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Good morning. Morrison & Foerster has removed language from its website saying a fellowship was only open to certain minority applicants after a legal challenge by a conservative activist, who accused the firm of discrimination. The Biden White House just announced a new slate of court nominees; Davis Wright is settling investor claims against the firm; and Facebook’s $725 million privacy class action settlement goes before a U.S. judge today. It’s Thursday already, and we like that. Thanks for reading!
Legal business reporter Sara Merken, who has joined Diana Novak Jones and Mike Scarcella on The Daily Docket team, co-wrote today’s newsletter. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
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Morrison & Foerster has changed the criteria for a fellowship aimed at promoting diversity in the legal profession after Edward Blum — the conservative activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the consideration of race in college admissions — accused it of discriminating against white applicants. Blum and Morrison & Foerster did not respond to requests for comment.
The San Francisco-founded firm removed language specifying that the fellowship was only open to Black, Hispanic, Native American or members of the LGBT community, according to a flyer for the program on its website, Nate Raymond reports. Data for the PDF flyer show it was created on Aug. 30, a week after Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights filed lawsuits against the firm and Perkins Coie, alleging their diversity fellowships excluded certain people based on their race.
The paid fellowships were designed in part to help support the recruitment of people of color. Major law firms for years have struggled to increase diversity in their partnership ranks, Raymond writes. Before Blum’s group sued on Aug. 22, Morrison & Foerster’s site said the fellowship was intended for law students “who are members of historically underrepresented groups in the legal industry.” The flyer now instead says applicants just need to be able to “bring a diverse perspective to the firm as a result of your adaptability, cultural fluency, resilience, and life experiences.”
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- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee questioned a pair of U.S. Navy Reserve officers who were nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on two U.S. federal appeals courts. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joshua Kolar and Rich Federico, a federal public defender in Kansas and a military judge for the Navy Reserve, both appeared before the committee. (Reuters)
- In an ongoing push to diversify the federal judiciary, Biden announced four new nominees to serve as federal judges: Jamel Semper in New Jersey, Mustafa Kasubhai in Oregon, Shanlyn Park in Hawaii and Kirk Sherriff in California. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Navy and the DOJ unveiled a system of tiered payouts for people harmed by contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, saying they hope to speed the resolution of thousands of administrative claims and federal lawsuits that have been pending for over a year. (Reuters)
- Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell cleared the way for backers of competing ballot measures to collect enough signatures to let voters decide in November 2024 whether ride-share drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft should be treated as independent contractors or should be allowed to unionize. The certified petitions include proposals by industry-backed group Flexibility and Benefits for Massachusetts Drivers 2024 and a labor union, SEIU Local 32BJ. (Reuters)
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That’s how much Davis Wright Tremaine said it will pay to settle investor claims in Oregon federal court that the law firm aided in the fraudulent sale of real estate securities. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeff Armistead in Portland recommended approving the firm’s agreement to pay $4.5 million to a group of investors who bought securities from American Equities and American Eagle Mortgage Management. Representatives for Davis Wright Tremaine did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The law firm was American Equities’ longtime counsel.
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As U.S. retailers contemplate whether to keep their doors open in hard-hit city neighborhoods, a ruling last week by a New York federal judge gives them another reason for concern. Alison Frankel explains why a Manhattan judge’s decision to deny summary judgment to Starbucks in a case brought by a customer who was assaulted by a fellow patron at a Starbucks in Union Square in 2019 could be a real threat for other companies that fail to respond to low-level violence in their stores.
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“He acted as if he’s above the law,
but he’s not above the law.“
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—Federal prosecutor John Crabb, addressing jurors in D.C. federal court in the criminal prosecution of former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro on charges of contempt of Congress. Crabb urged jurors to convict Navarro for spurning a committee that subpoenaed him in its probe into the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. The committee sought to interview Navarro about a plan he and other Trump allies devised to delay Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. A lawyer for Navarro said his failure to respond to the subpoena was not “willful.”
