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U.S. commercial litigation funders committed 14% less capital in 2023, according to a new report that said funders were hampered by broader financial market trends that prompted institutional investors to allocate money elsewhere, reports Sara Merken.
Companies that finance U.S. commercial lawsuits in exchange for a cut of any recoveries committed $2.7 billion to new financing transactions last year, down from $3.2 billion in 2022, according to an annual report by litigation finance advisory firm Westfleet Advisors. Westfleet’s report cites public sources and self-reported, aggregated data from litigation finance companies on transactions from July 2022 through June 2023.
The report said the 2023 results showed “an industry in a state of flux.”
Westfleet CEO Charles Agee said higher interest rates led large institutional investors to view other asset classes as “relatively more attractive” in the short term.
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- Twelve states and Washington, D.C., have sent a letter to gun maker Glock, asking the company to preserve documents about its line of pistols and their ability to be converted into machine guns as the states investigate whether the sale of the guns violates their laws.
- California admitted a record high proportion of women and minority lawyers in 2023, but the state’s lawyer rolls remain significantly whiter than its adult population, according to a study by the State Bar of California.
- The National Abortion Federation won hundreds of thousands of dollars more in legal fees for its work battling anti-abortion activists in San Francisco federal court. The Center for Medical Progress unsuccessfully argued hourly rates of up to $1,450 for the federation’s attorneys at Morrison & Foerster were “inflated.”
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has struck a deal to resolve securities fraud charges brought by state prosecutors nearly a decade ago, his lawyers said. The state will drop the charges in 18 months if Paxton pays restitution to investors and completes community service and legal education, his lawyers said, adding that Paxton will not admit wrongdoing under the deal.
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That’s the arbitration award Walgreens asked a Delaware federal judge to strike down as “egregious” and “improper.” The amount stems from a dispute with telemedicine company Everly Health, whose lawyers at Susman Godfrey have asked the court to affirm the award. Everly called the award “presumptively valid.” Attorneys for Walgreens at Gibson Dunn said the amount is 12 times the maximum allowed under the COVID-era contract between the two companies. They said the nearly billion-dollar award was the largest under the Lanham Act federal trademark law.
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, facing the prospect that a federal trial judge in Fort Worth, Texas, may transfer its lawsuit challenging a new Biden administration rule capping the late fees charged by giant credit card issuers, has turned to the 5th Circuit for help. Alison Frankel has the latest on this hot venue fight, including an explanation of why the Chamber and its fellow plaintiffs are so determined to litigate their case in Texas.
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“What Mr. Clark was attempting to do was essentially a coup at the Department of Justice.“
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—Hamilton “Phil” Fox, the District of Columbia Bar disciplinary counsel, delivering his opening statement in the ethics case accusing former Trump-era senior DOJ official Jeffrey Clark of making false claims as he attempted to enlist the agency in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo his 2020 election loss. Trump tried to put Clark in charge of the DOJ in his administration’s final days, as Clark sought to pursue the former president’s false claims of widespread voter fraud. Clark has denied any wrongdoing. The former Kirkland partner could lose his license to practice law if a panel finds he violated professional rules.
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- A California state judge was expected to decide by today whether John Eastman should have his law license suspended or stripped for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump. Eastman, a former personal lawyer to Trump who is now his co-defendant in the Georgia criminal case over efforts to sway the election, was accused of violating California attorney ethics rules against misleading courts and making false public statements. He has denied any ethical misconduct, and he has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.
- Idaho’s Republican attorney general will ask the 9th Circuit to overturn an injunction obtained by Planned Parenthood that blocked the state from prosecuting doctors for referring patients seeking abortions to out-of-state providers after Idaho banned the procedure. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in August agreed with a challenge that said the state’s criminal abortion law was “chilling” to providers’ First Amendment rights.
- U.S. District Judge Marc Scarsi in Los Angeles will weigh Hunter Biden’s bid to dismiss federal tax fraud charges. Biden was charged with felony and misdemeanor tax offenses after prosecutors said he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 while spending millions of dollars on drugs, escorts, exotic cars and other high-ticket items. Biden has pleaded not guilty.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- AstraZeneca’s lawyers at Arnold & Porter are suing to stop an Arkansas drug-discount law that they said would unlawfully expand a federal provision to include pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens. The lawsuit in Little Rock federal court contends the state measure violates U.S. constitutional protections and patent law.
- Ohio’s highest court is weighing a challenge to a $650 million judgment against pharmacy operators CVS, Walmart and Walgreens over whether they can be held liable for fueling an opioid epidemic. Jeffrey Wall, a lawyer for Walgreens, argued that state law barred claims from two counties that dispensing addictive pain medications created a public nuisance in their communities, which the companies should be forced to help remedy.
- The D.C. Circuit said a produce company did not violate federal labor law by warning a pro-union truck driver not to cover up a surveillance camera in the cab of his truck, calling a NLRB ruling against the company “nonsense.” The panel said that because Stern Produce Company had a policy requiring drivers to keep the cameras on “at all times,” it did not infringe on the driver’s rights for a supervisor to admonish him for covering a camera during his lunch break.
- Pharmacy chain Rite Aid has reached a settlement with its lenders, the DOJ, and drug supplier McKesson Corp, clearing a path for Rite Aid to complete its bankruptcy case by late April, a company lawyer said. The lawyer, Aparna Yenamandra of Kirkland & Ellis, did not provide details about the settlement, saying that some issues needed ironing out before it can be presented in court.
- Community group Save Carbon County said in a lawsuit that a cryptocurrency mine in Pennsylvania that burns waste coal and old tires for energy is polluting nearby communities with dangerous chemicals. The lawsuit in state court in Philadelphia seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and an order telling the state to stop allowing the pollution to continue.
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- Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner added Valerie Paverd as a New York-based partner in the technology and commercial practice. Paverd was previously at Nelson Mullins. (BCLP)
- Polsinelli added D.C.-based partner James Kim to the firm’s government contracts practice. Kim was previously at Arnold & Porter. (Polsinelli)
- McCarter & English added healthcare partner Khaled “Kay” Klele in its Newark office. Klele joins from Riker Danzig. (McCarter)
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