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Good morning. Dechert is offering its associates starting next year the chance to delay their jobs by a year — the latest firm to pause associate starts as demand for legal work cools off. Plus, John Eastman is asking to pause an attorney ethics case against him just in case he’s one of the unnamed co-conspirators in Donald Trump’s latest indictment, and Cohen Milstein and Bernstein Litowitz are asking for $180 million in fees. Here’s Tuesday!
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Dechert is the latest firm to offer a delayed start date to associates – but it’s the first large law firm to announce a deferral plan affecting next year’s class, reports Sara Merken.
The firm is giving current summer associates who would join the firm as associates in the fall of 2024 the option to postpone their start date by a year. A Dechert spokesperson said there is room for all associates to start on time, but the option to delay their start until the fall of 2025 is open to up to 20 associates.
If the associates spend the time working for a pro bono or nonprofit through the firm, Dechert is offering a $75,000 stipend and benefits, the spokesperson said.
Several firms have delayed associates this year as demand for legal services has cooled.
Cooley in June said it would give some incoming corporate associates this year the option of delaying their start dates by a year in exchange for a $100,000 stipend, and last week Katten said it will defer the start date for a portion of its incoming class of associates to Feb. 1. Orrick, Fenwick & West and Perkins Coie have also postponed start dates for at least some incoming lawyers to January.
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- A group of FTX customers sued Fenwick & West for allegedly aiding fraud through its legal advice to the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. The proposed class action is the second to target Fenwick. A spokesperson for Fenwick did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reuters)
- The ABA’s policymaking body backed resolutions urging the federal judiciary to help stop “judge shopping” and pushing law firms to consider a wider range of factors — rather than mostly class rank and grades — in hiring. The judge shopping measure encourages the judiciary to eliminate case assignment mechanisms that allow litigants to effectively pick their judges. The hiring resolution suggested firms consider factors like legal research and writing skills; pro bono work and community service; participation in extracurricular activities; and background.
- John Eastman wants to halt attorney disciplinary proceedings in California that could result in the revocation of his law license for his work challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election that Joe Biden won. Eastman’s lawyers pointed to news reports identifying Eastman as one of six co-conspirators who helped Donald Trump try to overturn the election. Eastman did not admit or deny that he was one of the co-conspirators. (Reuters)
- Kenneth Polite, head of the DOJ’s criminal division, will join Sidley this fall as a white-collar partner. The former Morgan Lewis partner told Reuters in an interview about his departure that a flurry of major corporate settlements will soon hit court dockets. (Reuters)
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan received the necessary votes from retired partners to move forward with a complete buyout of the law firm’s pension. Stroock’s partnership last week authorized a complete buyout of its pension, seeking to remove a roadblock as it pursues a merger with another law firm. (Reuters)
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That’s how much plaintiffs’ firms Cohen Milstein and Bernstein Litowitz are seeking in legal fees for their work securing a $1 billion settlement against Wells Fargo. The firms spearheaded claims that Wells Fargo misled shareholders about its progress in recovering from a series of scandals over its treatment of customers. The San Francisco-based bank denied wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan granted preliminary approval to the all-cash settlement in May, and a fairness hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8. The firms said they’ve dedicated more than 106,000 hours to the litigation.
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New research by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe offers sometimes grim insights into the mindset of potential jurors across the country, whose post-pandemic views of lawyers, corporate defendants and our justice system are increasingly negative. Firm leaders gave columnist Jenna Greene a sneak peek at the findings, which are based on a lengthy survey of more than 1,000 people, who were selected to reflect the composition of jury pools in jurisdictions where verdicts of $10 million-plus have been most common over the past decade. One thing is clear: corporate defense lawyers have their work cut out for them.
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“What you’re going to see is a very strong pipeline of investigations that will result in some resolutions in the very-near future.“
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- The U.S. Supreme Court’s temporary stay is set to expire at 5 p.m. ET in a case over privately made firearms known as “ghost guns” that are difficult for law enforcement to trace. Justice Samuel Alito temporarily blocked a lower court’s decision to strike down a regulation aimed at reining in such guns. The action by Alito effectively froze the litigation as the court weighs a request from the Biden administration to reinstate the rule pending an appeal. The administration asked the justices to halt a Texas-based federal judge’s nationwide ruling that invalidated a DOJ restriction on the sale of ghost gun kits while it appeals to the 5th Circuit.
