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Good morning. Some law firms want their people back in the office more often, marking the end of hybrid work for some lawyers. Plus, Barber Ranen gets a new name, Shopify wants to know who is behind a patent infringement lawsuit, and Davis Wright will fight an order saying it missed its shot at more than $300,000 in fees. Thursday already? This week escalated quickly!
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Law firm leaders are increasing their demands for in-person work, Sara Merken writes. Davis Polk attorneys will join a growing number of other U.S. workers facing more stringent in-person work policies as the pandemic era fades.
The Wall Street law firm will mandate U.S. lawyers and business services professionals work in the office Monday through Thursday starting after Labor Day, managing partner Neil Barr said. Remote work, implemented at U.S. law offices and beyond at the start of the pandemic, does not effectively allow mentorship, training and relationship-building opportunities, Barr’s memo said. The firm had previously said it expected its attorneys to come into the office three to four days per week.
Skadden also said recently that lawyers will be required to work in the office Monday through Thursday after Labor Day. Many other law firms ask lawyers to work in the office at least three days per week. Some law firms have offered more flexibility. Quinn Emanuel adopted a policy in 2021 allowing any of its U.S. lawyers to work from anywhere in the country indefinitely.
Other sectors are also pushing for more office attendance. JPMorgan in April asked its managing directors to work from the office for five days a week. Asset manager BlackRock has asked staff to return to the office at least four days a week starting in September.
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- Los Angeles-based law firm Barber Ranen changed its name to Daugherty Lordan, after the publication of racist, antisemitic, homophobic and violently misogynistic emails written by its founding partners John Barber and Jeffrey Ranen sent shockwaves through the firm just a month after it was formed. Barber and Ranen have apologized, saying in a statement that they resigned “to allow our friends and colleagues to continue on without the cloud of our conduct hanging over them.” (Reuters)
- Justice Clarence Thomas, under scrutiny over revelations that he did not disclose luxury trips paid for by billionaire Dallas businessman Harlan Crow, received an extension to file his mandatory annual financial disclosure. Thomas has defended his prior disclosures, saying he has always sought to comply with guidelines. (Reuters)
- The Biden White House turned to two federal prosecutors — Jerry Edwards Jr and Brandon Long — for appointments to U.S. district courts in Louisiana. Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said the lawyers “are expected to receive bipartisan support and are the product of working with the White House to find qualified nominees.” (Reuters)
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That’s how much Davis Wright wants to recoup in legal fees in a federal court case for its work for Greenpeace. That effort for payment, tied to a sanctions order, was scuttled after U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar said in an order that it was “untimely.” Tigar found Davis Wright had a December 2022 deadline to submit its fee papers. Davis Wright lawyers dispute that the deadline was still valid, since plaintiff Resolute Forest Products had challenged the sanctions order. The law firm won a summary judgment order for Greenpeace in April, defeating defamation claims from Resolute. Davis Wright said it planned to appeal the fee order.
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A ruling in a case brought by investors in a now-worthless crypto token is a warning to celebrities and social media influencers like reality star Kim Kardashian: If you’re paid to hype a dicey investment to your followers, you may be liable when they take your advice. U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald of Los Angeles refused to toss California unfair competition claims against Kardashian, boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and NBA hall-of-famer Paul Pierce for their allegedly deceptive promotion of EthereumMax tokens in the midst of the 2021 crypto boom. Hyping a crypto token without disclosing you’ve been paid to do so or without having any legitimate basis to believe in the token’s value “is an unscrupulous and thereby unfair practice,” the judge said. Alison Frankel has the details on the new ruling, which reverses the judge’s dismissal last December of a previous version of the investor lawsuit filed by Scott + Scott.
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“The idea that all of this is some fanciful hypothetical is just really hard for my clients to stomach.“
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- In Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel will hold a sanctions hearing over whether a lawyer should be reprimanded for including made-up case citations in a legal brief that he said ChatGPT provided to him. The lawyer, Steven Schwartz of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, used ChatGPT for a brief in his client’s personal injury case against Avianca Airlines. The filing cited six nonexistent cases. Schwartz said in a court filing he “greatly regrets” his reliance on the technology and was “unaware of the possibility that its contents could be false.” He urged the court this week not to sanction him, saying that his actions “were not the result of any intentional effort to mislead or deceive the court.” Castel in an order said the court has been “presented with an unprecedented circumstance.”
- A Federal Circuit panel will hear arguments from enterprise data warehouse Teradata as it seeks to revive antitrust and trade-secret claims against business software provider SAP. Morrison & Foerster’s Deanne Maynard will argue for Teradata, which sued SAP in California federal court in 2018. Kannon Shanmugam of Paul Weiss will argue for SAP, which is also represented by lawyers from Jones Day. SAP’s lawyers argue among other things that Teradata’s antitrust claim failed “because its market definitions relied on a slipshod, unreliable expert opinion.”
- Crypto developer Do Kwon and his company Terraform Labs will ask U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan to dismiss the SEC case accusing them of defrauding investors. Kwon founded blockchain platform Terraform and was the primary developer of two cryptocurrencies whose demise roiled crypto markets around the world last year. His lawyers at Dentons contend the SEC should be barred “from using federal securities law to assert jurisdiction over the digital assets in this case.”
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- E-commerce company Shopify asked a federal judge in West Texas to force a patent owner suing it for infringement to reveal its financial backers, arguing the disclosures are necessary to prevent potential conflicts of interest. Shopify said there was evidence that Lower48 IP LLC is backed by previously undisclosed litigation funders, whose identity will remain secret unless the court requires disclosure of third-party interests. (Reuters)
- Hollywood actor Jay Johnston, who has appeared on such TV shows as “Arrested Development” and the cartoon hit “Bob’s Burgers,” was arrested this week for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Johnston was accused in a criminal complaint of disorderly conduct, entering restricted grounds and other crimes. He was expected to make an initial court appearance in Los Angeles. (Reuters)
- Colorado company Wilson Aerospace accused Boeing in a lawsuit of stealing trade secrets for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, and then building components with “critical” safety flaws that could endanger astronauts. Wilson Aerospace said it worked with Boeing after it sought Wilson’s help in safely attaching engines to the rocket, but Boeing then canceled Wilson’s work on the project yet kept using its intellectual property. Boeing called the lawsuit “rife with inaccuracies and omissions.” (Reuters)
- Prince Harry spent a day-and-a-half in the witness box being grilled over allegations he had been unlawfully targeted for phone hacking and other intrusions by Mirror Group Newspapers’ titles from 1996, when he was a child. “To have a decision against me and any other people that come behind me with their claims, given that Mirror Group have accepted hacking, … yes, I would feel some injustice,” he said. (Reuters)
- Mattress maker Serta Simmons, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of U.S. bedding sales, had its Chapter 11 reorganization plan confirmed by a U.S. bankruptcy court. The plan aims to reduce its debt to $315 million from $1.9 billion and projects that the company’s annual cash interest expense will fall by more than $100 million. (Reuters)
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- Freshfields hired former Weil partner Damian Ridealgh for its U.S. finance practice in New York. (Reuters)
- Duane Morris added J. Eric Holland as a Houston-based corporate partner. Holland was previously at Balch & Bingham. (Duane Morris)
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