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Twenty-five federal law clerks issued a public statement criticizing restrictions the judiciary has placed on their ability to speak out against the treatment of Palestinians by Israel during its war with Hamas in Gaza and what they call “our government’s complicity in that genocide,” reports Nate Raymond.
The statement was published by Balls & Strikes, a court news and commentary site sponsored by Demand Justice, a progressive legal advocacy organization. It was signed anonymously by the clerks, who said they have been forced to be “passive observers of Israel’s assault on Gaza” or face being fired if they engaged publicly in political activity. Balls & Strikes editor-in-chief Jay Willis in a note wrote that his publication had verified the identities of all 25 of the current clerks but published their statement anonymously for reasons the signatories detailed in their statement.
The statement marked a rare instance of clerks taking a public stance on an issue of public concern, albeit in an anonymous form. Judicial ethics rules prohibit judges and clerks alike from engaging in political activity, the clerks noted.
The clerks said that despite the ethics rules, “many judges have not been deterred from leveraging their powerful positions and life tenure to weigh in on this issue.” Reuters spoke with one signatory, who said the clerks likely would have remained silent had judges done the same. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the judiciary’s administrative arm, had no immediate comment.
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- A Muslim lawyer in Illinois sued Foley & Lardner for discrimination in federal court, accusing the U.S. law firm of firing her the day before her career was due to begin after she expressed support for the Palestinian people in the Israel-Hamas war. Foley called Jinan Chehade’s lawsuit meritless and said the firm stood by its decision to revoke a job offer.
- A Texas judge rejected a request by a man suing Elon Musk for defamation to sanction the billionaire entrepreneur’s prominent longtime attorney, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel. Judge Maria Cantu Hexsel also granted New York-based Spiro permission to appear as an attorney for Musk in the Travis County lawsuit brought by plaintiff Benjamin Brody.
- Illinois said it will switch to the NextGen Bar Exam in 2028, becoming the 19th state or territory to commit and the largest jurisdiction yet to adopt the revised version of the national attorney licensing exam. Illinois officials haven’t determined whether the switch will occur in February or July 2028, the Supreme Court of Illinois said in its announcement.
- Wigdor represents a former executive assistant suing private equity firm One Equity for allegedly firing her after she complained about being subjected to sexist and racist conduct. One Equity said in a statement that the claims lack merit and are “comprised of complete fabrications.”
- Plaintiffs firms Mehri & Skalet, Tycko & Zavareei and Berger Montague were awarded more than $7.5 million in fees and costs for their work on a $25 million settlement with insurance giant Allstate over auto rate practices in California. Allstate denied any wrongdoing.
- Disbarred Beverly Hills attorney David Kagel pleaded guilty in Las Vegas federal court to his alleged role in a cryptocurrency fraud conspiracy that bilked $9.5 million from victims. Two alleged co-conspirators have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
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That’s the number of Romance Writers of America members currently, down from about 10,000 before 2019, according to the group’s U.S. bankruptcy court filings. The nonprofit group, devoted to helping romance writers build their careers, filed for bankruptcy protection as it disclosed it could not afford hotel bills associated with its flagship annual conference. Membership has sharply declined due to recent controversies over diversity within the organization and the COVID-19 pandemic. RWA said it expects a “swift resolution” to its bankruptcy restructuring. The organization estimated that it owes about $74,500 in cash, and it owes roughly $3 million to hotels.
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How do you catch the attention of a busy federal judge who has seemingly lost interest in your proposed class action settlement? That’s the conundrum facing Grant & Eisenhofer, which represents investors who contend they were misled about crypto tokens issued by blockchain company Block.one. Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court denied final approval of their hard-won $22 million settlement in February, chiding lawyers for failing to comply with his order demanding information about the claims process. Kaplan apparently overlooked a letter providing the data he asked for, as the lawyers have since pointed out in a series of letters and motions. So far, Alison Frankel says, Kaplan hasn’t responded to their entreaties.
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“There, having thought the unthinkable,
I’ve said the unsayable.“
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—11th Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, who used a concurring opinion in an insurance dispute to lay out an unusual proposal: that courts begin using artificial intelligence programs to help interpret words and phrases in legal texts. The case before the court, which held an insurer did not have to defend a landscaper in a civil lawsuit accusing him of negligently installing a trampoline, focused on whether the landscaper’s installation of the trampoline fit within the ordinary understanding of the word “landscaping” used in an insurance policy. Newsom said the fight prompted him to consider whether generative AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude might provide some benefit to courts.
