 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=31343501&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=31343501&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=31343501&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=31343501&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=31343501&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=31343501&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
Good morning. Drug maker Gilead is fighting one of the first patent enforcement lawsuits brought by the government in a trial that starts today. Plus, the Apple-Masimo fight ends in a mistrial, and the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ethics – without the chief justice. Let’s get to it.
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
The U.S. government is taking Gilead Sciences to Delaware federal court this week in a novel patent trial over Gilead’s PrEP HIV-prevention drugs Truvada and Descovy, reports Blake Brittain. Jury selection starts today in the case, which marks one of the first times the U.S. government has sued a drug maker to enforce its patent rights.
Gilead made more than $2 billion last year from worldwide sales of the drugs, according to a company report. Now, the government is seeking more than $1 billion from Gilead for allegedly failing to compensate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for discovering that Gilead’s HIV drugs could also be used to prevent the disease. Gilead has denied the allegations, argued that it has a license to the patents, and alleged that the patents are invalid.
Gilead and the CDC started collaborating in the mid-2000s to research whether the company’s HIV-treatment drugs could also be used to prevent the virus.
|
|
|
- University of Montana law professor Anthony Johnstone was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a vote of 49 to 45 to serve on the 9th Circuit. Johnstone previously served as state solicitor for Montana and worked at Cravath as an associate in New York. (Reuters)
- A landlord for Crowell & Moring in D.C told a judge that the law firm is not entitled to recover $30 million in rent refunds for its diminished use of its offices during the COVID-19 pandemic, in papers filed in District of Columbia Superior Court. (Reuters)
- A group of at least eight partners has left law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, including national labor and employment chair John Barber, to start a new firm. (Reuters)
- A group of 20 U.S. lawyers has departed London-founded Clyde & Co to form a new firm that will represent insurance companies. Werner Ahari Mangel debuted with nine founding partners from Clyde & Co, including name partners Meredith Werner, Leslie Ahari and Douglas Mangel. The bulk of the team will be based in D.C. (Reuters)
- Blank Rome said it snagged a seven-lawyer team focused on international trade from rival McDermott Will & Emery in Washington, D.C. The team is led by partners Joanne Osendarp, who will help steer Blank Rome’s international trade group, and Eric Parnes. (Reuters)
|
That’s the percentage of Stanford Law’s 2022 graduates who landed federal court clerkships, the highest percentage among all U.S. law schools, according to new data from the American Bar Association. Stanford replaced the University of Chicago Law in the top spot, which Chicago had held for the previous two years. Yale Law moved up to No. 2, with nearly 23% of juris doctor grads in 2022 taking federal clerkships, after landing at No. 3 last year. Chicago slipped to No. 3, with just over 20% of recent graduates in such clerkships. Read more of Karen Sloan’s reporting on new ABA numbers: Large U.S. law firms love hiring from these schools and these law schools aced the job market in 2022.
|
With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the midst of a stunning barrage of enforcement actions against crypto defendants, the industry has developed a sweeping, if long-shot, argument that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently-formalized “major questions doctrine” should block the agency’s campaign. Alison Frankel explains how crypto’s theory first emerged last fall in the SEC’s closely-watched case against Ripple Labs, then blossomed early this year in the agency’s insider trading case against former Coinbase employee Ishan Wahi, and now has emerged in a Coinbase white paper in which the crypto exchange attempts to convince regulators not to bring an anticipated enforcement action. So far, Frankel writes, the SEC doesn’t seem too worried. But Coinbase has warned that if the agency sues, the major questions doctrine could become a major headache for the agency.
|
“Nate’s choices in his head about which NFT to feature weren’t considered by OpenSea to be confidential back then.“
|
—Daniel Filor of Greenberg Traurig, a lawyer for former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain, who said that his client was never told that his ideas of which NFTs to feature on the NFT marketplace’s website were considered confidential information. Chastain is facing insider trading charges after prosecutors said he bought NFTs that he had chosen to feature on the marketplace’s website, netting more than $50,000 in illegal profits by selling them shortly after. In his closing argument, Filor did not dispute that his client made the trades but said that no one at the company told Chastain he could not use or disclose information as to which NFTs would be displayed on the homepage.
|
-
An 11th Circuit panel will take up ousted Florida elected state prosecutor Andrew Warren’s First Amendment retaliation claim against Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. Warren was the top prosecutor for Tampa when DeSantis removed him over his stance, articulated in a letter with other state prosecutors across the country, against prosecuting abortion rights cases. The appeals court agreed to fast-track its review of Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s order against Warren. Walker said he found DeSantis had run afoul of U.S. and state constitutional speech protections, but the judge said his hands were tied. Walker last week was assigned to hear Disney’s lawsuit against DeSantis.
