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Good morning. A novel legal case over last month’s devastating wildfires in Hawaii could rewrite landowners’ liability after similar disasters. Plus, West Point is the latest target of an anti-affirmative action activist group, and men who say they were abused while part of the Boy Scouts begin receiving settlement funds. Wednesday is here.
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Three landowners in Hawaii are defendants in a novel legal case seeking to hold them liable in the wildfires last month even though they didn’t start the deadly fire and the blaze ignited on land they don’t own, Tom Hals reports.
The lawsuit filed in state court from the father of a woman who died in the fires alleges the landowners, which are the governments of Hawaii and Maui County and the state’s largest private landholder, should pay damages because they allowed invasive species of towering grasses to grow wild on their property, providing dense fire fuel next to the historic Lahaina town where the blaze was focused.
Legal experts told Reuters that the case, if successful, could provide a blueprint for holding landowners liable at a time when catastrophic fire risk is growing due to climate change and the increased number of people living near wilderness areas. The case is not a sure-bet. Wildfire victims have struggled for years to hold landowners liable even for fires on their property.
An attorney for Maui County said only a small portion, if any, of its land was involved in the blaze. A spokesman for private landowner Kamehameha Schools declined to comment. Officials in Hawaii’s attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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- Charlotte, N.C., has been among the largest U.S. cities without any legal education options since 2017 when the for-profit Charlotte School of Law closed. But that could be changing, as Elon University says it plans to offer a part-time juris doctor program in Charlotte starting next fall, pending approval by the ABA. (Reuters)
- Legal artificial intelligence startup Paxton AI raised $6 million in seed funding led by WVV Capital, with participation from Kyber Knight and 25Madison. Paxton AI provides a product that functions like ChatGPT but is aimed specifically at lawyers. (Reuters)
- Settlement talks to resolve a lawsuit claiming federal court officials mishandled a former North Carolina public defender’s complaints of sexual harassment have collapsed, setting the stage for a trial in the coming months. The DOJ said in a court filing that an Aug. 17 mediation with ex-public defender Caryn Devins Strickland and subsequent talks aimed at averting a trial had ended with no deal. (Reuters)
- New York’s Davidoff Hutcher & Citron is suing Rudy Giuliani in a case that claims the former New York mayor owes the law firm nearly $1.4 million in unpaid legal fees connected to his work as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. The complaint said Giuliani has paid only $214,000 of nearly $1.6 million in legal expenses and fees he racked up between November 2019 and July 2023. (Reuters)
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That’s how many weeks, at least, that the U.S. judiciary said it can operate if the federal government shuts down amid a budget impasse in the Congress. The Republican-controlled U.S. House and the Democratic-led Senate have until Sept. 30 to avoid a shutdown by passing spending legislation. The risk of a shutdown has grown as hardline Republicans in the House demand spending cuts beyond levels agreed upon in June. As in past shutdowns, the judiciary retains some ability to remain open and avoid furloughs by using court fee balances and other funds not dependent on Congress appropriating new funding. Most court proceedings during the two week window will occur as scheduled.
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Delaware Vice Chancellor Travis Laster is about to take on a difficult task: picking shareholder lawyers to lead the case accusing Fox Corp officers and directors of breaching their duties by allowing the company to become mired in defamation claims. The unsealing last week of two new complaints against Fox board members, writes Alison Frankel, shows how fierce that contest is likely to be, with competing slates of experienced law firms offering up similarly detailed allegations. Some small variation, Frankel says, could make all the difference.
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“We know that this day has been a long time coming for these survivors.“
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- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will testify before a U.S. House panel at an oversight hearing, marking his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the DOJ’s criminal charges against Donald Trump and against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. Excerpts of his prepared remarks showed that Garland is prepared to push back against lawmakers who have criticized the DOJ for its handling of the indictments of Trump and Hunter Biden. “Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” Garland is planning to tell the House Judiciary Committee. Watch the hearing.
- In the 5th Circuit, Judges Jerry Smith, Leslie Southwick and Stephen Higginson will hear the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s challenge to the SEC’s new share buyback rule. Brinton Lucas of Jones Day, who will argue for the Chamber, said the SEC’s rule saddles companies that seek to buy back their own shares with onerous disclosure requirements and accused the regulator of pushing through the rule too quickly. The SEC contends that the rule is a modest update to existing disclosure requirements and that it took enough time to consider industry comments before approving it. The SEC’s Theodore Weiman will represent the agency.
