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Good morning. A recent letter from U.S. law firms warning law deans to rein in campus antisemitism has drawn a response from the National Association of Muslim Lawyers and a dozen other allied bar associations. Plus, a federal judge said Meta, Alphabet, ByteDance and Snap must face litigation accusing them of making millions of children addicted to their platforms and damaging their mental health; the American Bar Association is set to vote on Friday on new free speech rules for law schools; and a new lawsuit alleges UnitedHealth uses an AI algorithm that denies elderly patients’ claims for extended care. Let’s dive in.
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A letter from at least 220 U.S. law firms warning law school deans to rein in campus antisemitism has become a flashpoint in an ongoing debate on lawyers’ statements about the war between Israel and Hamas, our colleague David Thomas reports.
The National Association of Muslim Lawyers and a dozen other allied bar associations said in a response to the firms that taking a “one-sided approach” has made Muslim, Arab and Palestinian lawyers afraid to speak their minds about the conflict.
The law firms’ recent letter urged the deans of the nation’s top-ranked law schools to stand up against both antisemitism and Islamophobia. But the firms – including nearly all of the country’s largest law firms – focused mainly on discrimination against Jews in their letter, the Muslim groups asserted, claiming their message has minimized Palestinian suffering. The groups said law firms should pen a new letter to law deans focused on Islamophobia and anti-Arab bigotry.
Read more about actions that law firms are taking in response to public statements from lawyers and incoming associates, or groups they belong to, about the Israel-Hamas war.
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- The American Bar Association is expected to vote on Friday on new free speech rules for law schools—a long gestating move that comes as campus clashes between Israeli and Palestinian supporters have intensified in recent weeks. If the ABA Council approves the new rule, the change will go before the ABA’s House of Delegates in February for final approval.
- Britain’s Serious Fraud Office arrested seven people in connection with the collapse of UK law firm Axiom Ince, as part of a probe into about $81 million of missing client money. The firm collapsed in October amid accusations client funds had gone missing and an exodus of lawyers to other firms.
- Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney will combine with intellectual property law firm RatnerPrestia. Pittsburgh-founded Buchanan will bring on 22 lawyers and two patent agents from RatnerPrestia in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, Delaware, effective Jan. 1.
- OptumRx and Express Scripts lost a bid to disqualify David Cohen, a long-serving special master in national opioid litigation, from working on cases against them on the basis of an email he accidentally sent to their attorneys.
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Of more than 300,000 people sentenced from 2017 to 2021, Black males were 23.4% less likely than their white counterparts to be sentenced to probation, according to a new report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The report also found significant disparities for Black women and for Hispanic men and women, as compared with white defendants, reports Nate Raymond.
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It’s easy to understand why companies are enraged when financial analysts issue damning reports that just so happen to serve the analysts’ own financial interests. But turning that outrage into a viable defamation lawsuit is very tough, as blockchain developer Dfinity Foundation learned on Monday: U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of Manhattan dismissed Dfinity’s case against crypto analyst Arkham Intelligence, which issued a 2021 report on the precipitous price drop for Dfinity’s ICP token, and against The New York Times, which published an article recounting Arkham’s findings. Alison Frankel has the story.
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“Although walnuts, exercise, and Vitamin D may be beneficial, they fall outside the LSBA’s purview.“
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—5th Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, who wrote a unanimous appellate panel opinion holding that the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA) violated the free speech rights of its dues-paying members by making website and social media posts that were not relevant to regulating the legal profession. Louisiana requires lawyers to join the state bar and pay dues of up to $200 a year, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court upheld with the caveat that state bars can only engage in speech relevant to regulating lawyers or the practice of laws.
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- Closing arguments are expected in the trial to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be disqualified from Colorado’s ballot in the 2024 presidential election over his connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection. The lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is a test case for whether a rarely-used, Civil War-era provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars people who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office, can prevent Trump from being president again.
- Meanwhile, in Georgia state court, the judge overseeing the state’s election interference case against Donald Trump is holding a hearing on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ emergency motion for a protective order over the discovery that the state shares with defendants. The motion was filed after ABC News and other outlets published video recordings of Trump attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell’s interviews with investigators pursuant to their guilty pleas in the case.
- Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson will urge the 3rd Circuit to revive a lawsuit seeking to block New Jersey’s attorney general from enforcing a subpoena to investigate whether the company committed fraud while advertising firearms to consumers. In December, U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin in Newark held that Smith & Wesson was barred from pursuing federal claims that the subpoena violated its constitutional rights after already unsuccessfully litigating those same arguments in state court.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- NYU was sued by three Jewish students who accused the school of creating a hostile environment in which Jewish students are subjected to pervasive antisemitic hatred, discrimination, harassment and intimidation. NYU did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
- The DOJ asked a Texas federal judge to dismiss the government’s prosecution of a UnitedHealth Group affiliate accused of unlawfully restricting employee mobility, a new setback for federal enforcers in their emerging effort to apply criminal antitrust laws to labor markets.
- Prison healthcare company Tehum Care received court approval to proceed with a new mediator who will replace former bankruptcy judge David Jones, who resigned from the bench over his romantic relationship with an attorney involved in the company’s bankruptcy negotiations.
- Biotech company Acuitas sued CureVac, accusing it of failing to credit Acuitas scientists on patents related to COVID-19 vaccines. Acuitas claimed CureVac omitted its scientists from patent applications for lipid nanoparticle technology used in messenger RNA-based vaccines after they collaborated to develop the technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. CueVac said it is confident its IP complies with applicable laws and that it will vigorously defend itself.
- U.S. brokerage firm BTIG sued rival StoneX Group for $200 million in San Francisco, accusing it of recruiting BTIG traders and software engineers to take code and other proprietary information. StoneX then used the information to build products that are generating millions annually, the lawsuit claims. StoneX didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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- Cooley said it hired Rebekah Donaleski, who spent nearly a decade in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and was the leader of the office’s public corruption unit for three years. (Reuters)
- Squire partner Brent Owen, an energy attorney, left the firm to join Haynes and Boone in Denver. (Haynes and Boone)
- Ropes & Gray hired private funds lawyer Jonathan Rash as a partner in Washington, D.C. He arrives from Fried Frank. (Ropes & Gray)
- Herrick Feinstein brought on Robert Gordon for its restructuring and finance litigation department as a partner in New York. He most recently was at Jenner & Block. (Herrick Feinstein)
- Duane Morris picked up Steven Davis as a corporate partner in Philadelphia. He joins from Stradley Ronon. (Duane Morris)
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As lawyers from the millennial generation start to assume leadership positions in the legal industry, distinct patterns are emerging in values and preferences on how the workplace should look and feel, how work gets done and what greater responsibilities law firms have in addressing larger issues, writes Kirk Coleman of Major, Lindsey & Africa.
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