News

Arista's Antitrust Suit Against Cisco OK'd for Trial

Scott Graham | May 23, 2018

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the Northern District of California ruled that Cisco's copyright suit combined with GC Mark Chandler's blog posts were enough to get by summary judgment.

News

Pepper Hamilton Practice Leader Heads to Utah, and to Snell & Wilmer

Meghan Tribe | May 23, 2018

Ivan Knauer, who co-led Pepper Hamilton’s securities and financial services enforcement group from Washington, D.C., said he was ready for a change.

News

Manafort Takes Supreme Court's Car-Rental Privacy Ruling for Test Drive

C. Ryan Barber | May 23, 2018

It didn't take long for a U.S. Supreme Court decision this term on privacy rights to emerge in perhaps an unlikely spot: the special counsel’s prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

News

This Dispute Over a Tweeting Judge Shouldn't Invite the Justices, DOJ Says

Marcia Coyle | May 23, 2018

Noel Francisco, the U.S. solicitor general, told the justices that questions surrounding judges’ use of social media “would benefit from further development in the lower courts” before the Supreme Court takes up a case raising these issues.

News

Trump Cannot Block Twitter Users From His Account, Court Rules

Colby Hamilton | May 23, 2018

U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald ruled Wednesday that the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account falls under the U.S. Supreme Court's public forum doctrine.

News

Texas Court Fast-Tracked An Insurance Coverage Trial. State Farm Appealed ... And Slowed It Down.

Steven A. Meyerowitz, Esq., Director, FC&S Legal| May 23, 2018

Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 169 creates an expedited actions process for lawsuits in which all claimants affirmatively plead that they seek only monetary damages aggregating $100,000 or less. That does not mean, however, that every case where a plaintiff seeks damages of that amount will be expedited.

News

Greenspoon Marder Snaps Up Pro-Pot Lobbying Group in DC

Meghan Tribe | May 23, 2018

Deepening its bet on the fledgling cannabis industry, the firm has acquired The Liaison Group to help clients lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

News

Ogletree Launches Tool to Automate Arbitration Agreements Following SCOTUS Decision

Gabrielle Orum Hernández | May 23, 2018

Employment firm Ogletree Deakins launched an automation tool for revising arbitration agreements to include class-action waivers just one day after a controversial Supreme Court decision confirmed their legal viability.

Introducing Lean Adviser Legal from Law.com

Lean Adviser Legal| May 23, 2018

There's a gap between the way lawyers are trained and the skills required to practice in today's competitive environment. That's where Lean Adviser comes in.

News

Abbe Lowell, Counsel to Kushner, Joins Winston From Norton Rose Fulbright

Ryan Lovelace | May 23, 2018

Lowell is just the latest Norton Rose Fulbright partner to join Winston & Strawn over the past year.

News

DC Circuit Will Soon Livestream Audio of All Oral Arguments

Tony Mauro | May 23, 2018

“This is an important additional step in bringing transparency to our proceedings,” Chief Judge Merrick Garland said in the announcement. The appeals court for the first time since 2001 last year permitted a live audio broadcast.

News

Plaintiffs Firms Call Texas Federal Judge's Contempt Order 'Profoundly Troubling'

Marcia Coyle | May 22, 2018

Jenner & Block lawyers are calling "radical and profoundly troubling" a Texas federal judge's contempt order against three plaintiffs firms—Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, Outten & Golden, and Green Savits—for allegedly violating a nationwide injunction against the Obama-era U.S. Labor Department's overtime rule.

US Judge Rejects Challenge to NJ Firearm Carry Restrictions

Charles Toutant | May 22, 2018

The suit was brought by the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs and a Wall, New Jersey, resident who was denied a permit to carry a handgun because he could not demonstrate a justifiable need.

News

O'Melveny Nabs Leading DOJ Criminal Division Prosecutor

Ryan Lovelace | May 22, 2018

Ben Singer, who led the Criminal Division's securities and financial fraud unit, will join O'Melveny & Myers this summer.

