Good morning. Donald Trump's family company is set to face a criminal tax fraud trial next week, adding to the former U.S. president's legal complications. Plus: Kyle Roche has departed the firm he founded, amid claims he abused investor lawsuits to help a client. And the U.S. judiciary's legislative talks about free PACER are ongoing and "productive." Just hang on: Friday is tomorrow.
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Donald Trump’s family business is headed for trial on criminal tax fraud charges next week, a case that could hamper the Trump Organization’s ability to do business while the former president fights legal problems on several other fronts, report Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld.
Jury selection begins Monday in New York in the Manhattan district attorney's case accusing the company and its former CFO Allen Weisselberg (above) of defrauding tax authorities by awarding "off the books" benefits to company executives, enabling the company to evade payroll taxes. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to charges that he concealed $1.76 million in income and will testify at the trial.
Trump has not been charged in the case. But the trial comes as he considers running again in 2024 — and stares down several other investigations and cases. He is the subject of investigations into attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss and the removal of government documents from the White House when he left office. And yesterday, Trump was deposed in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit. Carroll sued Trump after he denied her claims he raped her in the 1990s, saying she wasn’t “his type.”
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Kyle Roche separated from the New York-based law firm he co-founded, Roche Freedman, following allegations that he abused investor lawsuits to aid a client, blockchain company Ava Labs. The firm will be renamed Freedman Normand Friedland. Roche did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. (Reuters)
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A Tennessee state bar ethics lawyer who was fired in December 2020 over tweets that the state called “anti-Muslim” wants the 6th Circuit to revive his wrongful termination case. A panel is weighing whether the chief disciplinary counsel should be shielded by immunity accorded to judicial-related activity. (Reuters)
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A disbarred Tennessee lawyer cannot claim that head injuries he suffered as a college football player made it impossible for him to form an intent to commit federal bank fraud, the 6th Circuit said. (Reuters)
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A former Goldman Sachs analyst and his brother, a former Clifford Chance lawyer, are headed to trial in London next year for alleged fraud and insider dealing. Mohammed Zina and lawyer Suhail Zina were charged in February 2021 with six offenses of insider dealing and three of fraud by false representation. The pair have pleaded not guilty. (Reuters)
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That’s the number of aspiring lawyers in the nation’s first fully online law degree program to be accredited by the American Bar Association. San Antonio-based St. Mary’s University School of Law had 791 applicants for the first cohort in a five-year pilot program in which students complete all classes remotely. The school offered admission to 71 applicants, giving the program an acceptance rate of just 9%. St. Mary’s dean tells us why she’s surprised by the applicant numbers.
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Remember the petition from a North Carolina charter school asking the Supreme Court to review a ruling from the en banc 4th Circuit that it violated the Equal Protection Clause by requiring girls to wear skirts or dresses? The school’s petition argued that the 4th Circuit’s determination that it was a state actor subject to constitutional claims threatened to undermine the charter school movement, reducing innovation and restricting parental choice. But two new amicus briefs backing the school’s petition claim the consequences extend far beyond charter schools and educational choice. As Alison Frankel explains, a Notre Dame religious liberty law school clinic and former U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court that the 4th Circuit’s decision will expose faith-based charities to an onslaught of constitutional litigation — and that many will choose to end their charitable work with states. These arguments, Frankel writes, probably increase the odds that the Supreme Court will agree to take the case.
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"It is rare to encounter a constitutional theory so antithetical to the Constitution’s text and structure, so inconsistent with the Constitution’s original meaning, so disdainful of this court’s precedent, and so potentially damaging for American democracy." |
—Attorneys for voters’ rights group Common Cause and other advocates, who filed a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in a North Carolina case that could limit state courts’ abilities to review the actions of state legislatures when it comes to federal elections. The case relies on a contentious legal theory that argues the U.S. Constitution gives legislatures sole authority over election rules. Hogan Lovells’ Neal Katyal is representing Common Cause, as is former Fourth Circuit Judge Michael Luttig.
