 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
REUTERS/Charles Mostoller
|
Uncertainty surrounding college admissions hasn’t dissuaded minority law school applicants this year, our colleague Karen Sloan reports.
The number of Hispanic applicants is up 8.9% compared with the same time last year, according to data from the Law School Admission Council. Black applicants are up 6.7%, and Asian applicants are up 6.1%, the numbers show. White applicants, by contrast, posted the smallest year-over-year increase at 3.1%.
Some legal educators feared that the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision striking down the consideration of race in college admissions would dissuade diverse would-be lawyers from applying this year, but that hasn’t happened. This year’s increase in minority applicants continued the trend toward greater diversity in law school classes. Law schools enrolled their most diverse first-year classes on record each of the past three years.
The boost in minority applicants could be the result of “enhanced recruitment and outreach” by law schools to encourage prospective applicants of color, said Aaron Taylor, executive director of the AccessLex Center for Legal Education. “The real measure, however, will be the admission and enrollment numbers,” Taylor said.
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874763&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=35827352&lctg=64158878abe57c7b7c0f362f&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
- Delaware is poised to adopt changes to its widely used corporate law that critics argue could weaken boards of directors in favor of influential investors such as private equity firms. State lawmakers last week approved a bill providing corporations with the authority to enter into contracts with one or more shareholders that give the investors power over key board decisions. State judges and academics warned that legislators were rushing ahead without understanding the potential impact of the law, our colleague Tom Hals reports.
- Court-appointed bankruptcy trustee Christopher Murray signaled his intent to shut down Alex Jones’ Infowars company. Murray said the effort has been imperiled by some of the families’ recent efforts to collect on their debts from Jones, sued over his lies about the deadly 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting. Jones owes $1.5 billion to the relatives of 20 students and six staff members killed in the mass shooting.
- Litigation funders face new restrictions in Louisiana after its governor signed a bill to regulate the growing industry, joining a small list of other states that have considered or approved similar laws. Under the legislation, funding in civil actions by litigation funders from a “foreign country of concern” must be disclosed to the state attorney general. Funders are also prevented from influencing or directing the parties in cases in which they invest.
- Plaintiffs firm Motley Rice is appealing a fee award of $396 million for its work on litigation against the drug industry over the U.S. opioid crisis that resulted in $46 billion in nationwide settlements. The award represents 18.6% of a $2.13 billion pool of fees to be divided among dozens of law firms. Motley Rice’s appeal notice did not say how much it was asking for or the basis for its appeal.
- The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a challenge to the $667 million fee award in a Blue Cross Blue Shield antitrust settlement valued at $2.7 billion. The court without comment upheld the settlement and legal fees, clearing a path for implementation of the deal. Boies Schiller and Hausfeld were the court-appointed leaders for the plaintiffs.
|
That’s how many hours Google CEO Sundar Pichai must sit for a deposition in the digital advertising antitrust lawsuit Texas and more than a dozen states filed against the Alphabet unit. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan said in a ruling that the states had identified relevant issues they could ask Pichai and Google co-founder Sergey Brin about. Google had opposed any questioning of the two executives, contending that neither had unique personal knowledge of the issues in the case. Google has denied any wrongdoing in the lawsuit, and its bid to dismiss the case is pending. Jordan’s order capped Brin’s deposition at 2.5 hours.
|
An increasingly nasty tussle is underway for control of billions of dollars in claims arising from the 2022 implosion of crypto exchange FTX. The dispute is pitting lawyers who are pursuing claims within the confines of FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware against attorneys who are leading consolidated class actions on behalf of FTX’s customers in Miami federal court. Alison Frankel digs into the feud, writing that it boils down to a critical question of law: Which court – and which lawyers — should be in charge of claims by FTX’s defrauded customers?
|
“Presidents and their agencies … do violence to the Constitution when they attempt to unilaterally amend Acts of Congress to suit their policy choices.“
|
|
|
- FTX will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey in Delaware to allow customers of the bankrupt crypto exchange to vote on a liquidation plan that would pay them back in cash, over the objections of some customers who demand higher repayments, our colleague Dietrich Knauth reports. FTX has gathered over $12 billion to repay customers, and it says it will repay all customer claims in full, with about 9% in interest. Dorsey will be asked to approve FTX’s disclosure statement and open voting on the wind-down plan at a hearing.
