Good morning. The FDA’s new rule that lets pharmacies dispense a drug used in medication abortions is expected to draw legal challenges. We unpack the rule and its implications in the fight over abortion pills. Plus: New details emerge in the criminal prosecution of Girardi Keese’s former CFO; more firms are getting hitched; and Refinitiv is out with new data showing the year-over-year drop in the value of M&A deals. And catch up on the latest industry moves. Happy Thursday — let’s dive in.
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In a major change as states figure out where they stand on abortion access, the FDA gave the go-ahead to retail pharmacies to dispense abortion drug mifepristone, making it significantly easier to obtain. But Reuters’ Brendan Pierson asked experts: Does the rule change access to abortion in states that have limited it?
In states where abortion is banned, the prescription of mifepristone will still be off limits, Amanda Allen of The Lawyering Project, a legal group that defends abortion rights, told Pierson. It could make it easier for people traveling to obtain abortions, by lifting some of their barriers to receiving the drug, Allen said.
The rule is likely to face legal challenges, even as litigation over the FDA’s initial approval of the drug works its way through the courts. A lawsuit filed by anti-abortion groups represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom could result in the drug being taken off the market altogether. |
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Christopher Kamon, former CFO at shuttered law firm Girardi Keese, emptied his U.S. bank accounts before his November arrest for embezzlement, federal prosecutors contend. They warned a judge in Los Angeles that Kamon might flee the country if he is granted bail. A lawyer for Kamon at Skadden did not respond to a message seeking comment. (Reuters)
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Holland & Knight and Nashville-founded Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis have agreed to merge, creating a firm with nearly 2,000 lawyers. The combined firm will operate under Holland & Knight's name. (Reuters)
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Legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa acquired Hire an Esquire, a startup that uses technology to match lawyers and paralegals with primarily freelance jobs. Major Lindsey said it plans to integrate Hire an Esquire's online platform into its own interim staffing business line. (Reuters)
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K&L Gates is launching a Dublin office with three partners, as Ireland continues to attract international law firms to its shores. The firm is occupying offices in Merrion Square in Dublin’s city center. (Reuters)
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REUTERS/David Dee Delgado |
That’s the year-over-year drop in the value of M&A deals in 2022 compared with 2021, according to new Refinitiv data. In 2021, dealmaking activity, based on global announced deals, hit $5.9 trillion, compared with $3.6 trillion last year, marking the largest percentage decline since 2001. Still, many U.S. law firms maintained their market share even though the overall dealmaking pie shrunk. Sullivan & Cromwell once again advised on the largest share of that total, working on $516 billion worth of deals in 2022. Some law firms managed to improve their positions in the M&A advisory race last year.
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It’s been scarcely two weeks since a California federal judge issued a groundbreaking decision that a crypto collective called the Ooki DAO is not immune from being sued simply because it operates as a decentralized blockchain protocol — but a pair of plaintiffs firms that represent crypto plaintiffs have already rushed to notify other courts of the ruling. Gerstein Harrow and Fairmark are hoping judges overseeing DAO class actions in Los Angeles and Brooklyn agree with U.S. District Judge William Orrick that DAOs can be sued as a collective, like an unincorporated association or a general partnership. The defendants in these private suits, Alison Frankel writes, say the CFTC case is irrelevant, especially in light of their myriad other defense. But the plaintiffs’ firms are doing what they can to make Orrick’s decision a part of the analysis.
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"I did have a sense of despair about the direction my court was going." |
—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking remotely before hundreds of law professors at the Association of American Law Schools’ annual meeting in San Diego about how she felt at the close of the last high court term. Sotomayor told legal educators she felt “shell-shocked” and “deeply sad,” at the close of the previous session, during which the high court overturned the national right to abortion. The justice in her remarks did not mention the ruling by name. Sotomayor spoke for an hour with Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
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Climate litigation is moving beyond Big Oil, going after a growing number of companies that claim to be climate-friendly, Reuters reporter Clark Mindock says. Watch the video. |
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U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb will weigh a bid from a group of New Jersey residents and gun rights groups including the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition to block the state from enforcing newly enacted curbs on firearm possession, including restrictions on carrying weapons in public spaces. The Democratic-led New Jersey enacted the laws in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling that declared the 2nd Amendment protects an individual's right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
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Prospective jurors will begin filling out questionnaires in Brooklyn federal court in the prosecution of two former 21st Century Fox executives and a South American sports marketing company in a long-running corruption probe surrounding FIFA, the world governing body for soccer. Prosecutors have said the defendants and co-conspirators bribed soccer officials to secure media and marketing rights to various soccer tournaments. Hernan Lopez, Carlos Martinez and Full Play Group SA have pleaded not guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges. The trial is before U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen.
