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Good morning. Wells Fargo’s report on the legal industry’s first quarter shows that demand and productivity were down, but revenue was up. Plus, the 11th Circuit hears arguments over whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of a prosecutor violated his free speech rights, and one law school towers above the rest in sending the most grads into government and public interest jobs. Welcome to Wednesday.
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A new report on the legal industry from Wells Fargo revealed the ongoing impact of a drop in client demand — but the news could be worse, reports David Thomas.
Industry surveys showed a marked drop in client demand, in part driven by a decrease in M&A activity, at the end of 2022. That continued into the first quarter of the new year, according to Wells Fargo’s latest Legal Specialty Group report.
Still, revenue was up 4.7% among the surveyed firms.
The data showed a 1.5% drop in demand, calculated as the number of hours lawyers billed. Firms among the 50 highest-grossing U.S. law firms saw a 2% drop compared with the first quarter of 2022, the report said. As a result, attorney headcount was flat, rising just 0.4% on average, from the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 to the end of this past quarter, the report said.
But Owen Burman, a senior consultant in the Wells Fargo unit, said it was surprising to see any growth at all.
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- It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, and in the 3rd Circuit that means your court filing is due. The Philadelphia-based U.S. appeals court has adopted a uniform 5 p.m. Eastern deadline for all filings, electronic or otherwise. The change followed years of 3rd Circuit Chief Judge Michael Chagares pushing for the judiciary as a whole to consider rolling back deadlines to improve attorneys’ work-life balance. Some bar groups expressed opposition to changing filing deadlines. The rule takes effect on July 1.
- The City University of New York School of Law sent more than 61% of its 2022 JD grads into government and public interest jobs within 10 months of graduation, new employment figures from the American Bar Association show. CUNY Law was tops by far among law schools whose grads took these kinds of jobs. (Reuters)
- Two former federal prosecutors were confirmed in the U.S. Senate to serve on the New Jersey federal trial court. Michael Farbiarz, a former terrorism prosecutor who became general counsel for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was confirmed on a 65-34 vote. Senators voted 57-42 to elevate New Jersey Superior Court Judge Robert Kirsch to the federal bench. (Reuters)
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That’s at least how many lawyers are leaving Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith after signing agreements to join a newly-formed spin-off firm, according to firm founder John Barber. Barber, who was chair of 1,700-lawyer Lewis Brisbois’ employment practice, said as many as 140 lawyers could eventually join Barber Ranen, the new firm he launched along with former Lewis Brisbois labor and employment vice chair Jeffrey Ranen. Mary Smigielski, Midwest regional vice chair of Lewis Brisbois’ labor and employment practice, said in an email statement that the confidence of partners and the labor and employment practice “has not wavered” and the firm’s bottom line “remains strong.”
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Thomas Fox believed that Gratiot County, Michigan, violated his Fifth Amendment rights when it kept all of the $25,000 proceeds from an auction of property that the county seized from Fox after he fell behind on a $3,000 tax bill. But Fox didn’t just sue Gratiot County. He also named 26 other Michigan counties as defendants in his class action, arguing that under the rarely-invoked juridical link doctrine, he was entitled to bring claims for absent class members injured by the same alleged conduct that he experienced. The 6th Circuit disagreed, in a ruling that deepens a circuit split on the viability of juridical link doctrine. Alison Frankel has the details.
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“This is not about making the court better; it’s about destroying a conservative court. It will not work.“
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—Sen. Lindsey Graham, who spoke during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on ethics at the U.S. Supreme Court, calling the push for legislation setting ethical standards for the country’s most powerful justices a bid by Democrats to delegitimize the court as a whole. None of the nine justices appeared at the hearing. Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday declined an invitation by committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin to testify. “Because the court will not act, Congress must,” Durbin said.
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The highest state court in Massachusetts will consider whether to revive a state fiduciary duty rule that was central to an enforcement action that securities regulators filed against the online brokerage Robinhood. Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Michael Ricciuti last year sided with Robinhood in a lawsuit it filed after Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin in December 2020 accused it of encouraging inexperienced investors to place risky trades. The judge’s decision to invalidate the fiduciary rule knocked out a key part of the case against Robinhood, which is on hold pending the outcome of Galvin’s appeal. Lawyers from Williams & Connolly and Morgan Lewis represent Robinhood.
