Our first runner-up for Litigator of the Week this week is Matt Solum of Kirkland & Ellis, who got a shout out last week as part of a team that knocked out a securities suit against Micro Focus International PLC tied to its ADR price drop following its merger with HPE. Matt followed that win up with another on September 30, this time for Bristol-Myers Squibb and certain current and former directors and officers. U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed a securities class action brought against BMS with prejudice finding that the plaintiffs had not established the existence of “an industry standard definition” of the term they claimed the company was misleading investors about and, therefore, could not plead scienter.
Paul Hughes of McDermott Will & Emery also gets a runner-up nod this week for getting an injunction on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others that bars the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on bringing certain foreign workers into the country through the H-1B visa program. “Congress’s delegation of authority in the immigration context…does not afford the president unbridled authority to set domestic policy regarding employment of nonimmigrant foreigners,” wrote Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of Cailifornia in an October 1 order.
