Good morning. The U.S. Supreme Court returns today with a new batch of rulings, as a monumental term draws to a close. Immigration and climate-change disputes are still awaiting decisions. Meanwhile, large U.S. law firms are starting to announce plans to cover travel costs for their employees seeking abortions in states where the procedure is banned. Plus: a new survey looks at remote work and job satisfaction; Amazon can’t douse a trademark suit over its Fire TV streaming service; and R&B singer R. Kelly and Lev Parnas, a former Rudy Giuliani ally, face sentencing hearings today. It’s another big legal news day. Let’s jump in.
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Several major U.S. law firms are promising to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions, a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling striking down Roe v. Wade last week. The firms join major U.S. corporations, including the Walt Disney Co and Meta, that have said they would offer travel policies for staff who may no longer have abortion access in their home states.
Cozen O'Connor, Dorsey & Whitney, McDermott, Mayer Brown and Morgan Lewis told Reuters since Monday that they will cover travel costs for staff living in states where abortion is now restricted or banned. Quinn Emanuel, Akin Gump and Proskauer also said they would offer the same benefit, Jacqueline Thomsen reports with Karen Sloan and Mike Scarcella.
Ropes & Gray and Morrison & Foerster on Friday, when the Supreme Court issued its ruling overturning Roe, were the first law firms to confirm to Reuters they had an abortion travel policy, as most initially stayed quiet on the issue. Most of the more than 60 law firms Reuters reached out to in recent days have not responded to questions about whether they would implement an abortion travel policy.
Some big U.S. law firms, including O'Melveny and Jenner, are already involved in litigation over states' abortion laws. And legal experts are predicting companies covering abortion costs for their employees will face court challenges.
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Fully remote work may be losing some of its appeal, at least for lawyers in the early stage of their careers working across the legal profession, according to a new survey from the National Association for Law Placement and the NALP Foundation. Lawyers with hybrid work arrangements were most likely to report high levels of job satisfaction — 88% of 2017 law grads and 83% of 2018 law grads did so. (Reuters)
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Munger Tolles partner E. Martin Estrada, the Biden White House nominee for Los Angeles’ U.S. attorney, disclosed earning nearly $4 million from the firm for work for clients including Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and the Walt Disney Company. Estrada is a former federal prosecutor who would lead one of the largest U.S. attorney offices in the country. (Reuters)
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University of Pennsylvania Law School will remove the name of 19th century U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger Brooke Taney — who wrote the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision — from a limestone medallion on the exterior of one of its main buildings. The law school’s plan was the latest in a series of moves by legal educators to rethink the historical figures they honor. (Reuters)
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The Center for Reproductive Rights has elevated Travis "T.J." Tu to serve as the new legal chief of the organization, succeeding Andrew Sommer, who will retire on June 30. The center was co-counsel for the Mississippi clinic at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week striking down Roe v Wade. (Reuters)
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That’s the amount Ernst & Young will pay to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that its auditors cheated on certified public accounting exams and that it misled the agency's investigators. The London-based auditor admitted to the charges and agreed to pay what the SEC said is its largest fine against an auditor. Debevoise partner Andrew Ceresney, a former SEC enforcement leader, and WilmerHale’s Daniel Schubert advised Ernst & Young. Read more about what the agency and the auditor said about the case and resolution.
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Until Tuesday, Jen-Feng “Jeff” Lee was a poster child for the perils of sharing confidential discovery with another lawyer under the auspices of a joint defense agreement. A Wisconsin judge found him and his client in contempt for turning over confidential evidence from Static Media to a Florida lawyer defending a different case brought by Static. But now Lee and his client are off the hook, thanks to a Federal Circuit ruling that Lee followed protocols to keep the evidence secret. Alison Frankel explains the Federal Circuit’s reasoning.
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Around half of all new cars come equipped with driver-assist features, but who will accept the liability when things go wrong? Legal experts take a look at where the mounting litigation over driver assist programs could be heading. Watch the video. |
"It is the greatest regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein."
—British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, speaking in Manhattan federal court before she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. Maxwell was convicted in December on charges tied to her role recruiting and grooming four girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend, between 1994 and 2004. U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, who presided at the trial and sentencing, said Maxwell did not appear to express remorse or accept responsibility. Maxwell's lawyers had said that she should have been sentenced to no more than 5-1/4 years.
