 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=32842874&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=32842874&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=32842874&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=32842874&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=32842874&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=32842874&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. The FTC’s blockbuster suit against Amazon.com will pose a new test for the online giant’s legal team, which is already defending myriad private consumer suits over price policies and other practices. Plus, Donald Trump was found liable for fraud in a civil case in New York; former U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner lost his bid to dismiss a case over his short-lived center; and McKinsey will pay $230 million more to resolve opioid claims. Coming today, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is set for arraignment, and the Ohio Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the state’s abortion restrictions. Thanks for reading, and let’s dive in.
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
Amazon.com can turn to a deep bench of defense lawyers at major U.S. firms as it prepares to battle the FTC in court over its blockbuster suit accusing the retail giant of violating federal antitrust law. Our colleague Andrew Goudsward looks at Williams & Connolly and other firms that have defended the technology giant for years against allegations of antitrust and consumer protection violations.
The FTC’s 172-page complaint — jointly filed by 17 states — seeks an injunction targeting “structural relief” that could force Amazon to sell assets. FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters “at this stage, the focus is really on liability,” Diane Bartz writes. The lawsuit gave Khan a chance to fulfill her years-long push to challenge the power of Big Tech, David Shepardson writes. Khan wrote an influential academic article in 2017 arguing Amazon was a powerful monopoly that should be broken up.
Several antitrust scholars and practitioners told Mike Scarcella that the FTC faces a tough task. But, as Bona Law’s Luke Hasskamp told us, it’s clear from the suit that the FTC “believes it has uncovered significant evidence in Amazon’s internal documents.” Stanford’s Mark Lemley said the FTC has shown a willingness “to push the envelope” on antitrust law, but the novelty of the approach has run into some snags in court.
The FTC suggested its case should go before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, because he is already hearing several related private consumer antitrust suits against Amazon. Plaintiffs lawyer Steve Berman of Hagens Berman, who is suing Amazon in some of those cases, told Reuters: “The FTC joining our claims gives us some real oomph in court and we hope to work cooperatively with them.” Attorneys Susan Musser and Edward Takashima are lead counsel for the FTC.
|
|
|
|
- An ex-client of Proskauer Rose settled his $636 million legal malpractice lawsuit against the law firm, four months after a Massachusetts state judge said the case could go to trial. Dr. Robert Adelman and Proskauer Rose told Suffolk County Superior Court Justice Kenneth Salinger that they’re dismissing all of their claims with prejudice. (Reuters)
- Three lawyers at Southwest Airlines received a reprieve from a judge’s order requiring them to attend an “religious-liberty training” that had been scheduled for this week by the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. The 5th Circuit put on hold Dallas-based U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr’s sanctions order that he issued in a religious discrimination case. Starr’s order drew a judicial misconduct complaint from a reform advocacy group. (Reuters)
- Former U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner lost his bid to dismiss a lawsuit by an Indiana man who says he is owed $170,000 for working at a short-lived center for self-represented litigants founded by the prominent jurist. U.S. District Judge Theresa Springmann in Hamilton, Indiana, adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation that she reject Posner’s arguments that the man waited too long to sue him and could not hold him personally liable. (Reuters)
- Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers are fighting a legal fee bid from Walgreens’ attorneys at Ropes & Gray, calling the amount “grossly inflated.” Walgreens said it was seeking fees after winning an order to force the health plans to disclose certain financial records as part of a case in Chicago federal court. Crowell represents the insurers suing Walgreens. (Reuters)
- Ross Cellino, founder of now-defunct personal injury firm Cellino & Barnes, won a round in a fight with one of his former colleagues over fees. Chief U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire dismissed petitions from former Cellino & Barnes attorney Brian Goldstein. McCafferty said she did not have jurisdiction over the fee fight. (Reuters)
|
REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
|
That’s how much JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay in a settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands to resolve lawsuits over sex trafficking by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, largely resolving a scandal that has weighed on the largest U.S. bank for months. The bank also reached a settlement with former executive Jes Staley, but the terms were not disclosed. The bank did not admit liability in agreeing to settle. The settlements conclude the final pieces of litigation in a saga involving women who said Epstein sexually abused them. JPMorgan said its $75 million settlement includes $30 million to support charitable organizations and $25 million to strengthen law enforcement to combat human trafficking. The deal also includes $20 million for legal fees.
|
Hobby Lobby is going back home to Oklahoma in the hope of obtaining a quick default judgment against a once-renowned Oxford professor who sold allegedly stolen artifacts to Hobby Lobby president Steve Green as Green amassed a collection for his Museum of the Bible. Even though the company originally chose to file its complaint in Brooklyn federal court — and even though it does not claim that circumstances have changed since the 2021 filing — a Brooklyn judge granted Hobby Lobby’s motion to change venues. Alison Frankel explains why.
