Trump wins appeal on foreign aid freeze

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By Karen Sloan

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A federal appeals court today lifted an injunction that required the U.S. State Department to continue making foreign aid payments, handing a victory to President Donald Trump, Jan Wolfe reports.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said a lower court erred by ordering the Trump administration to restore foreign assistance payments previously approved by Congress.

Trump imposed a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on January 20, the same day he was inaugurated for a second term in the White House. His executive order was followed by aggressive moves to gut USAID, the main U.S. foreign aid agency, including by placing much of its staff on leave and exploring bringing the formerly independent agency under the State Department.

Two non-profit groups that receive federal funding, AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Journalism Development Network, brought litigation alleging Trump's funding freeze was unlawful.

Read more about the decision here.

In New York: Haynes Boone added former Winston & Strawn partner Richard Weber as chair of its financial services investigations and enforcement practice … Kirkland brought on antitrust partner Maria Raptis from Skadden … Gibson Dunn tapped real estate partner David Perechocky from Kirkland … Smith, Gambrell & Russell added partner Matthew Field to its corporate and global transport practices from Marauder … DLA Piper hired corporate partner Bill Smolinski from Simpson Thacher … Cadwalader brought on former Sidley partner Steven Kolyer as co-head of its commercial real estate securitization practice …  BakerHostetler added white collar partner Aric Wu from Cooley … Baker McKenzie hired transactional partner Jenny Liu in New York and Palo Alto from Willkie … Davis Wright Tremaine brought on nonprofits partner Kevin Roe from Simpson Thacher.

In D.C.: Foley Hoag picked up tax partner Barbara Klepper from Winstead … McGuire Woods added real estate finance partner S.R. Sidarth from Troutman Pepper Locke … Loeb & Loeb brought on tax partner Nathan Levya from Vinson & Elkins … Proskauer added healthcare partner Richard Westling in Washington and Los Angeles from Epstein Becker & Green. 

In London: Litigation partner Robert Hickmott rejoined Quinn Emanuel as the firm's general counsel … Fried Frank hired corporate real estate partner David Evans from Goodwin.

In Chicago: Mayer Brown brought on global leveraged finance partner Brian Trudgen from Jones Day … Vedder Price added government investigations partner Steven Dollear from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. 

In Nashville: Burr & Forman added partners Benjamin Goldammer and Danica Suedekum to its construction and project development group from Kay Griffin … Bradley hired appellate partner Robert Parsley in Nashville and Chattanooga from Miller & Martin.

Across other cities: Daniel Pascucci joined McDermott in San Diego from Mintz, where he was co-chair of the cross-border asset recovery practice … Willkie hired private equity partner Usman Arain from Paul Weiss … Holland & Knight tapped healthcare regulatory and enforcement partner Juliet McBride in Houston from King & Spalding … Weil hired IP litigation partners Chris Henry in Boston and Gabby LaHatte in San Francisco from Latham & Watkins … Frost Brown Todd picked up business litigation partner Kevin Havelda in Denver from Wick & Trautwein … Simpson Thacher added M&A partner William Lay in Boston from Kirkland … Kirkland brought on product liability partner Burt Snell in Philadelphia from Butler Snow … Clark Hill added construction partners Stephen Wright and Jeffrey Nix in Atlanta from Taylor Duma English … Vedder Price brought on litigation partner Adil Khan in Los Angeles from Greenberg Traurig … Troutman Pepper Locke hired bankruptcy partners Melissa Kato, Michael Cecke, and David Fialkow from K&L Gates. Kato and Cecka are based in Charlotte while Fialkow is in Boston. 

New offices: Sterlington will open a Philadelphia office with private wealth partners Daniel Cooper, Emalee Welsh and Daniel Carmody from Morgan Lewis … Harrison launched a San Francisco Bay office with an 11-attorney team from estate planning firm Barulich Dugoni Suttmann & Cummins Law Group … Musick Peeler opened outposts in Charlottesville, Virginia and D.C. with four lawyers from Zoblaw. 

Score one for attorney-client privilege.  An appeals court last week intervened to halt an order by a federal judge in Columbus, Ohio, that would have forced scandal-tainted utility FirstEnergy to turn over the results of internal investigations by Jones Day and Squire Patton Boggs to plaintiffs' lawyers suing the company for securities fraud. Jenna Greene looks at the fight, which prompted an amicus brief by 39 major law firms, in On the Case. Read more. 

Israel pounds Gaza City, 123 dead in last 24 hours ... Wildfires fanned by heatwave and strong winds rage across Europe ... US embeds trackers in AI chip shipments to catch diversions to China, sources say ... Ukraine's allies, after fears of sellout, signal hope for Trump-Putin talks ... How the unraveling of two Pentagon projects may result in a costly do-over ... Inside the mine that feeds the tech world, and funds Congo's rebels ... To stay on weight-loss drugs, US patients cut doses and maybe vacations ... And our photos of the day.

sara.merken@thomsonreuters.com

@saramerken

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