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Good morning. Racial diversity among new law students has reached a new high, our colleague Karen Sloan reports, preceding a new national ban on race-conscious admission policies. Plus, some companies altered DEI policies amid a threat of litigation; Tennessee hit BlackRock with a lawsuit over its ESG strategy; and a U.S. judge wants to hear more about some case citations that don’t appear to exist. We’re here, it’s Tuesday, and thanks for reading!
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U.S. law school enrollment has stabilized after a volatile two years, while racial diversity among new law students hit a historic high in the final admissions cycle before a national ban on affirmative action took effect, our colleague Karen Sloan reports.
New American Bar Association figures show that the total number of law students beginning their Juris Doctor programs this fall declined a mere half a percentage point nationwide compared with 2022. The number of first-year students spiked nearly 12% in 2021 amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, only to plummet in 2022.
Law student diversity continued to climb, meanwhile, even while racial diversity in the overall U.S. legal industry lags far behind that of the general population. Among the new class, 40% are students of color, according to a Law School Admission Council analysis of the ABA data. That’s an increase from 39% in 2022, it found, marking the third straight year that law schools have collectively enrolled the most diverse class on record.
This year’s first-year J.D. class is the last to be admitted when most law schools could legally consider applicants’ race. The U.S. Supreme Court in June banned affirmative action at colleges and universities, though a handful of states such as California already had such a ban in place at public institutions.
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- Texas bankruptcy judge Marvin Isgur does not need to recuse himself from a case that was reassigned to him after a fellow judge, who was a close friend, resigned amid misconduct allegations, Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo Rodriguez ruled. Rodriguez said in his ruling that there was no evidence that Isgur was biased in his handling of 4E Brands‘ bankruptcy case, or that David Jones, the prior judge on the case, had any influence over Isgur or any interest in the outcome of the case.
- Federal prosecutors are seeking an eight-month prison term for a Gibson Dunn visiting attorney who was charged with insider trading. Brazilian lawyer Romero Cabral da Costa Neto began working for Gibson Dunn in late 2022 as a visiting attorney hired on a one-year contract. He has asked for sentence of time served and supervised release.
- Mergers in markets where there are a few big players will receive tougher scrutiny under new guidelines from the DOJ and FTC. Antitrust enforcers said the guidelines are aimed at encouraging fair, open and competitive markets.
- Williams & Connolly’s John Schmidtlein will be on the team defending Amazon in the FTC’s antitrust case in Seattle federal court, a new filing shows. Schmidtlein is lead counsel for Google in the DOJ’s antitrust case in D.C. over the tech giant’s web search dominance. Amazon has asked a U.S. court to dismiss the FTC’s claims.
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That’s how much Southwest Airlines agreed to pay in a record-setting $140 million civil penalty over the December 2022 holiday meltdown that led to 16,900 flight cancellations and stranded 2 million passengers, David Shepardson reports. The U.S. Department of Transportation consent order resolves a lengthy government investigation into the massive travel disruption and provides “a strong deterrent,” the agency said. The settlement includes a $35 million cash fine and a three-year mandate that Southwest provide $90 million in travel vouchers. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said the company is “absolutely” ready for winter.
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“We cannot rubber stamp [Mark] Meadows’s legal opinion that the President’s chief of staff has unfettered authority.“
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—Chief Judge William Pryor of the 11th Circuit, in a ruling that rejected an effort from Trump-era White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his 2020 election-related prosecution from Georgia state court to federal court. The appeals court panel spurned arguments from Meadows that he was acting under the role of the chief of staff, a federal official, in election-related work tied to Trump’s failed run. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and other charges. The circuit judges said former federal officials were not entitled to have criminal cases heard in federal court.
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- A defense lawyer for former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen faces a court deadline to respond to a U.S. judge’s inquiry about a court filing citing cases that “as far as the court can tell” do not exist. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman last week directed attorney David M. Schwartz to “provide copies of the three cited decisions to the court.” Schwartz of Gerstman Schwartz asked Furman to end Cohen’s probation early. Schwartz did not respond to questions from Reuters about Cohen’s case.
- In Chicago, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly will hold a status conference in a privacy action against freight rail giant BNSF. The company, represented by Jones Day, has indicated it intends to settle a lawsuit alleging violations of Illinois’ stringent rules over the collection of fingerprints and other biometric data. Kennelly in June wiped out a $228 million jury award, giving BNSF a chance to argue for a reduced amount in damages. The court’s order did not disturb a liability finding.
- U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston will hear a challenge to a new Massachusetts law approved by voters that requires pork products sold in the state to come from pigs given sufficient space to lie down. Lawyers from Husch Blackwell represent plaintiffs including Triumph Foods and Allied Producers’ Cooperative. A friend-of-the-court brief from animal welfare groups backed the state’s bid to dismiss the case.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered a halt to the removal of a Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery shortly after U.S. Army crews began work to dismantle the tall bronze statue as required by Congress under a Jan. 1 deadline. Alston set a hearing for today in the case.
- A Washington state jury ordered Bayer’s Monsanto to pay $857 million to seven former students and parent volunteers of a school northeast of Seattle who claimed that chemicals known as PCBs made by the company leaked from light fixtures and made them sick, according to court documents. Monsanto called the award “constitutionally excessive” and said the company will move to have the verdict overturned or reduced.
- Texas’s governor is expected to sign a law that will allow state law enforcement to arrest people suspected of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, giving local officers powers long delegated to the federal government in a move that will likely trigger legal challenges by rights groups.
- Oregon electric utility PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, will pay $250 million to logging companies whose commercial timber burned during wildfires in the state in 2020, a representative for the companies said. A PacifiCorp spokesperson said the wildfires were “undeniably tragic” and that it is pleased to resolve the matter.
- AbbVie, represented by Jones Day, accused startup Adcentrx Therapeutics in a new lawsuit of stealing trade secrets to develop competing cancer-fighting antibodies by hiring away AbbVie scientist Danny Lee. Lee and representatives for AbbVie and Adcentrx did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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- Paul Weiss hired private equity partner Christopher Sullivan and finance partner Taner Hassan in London. They most recently practiced at Clifford Chance. (Reuters)
- Morgan Lewis added Frankfurt, Germany-based private equity partners Hans “Peter” Leube and Marianne Nawroth. They arrive at the firm from Bird & Bird, where Leube was co-head of the international private equity group. (Morgan Lewis)
- Mintz brought on Toronto-based partner Mervyn Allen, who will launch the firm’s real estate practice in Canada. He arrives from McMillan, where he was co-chair of the commercial real estate group and chair of the commercial leasing practice. (Mintz)
- Reed Smith hired partner Mark Drury for its financial industry group in London. He most recently was at Linklaters. (Reed Smith)
- Day Pitney brought on trust and estates partner Melissa Rodriguez in Miami. She joins the firm’s private client department from Akerman. (Day Pitney)
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