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Good morning. Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis will face a judge today at a key hearing over whether she should be disqualified from leading the case against Donald Trump. Plus, Elon Musk will seek to pause a Delaware judge’s ruling against his $56 billion pay package; the NHL was slapped with an antitrust suit over restrictions on youth hockey players; and a former Kirkland associate accusing her old firm of bias heads to court. Let’s dive in.
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Dennis Byron/Pool via REUTERS
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A Georgia judge at a hearing starting today will weigh whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election interference case she brought against Donald Trump and others over her relationship with the attorney she hired to help lead the prosecution, reports Andrew Goudsward.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has scheduled a two-day hearing focused on claims from Trump and his co-defendants that the relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest and tainted the criminal case. A lawyer for former Trump adviser Michael Roman, one of 15 remaining defendants, first raised the allegations in a court filing last month that accused Willis of benefiting financially from the relationship including through travel paid for by Wade.
Willis and Wade have acknowledged having a “personal relationship,” but said it began after Wade was brought on to the case. They could be forced to testify at the hearing after the judge said he would not immediately rule on their effort to quash subpoenas from Roman.
McAfee said on Monday that if allegations of financial impropriety by Willis are proven, it could be grounds to disqualify her office from the case, an outcome that would likely cause substantial delays and throw the future of the case into doubt.
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- Most competing schools say they won’t follow Stanford and Yale Law as they move up their law firm summer associate recruiting programs earlier in the summer. But, as Karen Sloan reports, recent history shows that the decision by Yale and Stanford is part of steady creep in which law firms have sought and received ever-earlier interview schedules for summer associate positions.
- More than 70% of federal judges have opted into a program that provides for electric security systems to detect home intrusions amid an “alarming” increase in threats against the judiciary, U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis disclosed to a U.S. House panel. Davis at a hearing said his agency was prioritizing protecting judges.
- Plaintiffs’ lawyers from Berger Montague, Hagens Berman and Garwin Gerstein & Fisher said they will seek up to about $31 million in legal fees from a $93 million Pfizer settlement resolving antitrust claims over the cholesterol drug Lipitor. Pfizer denied any liability in settling allegations from wholesale distributors in New Jersey federal court.
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That’s how much Oracle agreed to pay to settle a long-running class action accusing it of underpaying about 4,000 women in California compared to men performing the same work. Plaintiffs’ lawyers urged Judge Raymond Swope in San Mateo County Superior Court to approve the agreement, saying it was fair and reasonable. A hearing is scheduled for April 8 on preliminary approval, which if granted would allow notice to be sent to potential class members to give them a chance to object before final approval. Oracle did not admit wrongdoing. The settlement also provides for an independent expert to review Oracle’s practices.
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Two weeks after the mass arbitration pioneer Keller Postman filed a lawsuit accusing pay-TV company Starz of trying to squelch thousands of arbitration demands by requiring customers to pay big-money mediation fees, Starz has fired back. Alison Frankel has the details on the company’s bid to toss the Keller Postman suit, which argues that Starz is ready and willing to arbitrate — but that Keller Postman is stalling in the hopes of driving up fees to force Starz into a settlement.
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“Just because some brand isn’t Nike or Disney doesn’t mean that it’s not famous, right?“
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—Senior 2nd Circuit Judge Amalya Kearse, who questioned an attorney for liquor maker W.J. Deutsch & Sons on his argument that Diageo’s Bulleit brand whiskey needed a higher degree of fame to justify a jury’s holding that Deutsch’s Redemption whiskey bottles diluted Diageo’s trademark rights.
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- Former Kirkland associate Zoya Kovalenko will face off with her old firm in San Francisco federal court over its demand for employment records in her case accusing the firm of bias. In San Francisco, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson will weigh barring Kirkland from obtaining records from Paul Hastings and Fish & Richardson. Kovalenko has called the subpoenas “invasive and harassing.” Kirkland has called the claims “entirely without merit.”
- In D.C., U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will hold a status conference in a data-breach class action against U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The judge in 2022 approved a $63 million settlement, but apparently some unresolved issues remain. Jackson in a recent order said she had “received numerous communications from individuals expressing concern about the processing of their settlement claims.” Jackson wants to hear more from the parties about the status of claims processing.
- Google’s lawyers will meet in Plano, Texas, federal court with attorneys for Texas, at a status hearing in the state’s antitrust lawsuit accusing the tech giant of abusing its digital advertising dominance. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan is presiding over the case, one of several government actions challenging Google’s business practices. Google is contesting claims from Texas, whose legal team includes plaintiffs’ attorneys Mark Lanier and Ashley Keller.
- A hearing is set in Donald Trump’s case in New York on charges of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Justice Juan Merchan is expected to decide on a possible change to the March 25 trial date at the hearing, as well as decide on the parties’ pre-trial motions. Prosecutors allege Trump paid Daniels to prevent her from publicly claiming she had a sexual encounter with Trump while he was married. Trump has denied the affair.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Match Group was sued in a proposed class action claiming that its dating apps Tinder, Hinge and The League are designed to addict users. The plaintiffs accused Match of a “predatory” business model that defrauds those looking for love and fearful of missing out with an algorithm that rewards “compulsive use” of its platforms. Match did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
- Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global got the OK from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane in White Plains, New York, to sell about $1.6 billion in Grayscale cryptocurrency trust shares as part of its effort to repay creditors. Genesis is moving ahead with a liquidation plan that would shut down the company and repay customers in cash or cryptocurrency.
- Lawyers representing New Yorkers facing eviction and living in shelters sued New York City Mayor Eric Adams to try to force him to comply with new local laws expanding access to rental assistance. The lawsuit by the Legal Aid Society comes after the mayor unsuccessfully vetoed the new laws expanding access to vouchers for low-income New Yorkers and after the administration said it would not implement the laws.
- A dozen victims of Jeffrey Epstein filed a lawsuit accusing the FBI of covering up its failure to investigate the late financier, enabling his sex trafficking to continue for more than 20 years. The victims, using Jane Doe pseudonyms, said the FBI received credible tips as early as 1996 that Epstein trafficked young women and girls, yet it failed to interview victims or share what it knew with federal and local law enforcement.
- Colorado’s attorney general filed a lawsuit seeking to block Kroger’s proposed $25 billion acquisition of rival supermarket chain Albertsons as the FTC and other states continue to scrutinize the deal. The companies said they would “vigorously defend this in court” and said they are “in active dialogue” with the FTC and unnamed state attorneys general.
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- Dechert added New York-based global finance partner Eliot Relles in the firm’s corporate and securities practice. Relles was previously at Weil. (Reuters)
- A team of 15 attorneys left Orrick to join firm BonelliErede, where they’ll be part of the firm’s legal risk and compliance practice group. The group will be led by Alessandro De Nicola and based out of Milan. (BonelliErede)
- Frost Brown Todd added partners Jamie Brodsky, Alexander Staffieri and Kaitlyn George to the firm’s commercial finance practice in Louisville. They were previously at Stoll Keenon Ogden. (Frost Brown Todd)
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings brought on Kindall James as a Houston-based labor and employment partner. James was previously at Liskow & Lewis. (Bradley)
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Just over a year ago, Binance Holdings and FTX were the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Since that time, each has had well-publicized encounters with prosecutors in the DOJ, with contrasting results, writes Kevin O’Brien of Ford O’Brien Landy.
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