|
“The idea of a law school class where students could opt out of being called on!“
|
—Prominent conservative lawyer Adam Mortara wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that set off a debate about the benefits and drawbacks of “cold calls” in law school classes — where professors randomly call on students instead of waiting for volunteers to answer questions. Mortara took to social media to decry an opt-in approach used in a Yale Law School course. Proponents of the method say the prospect of being called upon at any moment incentivizes students to keep up on their reading and teaches them to think on their feet. But critics say cold calling is a relic of the past that creates unnecessary anxiety among students.
|
|
|
|
- U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is set to appear in Manhattan federal court to face charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, as calls for his resignation from his fellow Democrats escalated. Federal prosecutors last week accused Menendez and his wife of accepting gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for the senator’s influence to aid Egypt’s government and interfere with law enforcement probes of the businessmen. Menendez has ignored calls to resign from his seat, denying wrongdoing and vowing to stay in Congress.
- The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments over the state’s Republican-backed six-week ban, which has been blocked for more than a year. The court will consider whether Republican Attorney General Dave Yost can appeal a block on enforcement and if abortion clinics have standing to challenge the law. Planned Parenthood and the other providers contend the Ohio state constitution still protected the right to abortion. In blocking Ohio’s restrictions, Judge Christian Jenkins of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas in Cincinnati pointed to a 2011 state constitutional amendment originally intended by opponents of the federal Affordable Care Act to preserve “healthcare freedom.”
- SEC Chair Gary Gensler is scheduled to appear at an oversight hearing of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. Gensler’s agency wants to appeal a recent ruling that Ripple Labs did not violate federal securities laws in a major blow to its efforts to rein in the cryptocurrency sector. Gensler in July said agency staff were still working on a much-anticipated climate disclosures rule, and were now developing recommendations on regulating artificial intelligence, which he said posed risks to investors and financial stability.
- U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson in Youngstown, Ohio, federal court will hold a status conference in civil litigation over the February derailment of one of railway company Norfolk Southern’s freight trains in East Palestine, Ohio, that caused hazardous chemicals to spill and catch fire. Pearson in April chose Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy, Seth Katz of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh Jardine and Elizabeth Graham of Grant & Eisenhofer as interim class counsel. They will be joined by Michael Morgan of Morgan & Morgan as co-lead counsel.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Alabama officials to halt a lower court’s recent ruling that rejected a Republican-crafted electoral map for diminishing the clout of Black voters. The Supreme Court’s action likely clears the way for a new map to be drawn ahead of the 2024 congressional elections. (Reuters)
- Consulting firm McKinsey agreed to pay $230 million to resolve lawsuits by hundreds of U.S. local governments and school districts alleging it fueled an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drug companies. The settlements were disclosed in papers filed in federal court in San Francisco. The money is on top of $641.5 million that McKinsey already paid to resolve claims by state attorneys-general. (Reuters)
- Drugmaker Eli Lilly convinced U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs to overturn a $176.5 million jury verdict for Teva Pharmaceutical that found Lilly’s migraine drug Emgality infringed three patents related to Teva’s rival drug Ajovy. Burroughs said in a post-trial ruling that the Teva patents covering the use of antibodies to inhibit headache-causing peptides were invalid. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Interior Department will postpone a sale of Gulf of Mexico drilling rights originally scheduled for Sept. 27 following an appeals court ruling that allowed the Biden administration more time to expand the sale. The delay is the latest development in a legal fight over federal protection of the endangered Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale. (Reuters)
|
|
|
- Latham hired partners Brian Mangino and Amber Banks to its M&A and private equity practice in D.C., and New York, respectively. The pair arrives from Fried Frank. (Reuters)
- Polsinelli added private equity partner Monica Diddell in the firm’s Houston office from Willkie. (Polsinelli)
- Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner brought on Atlanta-based partner Matthew Royko, who focuses on real estate banking and finance matters. He most recently was at Dentons. (BCLP)
- Mayer Brown hired international arbitration partner David Weiss in Houston. He previously was at King & Spalding. (Mayer Brown)
- Mintz added debt financing partner Alex North in Toronto from Dentons. The firm also brought on IP litigator Vanessa Yen to its life sciences practice in New York, from King & Spalding.
- Nelson Mullins brought on litigator John Kalas as a D.C.-based partner from Hollingsworth. (Nelson Mullins)
- McKool Smith added Charles Fowler, who focuses on commercial and intellectual property litigation, as a partner in Austin. He most recently worked as a federal prosecutor in the Western District of Texas. (McKool Smith)
- Barnes & Thornburg brought on John Ginley and Marc Bulson as Atlanta-based real estate partners from Morris, Manning & Martin. (Barnes & Thornburg)
|
|
|
Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletter or other Reuters news content.
Get Reuters News App
Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re subscribed to, click here.
|
|
|
|
