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REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
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Two private law firms that helped Texas ink a $1.4 billion biometric privacy settlement with Facebook parent Meta this week could wind up with more than $300 million in combined legal fees for their work on the case, according to contracts they signed with the state, David Thomas and Mike Scarcella report in the latest edition of our weekly report Legal Fee Tracker.
The Texas attorney general’s office hired Chicago-founded Keller Postman and Dallas-founded McKool Smith to sue Meta in 2022, agreeing to two paths for their eventual payment. One option grants each firm 11% of the recovery, which works out to about $154 million apiece from the settlement. The other provides for them to get paid by the hour, with individual lawyer rates ranging up to $945 per hour, and with the total multiplied by four. It has become relatively common for attorneys general to contract with private law firms.
Keller Postman’s Zina Bash, who was lead counsel in the Meta case, said her team “spent countless hours and advanced millions of dollars to help bring this momentous settlement to fruition.” The accord was the largest-ever by any single state, according to the plaintiffs. Meta’s defense team included Gibson Dunn’s Trey Cox and Allyson Ho. The company did not admit any wrongdoing. Texas is separately waging a similar lawsuit against Google, and the state in that case teamed up with Norton Rose Fulbright. Google has denied wrongdoing.
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- Duane Morris was accused in a lawsuit of misclassifying partners so that they are forced to pay part of the law firm’s taxes and expenses while denying them a share of firm profits. The Philadelphia-founded law firm also allegedly pays women and minorities less than their white male counterparts, plaintiff Meagan Garland alleged in her lawsuit. The law firm said it disagreed with the allegations and would defend itself “vigorously.”
- Attorney Jeffrey Clark, a senior Trump-era DOJ official, should have his law license suspended for two years for acting dishonestly in his efforts to help the former president overturn his 2020 election defeat, a Washington legal panel recommended in a report. Clark has denied violating attorney ethics rules.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nominations of Judge Julia Lipez in Maine to serve on the Boston-based 1st Circuit and labor lawyer Karla Campbell in Nashville for a seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit. The panel also favorably approved five U.S. district nominees.
- U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia in New Mexico, a Biden-era appointee, was selected to oversee a coordinated legal proceeding accusing eight major shale oil producers of conspiring to curb output, causing consumers and others to pay more for petroleum-related products such as gas, heating oil and marine fuel. The companies wanted the panel to centralize cases in Texas.
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That’s how many billable hour-credits that law firms should issue to lawyers to incentivize them to log off email and step away from all work duties for a consecutive week each year, according to a resolution submitted by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Legal employers should encourage their employees to fully unplug from work for a minimum of one week a year to reduce burnout and improve well-being, our colleague Karen Sloan reports. The resolution is scheduled to be considered next week by the ABA’s policymaking policy body.
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“The court does not see how the public is served by a program with racially discriminatory practices.“
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—U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, who ruled that a nonprofit grant program for small businesses in the state is discriminatory because it favors businesses owned by minorities, women and LGBTQ people. In the latest legal victory for affirmative action critic Edward Blum, O’Connor’s decision said Founders First Community Development’s program violates a federal law banning race discrimination in contracts.
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- A deadline is set for today in the D.C. Circuit for any friends of the court to file briefs backing the DOJ’s defense of an April law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban. The DOJ argued in a filing last month that TikTok under Chinese ownership poses a serious national security threat because of its access to vast personal data of Americans, asserting China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume via TikTok. The appeals court in September will hear a challenge from TikTok and others to the ban.
- Tesla will argue to a Delaware judge that a recent shareholder vote restores Elon Musk’s $56 billion payday and reverses the judge’s ruling that rescinded the compensation. The judge invalidated the pay package in January, describing it as “unfathomable.”
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Utah’s highest court refused to allow the enforcement of a near-total abortion ban while a lower court judge considers a challenge to the law by Planned Parenthood. The Utah Supreme Court did not decide the merits of Planned Parenthood’s challenge, but the majority said the lawsuit “raises serious issues concerning (the law’s) constitutionality.”
- The parents of a motorcyclist who was killed in a 2022 crash involving a Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot in Utah sued the electric carmaker and the vehicle’s driver, claiming that the driver assistant software and other safety features are “defective and inadequate.” Landon Embry, 34, died after a Tesla struck the back of his Harley Davidson motorcycle, throwing him from the bike. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- A trade group representing U.S. airlines sued a New York state civil rights agency, accusing it of improperly trying to use state anti-discrimination laws to eliminate airlines’ limits on paid sick leave for employees. The lawsuit is at least the fourth by Airlines for America to claim that states are improperly requiring airlines to provide paid leave for routine doctor’s appointments and “transitory” medical conditions.
- Meat company Boar’s Head was hit with a proposed consumer class action in New York federal court amid an expanded recall of more than seven million pounds of deli meats and other products over concerns they are contaminated with potentially deadly listeria bacteria. The lawsuit appears to be the first proposed class action filed in the wake of the recalls, according to court records.
- The maker of the popular Stanley cups asked a Seattle federal judge to throw out a proposed nationwide class action claiming the company failed to warn customers that the products were made with lead, saying the lawsuits don’t allege any harm from the cups.
- A Missouri federal judge refused to block the FTC from pursuing an enforcement action against tax industry giant H&R Block for allegedly misleading consumers about the scope of its free tax-filing services. Chief U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips said H&R Block was not likely to win its lawsuit, which claimed the FTC’s internal proceeding violates the U.S. Constitution.
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- Skadden hired M&A partner Elizabeth Gonzalez-Sussman in New York as head of the law firm’s shareholder engagement and activism practice. She was previously at Olshan Frome Wolosky. (Reuters)
- Partner Stacie Hartman has joined Morgan Lewis from Steptoe. Hartman, based in Chicago, will take a leadership position in the firm’s multidisciplinary derivatives and commodities practice. (Morgan Lewis)
- K&L Gates added Kelly Terribile as a Wilmington-based corporate partner from Greenberg Traurig. (K&L Gates)
- Morrison Foerster picked up IP partners Bindu Donovan, Todd Krause and Alyssa Monsen in New York. They were previously at Desmarais. (Morrison Foerster)
- Hogan Lovells hired health and life sciences partners Brian Carey and Erik Schulwolf in Boston. The attorneys were previously at Foley Hoag. (Hogan Lovells)
- Withers added corporate partner Rosa Ertze in New York. Ertze was previously at Duane Morris. (Withers)
- Insurance partners Stephen Cunningham, Robert Grande and Howard Kronberg joined Kaufman Dolowich from Keidel & Cunningham. They are based in Westchester County, New York. (Kaufman Dolowich)
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Cybersecurity is at the top of everyone’s mind and budget, but the legal and regulatory compliance landscape is often unclear. The SEC’s Cybersecurity Guidelines, which took effect in September 2023, are a beneficial resource, even though they are not always directly applicable to private companies, write Greg Ewing and Sara Jodka of Dickinson Wright. The authors explain what private companies can take from the SEC’s guidelines.
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