Good morning. Several plaintiffs’ firms hoping to lead a class action against crypto company Tether are seizing on secretly-recorded video clips of Roche Freedman’s cofounder as a reason to try to remove the firm from the case. And the appointment of a special master to review the documents removed from Mar-a-Lago is bringing questions about the boundaries of executive privilege to the surface. Plus, Chief Justice John Roberts’ right-hand man is retiring, and a New Mexico elected official is the first to be removed from office over Jan. 6. Like the temperatures outside, the news is coming in hot.
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Plaintiffs’ firms hoping to lead a class action against stablecoin creator Tether are seizing on secretly-recorded video clips of Roche Freedman cofounder Kyle Roche to try to oust the firm from the case, reports Jody Godoy.
The video, posted on a website called Crypto Leaks, published video clips it said showed Roche boasting that he used investor class actions to harm competitors of a cryptocurrency company, which, according to court filings, he owns a stake in. Roche has said he was intoxicated in one of the videos, which were recorded without his consent, and regrets his comments.
Selendy Gay Elsberg and Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky, the law firms co-leading the case with Roche Freedman that accuses Tether of market manipulation, have told the judge that Roche Freedman’s involvement is “contrary to the best interests of the class.” And Kirby McInerney and Radice Law Firm, which represent investors who previously lost a bid to lead the case, have asked the court to replace all three firms.
Roche Freedman said it believes a defendant in another one of its cases is behind the video’s publication, so DQing Roche Freedman would encourage such “underhanded means.” |
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| 2022 State of Corporate Law Departments Report
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Based on data driven and reliable insights: -2,000+ telephone interviews with in-house counsel -1,000+ survey responses -Detailed spend data from the Legal Department Operations (LDO) Index |
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2022 State of Corporate Law Departments Report
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Based on data driven and reliable insights: - 2,000+ telephone interviews with in-house counsel
- 1,000+ survey responses
- Detailed spend data from the Legal Department Operations (LDO) Index
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The scope of executive privilege and whether former U.S. presidents can claim it will be in focus now more than ever, after a Florida federal judge’s appointment of a “special master” to review documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The DOJ hasn’t said yet whether it will challenge the judge’s order.
A central issue in Trump’s lawsuit over the FBI search of his resort is whether former presidents can claim executive privilege as a shield to block demands for documents and information, writes Jacqueline Thomsen. U.S. courts have not definitively ruled on the extent to which former presidents can assert executive privilege.
Legal experts told Thomsen that allowing a third-party special master who is not in the executive branch to decide whether the privilege applies to records is unprecedented and “violates the very constitutional basis of the privilege as a presidential power,” said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
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Jeffrey Minear, who for 18 years has served as counselor to Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, will retire from his position effective at the end of September. (Reuters)
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Former 5th Circuit Judge Gregg Costa accepted an offer to join Gibson Dunn after resigning from his position as one of the few Democratic appointees on the conservative-majority U.S. appeals court based in Louisiana. Costa joined the 5th Circuit in 2014. (Reuters)
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Pennsylvania’s attorney discipline board brought on Williams & Connolly’s Lisa Blatt to press the 3rd Circuit to revive a professional conduct rule that would bar discriminatory or harassing conduct. A federal district judge blocked the anti-bias rule as unconstitutional in March. (Reuters)
- Cincinnati-founded Taft Stettinius will merge with 120-lawyer Michigan firm Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, extending Taft's footprint in the Midwest. The combination with Jaffe will create a firm with 800 lawyers throughout eight Midwest markets and Washington, D.C. (Reuters)
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That’s the amount Juul Labs agreed to pay to settle a two-year investigation into the e-cigarette maker's marketing and sales practices. The deal resolves claims by 34 U.S. states and territories, led by Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Texas, that Juul's marketing downplayed its products' risks and targeted underage buyers. The company agreed to refrain from use of cartoons, product placement and depictions of users under 35. Juul said restrictions in the settlement "aligned with our current business practices which we started to implement after our company-wide reset in the fall of 2019." Some states, including New York, are continuing to pursue claims against Juul.
