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With a vote on a nominee for a district court judgeship in Arizona, President Joe Biden is set to secure his 200th appointment to the federal judiciary today, surpassing his Republican predecessor Donald Trump’s pace of naming judges to the bench with the clock ticking before their November electoral re-match, Nate Raymond reports.
Reaching the 200-judge mark at this point in his administration is a signal, according to Biden’s allies, that the White House has the potential to achieve something Democrats previously fretted might be out of reach — matching Trump’s overall tally of 234 judges. Biden is nearing Trump’s tally, the second highest of any president, despite inheriting less than half as many vacancies to fill as Trump had when he took office and a narrowly-divided Senate in which Democrats have only a 51-49 majority.
The clock is ticking on Biden’s term, but Democrats say beating Trump’s total is not as unobtainable as it might seem. Biden has 24 nominees already pending in the Senate, and the Senate Judiciary Committee’s calendar has enough hearings scheduled for it to process sufficient nominations to meet Trump’s tally and send them to the Senate floor for consideration.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s chair, told Reuters that Senate Democrats have “done better than I expected” in confirming Biden’s nominees and that reaching Trump’s tally is possible now, though hurdles remain.
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- A former lawyer who was locked up a decade ago for stealing $10 million from his law firm’s clients was sentenced to nine years in prison, this time for swindling $1.4 million meant for COVID-19 pandemic relief. Douglas Arntsen, who was disbarred in 2013, was also ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in restitution, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said. A lawyer for Arntsen did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
- Rudy Giuliani was ordered to post a $10,000 bond in Arizona after allegedly eluding authorities’ attempts to serve him court papers accusing the former New York mayor of trying to subvert the 2020 election. Appearing by phone at a court proceeding, Giuliani criticized what he called a “completely political case” as he pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired to falsely claim Arizona’s electoral votes for Donald Trump following Trump’s narrow loss to Biden. Maricopa County judge Shellie Smith ordered Giuliani to travel to Arizona within 30 days to post the bond.
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That’s how many lawsuits oil producer Hess said it is facing that allege inadequate disclosures over its proposed sale to Chevron. In October, Chevron offered to acquire Hess in a move to gain a foothold in oil-rich Guyana’s lucrative offshore fields. However, the deal has been stalled due to a conflict with Exxon Mobil and pending regulatory approval by the FTC. The lawsuits seek to further delay or block the $53 billion deal. Hess shareholders are scheduled to vote on May 28 on the deal.
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WarnerMedia is seeking to disqualify plaintiffs firm Zimmerman Reed from representing claimants in a mass arbitration campaign against the entertainment conglomerate, accusing the law firm’s managing partner and two other Zimmerman Reed professionals of signing up as clients in mass arbitration campaigns by two other plaintiffs firms. The point of the alleged “deceit,” according to Warner, was to obtain “improper insight” into the company’s response to the other firms’ arbitration demands before Zimmerman Reed launched its own offensive. Zimmerman’s managing partner told Alison Frankel that the complaint is “replete with misrepresentations” and that the firm intends to press on with claims for its clients.
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“It would be very different if your client had watched it.“
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—7th Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve, who questioned whether a white former Honeywell International manager could reasonably believe a workplace training video on preventing unconscious bias was racist when he never watched it. All three judges on the appellate panel had the same question and seemed unlikely to revive Charles Vavra’s claim that his firing for refusing to complete the training session on unconscious workplace bias was illegal. A lower court dismissed the case last year, agreeing with Honeywell that Vavra could not have believed he was engaged in protected activity when he complained about the training because he had not viewed it.
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- The Delaware Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging a lower court’s approval of a $267 million legal fee in a shareholder lawsuit that Dell Technologies settled over its 2018 stock conversion deal involving its stake in VMware. The court is being asked to reconsider how legal fees should be paid in large settlements of shareholder lawsuits and it could impact the $6 billion legal fee sought in the Elon Musk Tesla pay case.
- A judge in Shelby County, Tennessee, will hear arguments as Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, actor Riley Keough, seeks to stop the foreclosure sale of the legendary musician’s Tennessee home, Graceland. The foreclosure auction was ordered after an investment company claimed Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie took out a $3.8 million loan using the home as collateral and then never repaid it before her death last year. Keough has filed a lawsuit to stop the sale, saying the loan never happened and Lisa Marie’s signature was forged.
- Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese businessman known for his ties to former President Donald Trump’s adviser Steve Bannon, is set to go on trial on U.S. charges of leading a more than $1 billion fraud. He has been jailed since his March arrest in 2023, when prosecutors accused him of defrauding thousands of followers by promising “outsized” investment returns and diverting much of their money to fund lavish lifestyles for himself and his family. Guo has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and concealing money laundering.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The Federal Circuit overturned a win for GM in a patent dispute with aftermarket auto-parts provider LKQ over fender designs, upending a key element of design-patent law in a rare full-court decision. The appeals court threw out a long-standing test for determining when a design patent is valid and sent the case back for a U.S. Patent Office tribunal to reconsider.
- The 3rd Circuit revived a lawsuit by American Airlines pilots over the carrier’s failure to pay them for short-term military leave. The court said a reasonable jury could find short-term military leave comparable to jury duty leave or bereavement leave, for both of which American pays pilots.
- German chemical company BASF said it reached a $316.5 million settlement with some U.S. public water systems that claimed toxic “forever chemicals” in firefighting foam made by the company contaminated their water supplies. The money provided by the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, will help cities, towns and other public water systems remediate contamination of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
- Abortion providers in Kansas are asking a state court to block a new law requiring them to report patients’ reasons for getting abortions to state authorities. The providers said the law, set to take effect in July, would violate their right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution and are asking the court to let them add the claim to their earlier lawsuit over a law requiring doctors to tell patients that medication abortion can be reversed, a claim not supported by evidence.
- A global maritime court found that greenhouse gases constitute marine pollution, a major breakthrough for small island states threatened by the rise in sea levels caused by global warming. In its first climate-related judgment, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea said emissions from fossil fuels and other planet-warming gases that are absorbed by the oceans count as marine pollution.
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- Arnold & Porter hired Eva Temkin as a D.C.-based partner in its life sciences and healthcare regulatory practice. She most recently was at Paul Hastings. (Arnold & Porter)
- Loeb & Loeb brought on music and entertainment partner Monika Tashman in Nashville. Tashman previously was at Manatt. (Loeb & Loeb)
- DLA Piper hired Venera Ziegler as an investment funds partner in New York from Torys. (DLA Piper)
- Baker Donelson added partners Alexandra Moylan and Michael Halaiko, who focus on health law and privacy matters, in Baltimore and D.C. from Nelson Mullins. (Baker Donelson)
- Liskow expanded its business transactions practice with tax partner Caroline Lafourcade in New Orleans. She previously was at Gordon Arata. (Liskow)
- Womble Bond Dickinson hired patent partner Young Seok Koo from Ladas & Parry in Los Angeles. (Womble)
- Cooley brought on James Schneider in Boston as a partner in its emerging companies and venture capital practice. He most recently served as deputy general counsel for RA Capital Management. (Cooley)
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