In Brief

Manhattan Attorney Decried as Racist Apologizes on Twitter

Susan DeSantis | May 22, 2018

"One of the reasons I moved to New York is precisely because of the remarkable diversity offered in this wonderful city," he said. "I love this country and this city, in part because of immigrants and the diversity of cultures immigrants bring to this country."

News

Robert Bennett's Leaving Hogan Lovells for DC Boutique Schertler & Onorato

Ellis Kim | May 22, 2018

Bennett said he wants to try more cases and represent more individuals before retiring.

Q&A

Law Grad Headed to Paul Weiss Takes a Hollywood Detour

Karen Sloan | May 22, 2018

Chad Klitzman juggled law school, an internship at JetBlue, and the production of "Candy Jar"—a movie he wrote about high school debaters featuring Helen Hunt and Christina Hendricks.

When it Comes to Sharing a Laugh at SCOTUS, the Late Justice Scalia is Still Supreme

Lynne Liberato| May 22, 2018

Justice Antonin Scalia’s good humor was on display when, at his expense, this appellate lawyer from Texas got him and the rest of the court to laugh.

News

Volkswagen’s Integrity Chief Defends Work to Reform Corporate Culture

C. Ryan Barber | May 22, 2018

Hiltrud Werner, Volkswagen’s head of integrity and legal affairs, says the company is "already making extremely good progress” at developing a speak-up culture. “But we are not yet where we want to be,” she adds.

News

Akin Gump Adds Top GOP Congressional Aides on Tax Legislation

Ryan Lovelace | May 22, 2018

Brendan Dunn, the lead congressional staffer pressing for last year's GOP's tax reform, received a glowing send-off from the majority leader live from the Senate floor.

News

Lawmakers Select Underwood as Interim Attorney General

Colby Hamilton | May 22, 2018

The former acting U.S. solicitor general and Manhattan federal prosecutor has been acting attorney general since Eric Schneiderman's resignation in early May.

News

DHS Cyber Strategy the Latest Overture to Public-Private Info Sharing. Can It Work?

Ian Lopez | May 22, 2018

The strategy emphasizes the importance of pubic and private sector information sharing in combating breaches and places special focus on national security and critical infrastructure.

News

D.C.-Based Firms Find Fertile Ground in the Swamp

Ryan Lovelace | May 22, 2018

No Second Hundred firm in Washington saw its partner profits dip last year.

News

Orrick Snags Weil Gotshal's Patent Litigation Co-Chair

Scott Graham | May 21, 2018

Twenty-five year Weil Gotshal veteran (and former Orrick associate) Jared Bobrow joins Tuesday as co-lead of Orrick's global IP practice.

News

In Former Engineer's Harassment Suit, Uber's Decision to Scrap Arbitration Gets Its First Test

Ross Todd | May 21, 2018

The lawsuit comes just a week after the company announced that it would forgo arbitration and nondisclosure agreements in harassment cases.

News

Ninth Circuit Adopts #MeToo Recommendations Against Sexual Harassment

Ellis Kim | May 21, 2018

The chief judge said the goal is to make policies and procedures more accessible, understandable and effective.

News

Rutgers Law Appoints New Dean for Newark Campus

Karen Sloan | May 21, 2018

David Lopez is a nontraditional choice to lead the law school, but he brings decades of government experience to the job.

News

Gorsuch Renounces Ginsburg's 'Apocalyptic' Warnings in Landmark Labor Case

Marcia Coyle | May 21, 2018

Neil Gorsuch’s 25-page majority opinion and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 30-page dissent offered conflicting views. Ginsburg’s dissent also reflected the growing skepticism of the fairness of arbitration among her liberal colleagues on a court that for many years has been strongly pro-arbitration across the board. The clash marked the second time in months the two justices took aim at each other in writing.

News

ABA 'Furiously Working' to Craft Proposal on Lawyers' Mental Health

Ryan Lovelace | May 21, 2018

Ahead of the American Bar Association's annual meeting this summer, an ABA working group is debating a proposed resolution to help lawyers and law firms deal with problems of mental illness and impairment.

