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Good morning. The PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf are set to merge, but the deal could create new regulatory scrutiny. Plus, Moderna and Pfizer got hit with new COVID vaccine patent claims in U.S. court, Merck is suing the Biden administration, and the SEC is putting a squeeze on crypto platforms in a pair of cases featuring some of the country’s most veteran securities lawyers. Scroll down for big new moves at Wilson Sonsini and Paul Weiss. Hello, Wednesday! Let’s go.
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The surprising merger between LIV Golf, the European Tour and the PGA Tour might have ended the bitter legal fight in California between the PGA and Saudi-backed LIV, but it raises the specter of government investigations and regulatory scrutiny, report Diane Bartz and Echo Wang.
PGA and LIV had battled over whether golfers who accepted LIV’s cash could also play in PGA tournaments, with some players also expressing distaste about LIV’s backing by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund because of the country’s human rights record, including the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. In court, the PGA was represented by Keker Van Nest and Skadden, and lawyers from Quinn Emanuel and Gibson Dunn represented LIV.
The deal could well attract antitrust scrutiny because of the competition for golfers. But some experts said it could pass muster.
“Allowing all the best golfers to participate at major events is responsive to consumer preference, which the Supreme Court has stated is the ‘hallmark’ of antitrust,” a sports antitrust expert at Pennsylvania State University’s law school told Reuters.
Read more about the merger and potential complications.
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- A former IP senior associate at DLA Piper is suing the firm, alleging she was fired for seeking maternity leave. Anisha Mehta claimed in her Manhattan federal court lawsuit that the firm fired her in October 2022, less than a week after she submitted a request to go on leave. A spokesperson for DLA Piper did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reuters)
- A California appeals court rejected efforts from school officials at the former University of California Hastings College of the Law to block a lawsuit brought by descendants of Serranus Hastings over a change to the school’s name. The court affirmed the dismissal of an anti-SLAPP motion brought by law school officials who argued that the name change was a protected public activity. Historians have said Hastings orchestrated killings of Native Americans. (Reuters)
- Gibson Dunn’s Michael Bopp, a lawyer for Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, offered to meet with Senate Judiciary Committee staff to discuss the panel’s concerns over his ties to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Revelations about the links between Thomas and Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by the Dallas businessman, prompted calls from Democratic lawmakers for more rigorous ethics standards. Thomas has defended trips financed by “dearest friends.” (Reuters)
- Merck hired a team from Jones Day to seek an injunction against the Biden administration’s drug price negotiation program contained in the Inflation Reduction Act. The lawsuit in D.C. federal court marked the first attempt by a drugmaker to challenge the law, which the pharmaceutical industry says will result in a loss of profits that will force them to pull back on developing groundbreaking new treatments. (Reuters)
- Illumina expanded its legal team in a fight with the FTC over the agency’s effort to force the biotech company to divest cancer diagnostic testmaker company Grail. Illumina’s legal team in the 5th Circuit, where the company this week filed its opening brief, includes appellate veteran Gregory Garre of Latham. Lawyers from Cravath, including David Marriott and Christine Varney, also are defending Illumina. (Reuters)
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REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
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A brash tactical move by plaintiffs lawyers suing FTX’s celebrity endorsers seems to have paid off, writes Alison Frankel. On Monday, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation granted a hotly-contested petition by Boies Schiller Flexner and The Moskowitz Law Firm to consolidate almost all of the private lawsuits brought on behalf of allegedly defrauded FTX customers in federal court in Miami, where the Boies and Moskowitz firms are already litigating a prospective class action against former NFL star Tom Brady, comedian Larry David and other celebrities who once served as “brand ambassadors” for the now-bankrupt crypto exchange. Another group of plaintiffs firms had called for the FTX litigation to be based in federal court in San Francisco, criticizing some of the Boies and Moskowitz firms’ litigation maneuvers. But it now seems that the Boies and Moskowitz firms, which have said their aggressive tactics are intended to advance their clients’ interests, are well positioned for a leadership role in the consolidated cases.
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“If ever a pot called a kettle black, it is here.“
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—U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who entered a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Florida’s law banning gender-affirming care on behalf of three transgender children, allowing them to continue their care while the lawsuit challenging the ban’s constitutionality proceeds. In a strongly-worded opinion, Hinkle criticized Florida’s surgeon general and the state’s Board of Medicine for claiming the medical professional organizations that support gender-affirming care were motivated by politics and not healthcare.