-
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an ethics hearing at which Chief Justice John Roberts was requested to testify but declined. The committee’s Democratic chairman, Senator Dick Durbin, had asked the chief justice to appear before the panel to address potential reforms to ethics rules governing the justices. Durbin cited “a steady stream of revelations regarding justices falling short of the ethical standards.” After Roberts said he would not appear, the committee asked him to provide details about the top court’s ethics practices. Durbin requested that Roberts respond by May 1.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
-
Automaker Ford won reversal of a $105 million trade-secrets verdict in Detroit federal court, after U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman said plaintiff Versata Software did not offer evidence to let jurors calculate damages accurately. “Overturning a jury verdict is difficult by design,” Leitman said in a 51-page decision. (Reuters)
- The ACLU of Montana, teaming up with private lawyers, sued Montana and its Republican House speaker in state court, accusing them of violating Democratic transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr’s First Amendment rights by barring her from the House floor after she protested a bill banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors. (Reuters)
-
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the government can require commercial fishermen to help fund a program monitoring herring catches off New England’s coast in a case that could undercut the regulatory power of federal agencies. The fishing companies are asking the Supreme Court to overturn its own decades-old precedent calling for judges to defer to federal agency interpretation of U.S. laws, a doctrine called “Chevron deference.” (Reuters)
-
Conservation groups sued the FAA in D.C. federal court, challenging the aviation agency’s approval of expanded rocket launch operations by Elon Musk’s SpaceX next to a national wildlife refuge in South Texas without requiring greater environmental study. The federal court lawsuit comes 11 days after SpaceX sent its next-generation Starship rocket on its first test flight. The mission ended when the vehicle exploded over the Gulf of Mexico after blasting the launch pad to ruins on liftoff. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to examine how difficult it should be for financial whistleblowers to win retaliation lawsuits against their employers, as the justices took up a long-running case involving Switzerland’s UBS Group. The justices will hear an appeal by Trevor Murray, a former UBS bond strategist, and address a technical but important issue – whether whistleblowers who sue their employers for retaliation under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act must prove that companies acted with “retaliatory intent.” (Reuters)
|
-
Quinn Emanuel hired former Kirkland partner Allan Pixton in the firm’s Chicago office. According to his former Kirkland online profile, Pixton’s litigation experience covered class actions and mass torts. (Reuters)
-
Boies Schiller added Fort Lauderdale-based appellate and commercial litigation partner Evan Ezray, a former Florida deputy solicitor general. (Reuters)
-
Former U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel joined King & Spalding as a senior counsel in the trials and global disputes practice in Austin. Yeakel formerly served on the Western District of Texas before announcing his retirement in March. (Reuters)
-
Haynes and Boone added Larry Shosid as a Dallas-based partner in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions, private equity and real estate practices. Shosid was previously at Bell Nunnally. (Reuters)
-
Crowell hired Aaron Cummings in D.C. as co-chair of the firm’s government affairs group. Cummings was previously chief of staff to Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grasley of Iowa. (Crowell)
- Akin Gump brought on Corrine Musa, a fund finance partner based in the firm’s New York office. Musa was previously at Cooley. (Akin)
- Willkie Farr brought on Koren Bell in Los Angeles as a litigation partner focused on white-collar and strategic motions. Bell was previously at Larson. (Willkie)
- Eversheds Sutherland added Rachel Reid as an Atlanta-based partner in the corporate and insurance groups. Reid was previously deputy general counsel at Voya Financial. (Eversheds)
- Brown Rudnick added New York-based partner Merri Moken to the firm’s intellectual property practice. Molen was previously at Paul Hastings. (Brown Rudnick)
|
|
|
Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletter or other Reuters news content.
Get Reuters News App
Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re subscribed to, click here.
|
|
|
|
