Good morning. The federal courts’ policymaking arm is being urged to curtail a practice among judges who condition their departure plans on who will succeed them on the bench. Plus, Ripple Labs slammed the SEC for keeping expert witness names under wraps in a key crypto case. A Texas judge will take a new look today at the state’s effort to curtail abortion access in the post-Roe world, and Twitter’s new Wachtell team denies the company breached its merger agreement with Elon Musk. We’re flooded with news and the week is just getting started!
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The U.S. Judicial Conference is being urged to block judges from conditioning their decisions to leave the bench on presidents’ selecting specific lawyers to replace them, reports Nate Raymond. Fix the Court Executive Director Gabe Roth wrote in a letter to the conference’s Codes of Conduct Committee that it should draft an amendment to the Codes of Conduct for U.S. Judges to make it a clear violation for judges to condition their decisions to retire or take senior status, a form of semi-retirement, upon the selection of a preferred successor. Roth cited U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Kanne's 2018 decision to take senior status contingent on an ex-clerk, Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher, being nominated to take his place on the 7th Circuit. Fisher wasn’t chosen, and Kanne died in June still an active 7th Circuit judge. Read more about what the group told the committee. |
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| Legal Leaders Case Study Compendium Volumes 1 - 4
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14 examples of how leading in-house counsel have translated governmental, technological, or regulatory developments into practical implementations tangibly improving how their organisations operate. |
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Legal Leaders Case Study Compendium Volumes 1 - 4
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14 examples of how leading in-house counsel have translated governmental, technological, or regulatory developments into practical implementations tangibly improving how their organisations operate. Case studies include: - How One Legal Department Found the Metaverse
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Corporate Legal Shared Services – A Success Story
- Reframing the narrative: from corporate shield to business partner
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Trayveon Williams, a running back for the Cincinnati Bengals, is set to help teach a spring class at the Texas A&M University School of Law on name, image and likeness — which refers to the year-old NCAA rule that allows college athletes to be compensated for endorsements and appearances. (Reuters)
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American University cleared a law student of allegations he harassed a classmate over his religious and conservative beliefs during an online discussion about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn the nationwide right to abortion. The university said it did not find evidence to support the unnamed classmate's complaint that the law student violated harassment policies "based on political affiliation or religious belief.” (Reuters)
- Janet DiFiore, chief judge on New York's highest court, will resign at the end of August after more than six years on the bench, including more than two helping shape the state judiciary's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reuters)
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The State Bar of California named Ellin Davtyan as the regulatory group’s new general counsel. Davtyan, who will oversee a 20-lawyer team, previously served as senior associate general counsel to L.A. Care Health Plan. She succeeds Vanessa Holton, who said in February she will retire after nearly seven years at the state bar. (California State Bar)
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That’s the number of Subway “tuna” samples, out of 20, that allegedly showed “no detectable tuna DNA sequences,” according to a lawsuit against the national sandwich chain. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco said Subway can be sued for allegedly deceiving customers about its tuna products, including a claim it uses other fish species, chicken, pork and cattle instead of the advertised "100% tuna." Subway, represented by lawyers from Baker McKenzie, has denied what it called “reckless and improper” claims. Catch up on the latest in the court fight.
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In a case that could have significant repercussions for class actions alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, two wheelchair-bound plaintiffs just asked the 3rd Circuit to reconsider en banc whether they can bring classwide claims against retail chain Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. A 3rd Circuit panel ruled last month that plaintiffs failed to show their proposed class contained enough members to meet the numerosity requirement for class actions. The plaintiffs contend that decision misconstrued the point of class actions seeking injunctive relief and turned class certification into a merits inquiry. Alison Frankel has more on the petition, which she said presents yet another twist on the perennial issue of class certification and plaintiffs’ injuries.
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"The SEC's attempt to shield the identities and opinions of its experts from any public scrutiny is both unprecedented and unsupported by any evidence of need." |
—Counsel for crypto company Ripple Labs and its executives, who criticized the SEC’s request to keep the identities of its expert witnesses secret in the regulator’s lawsuit alleging Ripple has been conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering by selling cryptocurrency XRP. The SEC requested the secrecy after claiming one of its experts had received threats. Attorneys from Debevoise, Paul Weiss, Kellogg Hansen and Cleary, representing Ripple and its executives, sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres calling the SEC’s request “egregious.” Read more about the regulator’s closely-watched crypto case.
