More than 100 major companies from the technology, pharmaceutical, automotive and other sectors have urged the U.S. judiciary to adopt a nationwide rule requiring disclosure of third-party litigation funding in lawsuits, Mike Scarcella reports. Companies including Amazon.com, Google, Cisco, Meta, Comcast and Exxon submitted the letter to the federal courts' Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, in advance of a hearing next week. They said outside funding "fundamentally alters the dynamics and has a major impact on whether the dispute can be resolved through settlement." In response, Christopher Bogart, chief executive of litigation funder Burford Capital, in a statement to Reuters said what the companies "want is to keep their unfair advantage in the justice system and to drive up costs for anyone who sues them."
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- A ruling by a Florida federal judge this week threatened to wipe out part of the federal False Claims Act – and the lucrative business that whistleblower lawyers have built for themselves. Read this week's Legal Fee Tracker.
- Crowell & Moring cannot force its D.C. landlord to refund $30 million in rent that the firm paid when most of its lawyers worked from home during the pandemic, a D.C. Superior Court judge ruled.
- Leading U.S. and international law firms are advising on fewer but larger corporate deals compared with last year, continuing a trend in worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity, according to the London Stock Exchange Group's latest rankings of M&A legal advisers.
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That's about how many lawsuits alleging Becton Dickinson's hernia mesh products caused injuries were resolved in a settlement the company reached this week. The terms of the deal were not announced, but BD said the amount was a "large majority" of what it had already set aside for product liability litigation, which was $1.7 billion according to its last quarterly report. The deal represented an unusual resolution of thousands of cases in both federal and state courts, reports Brendan Pierson. |
Jonathan Potts knows how it feels to be a hero, or as close to a hero as a lawyer can be. In the last six years, the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner partner helped three men convicted of murder win exoneration. But in a representation with what Potts called the "highest stakes" of all, he and his co-counsel fell short. Their client Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Sept. 24, despite support from the prosecutor's office and the victim's family to stop it. In her latest column, Jenna Greene spoke with Potts about Williams' conviction and the fight to save him. Read more. |
"If you're not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company." |
—Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who made comments to a barista in California who criticized the coffee chain's response to a nationwide union campaign that the NLRB said violated federal labor law. The board said the comment by Schultz during a company event in 2022 amounted to an illegal threat that could discourage unionizing, upholding a decision by an administrative judge. |
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- The D.C. Circuit will hear arguments in the DOJ's appeal of a ruling ordering it to turn over communications with its co-counsel in a consolidated lawsuit challenging the state of Georgia's 2021 voting legislation as racially discriminatory. The state of Georgia won the ruling after it filed a FOIA lawsuit seeking the communications between DOJ attorneys and lawyers representing voters who had filed parallel lawsuits.
- EBay will urge U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston to determine that punitive damages are not available to a Massachusetts couple who sued the e-commerce company. The couple were the victims of a bizarre stalking and harassment campaign carried out by several of its now-former eBay employees after an online newsletter they published drew the ire of top executives. EBay has said the damages question is a sticking point in settlement talks with David and Ina Steiner.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
- Hours after the D.C. Circuit blocked the CFTC's request for a stay barring a derivatives trading platform from allowing trading that amounts to wagers on election outcomes, the agency asked the court to expedite its hearing as the CFTC appeals a lower court's order allowing the betting.
- A day after a Georgia judge transferred the case to Missouri, St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp temporarily blocked President Joe Biden's administration from moving forward with its latest proposal - still not finalized - to forgive student debt held by millions of Americans.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued leading insulin manufacturers, including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, and pharmacy benefit managers, accusing them of collaborating to inflate the cost of insulin. The lawsuit claims manufacturers artificially raised the prices of insulin and then paid a significant portion back to the PBMs for preferential treatment.
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- Baker Donelson added finance and corporate partner Peter Bosman in Raleigh, North Carolina, from Smith Anderson. (Baker Donelson)
- Pierson Ferdinand hired patent and IP partner Sidharth "Sid" Kapoor, based in Palo Alto. Kapoor was previously at Reed Smith. (Pierson Ferdinand)
- Baker Botts picked up litigation partner Derek Cohen in New York. Cohen was previously at Walden Macht Haran & Williams. (Baker Botts)
- Jeremy Morrison left Jones Day to join Cooley as an antitrust and competition partner based in D.C. (Cooley)
- K&L Gates added John Bender as a litigation partner from Corr Cronin. Bender is based in Seattle. (K&L Gates)
- Hughes Hubbard & Reed hired securities and capital markets partner Alex Bafi in Paris. Bafi was previously at Clifford Chance. (Hughes Hubbard & Reed)
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Pro bono legal work can give lawyers experience with clients who have vastly different economic backgrounds from their own, write Brenna DeVaney and Adam Heintz of Skadden. But it takes effort, resources, and careful planning to build programs with the proper infrastructure and the right philosophy, they write. Read today's Attorney Analysis. |
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