- The 8th Circuit will hear a challenge by the pharmaceutical industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to an Arkansas law that requires drug companies to provide access to discounted drugs to pharmacies in the state under the federal 340B drug pricing program, which dictates specific healthcare providers caring for indigent patients that must be provided with discounted drugs. The trade group, represented by Latham & Watkins, says the Arkansas law improperly expands on the federal law, which does not include the pharmacies. The Arkansas Insurance Department is defending the law, arguing that allowing indigent patients to access discounted drugs at pharmacies is necessary in the state.
- U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose will hold a status conference in an employee benefits case against Intel. The prospective class action that plaintiffs’ firm Cohen Milstein filed in January challenges how Intel’s pension plan calculates benefits for married retirees. In a recent filing, lawyers for the two sides — Intel is represented by Williams & Connolly and Proskauer — said they are continuing settlement talks through a mediation program.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- A team from Akin Gump is representing Elon Musk-owned SpaceX in its lawsuit claiming the U.S. government’s administrative case accusing the rocket and satellite company of refusing to hire refugees and asylees violates the U.S. Constitution. SpaceX is suing the U.S. in the Southern District of Texas. (Reuters)
- Amazon and its attorneys from Fenwick & West convinced a Delaware federal jury that features of its Amazon Music and Kindle e-reader apps for “seeking” specific parts of song lyrics and audiobooks did not infringe a Virginia inventor’s patent. After a five-day trial, the jury said that Amazon’s technology did not infringe a patent covering a “remote control for multimedia seeking” owned by inventor Curt Evans’ TrackTime and found that the patent was invalid. (Reuters)
- Weil Gotshal is leading a U.S. Supreme Court petition for minor league baseball clubs seeking to overturn a court-crafted antitrust shield for Major League Baseball. The challengers contend MLB developmental league restructuring violated competition law. They want the justices to overturn precedent that has shielded professional baseball from antitrust liability. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan said DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats can sue New York City over a law capping how much they can charge restaurants for delivering meals. Woods said the plaintiffs, who are represented by Anne Champion of Gibson Dunn, adequately alleged that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and New York state constitution by depriving them of their right to contract with restaurants and forcing them to operate in the city at a loss. (Reuters)
- Former U.S. Congressman Stephen Buyer, a Republican from Indiana, was sentenced to 22 months in prison for trading on inside information he learned in 2018 as a consultant to T-Mobile US ahead of its $23 billion merger with Sprint. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in New York sentenced Buyer, who was found guilty on four counts of securities fraud at a trial in March. (Reuters)
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- Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer hired Hemmie Chang to lead the firm’s new Boston office. Chang previously was co-leader of Foley Hoag’s life sciences industry group. (Reuters)
- Orrick hired John Eliason as a D.C.-based infrastructure and energy partner from Greenberg Traurig, where he was co-leader of the firm’s energy project finance practice. (Reuters)
- Seyfarth Shaw opened a Dallas office, hiring a team from Bryan Cave Leighton, including real estate partner Amy Simpson and litigation partner Tricia Macaluso. Seyfarth also brought on Charlotte-based real estate partner Katie Schwarting, also from BCLP. (Reuters)
- Quinn Emanuel added Melis Acuner as London-based partner who focuses on arbitration. Acuner previously was at Cadwalader. (Reuters)
- Gibson Dunn added finance partner Kavita Davis in the firm’s London office. Davis was previously at Simpson Thacher. (Gibson Dunn)
- Greenberg Traurig hired Julia Frost-Davies in Boston as a partner focused on restructuring and bankruptcy. Frost-Davies was previously at Morgan Lewis. (Greenberg Traurig)
- Bracewell added Kasia Lebiecki in Dubai as a partner in the firm’s corporate and securities practice. Lebiecki previously was at Shearman & Sterling. (Bracewell)
- Polsinelli hired St. Louis-based business department partners J. Powell Carmen and C. Brendan Johnson from BCLP. (Polsinelli)
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