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- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is set to take up a new round of U.S. court nominees, including Loren AliKhan for the D.C. federal district court and Susan DeClercq for the Eastern District of Michigan. AliKhan, who now serves on the D.C. Court of Appeals, would become the first South Asian woman on the D.C. court if she is confirmed. DeClercq, currently Ford Motor’s director and special investigations counsel, would be the first East Asian federal judge in the state if confirmed to the Detroit-based trial court.
- The 3rd Circuit will hear a challenge to a New Jersey law that expands gunmakers and dealer liability for endangering public safety. Lawyers for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, represented by Paul Clement and Erin Murphy of Clement & Murphy, argue the law is barred by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which provides broad protections to the gun industry against liability. The gun group won a preliminary injunction against the law, which allows the New Jersey attorney general to bring claims against gun dealers or makers if they fail to enact “reasonable procedures, safeguards, and business practices” before a gun is used in a crime. Murphy will argue for the challengers and will face off against deputy New Jersey solicitor general Michael Zuckerman.
- Florida prosecutors and defense attorneys will make opening statements in the trial of a former sheriff’s deputy charged with failing to protect students as the 2018 mass shooting unfolded at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Scot Peterson, who was on duty as a school resource officer when the shooting began, never went inside, according to surveillance video. He faces 11 criminal charges of child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury, an unusual application of a statute that is normally used against day care operators and parents.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Planned Parenthood is suing in state court to stop a new Kansas law requiring healthcare providers to tell patients that medication abortion can be reversed, a potentially dangerous claim not supported by evidence. Lawyers from Center for Reproductive Rights, Arnold & Porter and other groups filed the complaint. (Reuters)
- Pop star Dua Lipa and music label Warner Records convinced a Los Angeles federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Florida reggae group that accused Lipa’s hit “Levitating” of copying one of its songs. U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said Artikal Sound System failed to argue that the writers of “Levitating” ever had access to the group’s 2017 song “Live Your Life,” but she gave the band a chance to file a new complaint. (Reuters)
- The 2nd Circuit, sitting en banc, grappled with whether former female high school track team members can pursue a challenge to a Connecticut policy that allows transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams even though the policy challengers have already graduated. The four cisgender women, who are seeking to strike down the policy and alter race records to remove transgender competitors, may not have standing to request the records changes because they’re no longer competing in high school sports, Circuit Judge Denny Chin suggested. (Reuters)
- Realtek Semiconductor sued rival Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek in Northern California federal court, claiming MediaTek paid a company that sues over patents a “secret litigation bounty” to file meritless lawsuits in the U.S. to disrupt its business. The lawsuit, from Paul Hastings, accuses MediaTek of conspiring with IPValue Management in an effort to drive Realtek out of the market and monopolize the industry for chips used in smart televisions and cable boxes. (Reuters)
- A trial court properly found that Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not push the electric carmaker to overpay for SolarCity in 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court said, ending years of litigation over the $2.6 billion deal. Musk was the biggest shareholder in both companies at the time, and Tesla shareholders alleged the billionaire pushed the carmaker’s board into the deal to bail out his investment in the struggling rooftop solar company. (Reuters)
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- Obama-era 9th Circuit Judge Paul Watford is joining Wilson Sonsini as a litigation partner based in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Watford retired from the federal appeals court bench in May after spending more than a decade there. (Reuters)
- Paul Weiss brought on Robert Kindler as a New York-based corporate partner and chair of the mergers and acquisitions practice. Kindler joins the firm from Morgan Stanley, where he was global chair of M&A. (Reuters)
- K&L Gates added London-based partner Ron Feldman, who focuses on asset management and investment funds. Feldman previously led the hedge fund team at Fieldfisher. (K&L Gates)
- Eisner hired corporate partner Natalie Chitayat, who was previously at Milbank. Chitayat will join the firm in Los Angeles. (Eisner)
- Brian Bewley and Kaitlyn Dunn left Manatt to join Reed Smith’s life sciences health industry group. Bewley, who joins as partner, will be based in the D.C. office, and Dunn will be counsel in the Chicago office. (Reed Smith)
- Seyfarth added IP partner Matthew Moersfelder in the firm’s Seattle office from Davis Wright. (Seyfarth)
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As litigation over cryptocurrency grows, a key question is whether U.S. securities laws apply — in part, because there are questions about whether the transactions actually take place in the U.S., write Stuart Levi, Alex Drylewski and Daniel Michael of Skadden. Courts in different ways have applied a key Supreme Court case for determining whether transactions are sufficiently domestic to be subject to U.S. securities laws, leading to more questions, they write.
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