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The American Bar Association’s legal education arm may soon endorse lawyer licensing pathways that don’t involve passing the bar exam, potentially softening a pro-bar exam stance the organization has held for more than a century, reports Karen Sloan.
While still in the preliminary stages, such a move would represent a shift in the hard-line position on bar admission held by the world’s largest voluntary organization of lawyers. And some legal education professionals say it’s overdue.
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is slated to weigh a draft policy statement urging states to “create diverse pathways to licensure” when it meets May 17. The task force’s draft policy also calls on states to create licensing pathways that “mitigate the disparate exclusion from the profession of racial and ethnic minorities and individuals of low socioeconomic status.”
“In light of some state supreme courts passing or considering alternative pathways to licensure, the council felt it should consider whether the policy needed to be modified,” said William Adams, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education.
The ABA does not control lawyer licensing, which is handled by state courts or other entities in each individual jurisdiction. But the ABA’s backing of alternate licensing pathways would be a welcome step, said Joan Howarth, a former dean of Michigan State University College of Law who has studied the bar exam and its alternatives. The proposal is “catching up” with what states are already doing to improve attorney licensing, she said.
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- Sullivan & Cromwell formed a new artificial intelligence practice, as large firms compete to handle clients’ growing AI-related legal needs. The 800-lawyer firm said the group would be headed by leaders of its intellectual property and finance practices in Silicon Valley, New York and London.
- U.S. Circuit Judge Kent Jordan plans to retire from the 3rd Circuit in January, creating a new vacancy on the Philadelphia-based court that could be filled by the victor of the 2024 presidential election. Jordan was an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush.
- The nomination of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz of the Western District of Tennessee to serve on the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit advanced in the U.S. Senate. The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 along party lines.
- Lawyers at Quinn Emanuel and Cohen Milstein asked a U.S. judge to award them $102 million in legal fees for their work securing more than $580 million in settlements involving alleged collusion in the stock lending market. The firms said they devoted more than 180,000 hours of attorney time over more than six years.
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That’s how much Gibson Dunn owes to former longtime appellate partner Mark Perry, who left for rival Weil Gotshal in 2022, according to an arbitrator’s award. The amount was revealed in an arbitration fight that Gibson Dunn brought against Perry in Los Angeles Superior Court, arguing Perry resigned and was not a retired partner owed further compensation. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kevin Brazile said he would confirm an arbitrator’s finding that Perry is a retired partner, not a resigned partner, entitling him to retirement payments once he no longer competes with Gibson Dunn.
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Back in March, at the first hearing in consolidated litigation over allegedly undisclosed side effects from Ozempic and other diet drugs, plaintiffs lawyers told Philadelphia federal judge Gene Pratter that they’d already agreed on a slate of four lawyers to lead the mass tort case. On Wednesday, Pratter appointed those same four lawyers as lead counsel in the multidistrict litigation against diet drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. But Pratter was no rubber stamp, writes Alison Frankel. In fact, Frankel says, the judge devised a leadership selection process that other MDL judges should consider adopting.
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“The antitrust laws do not punish companies
for creating better, more desirable products than anyone else.“
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—Hermes’ lawyers at Latham, asking a U.S. judge in California to dismiss a consumer antitrust lawsuit alleging the fashion icon was unfairly curtailing the ability of buyers to snag one of the company’s famous Birkin bags. Two consumers said Hermes was forcing shoppers to buy other items like scarves and shoes to have a chance to purchase a Birkin. The French fashion house asked the court to reject what it called “legally and factually unsupported” allegations. Hermes said there’s “fierce competition” across the luxury goods segment.
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- U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, will resume hearing evidence from Apple executives, as the court weighs a request from “Fortnite” maker Epic Games to hold Apple in contempt for allegedly failing to follow a court order requiring some changes to its lucrative App Store. Apple has denied violating the terms of the injunction, which Epic won as part of a lawsuit accusing the iPhone maker of unlawfully dominating app distribution and in-app payments. Epic mostly lost the case, and both sides appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in January declined to take the case.
- The maker of the famous American Girl dolls will try to convince the 2nd Circuit to revive its lawsuit against a Chinese company it has accused of selling counterfeit dolls. A lower court held that the Chinese companies lacked sufficient ties to New York to be sued there.
- A hearing is scheduled in the government’s criminal case against Jean Morose Viliena, a former Haitian mayor who was indicted on U.S. visa fraud charges after a jury ordered him to pay $15.5 million in a civil case over allegations he led a brutal campaign to kill and torture his political opponents. Viliena is urging Chief U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Boston to review and revoke a federal magistrate’s order detaining him.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The Biden administration asked a federal judge to block an Iowa state law that authorizes the arrest and prosecution of people who have returned to the U.S. after being deported. The law is part of a growing number of Republican-led proposals in other states.
- Republican attorneys general from 27 states and a powerful electric utility trade group sued the EPA, seeking to block a landmark rule requiring sweeping reductions in carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and new natural gas plants. Three lawsuits were filed in the D.C. Circuit, including one signed by 25 states, targeting a rule finalized by the Biden administration on April 25 as part of an effort to combat climate change.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Miami music producer in a legal fight with Warner Music over a song by rapper Flo Rida, finding that there is no time limit for recovering monetary damages in copyright cases that have been filed before the expiration of a statute of limitations. The 6-3 ruling, authored by liberal Justice Elena Kagan, affirmed a lower court’s decision that favored producer Sherman Nealy, who sued a Warner subsidiary and others.
- New York City was hit with a lawsuit claiming it discriminates against gay male city employees by only covering the costs of in vitro fertilization for women and heterosexual couples. The proposed class action was filed in Manhattan federal court by former assistant district attorney Corey Briskin and his husband, who say they were forced to put off having a family for years because the city’s employee health insurance plan denied them coverage for IVF procedures.
- U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald in Los Angeles dismissed a lawsuit by 18 young people who claim the EPA discriminates against children by issuing permits for fossil fuel projects that release too much climate-warming pollutants. Fitzgerald said that the youth do not have standing to bring the suit because any ruling he might issue in their favor wouldn’t address their alleged harms.
- A Nevada federal judge threw out a consumer antitrust class action accusing major hotels of conspiring to artificially increase room rental rates. Chief U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in her ruling called the claims in the case “novel” and said the plaintiffs had not shown that the hotels agreed with each other to fix prices. Plaintiffs’ firm Hagens Berman said it was weighing an appeal.
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It is well established that once a patent issues, the subject matter contained in the patent is no longer entitled to trade secret protection. Courts have consistently held that the same principle applies to information disclosed in a published patent application. But what happens if a trade secret owner agrees to seek a patent? Dan Roland of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner walks us through a recent case that addressed the question.
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