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Good morning. Two U.S. appeals courts are forming panels focused on AI, as the courts race to understand just how transformative the new tech might be. Plus, an Archer-Daniels-Midland shareholder is suing days after the commodities giant said it’s facing an SEC probe; a former defense lawyer for hip hop star Prakazrel “Pras” Michel got hit with a criminal contempt charge; and the UAE and others are named as defendants in a $2.8 billion lawsuit. Happy last Friday in January, and thanks for reading!
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REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
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Two federal appeals courts are forming committees to examine how artificial intelligence will affect the courts, in the latest effort by the judiciary to address the emergence of the cutting-edge technology, report Nate Raymond and Sara Merken.
U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Miller will chair an AI-focused committee for the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit, the nation’s largest federal appeals court, which has yet to develop rules governing the use of the technology by lawyers. The Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit’s chief judge, Michael Chagares, has likewise established an AI committee, the court’s deputy circuit executive said. The timing of any action by the panels is not clear.
The courts’ decisions to create AI-focused committees come as judges nationally are grappling with the rapid rise of generative AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and how to regulate their use in court proceedings. Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts devoted his annual report on Dec. 31 to the potential benefits of AI while saying its use requires “caution and humility.”
The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit in November became the first federal appeals court to propose a rule regulating lawyers’ use of AI tools. The 4th Circuit’s information technology staff have been asked to prepare a report on AI issues and recommend possible next steps for the Richmond, Virginia-based court, according to the circuit executive.
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- Attorneys for 96-year-old Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, the United States’ oldest active federal judge, urged a lower court at a hearing to allow her lawsuit against colleagues who suspended her from the bench last year to proceed. U.S. District Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper questioned whether the Federal Circuit’s judicial council should have moved its investigation of Newman to another circuit, while also interrogating Newman’s argument that the suspension amounted to an improper impeachment.
- The former lead defense lawyer for convicted Fugees hip hop star Prakazrel “Pras” Michel is poised to plead guilty today in D.C. federal court to a misdemeanor contempt charge for allegedly leaking trial materials to news reporters. The attorney, David Kenner, accepted responsibility for breaching a protective order.
- A former Locke Lord partner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a nearly $400 million fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
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That’s the damages sought by bankrupt oil firm Lord Energy and its owner Hazim Nada against the United Arab Emirates, its president, its state oil firm ADNOC, a Swiss investigative firm and others, according to a new lawsuit in D.C. federal court. Lord and Nada, represented by lawyers from Clare Locke, claim the UAE and some of its officials bankrolled a “dark” public relations campaign to destroy Nada’s personal reputation and to crush Lord Energy, a trading firm. ADNOC declined to comment. Nada is claiming three times the actual damages, lost profits and disgorgement of defendants’ profits that amount to $923 million, taking the total to $2.8 billion. The suit alleges racketeering and other violations.
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Since the onset of mass arbitration, targeted corporations have complained in case after case that plaintiffs lawyers don’t adequately screen their clients before filing demands for arbitration. It’s increasingly easy, after all, to sign up clients through internet advertising. And for plaintiffs lawyers waging mass arbitration campaigns, volume is leverage. But printer company Epson has taken that de rigueur carping to a whole new level: Last March, the company sued nearly 4,000 clients of Labaton Sucharow after they demanded arbitration. With a threshold issue in the case now teed up for a decision, Alison Frankel reports on Epson’s bold tactic.
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“Nancy Pelosi is not responsible
for your prosecution.“
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—U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, sentencing former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to four months in prison for contempt of Congress. Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a six-month sentence on Navarro, who was charged for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump. A jury found Navarro guilty last year. He has asked that any sentence be put on hold while he pursues an appeal.
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- U.S. District Judge David Counts in Midland, Texas, will hear arguments over guidance that the Biden administration issued to pharmacies in 2022 concerning nondiscrimination obligations under civil rights law. The conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom represents a North Dakota pharmacy in challenging the guidance, which it said would advance the administration’s pro-abortion rights “agenda.” The Biden DOJ has argued the guidance is “non-binding and imposes no legal requirements.”
- U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will hold a case management conference in multidistrict litigation accusing social media companies of illegally enticing and then addicting millions of children to their platforms. Rogers in November ruled against Alphabet, Meta Platforms, ByteDance and Snap, in a decision allowing the litigation to move forward. The companies want the judge to let them pause the proceeding to take an appeal to the 9th Circuit.
- Also in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White will hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by Palestinian relief organizations and Palestinian-Americans with relatives in Gaza that seeks an injunction barring the U.S. from providing further aid to Israel as it wages war against Hamas. Van Der Hout LLP and the Center for Constitutional Rights represent the plaintiffs.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The Association for Accessible Medicines asked an Illinois federal judge to block a state law that would cap price increases for certain generic drugs. The group, represented by Jenner & Block and Goodwin Procter, said the new law unlawfully regulates sales outside of Illinois.
- Plaintiffs firm Cohen Milstein is representing a shareholder of Archer-Daniels-Midland in a lawsuit in Chicago federal court accusing the commodities giant of lying about the profitability of its nutrition segment, which supplies food and beverage manufacturers. ADM this week said the SEC was investigating accounting practices in its nutrition segment.
- A West Virginia city and county urged the 4th Circuit to revive their $2.5 billion lawsuit accusing the nation’s three largest drug distributors — McKesson, Cardinal Health and Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen — of causing an opioid epidemic by flooding the city of Huntington and Cabell County with pills.
- A home-listing service that is rivaling traditional regional online real estate platforms said it will settle its antitrust claims in Santa Ana federal court against several companies, but continue pressing its case against the National Association of Realtors. The realtors group last year lost its bid at the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the case from advancing.
- Several engineering services companies will settle private class-action claims accusing them of stifling competition for skilled aerospace workers. The antitrust litigation in Connecticut will move ahead against the biggest defendant, Pratt & Whitney, which has denied any wrongdoing.
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- Skadden brought on energy litigator Michelle Scheffler as a partner in Houston. She arrives from Haynes and Boone, where she was co-chair of the oil and gas practice. (Skadden)
- Cahill hired New York-based partner Peter Armenio as co-chair of the life sciences patent litigation practice and intellectual property litigation practices. He was at White & Case. (Cahill)
- Armstrong Teasdale added partner Elizabeth O’Donoghue to the firm’s trademark practice in Philadelphia. O’Donoghue was previously at Stradley Ronon. (Armstrong Teasdale)
- Foley & Lardner hired Kay Gordon as a New York-based partner from Nelson Mullins, where she was co-head of the investment management group. (Foley & Lardner)
- E-discovery and information law firm Redgrave hired Vik Masson as a D.C.-based partner from UnitedLex. (Redgrave)
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As clients receive monthly invoices from their outside counsel this year, a significant chunk of those bills, at best, will not be well received and, at worst, not paid in full or at all, writes Sharon Scenna of Intapp. Could generative AI help to finally resolve the perennial irritation that blown budgets, non-compliant billing and unexpected charges cause clients? The technology represents a good opportunity to improve how a client experiences legal bills.
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