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In the D.C. Circuit, Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to former President Donald Trump, is due to file his opening court papers in his appeal of his conviction and sentence on two counts of contempt of Congress. Bannon was found guilty in July after failing to provide documents or testimony to a House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols sentenced the political strategist to four months in prison. Nichols allowed Bannon to defer serving his sentence while he pursued appeals.
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The U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee on competition policy and antitrust will hold a hearing focused on digital advertising competition. Last week, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia denied Google’s motion to dismiss the DOJ’s antitrust case focused on advertising technology, saying the government’s case was strong enough to go forward. The government, which filed the ad tech lawsuit in January, has argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite. Google has denied any wrongdoing. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat, will chair the subcommittee panel.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The family of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, convicted of war crimes for his role in the 1990s Balkan conflict, sued the U.S. Treasury Department in a bid to force a decision on whether to lift U.S. sanctions against them. Karadzic’s wife, son and daughter filed a complaint in D.C. federal court alleging that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has unreasonably delayed making a determination on whether to remove them from the sanctions list. (Reuters)
- Apple urged a London tribunal to block a $2 billion mass lawsuit accusing it of hiding defective batteries in millions of iPhones by “throttling” them with software updates. The tech giant, which is facing a lawsuit worth up to 1.6 billion pounds plus interest, said in written arguments that the lawsuit is “baseless” and strongly denies its iPhones’ batteries were defective. (Reuters)
- VMware must pay $84.5 million for infringing two patents belonging to rival software company Densify, a Delaware federal jury said. The jury found VMware willfully violated Densify’s patent rights with its software for optimizing “virtual machines” used in cloud computing. (Reuters)
- U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Manhattan approved Revlon’s reorganization plan, allowing the cosmetics maker to cut $2.7 billion from its debt and exit bankruptcy later this month. Under the plan, Revlon’s lenders will take ownership of the company in exchange for the debt reduction agreement, wiping out the equity value of existing shareholders. (Reuters)
- Amgen sued Novartis and its subsidiaries in New Jersey federal court, accusing their proposed versions of its multi-billion dollar bone-strengthening drugs Prolia and Xgeva of infringing several patents. Amgen, which is represented by Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga, asked the court to block Novartis, Sandoz and Lek Pharmaceuticals’ biosimilars of the drugs until its patents expire. (Reuters)
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- Simmons & Simmons hired David Blumental in Hong Kong as head of Asia energy and infrastructure practice. Blumental was previously at Latham. (Reuters)
- Kramer Levin hired former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Estes, who co-led the general crimes unit in the Southern District of New York, for the firm’s white-collar and government investigations practice. (Reuters)
- Brian Burke, who focuses on corporate investigations and compliance counseling, took his practice from Shearman & Sterling to Steptoe & Johnson in New York. (Reuters)
- Allen & Overy added partners Kenny Kwan and Caryn Ng, who focus on equity capital markets and public M&A. They were previously at Baker McKenzie. (Reuters)
- DLA Piper hired Naomi Moore to serve as the firm’s new restructuring practice leader for the Asia Pacific region. Moore, previously at Akin, will divide her time between DLA Piper’s Sydney and Hong Kong offices. (Reuters)
- Constangy hired six new cybersecurity lawyers and business professionals, including partner Jordan Fischer, who most recently led the compliance and advisory team at Octillo Law. (Reuters)
- Squire Patton Boggs hired partner Lian Yok Tan for its energy and infrastructure practice in Singapore. Yok Tan joins the firm from K&L Gates, where she was global co-head of the energy, infrastructure and resources practice. (Reuters)
- Manatt added Boston-based trial, white-collar and investigations partners Joan Lukey and Marty Murphy. Lukey was previously at Choate Hall, and Murphy joins the firm from Foley Hoag, where he co-chaired the litigation department. (Manatt)
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Correction: The Industry Moves section in the May 2 edition of The Daily Docket misspelled Akin partner Corinne Musa’s name.
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