 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34649036&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34649036&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34649036&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34649036&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34649036&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34649036&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s work at Paul Weiss for a Chinese client is an example of what transparency advocates and some members of Congress say are gaps in a public disclosure law, Michael Martina reports. Plus, pass rates for first-time bar exam takers slightly increased in 2023 while racial disparities remained; an unnamed Covington client ended a closely-watched fight at the SEC; and Walgreens settled charges that it grossly inflated infant formula prices after a 2022 recall led to a nationwide shortage. Welcome to Tuesday, and thanks for reading!
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
Former Obama-era U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and others from Paul Weiss have advocated for a Chinese drone company but have not disclosed the work under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act, our colleague Michael Martina reports. Lynch wrote a letter to a senior Defense Department official last July on behalf of SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, asking that her client be removed from a list of Chinese military companies.
Advocating for foreign clients is legal, and U.S. law includes a public disclosure exemption for lawyers. But the letter is an example of what transparency advocates and some members of Congress said are gaps in the law that allow lawyers and lobbyists, including former officials, to avoid disclosing their advocacy for companies possibly subject to U.S. sanctions.
Paul Weiss declined to comment on the letter, and Lynch did not respond to Reuters emails. DJI also declined to comment, but it has said previously that it is not a military company and that it was prepared to formally challenge its inclusion on the list.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a decades-old law requiring public disclosure of work done on behalf of non-U.S. entities. The law includes a list of exemptions, including for commercial activities and legal representation. Some experts, including those who have concerns about extending FARA’s reach, have said the law is vague and presents particular challenges for attorneys.
|
|
|
- More than 79% of U.S. law school graduates who took the bar exam for the first time in 2023 passed, according to new data released by the American Bar Association, up slightly from 2022 but lower than prior years. The data also included a breakdown of pass rates by race, showing that longstanding disparities continued in 2023.
- OpenAI hired Wachtell and Morrison & Foerster to defend it against Elon Musk’s recent lawsuit claiming the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company abandoned its nonprofit mission to ensure that AI benefits humanity. Musk has tangled before against Wachtell. He sued the firm for $90 million over its work to force him to consummate his deal to buy the platform then known as Twitter. A judge sent that case to arbitration.
- An unnamed client of Covington dropped its challenge in the D.C. Circuit to a subpoena from the SEC, ending a closely-watched fight over law firms’ obligations to release client information to financial regulators. The securities regulator last year hit Covington with a subpoena enforcement lawsuit for information related to a 2020 cyberattack on the law firm. A group of clients consented to disclosure of their names, but another took an appeal. That client, represented by Kirkland, did not reveal why it was ending its case.
- The DOJ has asked the federal judiciary to grant minors greater privacy in criminal cases by requiring prosecutors and defense lawyers to refer to them in public court filings by pseudonyms rather than their initials. Nicole Argentieri, the acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s criminal division, in a letter proposed a rule change aimed at better protecting the identities of children who are victims and witnesses of crimes, particularly in sexual exploitation cases.
- Private equity firm Astorg is considering a sale of its U.S.-based IP software firm Anaqua, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters, with two of them saying the company could be worth as much as $3 billion. Astorg is in the process of appointing financial advisers to gauge buyer interest in Anaqua, which offers software that manages patents, trademarks and contracts for law firms and corporations, the sources said.
|
That’s how much the FTC claimed a “sham” charity spent to help women fight cancer, while it raised more than $18 million for that purpose. The FTC and 10 U.S. states in a new lawsuit said telemarketers hired by Women’s Cancer Fund and its founder and chief executive Gregory Anderson lied to prospective donors by promising their money would “help save lives,” and help cash-strapped patients. Instead, the complaint said Anderson paid his fundraisers more than $15.55 million and himself more than $775,000, with most of the rest going to overhead. He could not immediately be reached for comment. Read more.
|
A Texas high schooler whose science teacher allegedly used Snapchat to draw him into a sexual relationship has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the scope of a federal law immunizing internet publishers from liability for users’ content – just days after Snap asked a California appeals court to review a state judge’s decision allowing parents of fentanyl victims to evade the immunity shield. Alison Frankel looks at both petitions in the context of increasingly savvy attempts by plaintiffs to use product liability claims to bypass Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
|
“The fact is an atomic bomb is capable of being used in self-defense, but no one would use it.“
|
—U.S. Circuit Judge Jane Richards Roth, at a hearing in the 3rd Circuit about a bid by gun rights groups to block Delaware’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity firearm magazines. The appeals court expressed skepticism at arguments from groups including the National Rifle Association’s Delaware affiliate that are seeking to block the Democratic-led state’s two laws. David Ross, a lawyer for the state, said the lower-court judge rightly found that a historical tradition of banning dangerous weapons did exist. Other federal appeals court have grappled with similar laws.
|
|
|
|
- The 2nd Circuit will take up Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal of her 2021 conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. In her appeal, the daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell said prosecutors scapegoated her because Epstein was dead and “public outrage” demanded that blame go somewhere.
