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Good morning. Exxon’s lawsuit over an investor climate proposal is raising some concern among activist shareholders, our colleagues report. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to halt West Point’s consideration of race in admissions; George Carlin’s estate just sued podcasters over their AI-generated comedy routine; and Donald Trump says he will appeal a jury’s ruling that he pay $83.3 million to write E. Jean Carroll for defaming her. Scroll down for our week-ahead glimpse. Welcome to Monday!
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An Exxon lawsuit in Texas federal court against two shareholders who are calling on the oil titan to set new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is raising worry among investors who use resolutions to pressure companies, our colleagues Ross Kerber and Jody Godoy report.
The Biden-era SEC has made it more difficult for companies to prevent these resolutions from moving to a shareholder vote. Exxon, represented in the case by Jones Day and Gibson Dunn, accused the investors of putting forward resolutions to advance their agenda rather than grow shareholder value.
“We’re concerned that this action could have a chilling effect, particularly on small investors who don’t have the resources to battle Exxon or other companies in the courts,” said Josh Zinner, CEO of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
Most shareholder resolutions are not legally binding on a company. But companies often heed those that win significant support, even short of a majority, to show they are responsive to investors’ concerns, Kerber and Godoy write. An Exxon spokesperson said the SEC’s application of the rules does not serve investors’ interests.
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- A conservative legal group filed a judicial misconduct complaint accusing three federal judges in Illinois of discrimination, citing policies they adopted to give young women and minority lawyers greater opportunities to argue cases in court. America First Legal, a group founded by former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, filed a complaint with the 7th Circuit accusing three judges of race and sex discrimination.
- The anonymous plaintiff in a race and sex discrimination lawsuit challenging the selection process for New York University School of Law’s flagship law review is seeking class action status for all current and future white, heterosexual male students who hope to participate.
- David Kenner, a former lawyer for convicted Fugees hip hop star Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, was sentenced in D.C. federal court to one year of unsupervised probation and fined $5,000 after admitting he gave news reporters access to trial materials in violation of a court order.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Barclays bank would not be permitted to underwrite municipal bonds after failing to respond to questions from state authorities about its pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
- The FTC imposed what it said was the largest-ever civil penalty to date — $2 million, lodged against Kubota North America — for a violation of the “Made in USA” labeling rule. Lawyers from McGuireWoods represented Kubota.
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That’s how much Donald Trump was ordered by a federal jury to pay in damages to E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former U.S. president of destroying her reputation as a trustworthy journalist by denying he raped her nearly three decades ago. The jury needed less than three hours to reach the verdict, Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen report. The payout far exceeded the minimum $10 million that Carroll had been seeking. Carroll sued Trump in November 2019 over his denials that he had raped her in the mid-1990s. Lawyers for Carroll argued punitive damages were appropriate, in part to keep Trump from repeating his denials.
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“Is this a political problem or a legal violation?“
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—Judge Britt Grant of the 11th Circuit, at a hearing over whether Florida had the right to bring a lawsuit that led a judge to strike down a Biden administration policy of releasing rather than detaining many people who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border. The appeals court panel seemed divided, our colleague Daniel Wiessner reports. Court panelists questioned whether Florida had shown the 2021 policy had a direct impact on the state’s costs in providing social services. A federal judge last March struck down the policy, saying it violated U.S. immigration law.
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- On Monday, former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn is scheduled to be sentenced for leaking tax data on former President Donald Trump and some of the wealthiest people in the United States. Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty last year, is represented by Lisa Manning of Schertler, Onorato, Mead & Sears. Littlejohn “violated a trust and stands before the Court ready to accept his punishment,” his lawyers told the court. Prosecutors are seeking a five-year prison term. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is presiding over the case.
- On Tuesday, Aimee Harris, who has admitted to stealing and selling President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley’s diary to conservative activist group Project Veritas, is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan federal court.
- On Wednesday, an 11th Circuit panel will consider whether a venture capital fund can move forward with a program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women. The appeals court last year granted a request by plaintiff Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights to temporarily block Fearless Fund from considering applications for grants only from businesses led by Black women. A different panel will hear Blum’s group’s appeal of a lower-court judge’s ruling rejecting its challenge to the program. The fund said it remains “fearless and steadfast in creating pathways that empower women of color entrepreneurs.”
- On Thursday, Republican-led Tennessee will urge a federal appeals court to overturn a judge’s decision holding that a state law restricting drag performances in public or where children are present was unconstitutional. The case is before the 6th Circuit and was brought by Friends of George’s, a Memphis-based LGBTQ theater group. Tennessee’s bid to ban the performances was part of a Republican-led effort to limit drag in at least 15 states.
- On Friday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis faces a deadline to respond to allegations from Donald Trump and one of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case that Willis profited from a romantic relationship with a lawyer she hired to help lead the prosecution. Trump and co-defendant Michael Roman want to disqualify Willis and dismiss the criminal charges. They allege Willis had an inappropriate relationship with Nathan Wade, the lawyer she hired to help run the criminal case.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Elon Musk’s SpaceX is facing a negligence lawsuit brought by the wife of a worker whose skull was fractured during a 2022 rocket engine malfunction. The 2022 engine malfunction involving Francisco Cabada, who remains in a coma, was among the worker injuries detailed in a Reuters investigation of SpaceX late last year.
- Bayer was ordered to pay $2.25 billion to a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer from exposure to the company’s Roundup weedkiller, the man’s attorneys said. A jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas found the non-Hodgkins lymphoma was the result of using Roundup for yard work at his house for a period of several years. Bayer said it has “strong arguments on appeal to get this verdict overturned and the unconstitutionally excessive damage award eliminated or reduced.”
- American painter and photographer Richard Prince must stop selling artworks that incorporate pictures taken by a pair of photographers and hand over five times what he earned from his sales of them, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan ruled. Donald Graham and Eric McNatt accused Prince of misusing their photos.
- Lawyers for Visa and Mastercard at Paul Weiss and Arnold & Porter want the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down class-certification orders in litigation in D.C. federal court over ATM transaction fees. Consumers and other plaintiffs are seeking billions of dollars in damages.
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- Hausfeld’s Brent Landau is leaving his post as global managing partner to serve as executive director of the Public Interest Law Center. The center said Landau, who starts the post on Feb. 26, has long litigated antitrust and human rights class actions. (Public Interest Law Center)
- Morgan Lewis added Philadelphia-based trial partner Aliza Karetnick. She previously led Ballard Spahr’s commercial litigation and dispute resolution group. (Morgan Lewis)
- Lathrop GPM hired business transactions partner Issaku Yamaashi in the firm’s Kansas City office. He was previously at Foulston Siefkin. (Lathrop GPM)
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