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A Texas judge will consider reinstating a block on the Republican-led state from enforcing a nearly century-old ban on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right of women to terminate their pregnancies nationwide. Judge Christine Weems in Harris County previously issued a temporary restraining order, but the Texas Supreme Court on July 1 partially froze that decision, curtailing the ability of women to obtain abortions up to six weeks into their pregnancies.
- The U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump will meet today for its latest public hearing. The hearing is expected to focus on efforts to assemble Trump supporters in the Capitol on Jan. 6, including right-wing extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
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The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a hearing over the “legal consequences” of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established a national right to abortion services. Khiara Bridges, a professor at University of California Berkeley School of Law, will be among the panelists. Denise Harle, a senior counsel at the conservative litigation group Alliance Defending Freedom, is also scheduled to testify. Watch the proceedings here.
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A second Colorado woman is expected to plead guilty to defrauding relatives of the dead as part of a scheme in which a funeral home sold body parts without permission, a practice that Reuters exposed in a 2018 investigative report. In an earlier case, Megan Hess, who operated a funeral home called Sunset Mesa and a human body parts business called Donor Services, pleaded guilty to a federal charge.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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Twitter’s lawyers at Wachtell, including litigation co-leader William Savitt, denied in an SEC filing that the social media company breached its merger agreement with Elon Musk. Savitt called Musk’s move to abandon the purchase “invalid and wrongful.” Twitter has said it is preparing to sue Musk in Delaware court. (Reuters)
- A Utah state court judge blocked a sweeping new abortion ban from taking effect following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last month eliminating the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion. Judge Andrew Stone of the Third Judicial District Court ruled that the ban, which prohibited abortion at any point during pregnancy with a handful of exceptions, must remain on hold while Planned Parenthood pursues a legal challenge. (Reuters)
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Apple accused Ericsson of covertly filing patent lawsuits in Colombia in a bid to force Apple to abandon a Texas court dispute and agree to an unfair patent license. Apple and its attorneys from WilmerHale and Fish & Richardson say that Ericsson filed more than ten lawsuits in Colombia "in secret" and "with absolutely no notice to Apple," seeking leverage in their fight over licensing rates for Ericsson's 5G wireless standard-essential patents. (Reuters)
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Representatives for Three Arrows Capital and their counsel from Latham have asked a U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan to force the cryptocurrency hedge fund's founders to participate in the liquidation proceedings, saying they can't be located and have blown off requests for necessary information. Liquidators Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer, who were appointed by a British Virgin Islands court to help wind down the company and repay creditors, said they cannot locate 3AC's founders Zhu Su and Kyle Livingstone Davies. The liquidators filed a parallel bankruptcy case in New York. (Reuters)
- Oracle has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit alleging the software giant misrepresented the growth of its cloud computing business in 2017 and 2018. Class counsel from Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann would receive $3.5 million in attorneys' fees if the deal is approved. (Reuters)
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King & Spalding brought on Miami-based partner Fradyn Suárez in the firm’s corporate, finance and investments group. She formerly co-led Jones Day’s global project finance group. (King & Spalding)
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Skadden Arps added Maria Cruz Melendez as a New York-based white-collar and government enforcement partner. She earlier was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York. (Skadden)
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Arnold & Porter hired life sciences transactions partner Betty Yan in the firm’s New York and New Jersey offices. Yan previously practiced at Reed Smith. (Arnold & Porter)
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Gibson Dunn brought on international trade and privacy partner Stephenie Gosnell Handler in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. Handler most recently was director for cybersecurity strategy and digital acceleration at McKinsey. (Gibson Dunn)
- Steptoe said Dwight Draughon joined the firm’s Washington, D.C., office as a partner focused on investigations and white-collar defense. Draughon formerly was a Maryland-based federal prosecutor. (Steptoe)
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Dechert has recruited David Bartels to join the firm in Washington, D.C., as a financial services partner. He formerly served as deputy chief counsel of the SEC’s division of investment management. (Dechert)
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The current volatility in the stock market and a drop in the number of initial public offerings this year is spurring discussion of legislation known as the JOBS Act 4.0, write Sean Donahue and Lauren Visek of Goodwin. Read more to find out what Donahue and Visek say the proposed legislation, which is aimed at facilitating capital formation and building on the 2012 JOBS Act, could mean for businesses.
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