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Top plaintiffs firms are set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from a pool of $2.13 billion in legal fees from nationwide drug industry settlements over the U.S. opioid crisis, our colleague Brendan Pierson reports. A court-appointed panel recommended how to divide up the money.
The panel gave Motley Rice the largest share, with 18.6% of the funds, or $396 million. Other firms with large shares include New York-based Simmons Hanly Conroy, with 11.4%, or $244 million; California-based Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, with 8.2%, or $174 million; and California-based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, with 5.65%, or $120 million.
>>> Read the fee order here.
The $2.13 billion fee pool comes out of settlements totaling more than $46 billion that drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies have reached to resolve lawsuits by local and Native American tribal governments accusing them of fueling an epidemic of opioid addiction. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who has overseen the sprawling opioid litigation since 2017, ruled that firms have until June 21 to appeal the panel’s recommendations before they become final.
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That’s how many lawsuits the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized in Minnesota that accuse UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare of failing to protect personal data from a February cyber attack. The panel said in an order that Minnesota, where UnitedHealth is based and where several cases are already pending, is the most logical venue. Of the lawsuits, 19 were brought on behalf of individual consumers whose data was allegedly compromised, and 30 by healthcare providers who say they were unable to get paid for their services when Change’s system was locked down after the attack. Change processes about half of medical claims in the United States.
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“This case did not require the herculean efforts that might justify the highest hourly rate in history.”
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—Attorneys for Tesla at Sullivan & Cromwell and other law firms, telling a Delaware Chancery judge that the legal team that voided Elon Musk’s record Tesla pay package deserves a tiny fraction of the $5.6 billion legal fee they requested. Lawyers for the electric automaker said the plaintiff’s lawsuit provided almost no benefit for the company. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick voided the pay deal in January because she found Musk improperly dominated the Tesla board negotiations to arrange the $56 billion compensation. Musk’s remuneration is the most ever granted to a CEO in the U.S. at least.
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- Today, a 9th Circuit panel will take up an appeal from Palestinian organizations and other plaintiffs who sued the Biden administration to stop any support for Israel’s military actions following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,000 people. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in January declined to issue a preliminary injunction, saying it was his “obligation to remain within the metes and bounds of its jurisdictional scope.”
- Also today, U.S. District Judge Karen Marston in Philadelphia will meet with the lawyers leading the mass tort litigation over claims that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly failed to warn of the risks of side effects associated with blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Both companies have said they adequately disclose their drugs’ side effects. Marston was picked last week to succeed the late U.S. District Judge Gene Pratter.
- On Tuesday, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will ask a 9th Circuit panel to strike her conviction and 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors in the failed blood-testing startup once valued at $9 billion. Prosecutors said during the trial that Holmes misrepresented Theranos’ technology and finances. Holmes testified that she believed her statements were accurate at the time.
- On Wednesday, Los Angeles U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett will weigh Disney’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by actor Gina Carano alleging wrongful termination from Star Wars series “The Mandalorian.” Carano argued she was fired in 2021 for voicing conservative opinions on social media platforms including then-Twitter. Disney countered that it “has a constitutional right not to associate its artistic expression with Carano’s speech.”
- On Thursday, Boeing faces a deadline to respond to the DOJ’s position that the air and space giant violated a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that had shielded the company from a criminal charge arising from the fatal crashes. Boeing has said it believes it has “honored the terms of the agreement” and looks forward to responding to the department. The DOJ has until July 7 to inform a federal judge in Texas of its plans.
- On Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware in Las Vegas will take up Ultimate Fighting Championship’s proposed agreement to pay $335 million to settle class actions claiming it artificially suppressed wages of martial arts fighters. The lawsuits alleged UFC abused its market power to acquire or block rival promoters and used exclusive contracts to keep fighters within the UFC. The organization has denied suppressing wages.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A 5th Circuit panel said a Texas federal judge likely lacked the power to order lawyers at Southwest Airlines to undergo “religious liberty training” after a flight attendant won a discrimination lawsuit. The appeals court said the 2023 ruling by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr was likely invalid because it provided no benefit to the plaintiff. Starr’s decision has been paused.
- U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas ruled that only three of 11 Republican-led states that filed a lawsuit in his court challenging a major Biden administration student loan forgiveness and repayment plan could proceed with their case. The court found South Carolina, Texas and Alaska “just barely” alleged enough facts to support standing to challenge the program.
- Google won’t have to face a jury trial in the DOJ’s digital advertising antitrust case in Alexandria. Google wrote a $2.3 million check to the government to cover its damages, and so now U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in September will preside over a non-jury trial to weigh any injunction against Google. The Alphabet unit said its check was not an admission of liability.
- The FCC asked the 6th Circuit to transfer a series of legal challenges to the agency’s decision to reinstate net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit, saying it would “be most efficient, and in the interest of justice.” The Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit was randomly selected to hear the cases.
- A former Allianz fund manager pleaded guilty to his role in a meltdown of private investment funds sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gregoire Tournant admitted to two counts of investment adviser fraud at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
- Yelp can pursue a lawsuit accusing a reputation management company of fraudulently advertising its ability to remove “bad” reviews from the business review website.
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With the passage of 19 comprehensive state data privacy laws and even more industry and data-specific state privacy laws, the patchwork of laws is quickly becoming unmanageable for many U.S. companies, write Philip Yannella and Tim Dickens of Blank Rome. The breaking point may be the recent passage of privacy laws in Maryland, Minnesota and Vermont — each of which departs considerably from the dominant models of U.S. state privacy law and significantly increases the compliance burden for U.S. companies.
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