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Good morning. The Fox/Dominion Voting Systems drama is ratcheting up after a judge said Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan could be forced to testify at the trial later this month. Plus, legal experts assess the Trump indictment; Quinn Emanuel preps for a new fight over $185 million in legal fees; and a new study dives into the path toward becoming a SCOTUS clerk. It’s Thursday — the next best thing to Friday. Let’s go!
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A Delaware judge said Fox Corp executives Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan can be compelled to testify at trial this month over a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit that alleges the media company lied about voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, our colleague Tom Hals reports.
Dominion Voting Systems is hoping to prove Fox ruined its reputation by repeatedly airing false claims by Donald Trump and others that its machines were used to steal the election for Joe Biden. Court filings in Dominion’s lawsuit show Murdoch, the media company’s chairman, said certain hosts maybe “went too far” in their coverage of voter fraud claims. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said he would not block any effort by Dominion to compel Rupert and Lachlan to testify.
Fox in a statement accused Dominion of “trying to distract from its weak case” by “demanding witnesses who had nothing to do with the challenged broadcasts.” Fox News earlier said that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo and other top on-air personalities will be available to testify. Last week, Davis rejected much of Fox’s defense, and said Dominion’s case was strong enough to go to a jury. The trial is set to start on April 17 and is expected to last about four weeks.
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Lawyers and staff at big law firms are continuing to face layoffs as global deals take a dive and client demand falters. Many law firms raced to hire lawyers in 2021 and early 2022 to keep up with booming global deal-making demand. But the market has shifted amid rising interest rates, high inflation and recession fears. (Reuters)
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Quinn Emanuel will fight efforts from UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser to pry into the firm’s records as it prepares to renew its effort for $185 million in legal fees from a $3.7 billion settlement with the U.S. government. An appeals court struck the award, and now the fee dispute will move ahead in the Federal Claims court. Objectors to the fee have argued about $8 million is appropriate. (Reuters)
- Former Republican U.S. Senator Roy Blunt is joining Husch Blackwell Strategies’ D.C. office. Blunt will head a new leadership strategies advisory group at the lobbying shop. Blunt said in 2021 he was not seeking a new term in Congress, where he had served since 1996. (Reuters)
- Goodwin Procter said Anthony McCusker, most recently co-chair of the technology practice, will take over as the firm’s leader in October. McCusker, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will succeed New York-based Robert Insolia as chair. Insolia had served in the post since 2019 and will return to practicing full time. (Reuters)
- Butler Snow, founded in Ridgeland, Mississippi, hired 23 lawyers and nine staff members from recently merged law firm Maynard Nexsen and opened a new office in Huntsville, Alabama. (Reuters)
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That’s how many clerks for the U.S. Supreme Court’s current term came to their position with two or even three previous clerkships under their belts, according to an analysis by University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller. Only seven of them are coming in with the experience of a single federal court of appeals clerkship. By contrast, 2003’s cohort of 35 Supreme Court clerks included only two with multiple clerkships prior to arriving at the high court, Muller found.
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The D.C. Circuit ruled on Tuesday that trial judges cannot refuse to certify classes simply by invoking the words “fail-safe,” in a break with at least four other appellate circuits that have explicitly barred fail-safe classes whose definition depends on the merits of the case. But before plaintiffs lawyers get too excited about newly lenient standards for defining class membership, the D.C. Circuit warned that the federal rule for class action procedure, Rule 23, already includes requirements that would preclude certification of almost every proposed fail-safe class. Alison Frankel has the story on a circuit split over words, if not impact.
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“Rarely has this court seen a more cynical change in position.”
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—Attorneys for oil companies including ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy, led by Paul Weiss’ Kannon Shanmugam, who criticized the Biden administration’s “flip-flopping” when it told the U.S. Supreme Court that a lawsuit filed by several Colorado municipalities seeking climate change-related damages belongs in state court. In its brief, the government largely agreed with the 10th Circuit, which concluded none of the grounds cited by the companies to change the venue supported federal court jurisdiction. The oil companies said that the government’s opinion was an about-face from the position taken two years ago by the Trump administration, and suggested the new thinking reflected a “desire to signal virtue” to political allies — not a genuine disagreement on legal theory.