News

Rosenstein Extols DOJ's Embrace of Ethics as Trump Derides Russia 'Witch Hunt'

C. Ryan Barber | May 21, 2018

The deputy attorney general's planned remarks to a compliance audience in Washington did not reference Trump's demand for an investigation of the FBI. “We stress the need to act ethically and to do justice. We expect our prosecutors, our law enforcement agents and other personnel to be thinking about their ethical obligations with every decision that we make,” Rosenstein said at the event, hosted by Compliance Week.

News

Justices, Divided, Say Employment Contracts Banning Class Actions Are Lawful

Marcia Coyle | Tony Mauro | May 21, 2018

"The policy may be debatable but the law is clear: Congress has instructed that arbitration agreements like those before us must be enforced as written," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the decision "egregiously wrong."

News

Dating Leads to Marriage as Dentons Officially Heads to Hawaii

Roy Strom | May 21, 2018

The global legal giant will absorb Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing a year after affiliating with the 40-plus lawyer Hawaiian firm.

News

Jenner & Block Questions Alleged Monitoring of Guantánamo Defense Lawyers

Marcia Coyle | May 21, 2018

A team from Jenner & Block is fighting attempts by the U.S. Justice Department and a military judge to force two civilian lawyers to continue to represent the alleged bombing mastermind of the USS Cole warship after discovering what they contend was government monitoring of their attorney-client conversations.

News

Former AG Holder, Writing for Calif. State Senate, Rebuffs DOJ's Suit Over Immigration Policies

Ben Hancock | May 18, 2018

Holder's amicus brief speaks out in defense of SB 54, the California Values Act, also called California's “sanctuary state” law.

News

Trial Opens Over Lawyer's Death Allegedly Caused by J&J's Baby Powder

Amanda Bronstad | May 18, 2018

The trial against Johnson & Johnson claims an attorney’s lifetime use of its baby powder caused her to get one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

News

Antitrust Shuffle; Bauer Moves On; Gibson Dunn Raids Kirkland

Ryan Lovelace | May 18, 2018

In this week's Washington Wrap: Keeping up with antitrust moves and other partners playing musical chairs in the capital. Plus, find out where Bob Bauer disagrees with Bob Mueller when it comes to the Russia investigation.

News

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Expresses Support for New Law Clerk Hiring Plan

Marcia Coyle | May 18, 2018

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke favorably of the plan last week during a meeting of the Federal Judges Association in Washington. Justice Elena Kagan said she supports the two-year pilot plan and will "take into account" in her own hiring whether judges and law schools comply with it.

News

Hourly Rate Gap Widens as Top Billers Leave Others Behind

Ryan Lovelace | May 17, 2018

It's easy to be impressed by individual partner rates approaching $2,000 an hour, but the widening gap between whole categories of law firms may mean more for the industry's future.

Suit Aimed at Ending NJ School Segregation Targets Role of Charter Schools

Charles Toutant | May 17, 2018

Filed on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 school segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the New Jersey suit seeks to stop the assignment of students, including those attending charter schools, solely on the basis of attendance boundaries.

Mueller's Russia Probe Enters Second Year: How We Got Here

ALM Staff| May 17, 2018

The probe is ongoing—and a big question remains: Will President Trump agree to meet with Mueller? Stay tuned.

News

So Much for ‘Consensus’: Big Law Pick for Consumer Chief Divides FTC

C. Ryan Barber | May 17, 2018

Andrew Smith joins the FTC from Covington & Burling. FTC chair Joe Simons said Wednesday he was “disappointed that two of my new colleagues have chosen to turn Mr. Smith’s appointment into a source of unnecessary controversy.”

News

Kirkland Private Equity Team Jumps to Gibson Dunn

Christine Simmons | May 17, 2018

The four partners making the switch were longtime partners at Kirkland & Ellis, which has mainly been on the receiving end of other firms' corporate talent lately.

News

Former White House Counsel Bob Bauer Exits Perkins Coie

Ryan Lovelace | May 17, 2018

Bauer is leaving the firm whose leading political law practice he founded and shaped over decades in Washington.

News

Avenatti Says Two More Women Have Hush Payment Claims Against Trump

Colby Hamilton | May 17, 2018

The women are being vetted by adult film actress Stormy Daniels' attorney, and allegedly were paid even more than the $130,000 Daniels received from President Trump's attorney.

