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New Jersey is the latest state to limit its mental health and substance abuse disclosure requirement for those applying to join the bar as attorneys, amid pressure from mental health advocates who say the disclosures discourage law students from seeking help, reports Karen Sloan.
Beginning Oct. 1, the Supreme Court of New Jersey will revise a question on the state’s mandatory “character and fitness” questionnaire about mental health and substance abuse diagnoses and treatment to ask applicants whether they currently have a substance abuse or mental health issue that affects their ability to practice law in a competent and ethical manner.
Bar officials across the country have been taking a closer look at lawyer mental health. A New Jersey State Bar Association survey found earlier this year that more than two-thirds of the attorneys who responded reported feeling anxious within the past two weeks, while 56% reported a high prevalence of alcohol misuse.
New York, Ohio and Virginia are among the states that recently eliminated mental health questions from their character and fitness reviews.
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- Months after law firms Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and Nixon Peabody ended discussions for a possible merger, Stroock and another New York-based firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said that they are engaged in talks of their own. (Reuters)
- A 5th Circuit panel gave a Louisiana industrial port a chance to overturn a $124.5 million judgment due to questions about whether a magistrate judge had not disclosed her friendship with the lead lawyer for the commercial tenant suing the port. The court cited “serious doubts” about whether the Port of Lake Charles, Louisiana, would have agreed to allow U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Kay to hear the case had it known of her friendship. (Reuters)
- Attorneys at law firm Steptoe & Johnson defended their work for the indicted founder of the sexuality-focused wellness company OneTaste, as they asked a judge to reject U.S. prosecutors’ concerns about a potential conflict of interest. Defense lawyers for OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone called those concerns speculative and without merit. Daedone has pleaded not guilty to her role in an alleged forced-labor conspiracy. OneTaste is not a defendant. (Reuters)
- Two Florida hedge funds that finance litigation lost their bid to intervene in a disciplinary proceeding against a law firm they invested in after a judge barred the firm from collecting fees in hundreds of cases over hurricane damage. The Florida funds — Equal Access Justice Fund and EAJF ESQ Fund — had argued that the judge’s August order had improperly sidelined their interest in the law firm’s fees. (Reuters)
- The State Bar of California is contemplating a new admissions pathway that would allow law graduates to become licensed without taking the bar exam. The graduates would amass a portfolio of work over a period of months, which would be evaluated in place of a bar exam. (Reuters)
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If you wanted to get metaphysical, you could say that the defamation lawsuit in which former New York sex crimes prosecutor and best-selling novelist Linda Fairstein is challenging her portrayal in a 2019 Netflix drama about the Central Park Five case raises fundamental questions about the meaning of truth. Fairstein contends that truth is a matter of facts and asserts that Netflix and the creators of “When They See Us” defamed her by depicting her doing and saying things that never happened. The defendants spoke about “the essence of truth,” insisting that their good-faith perceptions of truth must come into consideration. Alison Frankel explains why a Manhattan federal judge sided with Fairstein.
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“My concern is not only for the personal attacks on me, but for the nation’s judiciary — already under stress.“
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—Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, 96, telling Reuters that her court’s handling of an investigation into her mental fitness could help undermine trust in America’s courts. A council of Newman’s fellow judges on Wednesday barred her from hearing new cases for at least one year, or until she sits for court-ordered medical examinations, after finding she had failed to cooperate with a three-judge committee’s investigation into her competency. Newman has vowed to appeal the suspension order.
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What to catch up on this weekend
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- Donald Trump’s lawyers will try to persuade a New York judge to throw out, just 10 days before a scheduled trial, most or all of state Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit accusing the former U.S. president of “staggering” fraud. Lawyers for James, in contrast, will ask Justice Arthur Engoron to find Trump and other defendants, including his adult sons and his Trump Organization family business, liable for fraud even before a jury starts hearing evidence. Trump has called the lawsuit a “witch hunt.”
- An 11th Circuit appeals court panel will take up what plaintiffs’ lawyers called a historic $2.7 billion antitrust settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield. The court will weigh challenges to the deal, which includes an award of $667 million in legal fees and expenses to Boies Schiller, Hausfeld and other firms. The Atlanta-based appeals court agreed last year to fast-track resolving the objectors’ appeals. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have said the settlement was “one of the largest monetary recoveries ever achieved in a private antitrust class action.”
- Justice Elena Kagan will speak at the 2023-24 Notre Dame Forum, participating in a conversation with G. Marcus Cole, dean of Notre Dame Law School. The theme of this year’s forum, held annually since 2005, is “The Future of Democracy.” Kagan and the other justices are winding down their summer break, preparing for the start of the new term on Oct. 2.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- California sued two anti-abortion organizations for telling patients that they can help reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone, a potentially dangerous claim not supported by evidence. In a complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court, California Attorney General Rob Bonta accused Heartbeat International and RealOptions Obria of violating a state law against fraudulent business practices. (Reuters)
- Quinn Emanuel, Wollmuth Maher and Susman Godfrey were appointed to lead a newly certified class action in Manhattan federal court from U.S. cities that claim eight large banks drove up interest rates that they paid on a popular municipal bond. In opposing class certification, banks including Bank of America, Barclays and Citigroup said differences among the bonds would require many thousands of individualized examinations, making a single class action unwieldy. (Reuters)
- The en banc 4th Circuit appeared torn on whether state health insurance plans must cover surgeries and other treatments as part of gender transition, in a pair of appeals by North Carolina and West Virginia. The appeals court did not clearly indicate at oral arguments how it would rule in either case, as judges peppered both sides with questions. (Reuters)
- American Physician Partners, which until recently provided outsourced emergency room services to 150 U.S. hospitals, said that a ban on so-called “surprise” medical bills hastened the company’s descent into bankruptcy. The company’s chief restructuring officer John DiDonato said at a bankruptcy court hearing that the 2020 No Surprises Act hampered the company’s ability to raise revenue and recover from the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reuters)
- Yale University and one of its professors have agreed to settle allegations that they wrongly withheld patent royalties from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs for ketamine-related inventions, the DOJ said. Yale and the professor agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve the claims regarding patents covering intranasal ketamine used to treat depression. (Reuters)
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- Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer hired David Emanuelson as a D.C.-based antitrust partner. Emanuelson previously led Intel’s global M&A regulatory practice. (Reuters)
- Cozen O’Connor added partner Charles Zdebski to its energy and utility practice, based in D.C. Zdebski was previously with Eckert Seamans. (Cozen O’Connor)
- K&L Gates picked up Daniel Flore as a partner in its litigation practice. Flore, who will work in the Frankfurt office, joins from Hogan Lovells. (K&L Gates)
- Evan Miller has joined Saul Ewing as a partner in Wilmington, Delaware. Miller was previously with Bayard. (Saul Ewing)
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