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"Mr. Griffin became unconstitutionally disqualified from federal and state office and forfeited his current office as an Otero County Commissioner effective January 6, 2021." |
— New Mexico State District Court Judge Francis Mathew, who wrote that Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin violated the U.S. Constitution when he took part in the January 6 riot that left four people dead and 100 police officers injured, disqualifying him from holding local, state or federal office. Griffin, who said he plans to appeal the ruling, is the first person to be removed from public office as a result of participating in the riot. Mathew’s ruling also marks the first time a judge has deemed the incident an insurrection and the first time since 1869 that a judge has removed a public official under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the nominations of Cindy Chung and Tamika Montgomery-Reeves for the 3rd Circuit, and Kelley Brisbon Hodge, John Frank Murphy, Mia Roberts Perez and Kai Scott for federal judgeships in Pennsylvania. Chung, a prosecutor Biden previously picked to serve as the U.S. attorney for Pittsburgh, would become the first Asian American judge ever on the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit.
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Lawyers for former Trump-era White House chief of staff Mark Meadows head to Washington, D.C., federal court for a key hearing in his legal challenge against the U.S. congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Meadows’ lawyers at McGuireWoods are raising various arguments, including executive privilege, to block a demand for information from him. The committee is represented by the House general counsel’s office, in addition to teams of lawyers from Arnold & Porter and Sher Tremonte. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols will hear arguments.
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Pharmaceutical companies Teva and Eli Lilly will ask U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston to grant their respective summary judgment motions in Teva's lawsuit over Eli Lilly's migraine drug Emgality, which Teva says infringes patents related to its own migraine drug Ajovy. Among other arguments, Eli Lilly and its team from Finnegan Henderson say Teva obtained the patents by misleading the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — claims that Teva and its attorneys from Goodwin Procter deny.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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Tom Barrack, a former private equity executive and fundraiser for Donald Trump, wants evidence of his wealth, spending and lifestyle excluded from his upcoming trial on charges he acted as an illegal foreign agent, his lawyers from Willkie Farr and O’Melveny said. Prosecutors have charged Barrack with using his influence to advance United Arab Emirates foreign policy goals without notifying the U.S. attorney general of his involvement. (Reuters)
A divided D.C. Circuit said HSBC was not liable to the families of two American contractors killed in an al-Qaeda suicide bombing of a CIA base in Afghanistan, after the bank allegedly evaded U.S. sanctions targeting sponsors of terrorism. Randy Singer, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said they plan to ask the full D.C. Circuit to reconsider the decision. HSBC and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reuters)
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Walgreens, Walmart and Kroger faced off against New Mexico over the pharmacies’ alleged role in the opioid epidemic. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas in his opening remarks said the pharmacies were supposed to act as a "dam" against a flood of illegitimate opioid prescriptions by refusing to fill prescriptions with "red flags" of abuse. John Majoras of Jones Day, a lawyer for Walmart, said in his opening for the defendants that pharmacists must exercise their "professional judgment" rather than relying on "mechanical application of red flags." (Reuters)
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A Washington, D.C., federal judge ruled against Meta’s Facebook in its bid to force the FTC to turn over certain documents that the agency created when it reviewed and did not stop the social media company's purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. In a 20-page order, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the eight documents at issue were protected by a legal privilege and can remain off-limits from Meta’s attorneys. Meta sought the information as it builds a defense against the FTC’s claims of anticompetitive market abuses.
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Squire Patton Boggs hired a five-member bankruptcy team from Brown Rudnick in London that includes the firm's European restructuring practice leader, Charlotte Møller. (Reuters)
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Cadwalader hired Mike Rupe to lead the firm’s special situations and reorganizations team. Rupe formerly was head of King & Spalding restructuring group. (Reuters)
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Sheppard Mullin brought on Richard Fries, Scott Stern and Neil Cohen as New York-based partners in the firm’s real estate, energy, land use and environmental practice. They come to the firm from Sidley. (Sheppard Mullin)
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McGuireWoods added securities and capital markets partners W. Lake Taylor Jr and Lawton Way from Hunton Andrews Kurth. They join the firm’s office in Richmond, Virgina. (McGuireWoods)
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Perkins Coie added former federal judge Abdul Kallon as a litigation and labor and employment partner in Seattle. Kallon earlier served on the bench in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. (Perkins Coie)
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Sidley brought on San Francisco-based partner Daniel Elefant in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions and private equity practice. Elefant previously served as a director and senior in-house counsel at SoftBank. (Sidley)
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DLA Piper added Sharon Lindan Mayl as a regulatory and government affairs partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. Mail formerly was a senior adviser for policy at the FDA. (DLA Piper)
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Management at public companies may be increasingly weighing the option of going private, as rising interest rates and recession fears weigh on public company valuations, write Derek Liu and Piotr Korzynski of Baker McKenzie. The authors explore financial and legal considerations in taking companies private. Among them: respect the legal rules of the road.
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