News

Relisted Once, Twice, Three Times and Beyond. Is This Abortion Case Vexing the Justices?

Marcia Coyle | May 17, 2018

U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco’s petition in "Azar v. Garza" is not the “relist king” from recent high court terms, but it is inching toward second place. The justices have scheduled the dispute 14 times for conference. Thursday's conference marks the 15th at which the justices were set to consider the dispute.

News

Whistleblower Tells US Senate: Facebook Can Become a 'Weapon'

Amanda Bronstad | May 16, 2018

Christopher Wylie, a research director at Cambridge Analytica from 2013 to 2014, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the firm, co-founded by Steve Bannon, who was campaign manager and later a top White House strategist for President Donald Trump, came up with phrases like “drain the swamp” that became key campaign themes and slogans.

News

Federal Circuit Still Fine-Tuning Venue Following 'TC Heartland'

Scott Graham | May 16, 2018

Appellate court rules that patent owners have the burden of establishing proper venue, and that defendants can't necessarily be sued anywhere within their state of incorporation.

News

Disclosure of Trump Reimbursement to Cohen May Raise More Legal Questions Than It Answers

Colby Hamilton | May 16, 2018

The payment appears to represent Trump's reimbursement of funds his attorney Michael Cohen paid an adult film actress to keep her from going public about an alleged affair.

News

4 Considerations as Trump's Labor Board Mulls Joint-Employer Rulemaking

Erin Mulvaney | May 16, 2018

The NLRB doesn't often take up rulemaking. “Rulemaking has been the exception to the rule, not the rule,” one lawyer said. Here are some considerations as the board looks anew at the joint-employer issue.

News

New Initiative Aims for 100 Black GCs at Top Companies by 2025

Kristen Rasmussen | May 16, 2018

The long-term goal is to increase the number of black in-house legal leaders in both public and private large companies.

News

Tempers Flare at Russia Hearing Over Prosecutor, Defense Phone Call

C. Ryan Barber | May 16, 2018

The episode underscored the heated nature of the special counsel’s case against Concord Management and Consulting, which was charged along with 13 Russian individuals and two separate entities with subverting the 2016 election.

News

Suing the ABA Over Accreditation? Get In Line

Karen Sloan | May 16, 2018

The American Bar Association is no stranger to litigation when it comes to law school accreditation, but the recent filing of four separate suits is highly unusual.

News

Supreme Court Justices Don’t Like to Be Nudged Off the Bench

Tony Mauro | May 16, 2018

Thurgood Marshall’s message was clear, and shared by most justices before and since: life-tenured Supreme Court justices don’t like to be told when to retire or move on. If anything, hinting that it is time to go seems to stiffen justices’ resolve to stay. But presidents and others keep trying.

News

Legal Services Link Partners With Arizona, Virgin Islands Bars After Long Process

Gabrielle Orum Hernández | May 16, 2018

Matthew Horn said that to partner with mandatory bar associations "you have to jump through a lot of hoops." He detailed them to LTN.

News

Anthem Data Breach Attorney Fees Report Faulted by Plaintiffs Lawyers and Objector

Amanda Bronstad | May 16, 2018

Plaintiffs lawyers in the Anthem data breach settlement have objected to the report of a court-appointed special master, which found what it said was inappropriate…

News

Proskauer, O’Melveny Headline Record-Setting Panthers Deal

Brian Baxter | May 16, 2018

The largest-ever sale of a National Football League franchise has its roots in a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the #MeToo movement.

News

5 of the Biggest Compliance Questions About Renewed Iran Trade Sanctions, Answered

MP McQueen | May 15, 2018

Greta Lichtenbaum, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers whose practice includes international trade and regulatory compliance, answered questions about the impact on multinational companies of the Trump administration's renewed sanctions against Iran.

News

Lawyer Suing Facebook: ‘This Could Be the Largest Data Breach’ Ever

Amanda Bronstad | May 15, 2018

Richard Fields talks about Wednesday's hearing and its potential impact on the Facebook litigation.