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- Facebook’s plan to pay $725 million to resolve consumer privacy allegations goes before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco for review. Dozens of objections to the deal have been filed claiming the anticipated compensation for class members is too low and that the $181 million in legal fees for the plaintiffs’ lawyers is too high. Attorneys at Keller Rohrback and Bleichmar Fonti for the class have called the objections a “tiny percentage” of the estimated class of 250 million U.S. Facebook users. Facebook owner Meta did not admit wrongdoing in the deal, which the plaintiffs’ attorneys say is the largest in a U.S. data privacy class action. Attorneys from Gibson Dunn represent Facebook.
- Also in San Francisco federal court, U.S. District Judge James Donato will hold a status conference in antitrust litigation accusing Google of unlawfully overcharging consumers, companies and states for app purchases in its Play store. Google said on Tuesday it had reached a tentative settlement with state plaintiffs and a 21 million-member class of consumers. The settlement announcement came just days after Donato said he would decertify the class. The terms of the proposed deal were not immediately revealed. Google and its lawyers at Munger Tolles and Morgan Lewis have denied wrongdoing.
- A status conference is scheduled in Massachusetts’ lawsuit accusing Exxon Mobil of misleading consumers and investors about climate change and the dangers of using fossil fuels. Last year, the top state court in Massachusetts unanimously rejected Exxon’s bid to dismiss the suit. The court said Attorney General Maura Healey could pursue what Exxon called a politically motivated case that it claimed violated a state law protecting defendants from lawsuits designed to silence them.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- U.S. District Judge David Ezra ordered Texas to move floating buoys placed in the middle of the Rio Grande to block migrants from illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a tentative win for President Joe Biden, whose administration sued the state. (Reuters)
- Bristol Myers Squibb was sued in Manhattan federal court by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and another health benefit provider, accusing the pharmaceutical company of overcharging them by hundreds of millions of dollars for its blockbuster cancer drug Pomalyst. Plaintiffs firm Hagens Berman filed the complaint, saying the alleged overcharges cost providers hundreds of millions of dollars. (Reuters)
- Quinn Emanuel is leading a new lawsuit against Amazon that accuses the retail tech giant of unfair and deceptive practices in charging customers for returns that were made timely and in original condition. Amazon did not immediately comment on the complaint in Seattle federal court. (Reuters)
- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in Georgia said he was “very skeptical” that Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants could stand trial together as soon as next month in a sprawling criminal case accusing them of conspiring to reverse the former U.S. president’s 2020 election loss. McAfee gave prosecutors 10 days to explain how they “could possibly keep these defendants together” with a mountain of outstanding legal questions and a looming speedy trial deadline next month for defendants who have demanded one. (Reuters)
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- Morrison Foerster added Miami-based partner Linda Clark to its privacy and data security group. She arrives from RELX, where she was chief data security counsel. (Morrison Foerster)
- Norton Rose Fulbright added Helen Kim as a Los Angeles-based partner focused on securities and commercial litigation. Kim was previously at K&L Gates. (Norton Rose)
- Boies Schiller hired litigator Martin De Luca, who advises high-net-worth clients in disputes, as a partner in Miami and New York. He arrives from Kobre & Kim. (Boies Schiller)
- Pryor Cashman brought on New York-based partners Paul Van Horn and Erica Howard-Potter to its trust and estates practice and private client group. The lawyers arrive from Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis. (Pryor Cashman)
- Husch Blackwell hired Arthur Coren as a financial services and capital markets partner in Los Angeles. Cohen arrives from Duane Morris. (Husch Blackwell)
- Foley & Lardner added partner Jim Miles and senior counsel Charles Gass in Denver. Focused on healthcare and life sciences deals, the duo were previously at Greenberg Traurig. (Foley & Lardner)
- Lowenstein Sandler hired Jonathan Danziger as a New York-based partner in its investment management group. He most recently worked as general counsel and chief compliance officer of Glenview Capital Management. (Lowenstein)
- Management-side employment firm Littler added Craig Dickinson as a partner in the firm’s New Haven office. Dickinson rejoins the firm from FordHarrison. (Littler)
- Rimon added intellectual property litigator John Handy as a partner in Northern Virginia. Handy was previously founder and managing partner at IP Advanced LLC (Rimon)
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