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- The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to release at least one opinion, as the term draws to its anticipated close next month. The justices do not reveal in advance which cases they will issue rulings on. Some of the pending disputes include curbs on firearm possession tied to domestic violence orders; access to the abortion medication mifepristone; the lawfulness of the SEC’s in-house enforcement; and approval of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy settlement.
- The federal MDL judicial panel will take up a range of matters over where disputes should be heard. The panel is weighing matters that include data-breach lawsuits against Change Healthcare; consumers’ price-fixing claims against tire makers; lawsuits accusing sugar companies of fixing prices; and consumer cases alleging Apple has monopolized the smartphone market. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation meeting will be held in Utah.
- The DOJ is set to respond to Apple’s early plan to dismiss the government’s blockbuster antitrust lawsuit challenging a broad array of allegedly anticompetitive business practices. In a letter last week to U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals in New Jersey, Apple said it was “far from being a monopolist” and faces “fierce competition from well-established rivals.” Apple said it plans to seek dismissal of the lawsuit, filed in March.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A group founded by former Trump administration officials accused Tyson Foods of discriminating against U.S. citizens by disproportionately hiring immigrants, including children and people in the country illegally. America First Legal sent letters to the DOJ, the EEOC, and an Iowa civil rights agency calling for investigations into the Arkansas-based meatpacker’s employment practices.
- Data analytics giant Equifax was accused by a pair of home mortgage lenders of monopolizing the market for electronic services for income and employment verification, leading to higher prices. Plaintiffs’ firm Hausfeld filed the lawsuit for Greystone Mortgage and First Financial Lending in Philadelphia federal court, alleging Equifax had a “stranglehold” over a verification process that is a critical part of consumer finance.
- American Airlines was accused in a lawsuit of race discrimination for temporarily removing three Black men from a flight from Arizona to New York. The plaintiffs in their complaint in Brooklyn federal court said they were removed from the flight in January for about an hour after a white flight attendant complained about a passenger with offensive body odor. But none of the men ordered off the plane had an odor, the lawsuit said.
- Visa and Mastercard agreed to pay $197 million to resolve a class action by millions of consumers accusing the financial payment companies of keeping cash access fees artificially high. The plaintiffs’ lawyers at Hagens Berman, Quinn Emanuel and Mehri & Skalet revealed the proposed accord in a filing in D.C., federal court. Two other related class actions are pending. The card operators have denied any wrongdoing.
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked a state court to enforce subpoenas against plastics industry groups as part of his ongoing probe into the plastic pollution problem the state has called a crisis, days after the groups sued him to avoid complying with those demands. Bonta filed two petitions in Sacramento against the American Chemistry Council and the Plastics Industry Association.
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- Cooley hired litigation partner John Bostic, who helped prosecute the fraud case against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Bostic is based in the firm’s Palo Alto office. (Reuters)
- Wilson Sonsini added Salt Lake City-based partner Jess Krannich to the firm’s commercial litigation practice. Krannich previously was at Kirkland. (Wilson Sonsini)
- Foley Hoag hired Basil Seggos, the former commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as a partner and senior policy director in its energy and climate group. (Foley Hoag)
- Blank Rome added partners Stephen Brook and Robert Chow to its corporate, M&A and securities group in Boston. The attorneys were previously at Burns & Levinson. (Blank Rome)
- Sidley added Stephen Boone as a Houston-based partner in the firm’s energy, transportation and infrastructure group. Boone was previously at Akin. (Sidley)
- Cozen O’Connor brought on labor and employment partner Walter Foster in Boston from Eckert Seamans. (Cozen O’Connor)
- Ellis Oster jumped to Hinshaw & Culbertson, where he’ll be a partner in the consumer financial services practice in New York. Oster was previously at LOGS Legal Group. (Hinshaw)
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If a child or adolescent is questioning or coming to terms with their gender identity, everything in a custody proceeding can become even more complex and emotionally charged, and it can significantly impact the arrangements sought by parents and decided upon by the court, writes David Steerman of Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg.
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