Good morning. As companies leave Russia, insurance and international arbitration could provide some cushion against potential losses of billions of dollars. Plus, lawyers across firms are mobilizing to help Ukrainians in the U.S. and Quinn Emanuel has a new mandate for Ukraine at the European Court of Human Rights. A new report shows continued growth in the litigation finance market; the SEC fires back at Elon Musk; and the COVID-19 vaccine IP docket is growing. It’s Wednesday, and Ketanji Brown Jackson returns for her U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Let’s dive in.
Our colleague Nimitt Dixit is co-writing The Daily Docket while Diana Novak Jones is on parental leave. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
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International companies, including Shell, Hyundai Motors and PwC, that have said they are withdrawing or suspending operations in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine stand to lose billions of dollars. But they may be able to cushion the blow with the help of insurance and international arbitration. Tom Hals spoke with experts about what might help companies recoup their losses.
While standard insurance does not provide coverage, companies that have purchased a political risk add-on may be able to make a claim, experts say. Policies may still not extend to companies that are departing voluntarily without any action by the Russian government, Haynes and Boone partner Micah Skidmore said. Steptoe & Johnson in a note to clients last week said that Russia’s multilateral trade agreements provide for international arbitration when government actions damage foreign investment. Claims under this process could include failure to protect intellectual property rights, refusal to release aircrafts and expropriation of assets, according to the firm’s note. >> More reading: Explainer: How could Russia's Putin be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine? |
Large law firms in the U.S. received a bigger proportion of the total litigation funding going toward "portfolio" deals in 2021 than in past years, litigation finance advisory firm Westfleet Advisors said in a report released today.
Portfolio deals involve litigation funders providing capital to support several cases, not just one. Some 53% of law firm portfolio funding commitments were allocated to the 200 largest U.S. law firms by revenue last year, up from 9% the prior year, Sara Merken reports.
The annual report provides a rare look into the scope of an often opaque litigation finance market. The 47 funders active in the U.S. market had a combined $12.4 billion in assets under management last year, up from $11.3 billion. |
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Kirkland and the nonprofit Lawyers for Good Government are helping to organize nearly 2,000 lawyers at more than 100 law firms and companies to help Ukrainians living in the United States with obtaining temporary deportation relief and work permits. (Reuters)
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A Quinn Emanuel team led by London-based partners Julianne Hughes-Jennett and Alex Gerbi will represent Ukraine pro bono before the European Court of Human Rights in a petition filed over the Russian invasion. The court is expected to rule Wednesday on whether it can hear Russian cases after Russia last week withdrew from the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights watchdog. (Reuters)
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Two former Morrison & Foerster lawyers who said the firm discriminated against pregnant women and mothers have settled their federal lawsuit in California federal court. Gibson Dunn defended the firm, and Sanford Heisler Sharp represented the plaintiffs. (Reuters)
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Former Hunton & Williams partner Robert Schulman, convicted for securities fraud in 2017, has not demonstrated his "fitness" to resume practicing law in Washington, D.C., an ethics panel said. The panel’s report said Schulman failed to show "that he recognizes the seriousness of his conduct." (Reuters)
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Minnesota lawyer Erick Kaardal lost his bid in the D.C. Circuit to block an attorney ethics inquiry spurred by a federal judge who dismissed his "baseless" lawsuit contesting the 2020 presidential election. The appeals court said U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s referral of Kaardal to a grievance committee was not a final order subject to an appeal. (Reuters)
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That’s the number of New York state court employees who’ve been told they are violating a mandate requiring vaccination against COVID-19. New York’s court system employs more than 15,000 staff members and 3,000 judges. Four judges are also in violation of the mandate.
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The 2nd Circuit ruled on Monday that the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball cannot maintain a seal on a 2017 letter that cropped up in a failed class action by fantasy sports bettors who claimed they’d been defrauded by the league, the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros because sign-stealing tainted players’ stats. Alison Frankel writes that the ruling is a double win: not just because she’s a hardcore proponent of open access to court documents but also because, as a Mets fan, she loves to hate the Yankees.
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Video: The SEC's new climate rule is making legal waves |
The SEC passed a proposed landmark climate disclosure rule for U.S.-listed companies this week. Reuters video journalist Alex Cohen takes a look at the proposal and its potential legal challenges. Watch the video. |
"I'm acutely aware that as a judge in our system I have limited power and I try to stay in my lane."
—U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson outlined her judicial philosophy, saying she has developed a methodology that allows her to rule impartially during the second day of her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Jackson defended her past legal representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, rejected Republican accusations that she had been lenient as a judge in child pornography cases and pledged to be an independent jurist who would not inject her own views into rulings. Here’s a roundup of day 2 of the hearing and watch highlights from the hearing. Jackson’s hearing will resume this morning with more questions from judiciary committee members.