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Jury deliberations will resume in Manhattan federal court at a civil trial where Credit Suisse stands accused of conspiring with the world's largest banks to rig prices in the foreign exchange market between 2007 and 2013. Credit Suisse, represented by Cahill Gordon, is the last bank defendant remaining in the class action brought by currency investors in 2013, after 15 others reached settlements worth $2.31 billion. The investors, represented by Scott + Scott, Hausfeld and other firms, allege that Credit Suisse traders shared nonpublic pricing information with traders at other banks.
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Nonprofit advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) will argue at the D.C. Circuit in a federal public records lawsuit seeking U.S. capital punishment records. The group sued for information from the federal prisons bureau about the procurement of the drug pentobarbital for use in federal executions. WilmerHale’s Jessica Lutkenhaus will argue for CREW, facing off against Amanda Mundell of the U.S. Justice Department. CREW is challenging an order that said the government could conceal the identities of pentobarbital contractors. D.C. Circuit Judges Nina Pillard, J. Michelle Childs and David Sentelle will hear arguments.
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A former U.S. Marine prosecuted for his role in the U.S. Capitol assault on Jan. 6, 2021, will be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan in D.C. federal court. Prosecutors asked Hogan to impose an 11-month prison term on Robert Fairchild Jr of Florida for pushing on officers and dragging away barriers that were holding back the crowd. Fairchild’s lawyers said in a filing that he “is ashamed” of his conduct and that he “stands ready to accept his punishment.”
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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A 5th Circuit panel ruled the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding through the Federal Reserve rather than through the budgets passed by Congress was unlawful. The apparatus was set up by Democrats to insulate the agency from requiring congressional appropriations. An agency spokesperson said there was "nothing novel or unusual about Congress's decision to fund the CFPB outside of annual spending bills." (Reuters)
Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital received initial court approval for a $1.42 billion sale of its assets to exchange platform FTX, allowing the company to solicit creditor votes on the proposal. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles in Manhattan at a hearing said he will approve Voyager's sale contract and creditor solicitation materials, once Voyager makes certain changes clarifying that the company remained open to higher and better offers than the FTX bid. (Reuters)
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Planned Parenthood was sued in Manhattan federal court by a Black former official who alleged she was fired for pressing complaints about pervasive workplace race discrimination at the reproductive health organization. Nicole Moore was Planned Parenthood's director of multicultural brand engagement until last year. Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reuters)
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Amazon.com and New York state's attorney general will halt litigation against one another stemming from whether the online retailer adequately protected workers in New York City during the COVID-19 outbreak. Attorney General Letitia James said in a filing her office will not seek review of a May state court decision that had found federal law preempted her claims that Amazon violated state labor statutes. Amazon, for its part, withdrew a lawsuit against New York state. (Reuters)
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Hunton Andrews Kurth said Kevin Elliker, an investigator for the Jan. 6 congressional committee, returned to the law firm. Elliker served as an investigative counsel for the committee, a role he began in September 2021. (Reuters)
- Mintz Levin added Michelle Lipkowitz as a partner in the firm’s litigation practice in Washington, D.C. Lipkowitz previously was managing partner of Saul Ewing’s Baltimore office. (Mintz)
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Kirstin Etela is now a partner in Day Pitney’s environmental practice. Etela was previously the U.S. general counsel for Tradebe Environmental Services. (Day Pitney)
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Haynes Boone added Erin Simmons to its Denver office, where she’ll be part of its finance practice. Simmons was previously at Davis Graham & Stubbs. (Haynes Boone)
More moves to share? Please drop us a note at LegalCareerTracker@thomsonreuters.com. |
Wyoming has favorable tax, trust and privacy laws that have long made it a good place for traditional trust planning, write Eric Mann and Gina Shkoukani of Neal Gerber Eisenberg. But its unusual legal framework for digital assets also makes the state the choice for people looking for trust companies that handle digital asset portfolios, they write. Here’s what the authors say makes Wyoming stand out on digital assets.
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