News

Trump Tweets and Litigation Risks: Key Takeaways From 9th Circuit’s DACA Hearing

Ellis Kim| May 15, 2018

The Justice Department questioned the court’s reviewability of the rescission, while three different lawyers for plaintiffs urged the judges to affirm the lower court’s finding that the rescission was likely “arbitrary and capricious.”

Commentary

How New Tax Law Affects Tax Deductions for White-Collar Clients

Marvin A. Kirsner and Carolyn F. McNiven| May 15, 2018

White-collar defense attorneys and their clients should pay attention to the tax consequences of monetary awards in criminal and civil enforcement cases. This may potentially prevent a company discovering from its accounting firm that none of the payments is deductible due to the failure to allocate.

News

Mueller Is Not Out of Bounds, DC Judge Says in Upholding Manafort Charges

C. Ryan Barber | May 15, 2018

"The case did not arise in a vacuum, and the special counsel did not create his own job description," U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in a ruling that upheld the criminal charges against Paul Manafort, the former Donald Trump campaign chairman.

News

SEC Cutting Back on Corporate Enforcement Actions, Report Says

Sue Reisinger | May 15, 2018

The enforcement decline is part of a downward trend that began in the last half of fiscal year 2017.

News

Akin Gump Adds On-Site Counseling as Firms Fret Over Mental Health

Ryan Lovelace | May 15, 2018

The firm is making Washington, D.C., its first office to offer on-site counseling services—and finding pent-up demand.

News

AT&T Is 'Punishing Women for Being Pregnant,' Plaintiffs Claim in Class Action

Erin Mulvaney | May 15, 2018

“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, including for an employee’s gender or pregnancy,” AT&T said in a statement in response to the amended complaint in Indiana federal district court.

News

Avenatti Says Cohen's Push to Keep Him Out of SDNY Is 'Devoid of Merit'

Colby Hamilton | May 15, 2018

In a filing in support of his pro hac vice application, Stormy Daniels' attorney said he had a First Amendment right to publish financial information about Michael Cohen.

News

ABA Set to Approve More Online Credits for Law Students

Karen Sloan | May 15, 2018

Supporters say allowing J.D. students to take up to one-third of their credits online, including some during their first year, is validation that distance education can work in law schools.

News

2 Big Law Firms Get $1M-Plus Work Defending DC's Transit Agency in Ad Fight

C. Ryan Barber | May 15, 2018

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, issued purchase orders authorizing nearly $800,000 in legal fees for the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and nearly $300,000 for Munger, Tolles & Olson.

Commentary

Trending Now: Crappy Law Schools and Crappy Lawyers

Vivia Chen | May 15, 2018

Not to be alarmist, but some recent developments portend that the profession is going to hell.

Q&A

From Hitchhiking Across Africa to International Arbitration Star: A Q&A with Wilmer’s Gary Born

Jenna Greene | May 14, 2018

One of the world's top arbitration experts, Wilmer Hale's Gary Born shares how he got his start, his goals as chair of the 70-lawyer practice, the benefits of "double-hatting"--and why he likes planes without wifi.

News

Answering Critics, Avenatti Says Slaying Goliaths Is His Business Model

Colby Hamilton | May 14, 2018

The California-based commercial litigation attorney and his own practice have racked up over $1 billion in verdicts in cases against some of the biggest companies and law firms out there. "I stand by the legal work we've done, and the results we've attained," he said.

News

What Are People Saying About Senate's New Lit Funding Bill?

Amanda Bronstad | May 14, 2018

The bill would require disclosure of third-party litigation funding in class actions and multidistrict litigation within 10 days of a case filing, or 10 days after a funding deal. It would also require disclosure of financing that provides cash to plaintiffs.

News

Top Law Schools Ask Firms to Disclose Summer Associate Arbitration Agreements

Meghan Tribe | May 14, 2018

Yale Law School and 13 other top law schools are issuing a survey to law firms asking them to disclose whether or not they require summer associates to submit to forced arbitration agreements and related nondisclosure deals.