- The U.S. House judiciary committee will hear from Robert Hur, the Gibson Dunn lawyer and former U.S. attorney for Maryland who was appointed special counsel in 2023 to probe whether President Joe Biden improperly handled sensitive government documents. Hur in February said in a report that he opted against bringing criminal charges following a 15-month investigation because Biden cooperated and would be difficult to convict, describing him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
- Snapchat maker Snap will try to convince a federal judge in Los Angeles that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office must grant its application for a federal trademark covering its “Spectacles” smart glasses. Snap wants the U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve Kim at a bench trial to overturn the USPTO’s decision that “Spectacles” is a generic term for smart glasses. Kim last week rejected the USPTO’s request to find that the term cannot receive trademark protection.
- U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor will hold a hearing on a revived $10 billion lawsuit by Mexico seeking to hold American gun manufacturers responsible for facilitating the trafficking of weapons to drug cartels across the U.S.-Mexico border. The gun companies deny wrongdoing. Their lawyers say Mexico’s lawsuit is devoid of allegations the gun manufacturers’ gun sales themselves did anything that would create an exception to broad protections under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- Chief U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly in Delaware narrowed the DOJ’s lawsuit accusing Walmart of fueling the opioid epidemic, dismissing a claim that the retail giant failed to report suspicious prescription drug orders to the DEA. The judge in the order also dismissed a claim that Walmart pharmacists failed to document “red flags” associated with prescriptions.
- U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn rejected requests from Mastercard and Visa to dismiss litigation by three groups of retailers that accused the credit card networks of improperly fixing credit and debit card fees. In a 64-page decision, Brodie said the evidence suggested that the retailers were “direct purchasers” of card acceptance services, giving them standing to sue.
- Meat industry giants Tyson and JBS agreed to pay a combined $127.2 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing them of suppressing workers’ pay at processing plants, marking the largest deals so far in the wage-fixing case in Colorado federal court. The two deals would push total settlements to $138.5 million since the class action was filed in 2022. Neither company admitted any wrongdoing.
- A California law barring the purchase of more than one gun in a 30-day period was struck down by U.S. District Judge William Hayes in San Diego, who said it failed a test for state laws laid out in the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding gun rights.
- Tire manufacturers including Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear Tire & Rubber have asked a federal court in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit filed by commercial fishing groups that allege a chemical used in their tires is poisoning West Coast watersheds and killing rare trout and salmon. The tire manufacturers said the lawsuit attempts to “step around” the EPA, which is the country’s primary regulator of chemicals and is already considering rules targeting 6PPD, a rubber stabilizer.
|
|
|
- DLA Piper hired partner Joshua Kaufman in New York and Miami as co-chair of its capital markets and public company advisory practice. He arrives from Cooley. (Reuters)
-
Womble Bond Dickinson brought on data privacy litigation partners Genevieve Walser-Jolly andScott Hyman in Irvine, California. They most recently were at Severson & Werson. (Womble Bond Dickinson)
- O’Melveny added private equity partner James Brownstein in Los Angeles. He joins the firm from Kirkland. (O’Melveny)
- Willkie added partner Robert Lepore in Los Angeles and D.C. He most recently was chief of the DOJ antitrust division’s transportation, energy and agriculture section. (Willkie)
- Weil hired Chris Mulligan as a D.C.-based partner in the private funds practice. He was previously a senior policy advisor at the SEC. (Weil)
- King & Spalding picked up partner Mike Plotnick in D.C. for its special matters and government investigations practice. He most recently served as chief trial counsel in the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s division of enforcement and investigations. (King & Spalding)
- Morrison Foerster brought on restructuring partner Doug Mannal in New York. He most recently was at Dechert. (Morrison Foerster)
- Labor and employment firm Ogletree Deakins added partner Harris Freier in Morristown. Freier joins from Genova Burns, where he chaired the privacy and cybersecurity practice. (Ogletree)
|
|
|
|
