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Good morning. The American Bar Association just advanced a proposal that would require written free speech policies at all law schools. Plus, lawmakers in 37 states have introduced nearly 150 bills this year that would curb gender transitions; the Biden White House has a new vacancy to fill on the 6th Circuit; and the AARP is backing a new law giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with pharma companies. Scroll down for our week-ahead calendar and much more. Thanks for reading!
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The ABA’s legal education arm has advanced a proposal that would require all law schools to have written free speech policies as part of their accreditation, a push that comes as the schools confront questions about controversial speech on campus and controversial topics in the classroom, reports Karen Sloan.
Schools would develop their own free speech policies under the proposal, but those policies would have to protect the rights of faculty and staff and students to communicate controversial or unpopular ideas, safeguard robust debate or protests and forbid disruptive activities that hinder free expression or interfere with law school functions. Law schools including Yale and Stanford recently faced high-profile incidents in which students disrupted controversial speakers.
ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar member Daniel Thies said that the proposal was born out of concerns over legislative efforts to restrict the teaching of subjects such as critical race theory and worries that controversial speakers may not be able to express their opinions on campus.
“Both of these trends reflect an urgent threat to the training of lawyers,” he said.
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- 6th Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, a George W. Bush appointee, said she plans to step down from active service, opening up a fourth seat for President Joe Biden to fill on the Cincinnati-based federal appeals court. (Reuters)
- An effort to resolve Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman’s lawsuit against her judicial colleagues through mediation has failed, a court filing said. Newman, 96, sued her colleagues in May seeking to halt an investigation into her competency as a judge and her refusal to cooperate with the probe. She asked a D.C. federal judge in June to end a suspension imposed by her colleagues who questioned her mental fitness and said she struggled to promptly resolve cases. (Reuters)
- The implosion of failed three-month-old law firm Daugherty Lordan has been a boon for Chicago-founded O’Hagan Meyer, which has greatly expanded in California by picking up more than 50 lawyers from the Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith spin-off. Daugherty Lordan was undone by the disclosure of dozens of racist, sexist, homophobic and antisemitic emails by its since-departed founders. (Reuters)
- Alston & Bird resolved a malpractice lawsuit in Ohio federal court, where former client Mark One Wipes accused the large law firm of bad legal advice over importing hand-sanitizing wipes at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm, which denied wrongdoing, and the plaintiff did not reveal any terms of the deal. (Reuters)
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That’s the number of home-repair issues found by Susan Sarandon’s staff, engineers and contractors at the Oscar-winning actor’s Vermont home, according to a lawsuit she filed in Massachusetts federal court. Buckled siding, missing insulation, mold and an unfinished primary bedroom ceiling were among the problems identified in the complaint. Sarandon, represented by Downs Rachlin Martin, sued a construction firm over what she called “extensive problems” at the $2 million home she built in Vermont. That’s where she planned to spend her retirement.
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If you are an executive at a company embarking on an internal investigation of your conduct, you should be very, very careful about any joint engagement letter you sign with the company’s outside counsel. That might seem obvious, but an opinion issued last week by Judge Laura Taylor Swain of Manhattan in the criminal fraud case against onetime Allianz portfolio manager Gregoire Tournant shows the outsized risk to corporate executives who agree to cooperate with outside lawyers whose primary allegiance is to the company. Alison Frankel has the story.
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“This court certifies that the appeal itself is frivolous.”
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- In San Francisco federal court, Google’s lawyers at Munger Tolles will argue against Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s bid for a temporary restraining order barring YouTube from taking down his videos. Kennedy, a lawyer, vaccine skeptic and long-shot Democratic candidate for president, contends he is the victim of a “censorship campaign.” Attorneys for Google assert that the First Amendment protects the company’s “judgment that it will not help spread dangerous anti-vaxx propaganda.” U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson will preside at today’s hearing.
- U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware in Nevada will hold a status hearing in an antitrust lawsuit from a group of martial arts fighters suing the Ultimate Fighting Championship for alleged suppression of their wages. Boulware recently granted class-action status to more than 1,200 fighters who competed in certain live professional UFC-promoted mixed martial arts bouts. The fighters, represented by plaintiffs’ firms Berger Montague, Cohen Milstein and Joseph Saveri Law Firm, are seeking damages estimated at between $811 million and $1.6 billion. UFC’s lawyers at Paul Weiss have denied liability.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- On Tuesday, Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at NFT marketplace OpenSea, is set to be sentenced after his conviction in May at trial in Manhattan federal court on fraud and money laundering charges. Chastain was accused of buying NFTs he had decided to feature on the OpenSea website and selling them shortly afterward to make more than $50,000 in illegal profit. Prosecutors described the scheme as the first insider trading case involving digital assets. They have recommended a prison sentence of 21 to 27 months. Chastain’s attorneys at Greenberg Traurig will ask the court to impose a sentence of either time-served or probation.
- On Wednesday, a 9th Circuit panel will consider whether to reinstate a California state law requiring new semi-automatic handguns to have certain safety features. In March, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Ana, California, blocked the state from enforcing its law after finding it violates the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. Carney’s ruling was part of a line of decisions striking down state gun laws following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights.
- On Thursday, plaintiffs lawyers for a class of individuals and employers will urge the 9th Circuit to revive a $411 million antitrust class action that claimed Sutter Health engaged in anticompetitive behavior that artificially drove up insurance premiums. A jury last year in San Francisco federal court found in favor of the northern California health system. Sutter’s lawyers include Craig Stewart of Jones Day, and Matthew Cantor of Constantine Cannon is on the plaintiffs’ team. Sutter has denied any liability.
- Also on Thursday, the 11th Circuit will consider whether to allow a Florida law to take effect that would bar employers from promoting various progressive concepts in workplace anti-bias trainings. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last year blocked the law — backed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured above) — after finding its broad ban on speech unconstitutional. Ropes & Gray’s Douglas Hallward-Driemeier is on the team representing plaintiff Honeyfund.com, a technology company based in Clearwater, Florida. The Florida law was one of the latest in a series of laws adopted by Republican-led states to discourage companies from taking stances on gun control, climate change, diversity and other social issues.
- On Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago will hold a pretrial hearing in nationwide litigation over recalled Abbott baby formula. The attorneys in the case will update the judge on evidence collection and sharing, and they plan to talk about the process that would govern bellwether selection. Abbott has said it believed the lawsuits were without merit. More than 60 cases have been filed in the Northern District of Illinois.
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- Convicted Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor should repay his bankrupt opioid manufacturer about $6 million in legal fees that the company shelled out for his unsuccessful criminal defense, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey ruled. Dorsey said Kapoor, who was convicted of conspiring to bribe doctors to prescribe the company’s fentanyl spray product, was not entitled to the defense for any “knowingly fraudulent or deliberately dishonest” misconduct. (Reuters)
- The D.C. Circuit sent approvals for a $1.5 billion Utah crude oil railway back to federal regulators, saying government reviews for the project failed to adequately consider wildfire risk and environmental harms. The court partially vacated the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s approvals for the over 80-mile Uinta Basin Railway, which were challenged by environmental groups and Eagle County, Colorado, in 2022. (Reuters)
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In the post-pandemic era, working from home has become a way of life, but all those home offices come with new — and unforeseen — risks, write Erin Mindoro Ezra, Walker Macon and Miles Dawson of Berger Kahn. For example, will an insurer cover a workplace injury that happens in your home? It’s up for debate, they write.
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