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Good morning. A conservative activist group’s bid to dismantle corporate diversity programs is relying on a Civil War-era law, and a U.S. judge today will take up a pivotal early hearing. Plus, the stage is set for an AI copyright trial between Thomson Reuters and Ross Intelligence; Donald Trump wants parts of his deposition testimony sealed in “Electric Avenue” singer Eddy Grant’s copyright lawsuit; and American Airlines will press an appeal for its JetBlue alliance. Tuesday is taking flight right now!
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U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash in Atlanta will hear arguments today in an anti-affirmative action activist’s lawsuit challenging venture capital firm Fearless Fund’s grant program designed to promote businesses owned by Black women. The hearing is the first major test of a legal strategy that is relying on a Civil War-era law designed to protect formerly enslaved Black people from racial bias to dismantle American corporate diversity programs, Nate Raymond writes.
Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights organization since August has challenged grant and fellowship programs designed by the Fearless Fund and two major U.S. law firms to help give Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority groups greater career opportunities. The suits allege violations of Section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, a law enacted after the Civil War that guarantees all people the same right to make and enforce contracts “as is enjoyed by white citizens.” Judges also have interpreted it for decades as protecting white people from racial discrimination.
Blum’s group asked Thrash, a Bill Clinton-era appointee, to issue a preliminary injunction barring Fearless Fund from using race-based criteria for the grant program. Fearless Fund brought in prominent lawyers to defend it, including a team from Gibson Dunn and civil rights attorneys Ben Crump (pictured above) and Alphonso David. Crump said Blum’s suit was “a frivolous attempt to prevent progress from winning.”
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- Lawyers for Yelp want to bar Google’s lawyers at Paul Weiss from representing the Alphabet unit in the U.S. lawsuit accusing it of abusing its ad tech dominance. Yelp in its filing argued that Paul Weiss should not be allowed to “switch sides” after representing it on related matters and the firm. Paul Weiss maintains that its work for Google is “appropriate in all respects.” (Reuters)
- White-collar litigator Randall Jackson, who was part of the team that successfully prosecuted former aides of Bernard Madoff, joined Wachtell as a partner from Willkie. Jackson is a rare outside hire for Wachtell, which does not often bring on partners from other law firms. (Reuters)
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That’s the amount that Deutsche Bank-controlled investment firm DWS will pay to settle SEC charges over misstatements regarding its ESG investing and failures in policies designed to prevent money laundering, in two separate enforcement actions. The regulator found in the ESG probe that the firm marketed itself as a leader in ESG investing, but from August 2018 until late 2021, failed to implement certain related policies as they were billed to investors.
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“The amended complaint does not plausibly allege that ‘Sweet Liberty Tax Services’ was chosen for commercial rather than artistic reasons.“
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—U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan, ruling for the creators of the hit crime drama “Better Call Saul” in dismissing a defamation and trademark infringement lawsuit by Liberty Tax Service over the depiction of a shady fictional tax firm — “Sweet Liberty Tax Services” — that appeared to resemble its own. Gardephe ruled for AMC Networks and Sony Pictures Television over the depiction of the tax firm in an April 2022 episode. Gardephe said Liberty Tax offered no “particularly compelling” allegations that viewers would be confused into thinking Sweet Liberty was one of its more than 2,500 offices. As our colleague Jon Stempel writes, better call this: Case dismissed.
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- Private equity financier John Wilson will be resentenced after the 1st Circuit in March overturned most of his conviction on charges that he participated in a vast U.S. college admissions fraud scheme by conspiring to pay bribes to secure spots for his children at top schools. Wilson, founder of Hyannis Port Capital, was originally sentenced to 15 months in prison before the appellate court decision, which left only a tax-related conviction standing. Jones Day’s Noel Francisco, a lawyer for Wilson, said the appeals court decision overturned the “core” of the prosecution against his client.
- In Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain will hold a pretrial conference in the criminal case against former Allianz fund manager Gregoire Tournant over his role in causing more than $7 billion of investor losses. Swain last month denied Tournant’s motion to dismiss the five-count indictment, which also includes an obstruction charge. Prosecutors accused Tournant of covering up Allianz’s now-defunct Structured Alpha Funds’ risks and trying to mislead Allianz’s in-house lawyers and the SEC, while pocketing about $60 million in pay. Tournant has pleaded not guilty.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A jury must decide the outcome of a lawsuit by information services company Thomson Reuters accusing Ross Intelligence of unlawfully copying content from its legal-research platform Westlaw to train a competing artificial intelligence-based platform. The decision from U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, sitting by designation as a trial court, sets the stage for what could be the first trial over the unauthorized use of data to train AI systems. Thomson Reuters is the parent of Reuters News. (Reuters)
- Donald Trump pushed back at U.S. prosecutors’ request to curb some of his public statements about people involved in the federal court case accusing him of attempting to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s lawyers sharply opposed the request from Special Counsel Jack Smith for a court order limiting Trump’s out-of-court statements about potential witnesses in the case and barring disparaging or intimidating remarks about the judge, prosecutors and potential jurors. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan dismissed a lawsuit accusing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of illegally firing two longtime employees who claimed religious objections in refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The judge found the plaintiffs did not prove they had sincere religious objections to being vaccinated. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said they disagree with the judge’s conclusions. The New York Fed declined to comment. (Reuters)
- A 9th Circuit ruling said a student who alleged she was assaulted by a University of Arizona football player off campus can bring a civil rights lawsuit against the school for failing to address his pattern of violence against women. The court on a 8-3 vote said the university exercised sufficient control over the former player to be held liable under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for the assault, despite the fact that it took place off campus. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan in New Bern, North Carolina, rejected a Florida disaster response agency’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit that claims it stiffed a company on a contract for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests signed at the start of the pandemic. Global Innovative Concepts accused the Florida agency of failing to pay $4.4 million for 400,000 COVID-19 tests in a deal struck in March 2020. (Reuters)
- Molson Coors failed to convince U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego to overturn a jury’s decision that the company owes $56 million for violating craft brewery Stone Brewing’s trademark rights. In a ruling, Benitez spurned Molson Coors’ arguments that the evidence did not support the verdict. (Reuters)
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- Quinn Emanuel hired two partners from King & Wood Mallesons to open a pair of offices in the United Arab Emirates. Joanne Strain, previously KWM’s Dubai managing partner, focuses on commercial and financial disputes, and Parnika Chaturvedi practices in international commercial arbitration and litigation. (Quinn Emanuel)
- Morgan Lewis added Sara Aranjo in Dubai as a dispute resolution partner from Al Tamimi & Co. (Morgan Lewis)
- Dentons hired LiLing Poh as a venture technology and emerging growth companies partner in Silicon Valley. She most recently was at Reed Smith. (Dentons)
- Arnold & Porter added Carlos Lobo as a New York-based corporate and finance partner. Lobo was previously at Hughes Hubbard. (Arnold & Porter)
- Baker Donelson added Mark Duedall as a corporate restructuring and bankruptcy partner and Mina Elmankabady as a real estate and finance partner, based in Atlanta. Duedall arrives from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Elmankabady joins from Davis, Matthews & Quigley (Baker Donelson)
- Management-side employment firm Littler brought on Alexander MacDonald as a D.C.-based partner from Instacart. (Littler)
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