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Good morning. July bar exam pass rates so far are mostly exceeding or matching last year’s results, according to the first wave of states to unveil their numbers. Reporter Karen Sloan has the story. Plus, David Boies is now among the $2,000-plus hourly fee ranks; Covington and the SEC reached a deal in the regulator’s demand for client info; and a disciplinary case was filed against Indiana AG Todd Rokita over his remarks about an abortion doctor. It’s Tuesday. Let’s do this.
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July bar exam results from states across the country are trending upwards after the last two July sittings saw pass rates drop, reports Karen Sloan.
The Board of Bar Examiners for Florida, the biggest state to announce its July pass rate so far, said the state’s exam pass rate increased 8 percentage points this year over last year. Among the 14 jurisdictions that have unveiled their results, all but three have seen increases or matched their overall pass rates from the previous July. That’s a positive sign, given that many states saw pass rate declines last July.
Florida saw its pass rate decline with last July’s results, as did California and Texas. The results from this past February were also underwhelming, as overall pass rates dropped in 22 states, half of which saw double-digit declines.
Read which states had pass rate increases in July’s results – and which didn’t.
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- Covington and the SEC resolved a lawsuit challenging the regulator’s demand for the names of clients caught up in a data breach, but one of the firm’s clients is planning to continue the legal battle on its own. Covington agreed to turn over to the SEC the names of six of the seven clients that a federal judge required the firm to identify for a securities investigation related to a 2020 cyberattack on the firm. (Reuters)
- The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission accused the state’s Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita of violating professional conduct rules while making statements on Fox News about a doctor in the state who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim. In a written response, Rokita said he was not required to maintain confidentiality in the doctor’s case. (Reuters)
- A budget shortfall facing the U.S. federal public defender system had its origins in an accounting decision made by the federal judiciary to protect the courts’ own funding, the judiciary’s research arm said in a new report. The Federal Judicial Center included that finding in a report examining how a panel’s prior recommendations on ways to improve the public defense of indigent defendants in the federal courts in many cases had not been implemented. (Reuters)
- Robert Wisnicki, a disbarred Forest Hills, New York, attorney, pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from his roles in an $19 million Ponzi scheme and a $30 million auto insurance fraud, prosecutors said. (Reuters)
- Cooley will soon have a new CEO as partner Rachel Proffitt takes the helm on Jan. 1 from longtime leader Joe Conroy, who has been chief executive of the firm since 2008. Conroy will remain chairman. (Reuters)
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Manhattan federal prosecutors have asked the Florida judge overseeing civil litigation stemming from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX to pause the sprawling case until the conclusion of their criminal trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. That trial is slated to begin on Oct. 3 and to last about six weeks, so prosecutors said there won’t be a long delay in the civil litigation. There’s just one snag: Lead counsel in the civil case apparently don’t want to wait even that long for discovery. Alison Frankel has the story.
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“Something has changed in our culture and in our institutions to create a pervasive sense that discussions are ringed by taboos.”
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- A 2nd Circuit panel will weigh Sam Bankman-Fried’s bid to get out of jail ahead of his Oct. 3 fraud trial. Bankman-Fried, charged following the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX, was jailed in August after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled he likely tampered with witnesses at least twice. Bankman-Fried denied those claims and he has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys, including Mark Cohen of Cohen & Gresser, have said the conditions of his confinement at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center have made it impossible for him to help build his defense. Kaplan rejected those arguments. Circuit Judges John Walker Jr, William Nardini and Denny Chin will hear arguments.
- AmerisourceBergen’s lawyers at Dechert and Morgan Lewis will ask U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert at a hearing to dismiss the U.S. civil lawsuit accusing the drug distributor of helping to fuel the nation’s opioid epidemic by failing to report hundreds of thousands of suspicious orders of prescription painkillers. In a complaint filed in Philadelphia federal court, the DOJ said AmerisourceBergen and two units violated their legal obligation to address suspicious customer orders, or alert the DEA to red flags of suspicious behavior. The lawsuit seeks penalties that could reach billions of dollars. AmerisourceBergen’s defense lawyers call the case “a glaring — and dangerous — example of governmental overreach.”
- In D.C., the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing will examine U.S. bankruptcy practices that some critics argue can shield corporations from accountability. Sidley’s restructuring group leader Stephen Hessler is among the panelists. Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide head of litigation Erik Haas is also scheduled to testify. J&J’s efforts to resolve talc lawsuits through U.S. bankruptcy court proceedings has faced some criticism and hurdles. The company has said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.
- The conservative Federalist Society will host a discussion in D.C. on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within U.S. agencies. Speakers include Todd Clark, dean of Delaware Law School, and Veronica Venture, deputy officer for civil rights and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. Many legal experts expect an uptick in legal challenges to corporate diversity programs in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling barring race-conscious admissions policies in higher education. Today’s discussion is focused on whether the U.S. should focus on DEI initiatives that the Federalist Society said “cost time, money, and resources.”
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- BNSF Railway will settle a closely-watched privacy class action rather than head to trial for a second time, following a U.S. judge’s decision in June that gave the company a new chance to fight alleged damages from truck drivers who claimed it unlawfully collected their fingerprints. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago vacated an upcoming trial and set a schedule for his preliminary consideration. The terms were not immediately disclosed. (Reuters)
- Starbucks was ordered by a federal judge to face a lawsuit claiming that several of its Refresher fruit beverages lacked a key ingredient: fruit. U.S. District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan rejected a request from Starbucks and its attorneys from Sheppard Mullin to dismiss most of the claims in the proposed class action, saying “a significant portion of reasonable consumers” would expect their drinks to contain fruit mentioned in their names. (Reuters)
- A company owned by a white woman has moved to block the U.S. Small Business Administration from extending existing contracts with “socially disadvantaged” business owners, after a judge said the program could not consider applicants’ race. The July ruling from U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker was one of the first to apply a new U.S. Supreme Court holding striking down race-based college admissions policies. (Reuters)
- A would-be class of Papa John’s workers failed to win preliminary approval for their $5 million antitrust settlement alleging the national pizza chain unlawfully tried to curb employee mobility. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton in Kentucky raised questions about the adequacy of the deal, and told the lawyers in the case to refile a new proposal within 30 days for his review. (Reuters)
- Sonos convinced a U.S. International Trade Commission judge not to block imports of its speakers with voice-control capabilities, as it wages an ongoing patent battle with Google over wireless-speaker technology. The two companies have filed patent lawsuits against each other in several jurisdictions after previously collaborating to integrate Google’s streaming music service into Sonos products. (Reuters)
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Knowing the technical and procedural IRS audit rules concerning the reported value of artwork donated to charities can help collectors maximize their charitable deduction, write Eric Mann and Amanda Andrews of Neal Gerber Eisenberg. What is a qualified appraisal, and who is a qualified appraiser? These are some of the key questions and issues facing collectors.
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