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The DOJ said it planned by today to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a 5th Circuit decision that struck down a rule banning “bump stocks,” devices that allow people to rapidly fire multiple rounds from semi-automatic guns. The Trump administration adopted the rule following a 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. In a 13-3 decision in January, the New Orleans-based appeals court said that despite “tremendous” public pressure to impose a ban, it was up to Congress rather than the president to take action. Three other federal appeals courts have rejected challenges to the ban.
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In the D.C. Circuit, the DOJ faces a deadline to respond to former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro’s bid to pause a court order requiring him to disclose some 200 presidential records. Navarro had sought to keep the documents shielded under the Presidential Records Act (PRA). U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in her ruling said Navarro “was subject to [the PRA’s] clear document retention, preservation, and provision requirements.” The lawsuit, filed last year in D.C. federal court, centers on Navarro’s use of a personal ProtonMail for some official White House business.
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Former Texas state solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell is scheduled to speak at a Federalist Society-organized event at Stanford Law on public interest careers. Mitchell was the architect of the 2021 “heartbeat” law in Texas that banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before women often realize they are pregnant. Mitchell, who clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, has consulted on proposed ordinances outside of Texas that could restrict abortion rights elsewhere.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The U.S. Sentencing Commission approved new guidelines for federal judges that will expand inmates’ ability to qualify for compassionate release from prison. The new guidelines expanded the criteria for what can qualify as “extraordinary and compelling reasons” to grant compassionate release, and it will give judges more discretion to determine when a sentence reduction is warranted. (Reuters)
- Former Vice President Mike Pence will not appeal a D.C. federal judge’s ruling that requires him to testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Pence can still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6. (Reuters)
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The U.S. government agreed to pay $144.5 million to resolve claims brought by 75 relatives of those killed and injured in a 2017 shooting at a baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The settlement comes after U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio ordered the government to pay the victims $230 million, finding the Air Force was partially responsible for the mass shooting after it failed to enter the shooter’s domestic violence conviction into a database used to background check firearms purchases. (Reuters)
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Chipotle Mexican Grill sued restaurant rival Sweetgreen in California federal court, claiming the salad chain’s new “Chipotle Chicken Burrito Bowl” violates its trademark rights. Chipotle, represented by Holland & Hart, said Sweetgreen’s “very similar and directly competitive” bowl is an attempt to capitalize on the Chipotle brand and likely to confuse consumers. (Reuters)
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Three former executives of medical device company Magellan Diagnostics concealed a malfunction in the company’s lead-testing devices that caused tests to underestimate the level of lead in people’s blood, the DOJ alleged in a new case filed in Boston federal court. Meridian BioScience, which purchased Magellan in 2016, said it has cooperated with the federal investigation that led to the charges. (Reuters)
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Katten Muchin brought on Dallas-based partner Eric Hail, who focuses on class action and consumer finance litigation. He was previously at Hunton Andrews Kurth. (Reuters)
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Blank Rome added Travis Jang-Busby as a labor and employment partner in the firm’s Orange County and Los Angeles offices. Jang-Busby was previously at Procopio, Hargreaves & Savitch. (Blank Rome)
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BakerHostetler brought on patent partner Erik Carlson in the firm’s Los Angeles office. He was previously at Wilson Sonsini. (BakerHostetler)
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Eckert Seamans added Elaine Ross as a Philadelphia-based partner focused on professional liability. She joins the firm from Rawle & Henderson. (Eckert Seamans)
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Quarles & Brady brought on Sarah Sise as a Chicago-based partner in the firm’s labor, employment and benefits practice. She was previously at Armstrong Teasdale. (Quarles)
>> More moves to share? Please drop us a note at LegalCareerTracker@thomsonreuters.com.
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