 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33872240&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33872240&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33872240&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33872240&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33872240&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33872240&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. Last year was another strong one for law firm mergers – and several already are on deck for 2024. Plus, former federal bankruptcy judge David Jones is urging a Texas court to toss the lawsuit that revealed his romantic relationship with a bankruptcy lawyer, FisherBroyles is set to lose roughly 150 partners to a new firm, and the 5th Circuit said the government can’t enforce a federal law in Texas that requires emergency room doctors to perform abortions if needed to stabilize their patients. Let’s get started.
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
Last year’s law firm merger total saw a slight increase over 2022, beating what had been the busiest year for mergers since the pandemic, David Thomas reports.
Some 48 deals were completed in 2023 — two more than 2022, according to new data from legal consultancy Fairfax Associates. Among the largest deals were Holland & Knight’s tie-up with Nashville-based Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis and Dentons’ combination with Indian law firm Link Legal.
Several major deals are already expected to close in 2024. The merger of London’s Allen & Overy with New York-founded Shearman & Sterling is pending, and at least eight other mergers between U.S. law firms are poised to be completed this quarter, Fairfax said.
|
|
|
- Disbarred California plaintiffs lawyer Tom Girardi is competent to stand trial on criminal charges for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from his clients, a U.S. judge ruled in a sealed order. Girardi is facing five counts of wire fraud in Los Angeles and more criminal charges in Chicago.
- Former federal bankruptcy judge David Jones asked a Texas court to dismiss a lawsuit that revealed his romantic relationship with a bankruptcy attorney and caused him to resign. Jones, who had been the busiest bankruptcy judge in the U.S., resigned in November after publicly acknowledging he had been living for years with his longtime romantic partner Elizabeth Freeman, who was a bankruptcy partner at the law firm Jackson Walker until December 2022.
- An ABA proposal to strengthen job protections for untenured law faculty has garnered widespread support, with proponents saying it will help eliminate longstanding hierarchies between different types of professors. The change would require law schools to hire full-time legal writing instructors and other untenured full-time faculty on five-year “presumptively renewable long-term contracts.”
- Former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen lost his effort to revive a lawsuit accusing former Trump-era DOJ officials of retaliating against him over his tell-all memoir. A 2nd Circuit panel upheld the dismissal of Cohen’s suit, which alleged he was returned to prison briefly amid a dispute over whether he could speak with the media about his book while under home confinement.
|
Fox News’ entire business model will be under scrutiny in a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit against Fox board members, thanks to a decision last week appointing New York and Oregon public pension funds to lead the case. Alison Frankel explains why the choice of the U.S. funds and their lawyers from Friedlander & Gorris, Cohen Milstein and Lieff Cabraser will test the theory that Fox directors countenanced the risk of defamation as a matter of corporate strategy.
|
“We agree with the district court that EMTALA does not provide an unqualified right for the pregnant mother to abort her child.“
|
—5th Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt, who wrote for a panel majority that held the government cannot enforce the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in Texas to require emergency room doctors to perform abortions if necessary to stabilize patients. The court sided with Texas in a lawsuit accusing the administration of overstepping its authority, in the latest ruling in a series of cases testing the limits of emergency abortion laws and policies.
|
|
|
|
- New York attorney David Schwartz faces a deadline to respond to filings from former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who said in newly unsealed papers that he mistakenly gave his attorney fake case citations generated by an artificial intelligence program that made their way into a court filing. Schwartz included the case citations in a motion seeking an early end to Cohen’s supervised release following his imprisonment for campaign finance violations.
- Opening statements are set to be delivered in the prosecution of Javier Aguilar, a former employee of European oil trading firm Vitol, on charges of scheming to bribe officials in Ecuador. Opening statements in Brooklyn federal court are expected to begin the following day. Aguilar, represented by lawyers from Quinn Emanuel, has pleaded not guilty.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- The NFL and sports merchandise giant Fanatics were hit with a new consumer antitrust lawsuit from plaintiffs firm Burns Charest accusing them of conspiring to overcharge for jerseys, shirts and other licensed products. Fanatics called the case a “copy-and-paste job” from a prior complaint from the firm that was pushed into arbitration.
- Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unveiled criminal charges against Nigerian fintech businessman Odogwu Banye Mmobuosi, who recently bid unsuccessfully for an English Premier League soccer club. The indictment said Mmobuosi, former co-chief executive officer of Tingo Group, lied to investors about the finances of his companies. A lawyer for Mmobuosi could not immediately be identified.
- The Franciscan Friars of California, a Roman Catholic organization devoted to serving the poor, has filed for bankruptcy after facing about 100 lawsuits related to decades-old sex abuse claims. The group said it was driven to bankruptcy by a change in California state laws that allowed sex abuse survivors to file complaints that were otherwise time-barred or expired under the state’s statute of limitations.
- A 2nd Circuit panel said a fund created by the state of New York to compensate black car drivers who are injured on the job did not break the law by imposing a fee on noncash tips given to drivers. The appeal court said the state law at issue clearly allowed the surcharge and that a federal judge was wrong to rule otherwise.
- Squire Patton Boggs is representing Ecuador in a Texas federal court lawsuit that said Australian engineering firm Worley is on the hook to pay more than $6 million in fees to the South American nation. Worley in arbitration lost a bid for nearly $200 million in damages against Ecuador, and the order said the company must pay Ecuador’s fees. Worley’s legal team has included attorneys from White & Case.
|
|
|
- Willkie Farr brought on Sarah McLean as a Houston-based partner in the corporate and financial services group. She was previously joint head of the U.S. energy industry team at Shearman & Sterling. (Reuters)
- Wiggin and Dana hired Debbie Cardinali in the firm’s New Haven office as a healthcare partner. She was previously a senior in-house counsel at Hartford Healthcare. (Wiggin)
- Mayer Brown hired New York partner Robert Pohlus in the firm’s corporate and securities practice. He was previously at Proskauer. (Mayer Brown)
- Cozen O’Connor brought on construction-law partner Richard Kalson in the firm’s New York office from Benesch Law. (Cozen O’Connor)
- Polsinelli added Denver-based real estate partner Cassandra Foster. She was previously vice president for transactions at healthcare real estate and development firm Caddis. (Polsinelli)
|
|
|
|
