Good morning. Legal maneuvering involving sanctioned Russian clients continues, as a bank that lost representation by a large U.S. law firm turns to a small New York outlet known for its work defending controversial figures. Plus: a court hearing in Mississippi this week over medication abortion will serve as a preview of anticipated clashes, and public hearings over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol start on Thursday. Let's dive in.
Our colleague Jacqueline Thomsen is co-writing The Daily Docket while Diana Novak Jones is on parental leave. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
A sanctioned Russian bank is turning to a boutique law firm known for defending controversial figures, from ex-pharma exec Martin Shkreli to Keith Raniere, the founder of the cult NXIVM. Latham had already said it would stop representing VTB Bank after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in a lawsuit over the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine. On Thursday, it was revealed that VTB has reached a tentative agreement with Marc Agnifilo and Zach Intrater of Brafman & Associates to come in as its new attorneys.
The firm, founded by veteran defense lawyer Ben Brafman, hasn’t been afraid to take on unpopular cases. In addition to the Raniere and Shkreli cases, Brafman was originally Harvey Weinstein’s lead attorney in defending the disgraced movie mogul against rape charges, but he withdrew before the case went to trial. More recently, both Agnofili and Intrater defended ex-Goldman Sachs bank Roger Ng, who was convicted in August on corruption charges.
But it’s more than reputational concerns getting in the way of retaining new counsel: In addition to finding firms willing to take on sanctioned clients, lawyers said in court papers that the sanctions regime against Russia is making it harder to finalize new attorney hires. Debevoise and White & Case, which have said they are also planning to stop defending fellow Russian lender Sberbank in the same case, told a judge that it’ll take a few more weeks for new lawyers to step in, partially due to the sanctions.
|
|
|
| Imagine what Westlaw Edge can do for you
|
Westlaw Edge is the standard for legal research, bringing together a legacy of quality and accurate content with the latest advancements in technology. Experience for yourself the most intelligent legal research service ever. |
|
|
Imagine what Westlaw Edge can do for you
|
Westlaw Edge is the standard for legal research, bringing together a legacy of quality and accurate content with the latest advancements in technology. Experience for yourself the most intelligent legal research service ever. |
|
|
-
Judge Judith Rogers will step down from active service on the D.C. Circuit, handing President Joe Biden a fourth opportunity to appoint a judge to the federal appeals court. Incoming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was Biden’s first appointment to that court, and he has since tapped U.S. District Judge Florence Pan and U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs to fill Jackson’s and another seat. Rogers, 82, was the first Black woman ever appointed to the court. (Reuters)
-
Karla Gilbride of Public Justice, nominated to serve as general counsel to the EEOC, is a veteran civil rights lawyer known for her work fighting companies' use of mandatory arbitration provisions to resolve workers' disputes. She recently won a U.S. Supreme Court case in which she advocated against a bid to push a Taco Bell worker’s overtime lawsuit into arbitration. (Reuters)
-
Some lawyers say the Biden administration’s potential plan to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt would not do much to alleviate the heavy debt burden many attorneys face. Almost 71% of law students graduate with student loans, and the average debt is around $138,500. Attorneys said that, even if the relatively small amount of debt is canceled, it will do little to address the fundamental issues that leave law grads facing large loans. (Reuters)
-
Legal industry employment ticked up in May to hit a total of 1,178,800 jobs in the sector. The May total is nearing the historic high of 1,179,500 legal sector jobs reached in May 2007, shortly before the Great Recession hit, which led to widespread industry layoffs. While there are concerns about a potential economic downturn, some analysts are unsure it would greatly affect the legal market, due in part to a shortage of legal talent. (Reuters)
-
Winston & Strawn is fighting with lawyers for Keurig over how much the beverage company should pay in legal fees after a U.S. magistrate judge in Manhattan said the company had failed to properly preserve evidence in long-running antitrust litigation. (Reuters)
|
That’s the amount former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro plans at this point to spend on outside lawyers in his criminal case, as he prepares to represent himself on a charge of contempt of Congress. Navarro, speaking to reporters after his first court appearance last week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in Washington, D.C., said: “I do not want to spend several hundred thousands of dollars on lawyers.” A federal grand jury charged Navarro over his refusal to appear for a deposition before the Jan. 6 Select Committee and another for his refusal to produce documents in response to a subpoena.
|
Shareholders lawyers won preliminary approval last month from a federal judge in Columbus for a handsome derivative settlement on behalf of the corruption-tainted Ohio utility FirstEnergy. So why are they now looking at a show-cause order from a different federal judge in Akron, who wants to appoint new lawyers to relaunch discovery in a case with claims included in the derivative settlement? Alison Frankel explains the latest bizarre development in the FirstEnergy case, which, she says, “raises some profound questions about the purpose of shareholder derivative litigation.”
|
Reuters video journalist Alex Cohen gives you an early view of the week ahead in legal news. Watch the video. |
"Plaintiff offers the undeveloped argument that vanilla is a flavor designator not an ingredient, while fudge is an ingredient, not a flavor."
–U.S. District Judge James Shadid in Peoria, Illinois, in an order dismissing a proposed class action accusing Kellogg of defrauding consumers about the content of its Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts. Plaintiff Roberta Reinitz alleged that the label, which showed a chunk of fudge, violated federal and state consumer protection laws because the Pop-Tarts contain no milk and butter, which she called “essential to fudge.” But Shadid said Reinitz’s lawyer Spencer Sheehan did not adequately argue that her interpretation of the “fudge” label is one shared by a significant portion of other consumers. Lawsuits over Strawberry Pop-Tarts haven't fared any better.
|
-
Computer scientist Stephen Thaler will urge the Federal Circuit to overturn a Patent and Trademark Office decision that his artificial intelligence system DABUS is not entitled to a patent for its inventions in the absence of a human inventor. Ryan Abbott of Brown Neri Smith & Khan is representing Thaler, and Dennis Barghaan of the Eastern District of Virginia federal prosecutor’s office will argue for the patent agency.
