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Good morning. M&A activity has hit a 10-year low, but there’s some good news for law firms that advise on corporate transactions: More of those deals are happening in the U.S., according to a new report. Plus, Foley & Lardner wants a refund from a legal recruiter, and the Boy Scouts’ $2.46 billion settlement won’t wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in. Grab that pumpkin spice latte and get scrolling!
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People walk past the London Stock Exchange Group offices. REUTERS/Toby Melville
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Worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity hit a 10-year low, as the total value of global announced M&A in the first three quarters of 2023 fell to $2 trillion, according to a new report from the London Stock Exchange Group. That marks a 27% drop compared with the same period last year and the slowest nine-month dealmaking period since 2013, report Dave Thomas and Sara Merken.
U.S. dealmaking emerged as a bright point for law firms that advise on corporate transactions. Those deals accounted for 44% of overall worldwide M&A during the first nine months of 2023, up from 42% last year.
Kirkland took the top spot in LSEG’s principal adviser ranking by value of global announced deals, working on about $265 billion worth of deals through the third quarter. Goodwin retained its position as top principal adviser on the most number of global announced deals. The firm worked on 636 deals worth about $106 billion.
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- Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York state court in Manhattan, who is overseeing the ongoing civil trial against former President Donald Trump, issued a gag order – with sanctions for any violations – after Trump shared a social media post of Engoron’s principal law clerk, who was identified by name. Engoron said that attacks on his staff were “unacceptable, inappropriate and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.” (Reuters)
- Meanwhile, Trump-appointed D.C. Circuit Judge Justin Walker called social media a “dangerous” disease that hosts “increasingly uncivil and unhinged discourse about our courts and our law,” as he urged law students to “be a little bit less online.” (Reuters)
- Foley & Lardner is seeking a refund from legal recruiter Mark Bruce International after a partner the firm hired was terminated less than three months later. (Reuters)
- An American Bar Association proposal that would require law schools to adopt free speech policies has drawn a largely positive response from the legal academy. The group received 19 comments on a potential change to its law school accreditation standards under which schools must have written free speech policies protecting the exchange of ideas and prohibiting disruptive activities on law campuses. (Reuters)
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Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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That’s the size of the verdict against Johnson & Johnson that a New Jersey appeals court threw out, which a jury had awarded to four plaintiffs who claimed they developed cancer from being exposed to asbestos in the company’s talc products. The appeals court found the lower court should not have allowed some of the scientific expert testimony the plaintiffs presented to jurors at trial. J&J said the decision “resoundingly rejects … the ‘junk science’ advanced by purported ‘experts’ paid by the mass tort asbestos bar.” The company said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos. A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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A brewing fee dispute in Delaware Chancery Court poses a novel question: Can stock options be worth different things to the company that issued them and the board members who received them? Tesla says they can – which is why it contends a $919 million derivative settlement that calls for Tesla directors to return millions of stock options to the company is actually worth only $295 million. Based on that value, Tesla said, plaintiffs lawyers deserve only a small sliver of their requested fees. Alison Frankel has the story.
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“Congress could change it tomorrow.“
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—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was among several justices to signal doubt over the argument that the CFPB’s funding design violates the U.S. Constitution’s “appropriations clause,” which vests spending authority in Congress. Kavanaugh pushed back against the assertion, put forward by payday loan industry trade groups, that the structure of the CFPB’s funding unlawfully lets the agency determine its own funding without a meaningful limit set by Congress. The case could determine the future of the CFPB.
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- The U.S. Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments over a bid to curtail lawsuits accusing hotels and other places of lodging of discriminating against disabled people by not providing enough information about their accessibility on their websites in a case involving an inn near the Atlantic coast of Maine. The inn’s owner appealed a lower court’s ruling allowing a disability rights advocate to sue the business for not complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act even though she never planned to book one of its rooms. Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have said ADA “testers,” like the plaintiff in this lawsuit, have been fueling an explosion in lawsuits against small businesses accused of discriminating against disabled people.
- IBM and its lawyers from Desmarais will ask the Federal Circuit to reverse a ruling that found pet-food retailer Chewy’s website and mobile app did not infringe the company’s patents covering improvements to website functionality and targeted advertising. A Manhattan federal court ruled last year that one of the IBM patents was invalid because it covered an unpatentable abstract idea and that Chewy did not infringe the others because its technology functions differently than IBM’s.
- Lawyers for Texas will urge the 5th Circuit to overturn an injunction barring it from enforcing a new law requiring age verification and a health warning for viewing pornographic websites. A group of online pornography websites, performers and advocates have alleged the law would violate their First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Austin blocked it from taking effect.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Do No Harm urged the 2nd Circuit to revive its lawsuit claiming a fellowship program offered by Pfizer to improve diversity at the company discriminates against white and Asian-American applicants, arguing a lower court judge wrongly determined the nonprofit lacked standing to challenge the program. The question of standing has been central to whether organizations opposed to affirmative action can pursue lawsuits challenging corporate diversity programs designed to promote more minority representation in the private sector. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews in Delaware declined to stop the Boy Scouts of America’s $2.46 billion abuse settlement from moving forward, rejecting calls to put the deal on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a related legal question in Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy case. A group of abuse claimants and some insurers oppose the deal, and have argued that the settlement should be paused because the high court is considering legal protections for non-bankrupt organizations such as churches that co-sponsored Scouting programs. (Reuters)
- Google urged the 2nd Circuit to bar Texas and other states from moving their antitrust case against the technology company from New York to Texas, warning that doing so could disrupt related litigation over Google’s digital advertising practices. The appeal is the first test of a new federal law, enacted in December 2022, that says state attorneys general can pick their venue for antitrust lawsuits. (Reuters)
- AstraZeneca will pay $425 million to settle lawsuits in the U.S. that claimed its heartburn drugs Nexium and Prilosec caused chronic kidney disease. The company admitted no wrongdoing. It is the second British drugmaker to reach a settlement in the U.S. for its heartburn drug after GSK recently agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging its discontinued treatment Zantac caused cancer. (Reuters)
- D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said the city reached settlements worth at least $57 million with Potomac Electric Power Co, an Exelon-owned electric utility, over claims the company polluted the Anacostia River with toxic chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls. Schwalb’s office called the deals “the largest environmental settlement in D.C. history.” The agreements require Pepco, which did not admit wrongdoing, to pay $47 million to help fund cleanup of the river and $10 million in civil penalties. (Reuters)
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- McDermott added Kasim Reed, a former two-term former mayor of Atlanta, as a litigation partner in Atlanta. He most recently practiced at Squire Patton Boggs. (Reuters)
- Husch Blackwell added four Dallas-based trust and estate litigation lawyers, including partner Scott Weber, through a combination with Norris & Weber. Commercial litigation partners Jacob Kring and Mark Fritsche also join the firm in Dallas, from Hedrick Kring Bailey. (Husch Blackwell)
- Womble Bond Dickinson hired six product liability trial lawyers, including partners Claire Weglarz, Macy Chan, Thomas Remillard and Mirna Scheffy. The team arrives in Los Angeles and San Francisco from Hawkins Parnell & Young. (Womble)
- Goodwin hired partner Adam Johnson for its life sciences and capital markets practices in New York. He most recently was at Latham. (Goodwin)
- Manatt added Axel Bernabe as a partner in its cannabis practice in New York. He most recently served as chief of staff and senior policy director for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management. (Manatt)
- Hogan Lovells brought on Silicon Valley-based private equity partner Todd Schwartz from Paul Hastings. (Hogan Lovells)
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