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The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue more rulings this morning in argued cases, as the term draws to a close. The court has four more cases, including immigration and environmental disputes, in which to publish decisions. The decision in the environmental regulatory case will determine the degree to which the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The ruling could have implications for the Biden administration and its ambitions to fight global climate change.
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R&B singer R. Kelly is expected to be sentenced following his September 2021 conviction for a longrunning racketeering scheme to lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn, who presided over his 5-1/2 week trial, will hand down the sentence. Prosecutors are asking for more than 25 years. Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, argued in a filing this week that her client deserves no more than 10 years, the minimum possible sentence. Kelly has repeatedly denied sexual abuse accusations.
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Lev Parnas, a onetime associate of Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is scheduled to be sentenced after being convicted of campaign finance violations. Prosecutors, saying Parnas "put himself above this country, his investors, and the public,” have recommended a prison sentence of between six and eight years. Parnas’ defense lawyer Joseph Bondy has urged the court not to send Parnas to prison. The sentencing is before U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan federal court.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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Amazon.com must face trial on a Florida pornography provider's claims that Amazon's Fire TV streaming device violates Wreal LLC's trademark rights in the name FyreTV, the 11th Circuit said. A panel of judges concluded that a jury could find that Amazon's product was likely to cause consumer confusion with Wreal's porn-streaming service, and that a Miami federal judge should not have ruled for Amazon before a jury could hear the case. (Reuters)
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A Manhattan federal judge narrowed claims by San Diego and Baltimore in antitrust litigation seeking to hold eight banks liable for driving up interest rates that state and local governments must pay on a popular tax-exempt municipal bond. (Reuters)
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Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to lift U.S. sanctions issued against him in 2018 over Russian "worldwide malign activity." Deripaska’s lawyer Duncan Levin argued that the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control acted outside of its statutory authority when it imposed the sanctions against him, partly in response to Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimea region. The D.C. Circuit in March ruled against Deripaska. (Reuters)
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The Michigan Supreme Court rejected charges against former Governor Rick Snyder and eight others in connection with the Flint water scandal, ruling that a lower court judge lacked the authority to issue indictments in the case. (Reuters)
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U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston dismissed charges against two men accused of a scheme to bribe Haitian officials in connection with an $84 million port development project after prosecutors said they found years-old evidence. Both defendants, Roger Richard Boncy and Joseph Baptiste, had pleaded not guilty. (Reuters)
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A U.S. International Trade Commission judge said in a preliminary ruling that Apple Watches violate AliveCor’s patent rights in wearable devices with electrocardiogram technology, setting up a vote by the full commission that could lead to an import ban. The commission is expected to issue a final decision by Oct. 26. (Reuters)
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Foley Hoag said former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley rejoined the firm as co-chair of its state attorney general practice. (Reuters)
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King & Spalding said Dale Giali, Keri Borders and Michael Resch joined the firm as FDA and life sciences partners. Giali and Borders will be based in the firm’s Los Angeles office, and Resch in the San Francisco office. They earlier practiced at Mayer Brown. (King & Spalding)
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Davis Polk brought on capital markets partner Nicole Brookshire in the firm’s New York office. She arrives from Cooley. (Davis Polk)
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Goodwin added Stan Kalminsky as a private equity partner in the firm’s offices in Santa Monica and San Francisco. He joins the firm from Paul Hastings. (Goodwin)
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Debevoise hired Erez Liebermann as a New York-based partner focused on data strategy and security. He earlier practiced at Linklaters. (Debevoise)
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Bryan Cave hired a four-partner team of real estate finance and insolvency-restructuring lawyers who will join the firm in Frankfurt, Germany: Dr. Torsten Pokropp, Frank Schwem, Christian Lonquich and Mike Danielewsky. They arrive at the firm from DLA Piper. (Bryan Cave)
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The U.S. Supreme Court in a June 13 ruling said U.S.-style discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 is not available in private foreign arbitrations, write Bracewell attorneys Rachel Goldman, David Shargel and David Ball. Litigants in international arbitrations over the past decade had increasingly tried to use section 1782 to obtain discovery that otherwise would be unavailable in arbitration abroad. The possibility of further litigation over section 1782 remains.
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