News

Skadden's Michael Scudder Confirmed to 7th Circuit, Succeeding Posner

Mike Scarcella | May 14, 2018

Michael Scudder, whose practice focused on tax-related matters, accounting and white-collar disputes, was the Trump administration's nominee to replace Richard Posner, who retired. Scudder earned $3.06 million in partnership income in 2017, according to a financial disclosure released as part of the confirmation process.

News

Gorsuch, Thomas and Alito Stand Together, Anew, Against a Criminal Defendant

Marcia Coyle | May 14, 2018

Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. have found common ground in recent dissents, but it's still too early to determine how strong an alliance the justices will have this term, if any, in some of the term's most controversial pending cases.

News

Morgan Lewis Adds DOJ Health Care, Consumer Antitrust Pro

Ryan Lovelace | May 14, 2018

Ryan Kantor, who was an assistant chief of the health care and consumer products section in the Antitrust Division, joins the firm soon after a trio of Washington antitrust lawyers left Morgan Lewis for Vinson & Elkins.

News

This Undocumented Immigrant Just Graduated Law School. Now She Wants to Change Who Can Practice Law

Robert Storace | May 14, 2018

Quinnipiac University School of Law graduate Denia Perez spoke at a public hearing Monday supporting amending the Connecticut Practice Book to allow DACA beneficiaries to practice law in Connecticut.

News

Russian Business Entity Rips Mueller's Charges as 'Make-Believe'

C. Ryan Barber | May 14, 2018

Reed Smith, representing the Russian entity Concord Management and Consulting, said in a new court filing: "A foreign corporation with no presence in the United States is indicted in an unprecedented case of a type never before brought by the DOJ for conspiring to defraud the United States purportedly by not complying with certain regulatory requirements that are unknown even to most Americans."

News

Vote to Toss LSAT Mandate for Law Schools Slated for August

Karen Sloan | May 14, 2018

Despite the proposed change, most law schools will continue to use the LSAT in admissions even if the ABA's House of Delegates in August signs off on eliminating the LSAT's required use, experts said.

News

Study Finds Judges Mostly Reject Discovery Requests for Litigation Funding Documents

Ben Hancock | May 14, 2018

The conclusion of the study—that judges rarely grant discovery into litigation funding documents—helps explain why opponents of the industry are pushing for legislative and rule changes to require that funding agreements be disclosed.

News

US Supreme Court, Divided, Buys Into Wider Legalized Sports Betting

Tony Mauro | May 14, 2018

The justices in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association found the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act infringed on state sovereignty. The decision could transform sports and sports gambling from coast to coast.

News

OPM Data Breach Plaintiffs, in Bid to Revive Case, Say Trial Judge 'Wrongly Sidestepped' Precedent

Amanda Bronstad | May 11, 2018

Plaintiffs suing over a 2014 data breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management—which may have compromised information for 21.5 million persons—have asked a federal appeals court to revive their cases, citing a significant decision last year finding standing to sue over a cyberattack.

News

Big Law on the Ballot; Michael Cohen’s Shadow; Return of Sally Yates

Ryan Lovelace | May 11, 2018

Former Orrick chair Ralph Baxter won't be representing West Virginia constituents in Congress next year. Will his Big Law brethren in Maryland and Pennsylvania fare better this primary season?

News

Legal Hiring Data Finds Disadvantage for DC Law Grads

Ryan Lovelace | May 11, 2018

Of law schools within the District of Columbia, only Georgetown University Law Center beat the national average for graduates landing full-time, long-term employment jobs requiring bar passage or aided by a law degree.

These Trailblazing Women Lawyers Changed Society

Lisa Helem | May 11, 2018

Jill Norgren, author of "Stories From Trailblazing Women Lawyers: Lives in the Law," recently presented her book culled from interviews conducted as part of an American Bar Association project.

News

ABA Moves Forward With Plan to End Law School Admission Test Requirement

Leigh Jones | May 11, 2018

The decision paves the way for schools nationwide to more easily use the GRE and other tests besides the Law School Admission Test.

News

6 Cases We're Watching From the Supreme Court's Latest Conference

Marcia Coyle | May 11, 2018

A "spoofing" challenge under Dodd-Frank. GM fights a damages-only retrial. Guns are back. These are some of the cases and issues we're watching for any action at the Supreme Court from its latest conference.