- U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida will consider a request from Donald Trump to bar federal prosecutors from using evidence seized during a search of his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate and gathered from his former attorney in the criminal case accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents. Andrew Goudsward reports that the evidence is foundational to the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case, one of several pending criminal prosecutions of the former Republican U.S. president.
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson in San Francisco will hold a discovery hearing in the fight between Epic Games and Apple over whether the iPhone maker has violated the terms of a court order governing its lucrative App Store. Apple estimated it could take months to produce internal records that a judge has demanded to see. Epic wants U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to hold Apple in contempt. Apple has denied violating the injunction.
- In D.C., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hosting an event focused on what the business advocate called the “untenable trajectory” of the SEC’s regulatory agenda. Scheduled speakers include former SEC Chair Jay Clayton of Sullivan & Cromwell; Jones Day’s Brian Rabbitt; and Jennifer Han, chief counsel at Managed Funds Association. The Chamber is expected to release a new paper outlining its proposed reforms.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- Federal judges in Kansas and Missouri sided with several Republican-led states and partially blocked the Biden administration from moving forward with a key student debt relief initiative that would cost billions of dollars. U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas blocked the Education Department from proceeding with parts of a plan set to take effect July 1. U.S. District Judge John Ross in Missouri issued a preliminary injunction barring the department from granting further loan forgiveness under the administration’s plan.
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to plead guilty this week to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that could end his imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia, U.S. court filings showed. Prosecutors said Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents. His hearing is Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
- The Biden administration’s rule that would extend mandatory overtime pay to 4 million U.S. workers seems poised to be temporarily blocked, at least in Texas. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Sherman suggested during a hearing that U.S. labor regulators had flouted federal wage law by basing eligibility for overtime pay on salaried workers’ wages rather than their job duties.
- The U.S. Supreme Court said it will decide whether retired workers retain the ability to sue their former employers for disability discrimination after they leave their jobs, a question that has divided federal appeals courts. The justices granted a petition by a retired firefighter for an Orlando suburb who is appealing a lower court ruling that said she could not sue the city for allegedly curbing benefits for disabled retirees because it no longer employed her.
- The U.S. Supreme Court also agreed to take up a case involving bankruptcy courts’ authority to order the U.S. government to return allegedly fraudulent tax payments made more than two years before a company’s bankruptcy filing. The Biden DOJ had asked the justices to take the case and reverse a 10th Circuit decision allowing a bankruptcy trustee to claw back $145,000 in allegedly fraudulent tax payments made by a bankrupt Utah transportation company.
- A 9th Circuit panel rejected a proposed class action claiming Uber’s policy of terminating drivers with low passenger ratings is racially discriminatory. The appeals court said a driver who filed the 2020 lawsuit had not provided any evidence showing that Uber kicked non-white drivers off its app at a higher rate than white drivers with low ratings. The driver’s lawyer said she will likely ask the court to reconsider its decision.
- Record labels Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Records accused artificial intelligence companies Suno and Udio of committing mass copyright infringement by using the labels’ recordings to train music-generating AI systems. The companies copied music without permission, according to federal lawsuits filed against the companies.
|
|
|
- Gibson Dunn added New York-based partner Brian Scrivani, who focuses on private equity and mergers and acquisitions. Scrivani previously was at Paul Weiss. (Gibson Dunn)
- O’Melveny added three corporate finance partners in Los Angeles and Century City from Katten, including Glen Lim, Brian Stern and Daniel Tola. (O’Melveny)
- Akin brought on capital markets partner Bryan Flannery in Houston from Kirkland. (Akin)
- Troutman Pepper hired restructuring partner Alex Rovira in New York. Rovira most recently was at Sidley. (Troutman Pepper)
- Vedder Price picked up D.C.-based finance partner Tomasz Kulawik. He previously was at Shearman & Sterling. (Vedder Price)
- Snell & Wilmer brought on IP litigation partner Nathan Mammen in D.C. from Kirkland. (Snell & Wilmer)
|
|
|
|
