Good morning. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a major First Amendment case that is a clash between religion and LGBT+ rights, and the justices want to hear the U.S. Justice Department’s views in a patent challenge by Apple and disputes over workers’ reimbursements for medical marijuana. Davis Polk is setting a new high bar for senior associate compensation; a Jones Day veteran decamped for a crypto company; and there’s a post-trial conference today in Sarah Palin’s defamation case against the New York Times. Lots to unpack on this Wednesday morning. Let’s go!
Our colleague Karen Sloan, who reports on law firms, law schools and the business of law, is cowriting The Daily Docket while Diana Novak Jones is on parental leave. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
Supreme Court will hear evangelical web designer's free-speech claim; court asks for DOJ views in patent, cannabis cases
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an evangelical Christian web designer's free-speech claim that she cannot be forced under a Colorado anti-discrimination law to produce websites for same-sex marriages. Denver-area business owner Lorie Smith, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, is appealing a lower court’s ruling that rejected her bid for an exemption from a Colorado law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and certain other factors, Lawrence Hurley reports.
In other orders, the justices said they want to hear from the Biden administration’s U.S. Justice Department about an intellectual property case involving Apple and Qualcomm, Blake Brittain reports. And the Justice Department was asked to provide the court a view on worker reimbursements for medical cannabis, reports Daniel Wiessner.
In the marijuana cases, Minnesota’s top state court said federal drug laws preempted a state workers' compensation law requiring employers to cover the cost of medical marijuana prescribed for work-related injuries. David Frederick of Kellogg Hansen is counsel of record for Daniel Bierbach, who was prescribed medical marijuana for an ankle injury he sustained while working for an all-terrain vehicle dealer in Minnesota. Jenner’s Adam Unikowsky is counsel to Susan Musta, prescribed medical marijuana for chronic pain stemming from a spine injury.
In the patent case, Apple’s lawyers at WilmerHale have asked the high court to review a decision that blocked it from challenging Qualcomm smartphone patents because of a global settlement agreement between the two companies. That settlement let Apple continue using Qualcomm modem chips and granted the tech giant a license to tens of thousands of Qualcomm patents. Baker Botts represents Qualcomm at the high court
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Davis Polk’s salary increases for mid-level and senior associates marked a new high bar in pay at major U.S. law firms.
Fourth-year associates will see the smallest salary bump, as their pay will increase from $285,000 to $293,500, our colleague Jacqueline Thomsen reports. Eighth-year associates will see the largest increase from $385,000 to $396,500. Pay for lower-level associates will remain the same.
U.S. law firms are increasingly offering competitive salaries and bonuses to associates, as legal industry leaders seek to attract and retain lawyers to confront a surge of transactional work. Davis Polk will match Milbank's pay scale for lower-level associates, which starts at $215,000 for first-years.
- A 14-year veteran of Jones Day in Chicago has left the law firm as a partner for a litigation-focused senior counsel post in cryptocurrency operator Circle’s legal department. The company is building out its legal department as the industry develops, with more than half of the nearly 20 lawyers hired in the past couple of years. (Reuters)
- Stoel Rives partner Lane Tucker in Anchorage reported earning more than $1.5 million in compensation from the firm, on a disclosure she submitted as part of her nomination to lead the state’s U.S. attorney’s office. (Reuters)
- Facebook’s lawyers at Gibson Dunn accuse the D.C. attorney general’s office of an “attempt to harass” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a bid to depose him in a civil data-privacy lawsuit. The District’s legal team said in a new filing that Zuckerberg needs to answer questions that are central to the case. (Reuters)
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
That’s the federal poverty line for a family of four. Yale Law School in the fall will start providing full-tuition scholarships to all students whose family income is below that threshold and who have less than $150,000 in assets. The school estimates that 15 to 18 J.D. students in each class — or about 9% — will automatically qualify for the annual scholarships of more than $70,000, which are being funded by the school and private donors. Read more about the scholarships.
Video: Law firms gear up as U.S., Europe impose new sanctions on Russia
Lawyers describe how they are preparing for what could ultimately be "severe" sanctions across a broad array of industries. Watch the video.
"Ahmaud will continue to rest in peace but he will now begin to
rest in power."
—Wanda Cooper-Jones, mother of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was murdered by a trio of white men while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia in 2020. A jury found the killers – who were convicted in Arbery’s murder in November – guilty of federal hate crimes after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have allowed them to avoid a trial. Read more.
