Good morning. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s former clerks are doing everything from leading Facebook parent Meta’s legal department to running an animal rescue operation in Virginia, and we caught up with them to see what they have to say about their former boss’ retirement. Plus, find out about the top selling book at an auction of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library, and a Florida jury’s $110 million verdict in the biggest multidistrict litigation in history. TGIF!
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Retiring Justice Stephen Breyer has had more than 120 Supreme Court clerks since his high court tenure began in 1994. One of them, D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, is seen as a top contender to take his seat.
At least 40 former Breyer clerks are working in U.S. law firms. Some lead nationwide appellate practices, such as Robert Hochman of Sidley Austin and Linda Coberly of Winston & Strawn, our colleagues David Thomas, Karen Sloan and Xiumei Dong report. Another Breyer clerk is Hogan Lovells partner and former acting U.S. solicitor general Neal Katyal.
About 30 former Breyer clerks have gone into academia, including as deans of several top schools. Others are leading attorneys at major companies including Meta, where Jennifer Newstead is chief legal officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance and American Airlines Group.
One former clerk, Mirah Horowitz, runs Lucky Dog Animal Rescue in Virginia. Horowitz no longer practices law. But she said she still carries the lessons from her clerkship with Breyer. "He never went into any conference or any oral argument thinking his view was a lost cause," she said.
Read to find out more about Breyer’s clerks – and what they said about their former boss.
More Reuters coverage: Historic first: Black women judges who could join the U.S. Supreme Court
- Georgetown Law Dean Bill Treanor condemned new faculty member Ilya Shapiro’s Twitter posts questioning the qualifications of any Black woman that President Joe Biden may nominate to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Shapiro, currently director of the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, apologized in a later tweet. “I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet,” he wrote. (Reuters)
- King & Spalding's rehiring this month of an associate in San Francisco has become a flashpoint in a long-running antitrust lawsuit just weeks before the trial is set to begin in California federal court. (Reuters)
- The Boston-based 1st Circuit could be home to all Democratic appointees, as Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Howard, appointed by former President George W. Bush, plans to step down from active service. (Reuters)
- Paul Hastings disclosed its U.S. advocacy for embattled Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group in a contract submitted to the U.S. Justice Department. NSO has been criticized for spyware technology that watchdog groups say has been used to commit human rights abuses. NSO says it has safeguards in place to prevent misuse. (Reuters)
Number of the day:
$100,312.50
That’s how much late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal copy of the 1957-1958 Harvard Law Review sold for at an auction of books from her library. The copy, which is annotated by Ginsburg, is from the year she joined the publication as one of only two women on staff.
Whistleblowers from seven different False Claims Act lawsuits worked with the U.S. government on an investigation that led to a $98 million settlement with hospital operator Community Health Systems. Under a private sharing agreement, all of them received a share of the bounty awarded by the government. But were all of the whistleblowers entitled to attorneys’ fees from CHS? On Tuesday, the 6th Circuit said yes, in a decision that one whistleblower lawyer called “great precedent.” Alison Frankel has the story.
This year Medicare started paying for its first autonomous AI procedure. We discuss the significance and explore some of the legal challenges with expanding the use of artificial intelligence.
"They’ll determine whether the experiment still works, and of course I am an optimist and I’m pretty sure it will. Does it surprise you that that’s the thought that comes into my mind today?"
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who said future generations would determine the success of the American “experiment” after officially announcing his plans to retire. Breyer said he will step down when the court’s term ends in late June or early July, “assuming that by then my successor has been nominated and confirmed.” Read more about Breyer's retirement.
- U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas, is expected to take up Pfizer’s bid to intervene in a public-records lawsuit seeking information that the FDA used to license the pharmaceutical company’s COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer, represented by DLA Piper, contends it needs to participate in the case to protect its interests in concealing trade secrets and other proprietary business information. The plaintiffs’ lawyers at Siri & Glimstad told Pittman that Pfizer had come to court too late, and that the doctors and scientists seeking the FDA data haven’t challenged any redactions. Pitman earlier this month ordered the FDA to soon start producing 55,000 pages monthly. The judge called the case one of “paramount importance.”
- Lawyer Michael Avenatti will continue cross-examining his former client, the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Prosecutors allege Avenatti embezzled $300,000 in book proceeds intended for Daniels, who rose to prominence for receiving hush money to conceal an affair she said she had with former President Donald Trump. Daniels told jurors that Avenatti "stole from me and lied to me" by diverting proceeds from a book she wrote. Avenatti is representing himself against the fraud charges.
- Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan in Montana will hear oral arguments in a bid by environmental groups WildEarth Guardians, Sierra Club, Montana Environmental Information Center and others to block Westmoreland Rosebud Mining from expanding its Rosebud coal strip-mine in eastern Montana. The green groups say the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement ignored the advice of its own experts in allowing the mine to expand and extending its lifespan. The mine’s operator and the union representing its workers have intervened in the case with the help of a team from Holland & Hart.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
What to catch up on this weekend
- A federal jury in Pensacola, Florida, awarded $110 million to two U.S. Army veterans who said combat earplugs sold by 3M caused them to suffer hearing damage, marking the largest verdict yet from hundreds of thousands of lawsuits over the product. Veterans Ronald Sloan and William Wayman, represented by Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock Witkin Kreis & Overholtz, Shelley Hutson of Clark, Love & Hutson and Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, were each awarded $15 million in compensatory damages and $40 million in punitive damages. (Reuters)
- Two former Deutsche Bank traders won acquittals from the 2nd Circuit, which threw out their convictions for rigging Libor, a key financial benchmark that is being phased out this month. Paul Hastings partner Kenneth Breen represented Matthew Connolly, and Seth Levine of Levine Lee represented Gavin Black. (Reuters)
- Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga in Miami threw out a lawsuit filed by retail investors accusing Robinhood of violating state laws by limiting trades on meme stocks in January 2021. Altonaga agreed with Robinhood’s attorneys at Hunton Andrews Kurth and Cravath, Swaine & Moore that the company’s customer agreement allowed it to restrict trading. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington D.C., invalidated the Biden administration's November oil and gas lease sale of 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for failing to properly account for its climate impact. The ruling came after environmental group Earthjustice challenged the sale, arguing that the administration did not accurately consider greenhouse gas emissions that would come from the development.(Reuters)
- Intel could escape a portion of a landmark $2.1 billion verdict after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board agreed to review VLSI Technology’s semiconductor patent to determine if it's valid. A West Texas jury directed Intel to pay $1.5 billion for infringing the VLSI patent last year. (Reuters)
- Seyfarth added labor and employment attorney Jamie Rich to the firm’s San Francisco office as a partner. Rich earlier was national co-chair of Greenberg Traurig’s labor-management relations group. (Seyfarth)
- Womble Bond Dickinson said environmental attorney Daniella Landers has joined the firm’s Houston office as a partner. Landers earlier practiced at Reed Smith. (Womble)
- Steptoe & Johnson brought on Jonathan Baum as a San Francisco-based white-collar partner. Baum earlier practiced at Clarence Dyer & Cohen. (Steptoe)
- Manatt said Nathaniel Bach joined the firm in Los Angeles as an entertainment litigation partner. Earlier he was at Gibson Dunn. (Manatt)
New York has taken steps to close pay gaps and provide protections that go beyond federal and other state laws, write Wendi Lazar and Shira Gelfand of Outten & Golden. New York state’s equal pay law mandates protections not just on the basis of sex, but also race, national origin, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, among other factors. Learn more about new laws in the state and pending legislation.
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