as a trial and global disputes partner in the firm’s Chicago office. Raynal joins the firm from Quinn Emanuel. He earlier was chair of the litigation practice at McDermott. (Reuters)
- Jenner & Block has brought on Shreve Ariail, former deputy general counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency, as a Washington, D.C.-based partner. The former federal prosecutor will be a member of the firm’s investigations, compliance and defense practice. (Reuters)
- Sidley Austin has hired Anthony Grossi as a global restructuring group partner in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices. Grossi earlier was a partner at Kirkland. (Sidley)
- Cole Schotz added IP partners Rajkumar Vinnakota and Sean Hsu to the firm’s Dallas office. Both were previously at Janik Vinnakota. (Reuters)
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