Good morning. Former President Donald Trump has kicked the Mar-a-Lago case to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a do-over on the 11th Circuit’s ruling. Plus, a group of Hastings College of Law alumni has teamed up with descendants of Serranus Hastings, who are trying to stop the school’s rebranding, and potential Camp Lejeune claims have sparked a television ad blitz. We’re the perfect complement to your morning cup of coffee, so let’s go!
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The U.S. Supreme Court now has its first chance to consider the U.S. Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of government records. Trump’s legal team asked the justices to intervene in his fight with the DOJ over classified documents seized from his Florida home, Andrew Chung and Nate Raymond report.
Trump filed an emergency request asking the justices to block part of an 11th Circuit ruling that said a court-appointed special master could not vet more than 100 documents marked as classified that were among 11,000 records seized by FBI agents at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach in August.
Former Florida solicitor general Christopher Kise of law firm Continental PLLC was named as counsel of record on Trump’s Supreme Court filing. Kise appeared with a colleague at the firm, former federal prosecutor Lazaro Fields, in addition to several other lawyers who have been involved in the litigation over the Mar-a-Lago search. Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency petitions from the 11th Circuit, set an Oct. 11 deadline for the Justice Department to respond to Trump’s filing.
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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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A group of alumni from the University of California Hastings College of Law and six descendants of its namesake Serranus Hastings filed a lawsuit to stop the school from rebranding as the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. Hastings was a California Supreme Court justice and founded the law school in 1878, but historians also say he orchestrated the killings of Native Americans in order to remove them from ranch land he purchased in Northern California. (Reuters)
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Baker & Hostetler and one of its lawyers are fighting legal battles on at least two fronts related to their work for a bankrupt former client, with a new $100 million lawsuit against the firm in Texas and a ruling in New Jersey that a partner must face fraud claims brought by pharmaceutical giant Roche. (Reuters)
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U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni signed off on a settlement between the SEC and Joel Sanders, the former CFO of defunct international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf. Sanders, resolving civil fraud claims, must pay the SEC more than $95,000 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest. The agreement also forbids him from being an officer or director at a publicly-traded company. He did not admit or deny wrongdoing. (Reuters)
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That’s about how much has been spent on advertising on claims against the government over contaminated water at Marine Base Camp Lejeune in the last six months, according to analysis by research firm X Ante. It’s nearly double what has been spent on advertising around the 3M Combat Arms earplugs litigation, currently the largest mass tort in history with more than 300,000 lawsuits. About $22 million was spent on Camp Lejeune ads last month alone. Here’s who is buying the ads.
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For the second time in the last few weeks, a would-be securities class action has apparently died because no adequate investor emerged to lead the case. Alison Frankel has the story of a new decision in a COVID-related class action against Tyson that concluded lead plaintiff candidates whose total losses came to less than $325 were not adequate to head the case. That ruling follows a similar rebuff of a lead plaintiff who allegedly lost less than $672 in Credit Suisse shares. The two rulings, Frankel writes, send a clear message to securities fraud defendants: If you mount opposition to questionable lead plaintiff candidates, you can save considerable time and expense litigating fraud class actions.
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"I don't think that the historical record establishes that the founders believed that race neutrality or race blindness was required." |
—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, during oral arguments in a major case involving a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama, which opponents say dilutes the influence of Black voters. She made the comments in response to Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour’s argument that the map is “race neutral.” Meanwhile, some members of the court’s conservative majority seemed open to Alabama’s defense of the map, and if that translates into a ruling siding with Alabama, it could become harder to prove that state voting laws harm minorities.
