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Good morning. A U.S. appeals court revived Mexico’s lawsuit seeking to hold American gun makers responsible for alleged trafficking. Nate Raymond has details on the big new ruling. Plus, more bar associations are weighing ethics rules for the use of artificial intelligence; Binance and the SEC faced off over crypto oversight; and there’s a lot more wrangling over mass arbitration. On the docket, expelled U.S. lawmaker George Santos is due in court today. It’s Tuesday, 1/23! Let’s go.
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Mexico can pursue its $10 billion lawsuit in U.S. court that accuses American gun manufacturers of facilitating the trafficking of weapons to drug cartels across the U.S.-Mexico border, our colleague Nate Raymond reports.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit overturned a lower-court judge’s decision dismissing the case against companies including Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta and Colt’s Manufacturing. The panel said Mexico’s claims were exempt from a federal law — the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act — that provides the firearms industry broad protection from lawsuits over their products’ misuse.
>> Read the decision.
Mexico has argued that gun smuggling from the U.S. has been a key factor in its ranking third worldwide in the number of gun-related deaths. Law firms including Jones Day and Cozen have defended the gun makers as part of the litigation. Lawyers for Mexico did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mexico’s team has included veteran plaintiffs lawyer Steve Shadowen. In a statement, Shadowen said “it should now be clear that those who contribute to gun violence must face legal consequences, regardless of borders.”
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- The Florida Bar issued guidelines on how attorneys can use artificial intelligence without running afoul of ethics rules, following a similar move by the California Bar last year. But the two states may not be alone for long – bar associations in at least six other states are examining how lawyers can use the emerging technology responsibly.
- A California state bar judge recommended a six-month suspension for ex-Girardi Keese lawyer Keith Griffin after finding he misled clients about the status of settlement funds. But the court rejected the state bar’s request for disbarment. The judge in a related action placed temporary practice restrictions on David Lira, another former Girardi Keese lawyer. Lira has pleaded not guilty in a criminal prosecution in Chicago on charges that include wire fraud.
- U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth was assigned to preside over Exxon’s lawsuit seeking to prevent a climate proposal by activist investors from going to a vote during the company’s shareholder meeting in May. The case in Texas federal court was originally assigned to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who recused.
- Quinn Emanuel reached a settlement with the members of a wealthy Honduran family in a dispute over $1.4 million in legal fees in D.C. federal court. Neither side revealed the terms of the agreement.
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Those are the monetary damages that residential and commercial subscribers of the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” said they are entitled to, as a trial gets ready to kick off next month in Los Angeles federal court. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and team owners Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft were named as witnesses for the price-fixing trial. Attorneys from Susman Godfrey, Hausfeld and Langer Grogan are co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, and the league is represented by Wilkinson Stekloff and Covington. The NFL will argue Sunday Ticket was “reasonably distributed” as a high-quality, innovative product.
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Alison Frankel wrote last week about Verizon’s stealthy class action settlement, in the face of a mass arbitration campaign, to resolve allegations that it deceptively charged fees to wireless customers. Verizon chose to settle, Frankel wrote, rather than defend its controversial “bellwether” arbitration rules at the 9th Circuit and the New Jersey Supreme Court. Now a set of plaintiffs lawyers say they represent nearly 10,000 Verizon customers who still want to arbitrate. Frankel has the details on the latest mass arbitration mess.
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“The SEC to this day has been talking out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to crypto tokens.“
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- A federal appeals court in New York is set to take up a request to block the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from considering race when evaluating whom to admit to the elite military school. The case was lodged by Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies. The organization is appealing a judge’s ruling to not issue an injunction against West Point.
- The full 5th Circuit will hear arguments in a challenge to a Mississippi law that imposes a lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of certain crimes. A circuit panel in August ruled that the law was unconstitutional. Siding with a group of convicts who sued in 2018 to regain their right to vote, U.S. Circuit Judge James Dennis wrote for the 2-1 panel that the state’s policy violated the U.S. constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
- Former U.S. Representative George Santos, who was expelled from the U.S. House in December, is to appear in New York federal court for a status conference ahead of his corruption trial. Santos has pleaded not guilty to charges that include laundering campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses and charging donors’ credit cards without their consent. Santos is engaged in plea talks with U.S. prosecutors, a court filing showed in December.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, the judge overseeing writer E. Jean Carroll’s latest civil defamation case against Donald Trump, postponed the trial until Tuesday, after one juror reported feeling ill and one or more parents of Trump’s lead lawyer Alina Habba tested positive for COVID-19.
- The U.S. Supreme Court said it will hear Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip’s bid to challenge his conviction for a 1997 murder-for-hire based on his claim that prosecutors wrongly withheld certain evidence favorable to his defense. The justices took up Glossip’s appeal of a lower court’s refusal to grant him a hearing.
- The Red Cross defeated antitrust and defamation claims from biomedical company Verax in U.S. court but still must face its allegations that the humanitarian nonprofit interfered with contracts for testing services. The Red Cross has said the lawsuit in Boston federal court lacks merit.
- Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s affiliate Alameda Research dropped a lawsuit against Grayscale that had accused the digital asset manager of “enriching itself at shareholders’ expense,” according to a notice of voluntary dismissal.
- A Chinese music student went on trial on U.S. charges that he harassed an activist who posted fliers at the Berklee College of Music in Boston supporting democracy in China and threatened to report her activities to Chinese law enforcement.
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- Davis Polk hired civil litigation partner Rory Leraris in New York from Cravath, marking at least the fourth Cravath partner to follow the same path since 2021. Sanjay Murti, another former Cravath partner, joined Freshfields as a partner in New York. (Reuters)
- Willkie Farr hired partner Michael Li-Ming Wong in the firm’s San Francisco and Palo Alto offices as co-chair of the white-collar defense group. He was previously at Gibson Dunn. (Willkie)
- Arnold & Porter added environmental partner Stacey Sublett Halliday to the firm’s D.C. office. Halliday was previously at Beveridge & Diamond. (Arnold & Porter)
- Fish & Richardson hired former PTAB administrative patent judge and associate solicitor Kristi L.R. Sawert in D.C. for its post-grant practice. (Fish)
- Fried Frank picked up Cameron Mitcham as a finance partner in London. He arrives from Australian firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth. (Fried Frank)
- Foley & Lardner hired tax partner David Makso in New York. He arrives from Paul Hastings. (Foley & Lardner)
- FisherBroyles added litigation partner William Dolan in Chicago from Jones Day. (FisherBroyles)
- Finnegan brought on Dan Roland as a D.C.-based partner. He most recently was lead counsel in the national courts section of the DOJ’s civil division. (Finnegan)
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