- Ohio voters will decide whether to raise the threshold for ballot initiatives in a special election that has implications for the future of abortion rights in the state. The referendum asks voters to require 60% approval — instead of 50% — for future referendums, including a November ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in state law. Activists on both sides of the abortion debate have campaigned ahead of today’s special election, which was approved by Republican lawmakers over the objections of Democrats.
- Chief Judge David Godbey in Dallas federal court will take up the agreements by three banks to pay $1.35 billion to resolve litigation by former Allen Stanford investors who accused them of contributing to the imprisoned financier’s massive Ponzi scheme. Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank will pay $1.2 billion, HSBC will pay $40 million and Independent Bank Group, formerly Bank of Houston, will pay $100 million. Two other defendants, France’s Societe Generale and Mississippi-based Trustmark, settled for a respective $157 million and $100 million earlier this year. Stanford is serving a 110-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2012 for defrauding about 18,000 investors.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Nektar Therapeutics sued Eli Lilly in California federal court, accusing the U.S. drugmaker of undermining the prospects for a drug the companies were developing together for various autoimmune diseases. The two companies in 2017 entered into a partnership to develop and potentially commercialize the drug. (Reuters)
- The 5th Circuit blocked the Biden administration from proceeding with another piece of its student debt relief agenda, an effort to make it easier for people who are defrauded by their schools to have their loans forgiven. At the request of a group representing for-profit colleges, the appellate court prevented the rule from taking effect pending the outcome of an appeal to be heard in November. (Reuters)
- Sports merchandise retailer Fanatics is suing rival platform Panini for alleged unfair competition, escalating a feud in U.S. courts between the companies. Panini, represented by Boies Schiller, last week accused Fanatics of violating federal antitrust law. Quinn Emanuel is on the Fanatics team in its lawsuit in Manhattan federal court. (Reuters)
- A group of California landowners asked a federal judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to inflate the price of their land by hundreds of millions of dollars. Several defendants have agreed to settle claims in recent weeks with Skadden client Flannery Associates, which filed the case in May in Sacramento. (Reuters)
- The FTC agreed to dismiss a federal court case against Intercontinental Exchange’s $11.7 billion proposed acquisition of mortgage data vendor Black Knight, easing the regulatory path to close the deal. New York Stock Exchange-owner Intercontinental Exchange and Black Knight said the joint agreement will allow them to continue working toward a final settlement agreement with the FTC. (Reuters)
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- Morgan Lewis added a five-partner transactional restructuring and bankruptcy litigation team from Stroock, which has seen a wave of departures as it seeks to complete a merger. The group is led by Richard Stern and includes Michael Luskin, Stephan Hornung, Matthew O’Donnell and Alex Talesnick. (Reuters)
- Akin hired hedge fund lawyer Max Karpel as a New York-based partner. Karpel was most recently chair of the emerging managers practice at Lowenstein Sandler. (Reuters)
- Paul Weiss added D.C.-based antitrust partner Scott Sher. He previously led the antitrust practice at Wilson Sonsini. (Reuters)
- Wilson Elser hired Ellen Greiper, Megan Boyar and Nolan Comfort as New York-based partners focused on construction and transportation. A fourth partner, Thomas Vu, also in New York, will focus on labor and employment. They were all previously at Lewis Brisbois. (Wilson Elser)
- Squire Patton Boggs hired Houston-based litigation partner Gary Hebert, who focuses on products liability defense. He was previously at McGlinchey Stafford. (Squire Patton Boggs)
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings brought on Brad Neighbors as a banking and financial services partner in the firm’s Birmingham office. He was previously at Balch & Bingham. (Bradley)
- Labor and employment firm Littler Mendelson added Robert Lockwood as a partner based out of the San Francisco office. Lockwood was previously at O’Hagan Meyer. (Littler)
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