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Lawyers for the U.S. House of Representatives will ask U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C., to deny a bid from the Republican National Committee to block a subpoena issued to Salesforce as part of the congressional investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump. Lawyers from Brownstein Hyatt represent the RNC, which contends the subpoena seeking records about fundraising is a “fishing expedition” that “would only serve to chill the RNC’s and its supporters’ First Amendment rights.” The small tech-focused firm ZwillGen represents San Francisco-based Salesforce.
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A criminal fraud trial in Kansas City federal court is set to resume as Kansas University chemistry professor Feng “Franklin” Tao contests charges that he hid from the school his employment ties to a Chinese university. Tao, represented by lawyers at Arent Fox and Leibold & Sloan, was charged in 2019 as part of a broader Trump-era “China initiative.” The Biden Justice Department last month called the widely criticized program “myopic” and said enforcers would shift resources to confront alleged threats from a broader array of countries.
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Jones Day attorneys will face off against two former associates at the firm, married couple Mark Savignac and Julia Sheketoff, over the scope of discovery in their lawsuit challenging Jones Day’s parental leave policy. The lawsuit filed in 2019 claims the firm’s policy is discriminatory because it offers paid disability leave for birth mothers but not fathers. The plaintiffs are seeking information about how managers at Jones Day responded to other allegations of discrimination or retaliation at the firm. Jones Day lawyers want Savignac to produce family leave policies from his current employer, Steptoe & Johnson. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in D.C. is presiding over the discovery dispute.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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SEC lawyers urged a Manhattan federal judge not to let Elon Musk escape an agreement requiring that his Twitter use be monitored, which the Tesla chief executive considers part of a campaign of harassment. "When it comes to civil settlements, a deal is a deal, absent far more compelling circumstances than are here presented,” the agency’s filing said. (Reuters)
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The COVID-19 pandemic was an unforeseeable natural disaster that exempted bankrupt retailer Art Van Furniture from complying with a federal law requiring advance notice of mass layoffs, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi in Delaware ruled. The ruling widened a split among federal judges over the scope of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. (Reuters)
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Exxon cannot argue political motives were behind Massachusetts attorney general's lawsuit accusing the company of misleading consumers and investors about its role in climate change, a judge said. Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp struck 12 of the 38 defenses Exxon put forward, saying that none of its factual allegations "plausibly suggest it was singled out for disparate treatment." (Reuters)
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Biopharma company HDT Bio Corp sued Indian generic drugmaker Emcure for allegedly stealing HDT’s RNA-delivery technology to use in its COVID-19 vaccine. HDT’s lawyers at Stris & Maher said in a lawsuit filed in Seattle federal court that Emcure was planning to go public in India claiming the stolen technology, licensed by HDT to an Emcure subsidiary, as its own. Emcure denied being involved with the license and said it is taking steps to have the claims dismissed. (Reuters)
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The 3rd Circuit upheld a FTC enforcement win blocking Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest healthcare system, from acquiring nonprofit Englewood Healthcare Foundation, in a multimillion-dollar merger. Aaron Van Oort of Faegre Drinker argued for Hackensack, and Mariel Goetz of the FTC represented the agency. Winston & Strawn was counsel to Englewood.
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Schulte Roth brought on Martin Sharkey as a partner in the firm’s finance and derivatives practice in London. Sharkey was previously a partner at Dentons. (Reuters)
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Sheppard Mullin added four partners to its healthcare practice in New York. Lourdes Martinez and Gregory Smith come from Garfunkel Wild. Carly Hoinacki joins from Epstein Becker. Cyrus Abbassi was previously at Proskauer Rose. (Sheppard Mullin)
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Sidley said Steven Rutkovsky joined the firm’s global finance group as a partner in New York. Rutkovsky arrives from Ropes & Gray. (Sidley)
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Barnes & Thornburg said Kerry Potter McCormick, former private funds and products counsel for Apollo Global Management, joined the firm in New York as a partner focused on investment funds and asset management. (Barnes & Thornburg)
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McGuireWoods said Patrick Clyder joined the firm in Chicago as a product liability partner. Clyder formerly was co-leader of the products group at Swanson, Martin & Bell. (McGuireWoods)
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DLA Piper hired Hans-Peter Löw to its employment practice in Frankfurt. Löw was previously the head of Allen & Overy’s German employment practice. (DLA Piper)
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Morrison & Foerster added Marie-Claire Strawbridge in London as a partner in the antitrust and national security practices. She formerly was at Freshfields. (Morrison & Foerster)
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Delaware courts often have struggled to decipher what makes up a direct claim from a corporation’s stockholder or a derivative claim, write Thomas Briggs Jr and Miranda Gilbert of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell. The Delaware Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling in Brookfield Asset Management Inc v. Rosson helped clarify whether stockholders’ financial and voting rights constituted direct or derivative claims. Read more about the nuances the Brookfield ruling did not address.
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