- U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan will meet with the lawyers in Sarah Palin’s defamation case against the New York Times for a status conference. The court has not revealed the substance of the conference, which will come about a week after a jury ruled against Palin’s claim that a 2017 editorial incorrectly linking her rhetoric to a mass shooting years earlier was defamatory. Jurors were deliberating when Rakoff announced, outside their presence, that he would dismiss Palin’s complaint. Jurors saw news of Rakoff’s plans but later told his court clerk that his intentions did not factor into their deliberations.
- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a bid by a group of Republican state officials to take over the defense of a Trump administration rule that had barred certain immigrants deemed likely to require government benefits from obtaining legal permanent residency. Arizona deputy solicitor Drew Ensign is lead counsel for the Republican state challengers, and California deputy solicitor Helen Hong is counsel to state respondents including California and Pennsylvania. Sara Eisenberg of the San Francisco attorney general’s office is representing the city.
- Boeing shareholders will ask Vice Chancellor Morgan Zurn of the Delaware Chancery Court to approve a $237.5 million settlement resolving claims that the airplane maker's board failed to ensure the safety of the 737 MAX aircraft after two fatal 737 MAX crashes in the space of five months in 2018-19 that killed 346 people. Lawyers from the firms Lieff Cabraser and Friedlander & Gorris represent shareholders, and a team from Sullivan & Cromwell represents Boeing's board. Richards, Layton & Finger represents Boeing.
- U.S. Justice Department lawyer Matt Olsen, head of the national security division, will speak at George Mason University about alleged threats posed by nation state actors and the ways the department is trying to counter espionage, trade secret theft and cybercrime. Olsen’s remarks will come amid his review of the department's Trump-era “China Initiative,” which has come under fire by civil rights groups who say it has led to the racial profiling of Chinese scientists. Former officials and critics expect the DOJ’s review will result in a shift away from its controversial targeting of academic researchers.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
- Zoom and RingCentral settled a court dispute over RingCentral's continued use of Zoom's videoconferencing technology after Zoom decided not to renew their partnership. Latham represented Zoom in its California federal court lawsuit against RingCentral, represented by Paul Weiss. (Reuters)
- Video game giant Activision Blizzard settled a long-running patent dispute over its game-launching system the day before the case was scheduled to go to trial in Texas. Plaintiffs AC Technologies and Via Vadis first sued Blizzard in 2014. The parties did not disclose details of the settlement in a court filing. (Reuters)
- The U.S. women's national soccer team and its governing body, U.S. Soccer, said they have reached a $24 million settlement in a long-running equal pay dispute. Of the settlement funds, $22 million will be distributed in a manner proposed by the players and approved by a district court. U.S. Soccer also committed to providing an equal rate of pay going forward. (Reuters)
- King & Spalding said international arbitration lawyer Samaa Haridi joined the firm in New York as a partner. Haridi formerly led the Middle East practice at Hogan Lovells. (Reuters)
- Davis Polk brought on mergers and acquisitions lawyer Paul Scrivano as a partner in the firm’s Northern California office in Menlo Park. Scrivano formerly was global head of M&A at Ropes & Gray. (Reuters)
- Paul Weiss said the firm picked up antitrust partner Joshua Soven in Washington, D.C., from Wilson Sonsini. (Reuters)
- Willkie Farr said Nanyi Kaluma has rejoined the firm as a partner in the litigation and white-collar groups. She was previously at Allen & Overy and is based in Brussels. (Willkie Farr)
- Orrick added mergers and acquisition partner Tony Chan in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Chan arrives from Morgan Lewis, where he led the firm’s interdisciplinary corporate practice in D.C. (Orrick)
- Proskauer said Robert Sutton joined the firm as a private funds group partner based in New York. Sutton was previously at Kirkland. (Proskauer)
- Cleary Gottlieb said Elizabeth Dyer has joined the firm as a New York-based partner in the executive compensation, employee benefits and ERISA practice. Dyer formerly practiced at Kirkland. (Cleary)
- Crowell hired Christopher Banks as a litigation and labor and employment partner in the firm’s San Francisco office. Banks arrives from Morgan Lewis.
- Jason Webber has joined Latham as an M&A and private equity partner in New York. He comes from White & Case. (Latham)
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