-
Paul Weiss appellate partner Kannon Shanmugam will appear before the Fifth Circuit to argue an appeal for ExxonMobil over the tax treatment of certain transactions to build oil and gas facilities in Qatar and Malaysia. The case, which also touches on the fuel credit for blending gas with alcohol, involves $1.5 billion in tax liability for ExxonMobil. Clinton Carpenter, an attorney with DOJ’s tax division, is opposing counsel in the case. Judges Edith Jones, James Graves and Gregg Costa will hear the case.
-
A different 5th Circuit panel — Judges E. Grady Jolly, Jennifer Elrod and Catharina Haynes — will take up a COVID-19 workplace vaccination lawsuit against Houston Methodist Hospital. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes last June dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 workers against the hospital over its requirement that they get vaccinated against COVID-19. Lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges was a nurse at Houston Methodist, where she worked for eight years, but she chose to get fired rather than get inoculated against COVID-19. About 25,000 other employees at the hospital system complied.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
-
The 3rd Circuit on Tuesday will hear disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti’s appeal of a defamation case against Fox News. Avenatti’s attorney Shawn Perez will argue to revive a lawsuit against Fox News about a story on Avenatti’s arrest on suspicion of domestic violence, an incident in which Avenatti was never charged. Third Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, sitting by designation in Delaware trial court, last year dismissed the case. David Ross of Ross Aronstam & Moritz will argue for Fox News. Avenatti was sentenced last week to four years in prison for defrauding former client Stormy Daniels.
-
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday will hear the state’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit from GenBioPro, manufacturer of a pill used to carry out medication abortions. The Las Vegas-based company, represented by Baker Donelson and Latham, is challenging the conservative state's restrictions on the pill. In seeking dismissal, the state said in a filing that there is "no evidence that Congress ever intended the FDA to have the power to nullify a state's ability to regulate in the controversial and highly sensitive area of abortion."
-
The public congressional hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump are set to begin on Thursday night at 8 p.m. The Democratic-led committee is expected to present new details about the violence that broke out that day and to counter any efforts by Republicans to deny or downplay the significance of the events. U.S. prosecutors have charged hundreds of people with crimes stemming from the attack.
-
On Friday, the 2nd Circuit will hear an appeal by former state judge and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, who is seeking to revive his $95 million defamation lawsuit against British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime and Paramount Global. Moore claims he was tricked into being portrayed falsely as a sex offender on Cohen's Showtime series "Who Is America?" The defendants say Moore signed a consent agreement waiving his claims, and the First Amendment protects them because reasonable people would not have believed Moore was a sex offender.
|
-
The father of a 10-year-old girl fatally shot at her Uvalde, Texas, elementary school has taken early steps that could lead to lawsuits against Daniel Defense, the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in last week's massacre that killed 21 people. In a separate matter, a school employee filed papers in Texas state court seeking an order to depose Daniel Defense and force the company to turn over documents. (Reuters)
-
Mariah Carey was hit with a copyright lawsuit in New Orleans federal court over her 1994 Christmas classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The plaintiff is a songwriter who alleged he co-wrote a song five years earlier with the same title. Spokespeople for Carey and Sony Music did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reuters)
-
A divided D.C. Circuit ruling said employers could be in violation of the federal law banning workplace bias by transferring workers or denying transfer requests for discriminatory reasons, even if it does not lower their pay or cause other harm. Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote the 7-4 majority decision. (Reuters)
-
The Federal Circuit revived hundreds of lawsuits by Houston-area property owners who say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flooded their homes and businesses with as much as eight feet of water after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017. The decision will allow the property owners to pursue claims that the government has a constitutional obligation to compensate them for temporarily “taking” their property. (Reuters)
|
-
Barnes & Thornburg brought on two partners from Bass, Berry & Sims for its healthcare practice in Washington, D.C.: John Kelly, who managed Bass Berry’s D.C. office, joins the firm with Jacquelyn Papish. (Reuters)
-
Goodwin said Andrew Cheng and Andrew Kimball joined the firm’s private equity practice in Santa Monica, California, and Washington, D.C., respectively. Kimball joins the firm from Kirkland, and Cheng joins from Gibson Dunn. (Reuters)
-
Alston & Bird added real estate finance and investment partner Stephen Peterson to the firm’s Atlanta office. Peterson earlier practiced at McGuireWoods. (Alston)
-
BakerHostetler added Stefan Smith in the firm’s Dallas office as a tax partner focused on employee benefits and executive compensation. He arrives from Locke Lord. (BakerHostetler)
-
Eversheds Sutherland added mergers and acquisitions partner Craig Alcorn in Chicago from Skadden. (Eversheds)
-
Milbank hired Mike Klaus as a partner in its global project, energy and infrastructure finance group. Arriving from Hunton Andrews Kurth, Klaus is based in the firm’s Los Angeles office. (Milbank)
-
Morris, Manning & Martin hired Thomas Bartolozzi as an Atlanta-based partner focused on real estate and hospitality. He earlier practiced at Taylor English. (Morris Manning)
|
| |
Copyright © 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 610 Opperman Drive, Eagan, MN 55123
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list here. |
|
|
|