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Nevada District Court Chief Judge Miranda Du is set to hold a hearing in a lawsuit over Lithium Americas’ proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada. Opponents of the mine, which include environmental groups, Native American tribes and ranchers, are asking the court to overturn the Trump administration’s 2021 approval of the mine over what they say is its negative impact on the area. The proponents say the mine is necessary in the fight against climate change.
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U.S. Circuit Judge Amul Thapar of the 6th Circuit and U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton of Kentucky, both appointees of former President Donald Trump, will speak at an event hosted by the Harvard chapter of the Federalist Society about "the state of the law, the legal profession, and law schools.” The event is titled: "Original(ist) Thoughts in the New Year." Thapar was a Trump-era shortlister for a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
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U.S. prosecutors are in the process of seizing shares of Robinhood Markets that were allegedly owned by an entity controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried, charged with fraud in the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, the DOJ told a U.S. bankruptcy judge. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty. (Reuters)
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U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn ruled that Celsius Network owns most of the cryptocurrency that customers deposited into its online platform, meaning most Celsius customers will be last in line for repayment in the crypto lender's bankruptcy. The decision affects about 600,000 accounts that held assets valued at $4.2 billion when Celsius filed for bankruptcy in July. (Reuters)
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The SEC filed a limited objection to Binance.US's proposed $1 billion acquisition of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital. The regulator said Binance.US's disclosure statement was missing key information, and the purchase agreement lacked details on the crypto exchange's ability to close the deal. (Reuters)
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Massachusetts' top court appeared open to reviving criminal neglect charges against two former leaders of a veterans home for their roles in handling a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 76 people. Lawyers for former Holyoke Soldiers' Home superintendent and former medical director urged the court to uphold a lower judge’s dismissal of the indictments, in the first criminal case nationally tied to a COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing facility. (Reuters)
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William "Rick" Singer will serve 3-1/2 years in prison for orchestrating a cheating and bribery scheme to help wealthy parents secure the admission of their children to elite universities. The prison term was the longest one for any of the parents, coaches and others who were prosecuted in “Operation Varsity Blues,” but it fell short of the six-year sentence the DOJ had sought. (Reuters)
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CSX lost its bid to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged antitrust damages over on-dock rail access at a key Virginia port, after a U.S. judge said claims were time-barred. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Davis of the Eastern District of Virginia federal court largely ruled for CSX rival Norfolk Southern and scrapped an upcoming jury trial. (Reuters)
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John Sullivan, former U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Trump and Biden administrations, rejoined Mayer Brown to co-lead its national security practice. Sullivan was a top U.S. State Department official under former President Donald Trump and at one point served as acting secretary of state. (Reuters)
- Boies Schiller added D.C.-based white-collar and investigations partner Blake Goebel from the DOJ, where he worked in the agency’s fraud section. (Reuters)
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Steptoe & Johnson added three D.C.-based partners to its commercial litigation practice: Eric Berman, Dan Blynn and Steve Freeland. They were previously at Venable. (Steptoe)
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Bryan Cave brought on former NFL senior counsel Douglas Mishkin as a sports and entertainment partner based in the firm’s New York office. (Bryan Cave)
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Latham added banking partners Corey Wright and Lisa Collier in the firm’s New York office. They previously were at Cahill. (Latham)
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McGuireWoods added Pittsburgh-based capital markets partner Jon Mooney, who previously was chief counsel for corporate banking and capital markets at PNC Financial Services. (McGuireWoods)
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Foley Hoag hired Nancy Stade as a D.C.-based partner working in the firm’s FDA practice. Stade was at Stade FDA Consulting. (Foley Hoag)
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Fox Rothschild brought on family law partner Afi Johnson-Parris in the firm’s office in Greensboro, North Carolina. Johnson-Parris previously ran her own firm Johnson-Parris Law. (Fox Rothschild)
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Dentons added Gary Meyerhoff in the firm’s New York office as a commercial litigation partner. He was previously general counsel to the New York State Liquor Authority. (Dentons)
>> More moves to share? Please drop us a note at LegalCareerTracker@thomsonreuters.com. |
Major construction projects were in focus in California last year, including a high speed rail initiative, a solar facility and battery storage project at Sanborn, and a modernization effort at the Los Angeles International Airport, write Ashley Jordan and Constance Kang of Reed Smith. Courts in the Golden State in 2022 weighed a variety of construction insurance clashes involving risk, cooperation clauses and other matters. The authors examine five key wins for policyholders.
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