News

Ninth Circuit Revives US Chamber's Challenge to Seattle Ride-Hailing Union Law

Erin Mulvaney | May 11, 2018

“Digital platforms like Uber and Lyft have become ‘highly interconnected with modern economic and social life,’ and present novel challenges and contexts for regulation,” the Ninth Circuit panel said.

Dechert, ACLU Seek Fees for Work on Kris Kobach Contempt Action

Mike Scarcella | May 11, 2018

The senior lawyers for the plaintiffs were Neil Steiner, a Dechert white-collar partner in New York; Dale Ho, director of the ACLU Voting Project; and Stephen Bonney, former legal director of the Kansas ACLU. Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, has appealed a judge's contempt ruling.

News

AT&T's Top In-House Lobbyist, Entangled in Michael Cohen Payment, Retires

C. Ryan Barber | May 11, 2018

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said Friday that hiring Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was a “big mistake.” Bob Quinn, vice president for external and legislative affairs and a former Mayer Brown lawyer, retired amid the scrutiny of the company's $600,000 payment.

News

Kirkland Scores High-Powered DLA Piper Duo

Roy Strom | Christine Simmons | May 10, 2018

Two Chicago-based partners are poised to leave DLA Piper for Kirkland & Ellis, just weeks after DLA Piper saw a roughly 50-lawyer team decamp for McDermott Will & Emery.

News

Mikal Watts Sued as Lawyers Fight Over $1.51B Syngenta Settlement

Amanda Bronstad | May 10, 2018

The complaints come as the judge preliminarily approved the settlement on behalf of a class of more than 600,000 farmers who alleged Syngenta sold genetically modified corn seed that China refused to import.

News

SEC Cyber Unit Chief Warns Steeper Penalties May Be Coming for ICO Issuers That Flout Rules

Ben Hancock | May 10, 2018

The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s cyber unit said participants have been put on notice that more actions and penalties could be in store for violators.

News

Hughes Hubbard Partner Named Top Lawyer at US Chamber of Commerce

Dan Clark | May 10, 2018

John Wood, who will start as the Chamber's legal boss in early June, has also been a U.S. attorney and worked as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

News

Plaintiffs Pitch Dueling Visions, One Big & One Small, to Judge in iPhone MDL

Ross Todd | May 10, 2018

The judge overseeing claims Apple deliberately slowed older iPhones heard leadership pitches in front of a courtroom full of about 40 lawyers Thursday, with another 10 or so on the phone.

Quick Takes

Updated: Roster of Legal Leaders in #MeToo Scandals Grows

Leigh Jones | May 10, 2018

In light of the Eric Schneiderman debacle, here's a rundown of legal leaders involved in some of the more notorious sexual harassment and assault scandals in modern history.

News

Michael Cohen Referral Was Top 10 Lobbying Client of Squire Patton Boggs This Year

Ryan Lovelace | May 10, 2018

Whatever Squire Patton Boggs expected from its association with Michael Cohen, it's gotten more than it bargained for.

News

RBG Movie Highlights Ginsburg’s Life, Struggles and Fight for Equality

Tony Mauro | May 10, 2018

The RBG documentary captures the human and professional sides of an increasingly larger-than-life judicial icon, now 85.

News

Litigation No Substitute for Settlement, Says Opioid MDL Judge

Amanda Bronstad | May 10, 2018

In a marked shift from the first hearing in the opioid litigation, a federal judge praised lawyers for getting closer to reaching a global settlement…

News

Trump Nominates 7 to Fill NY Federal District Court Vacancies

Colby Hamilton | Christine Simmons | May 10, 2018

The president's selection of three Southern District, four Eastern District and a Western District nominee came as part of a rare point of comity, with a source confirming cooperation between the White House and Sen. Charles Schumer's office.

News

2 New Suits Challenge Gig Worker Classification, And This Is Just the Beginning

Erin Mulvaney | May 10, 2018

The predicted spike in worker classification litigation—following the California Supreme Court's big gig economy ruling—is beginning. Two new suits challenge how Lyft and Postmates classify their workforce.