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Good morning. Our colleagues go inside the ties between law firm Paul Weiss and Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. Plus, a U.S. appeals court extended a block on the Biden student debt relief plan, and an ex-public defender lost her sexual harassment case against the U.S. judiciary, but the judge’s ruling joined calls for workplace reform. Scroll for our week-ahead calendar of some of the big happenings in the courts. Thanks for reading!
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is getting a boost from major law firm Paul Weiss, a favorite of Big Tech and Wall Street, our colleagues Jody Godoy and Karen Freifeld report. People working at Paul Weiss have donated more to Democratic candidates this election cycle than any other law firm.
Partner Karen Dunn, who co-leads the firm’s litigation group, has helped Harris prepare for debates, while Chairman Brad Karp is rallying other lawyers around the vice president. Karp recently launched a fundraising effort for Harris in the legal community, reaching out to nearly 300 corporate lawyers. He’s also now working with other law firm and business leaders to raise funds for Harris, and he’s recruiting lawyers to address potential election law issues.
Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson — all Paul Weiss partners — are among former Democratic officials who have publicly endorsed Harris.
Paul Weiss lawyers and staff have given at least $1.4 million to Democrats in the 2024 election cycle, the most of any law firm tracked by research group OpenSecrets. Donations from lawyers and legal industry employees this election cycle have largely gone to Joe Biden, whose campaign Harris took over in mid-July. The Biden campaign received at least $14.5 million, while Donald Trump has received at least $2.5 million.
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- The Federal Circuit upheld U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rulings for Micron, Dell and HP, finding that the decisions could stand even though the attorney who represented the tech companies — Kathi Vidal — later became the office’s director.
- Two competing groups of law firms are pressing a judge to appoint them as leaders of potentially lucrative consumer class actions accusing Apple of monopolizing the smartphone market. The firms seeking to represent consumers who bought iPhones from Apple include Hagens Berman, Girard Sharp and Seeger Weiss on one side, with Hausfeld and Susman Godfrey on the other.
- Former Twitter chairman and board member Omid Kordestani is represented by Simpson Thacher in a lawsuit seeking more than $20 million in compensation he said is owed to him following Elon Musk’s purchase of the social platform in 2022. Kordestani filed his case in San Francisco Superior Court.
- Williams & Connolly is suing DHS and other federal agencies for records related to the firm’s defense of the Turkish bank Halkbank in Manhattan federal court. The law firm asked a D.C. federal judge to compel the agencies to produce information concerning any immigration benefits in exchange for testimony from two individuals. The bank was accused of conspiring with one of the people to violate U.S. sanctions law. Halkbank has pleaded not guilty.
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That’s roughly how many administrative claims have been filed with the U.S. Navy by people saying they were harmed by the water at the Jacksonville, North Carolina, military facility Camp Lejeune. The government has admitted the water there was tainted with toxic chemicals for more than 30 years beginning in the 1950s. An Aug. 10 deadline stopped people from bringing more claims. Camp Lejeune claims face a unique process dictated by a federal law that made them possible.
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“That she is without redress under the present legal framework cannot be a cause for congratulation on the part of federal judges or administrators.“
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—U.S. District Judge William Young in a order holding that Caryn Strickland, a former public defender in North Carolina, failed to prove that U.S. federal judiciary officials mishandled a sexual harassment complaint she lodged against her supervisor. The 285-page ruling followed a rare trial focused on how the judiciary handles complaints of workplace misconduct by its 30,000 employees. Young joined calls for reforms in the judiciary, saying even though Strickland lost her case, the “inconvenient truth” was her career withered and her services in public service were lost after she made a “good faith” claim of sexual harassment. Read more.
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- Today, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan will hold an initial pretrial conference in the SEC’s case against software company SolarWinds. In July, Engelmayer dismissed most of the agency’s case, which accused SolarWinds of defrauding investors by concealing its security weaknesses before and after a Russia-linked cyberattack targeting the U.S. government.
- On Tuesday, George Santos, who was expelled from the U.S. House last year, is due to appear in court on Long Island, New York, ahead of his corruption trial. Santos has pleaded not guilty to charges of laundering campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses, charging donors’ credit cards without their consent, and receiving unemployment benefits while he was working.
- On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco will resume an evidentiary hearing that will help him craft a court order imposing reforms on Google’s app store Play. “Fortnite” maker Epic Games last year persuaded a jury that Google unlawfully stifled competition through restrictions on Android device app downloads and payments to developers for in-app transactions. Google has denied any wrongdoing.
- On Thursday, artist Ryder Ripps will ask the 9th Circuit to reverse a California court’s decision that he counterfeited Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Ripps argues that his copies of Bored Apes were protected commentary under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The appeals court rejected a related challenge from Ripps last year.
- On Friday, lawyers at Hagens Berman and Winston & Strawn will have a chance to respond to objections to their landmark nearly $2.8 billion NCAA antitrust class action settlement. The settlement resolves three lawsuits that broadly claimed the NCAA’s rules prohibiting payments to athletes violated U.S. antitrust law. The NCAA has called the accord a “step in the ongoing effort to provide increased benefits to student-athletes.”
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Meta defeated an appeal by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, that challenged its censorship of Facebook posts that spread misinformation about vaccines’ efficacy and safety. A 9th Circuit panel said the nonprofit did not show that Meta worked with or was coerced by federal officials to suppress views challenging “government orthodoxy” on vaccines.
- The 8th Circuit said a U.S. regulation restricting ownership of gun accessories known as pistol braces is likely illegal. A 2-1 panel ruled that a challenge to the rule by 25 Republican state attorneys general and others was likely to succeed because the ATF had not clearly explained what products would be covered by the rule, making it arbitrary and capricious.
- Finch Therapeutics and the University of Minnesota convinced a federal jury in Delaware that Swiss company Ferring Pharmaceuticals owes $25 million in damages for violating their patent rights in fecal transplant technology. The jury agreed with Finch that Ferring’s fecal-transplant therapy Rebyota infringes patents covering Finch’s related inventions.
- Three executives of voting technology company Smartmatic have been charged with funneling $1 million in bribes to a former Philippine election official to secure the country’s business, according to U.S. federal prosecutors in Florida. Smartmatic was not charged and is not accused of wrongdoing. It said in a statement the indicted employees have been placed on leave.
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- Buchalter opened an office in Atlanta with partners Seth Trimble, Coby Nixon, Russell Dunlap and Amanda Hyland from Taylor English, and Nicholas Dancey from McGuireWoods. (Buchalter)
- Employment law firm Jackson Lewis added Norfolk, Virginia-based partner William Jackson from Willcox Savage, and Tampa-based partner Eric Moody from Cole, Scott & Kissane. (Jackson Lewis)
- Womble Bond Dickinson added Benjamin Busboom to its corporate and securities group in Denver. He previously was at Polsinelli. (Womble)
- Munsch Hardt brought on litigation partner Stephen Huschka in Dallas from Kessler Collins. (Munsch Hardt)
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Forty years ago, legal conservatives lauded a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding an interpretation of the federal Clean Air Act by then-President Reagan’s EPA. What came to be called the Chevron doctrine would go on to be enthroned as the most cited administrative law decision in American jurisprudence, write Pierce Werner, Mary Katherine Stukes and Chassity Bobbitt of Moore & Van Allen. With the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Chevron, that throne may not only be vacant but likely usurped.
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