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Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed receptive to a GOP-drawn electoral map in a case that could weaken a landmark voting rights law. |
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The Colorado Court of Appeals will consider whether to vacate a $500 judgment entered against baker Jack Phillips and his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, in a lawsuit over a cake celebrating a gender transition. Denver attorney Autumn Scardina requested the cake the same day the U.S. Supreme Court took up Masterpiece Cakeshop’s case challenging a Colorado anti-discrimination law that would have required him to make a cake celebrating a gay marriage despite his religious opposition to such unions. The Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado’s civil rights commission was hostile toward Phillips’ Christian beliefs when it cited him for refusing to bake the wedding cake, but it did not rule on whether he violated Colorado’s public accommodation statute. After Phillips refused to make the cake, Scardina filed a lawsuit and won a judgment on the discrimination claim.
- U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, a recent appointee of
President Joe Biden, will hear arguments in a lawsuit by gun rights advocates challenging Minnesota's restrictions on adults under the age of 21 carrying loaded, operable firearms in public for self-defense. Lawyers at
Cooper & Kirk represent plaintiffs including the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, the
Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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A divided D.C. Circuit upheld the federal government's decades-old practice of allowing student visa holders to remain in the U.S. and work after graduation. The 2-1 panel, led by Circuit Judge Nina Pillard, rejected an advocacy group's claims that the program displaces American tech workers. (Reuters)
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U.S. antitrust leaders at the FTC and Justice Department are vowing to forge ahead, despite a series of losses at trial and agency proceedings. "If we determine that a merger would violate the law, we have a responsibility to act, and we will not shrink from that duty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs rejected
Eli Lilly’s bid to invalidate three Teva Pharmaceuticals patents in a long-running legal battle over the companies' competing migraine medications. The ruling clears the way for a trial later this month in Teva’s suit against Lilly claiming its drug
Emgality infringes patents for Teva’s competing drug Ajovy. (Reuters)
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Google’s lawyers at Quinn Emanuel accused a Boies Schiller plaintiffs’ team of a “fishing expedition” in trying to question Sundar Pichai, the company’s CEO, in a privacy lawsuit in California federal court. A U.S. magistrate judge denied the bid for a deposition. The plaintiffs previously questioned Google’s chief marketing officer in the case. (Reuters)
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U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal harshly sanctioned an entity that challenged a patent at the heart of VLSI Technology's $2.1 billion jury verdict against Intel Corp, finding it abused the PTO's patent-challenge process in an attempt to extort both companies. OpenSky Industries was banned from participating in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceeding, ordered it to compensate VLSI unless it can convince the board otherwise, and said its attorneys may have committed ethical violations. (Reuters)
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Jenner hired John Estes as a Washington, D.C.-based energy partner from Skadden, where he led the energy regulatory group. Estes joined Skadden in 1988 after a five-year stint at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (Reuters)
- Covington brought on
Dana Remus from the Biden administration, where she served as the first White House counsel. Remus will be a Washington, D.C.-based partner focused on white-collar matters, congressional investigations and political law. (Reuters)
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Goodwin added Jia Jia Huang as a Los Angeles-based technology partner from Latham. In addition, Meg Thering joined Goodwin’s employment team as a partner in the firm’s San Francisco office. She previously was lead employment counsel at the fleet management tech company Motive.
- ArentFox Schiff added Washington, D.C.-based partner D. Reed Freeman Jr to the firm’s trademark and copyright practices. Freeman previously was at Venable. (ArentFox)
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Morgan Lewis hired two new partners in Washington, D.C.: Meaghan Kent, an IP litigation partner from Venable, where she previously was a co-chair of IP litigation; and telecom partner Denise Wood, who previously was senior corporate counsel for Amazon Web Services. Morgan Lewis also added Todd Smith as a London-based tax partner. He was formerly at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
- Foley & Lardner added partner Luisella Perri to the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, where she will work in the tax practice. She previously was at Holland & Knight. (Foley)
Kirkland hired Houston-based tax partner David Cole from Vinson & Elkins. (Kirkland)
Nelson Mullins brought on corporate transactions partner Harsh Arora, working from the firm’s Fort Lauderdale and New York offices. He previously practiced at Kelley Kronenberg. (Nelson Mullins)
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