Good morning. The hush-money investigation involving Donald Trump earned the descriptor “zombie case” for how many times it has been resuscitated. White & Case sued a SPAC over unpaid legal bills, and a Delaware judge is weighing key legal questions in Dominion Voting’s defamation case against Fox News. On the docket today, the justices will hear a dispute over a poop-themed Jack Daniel’s bottle. Plus, we have a trial date for the DOJ’s case against JetBlue’s bid for Spirit. It’s Wednesday already — this week is flying.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has started and stopped its investigation into Donald Trump’s hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels so many times that it’s been dubbed a “zombie case,” reports Luc Cohen.
Bragg (above) launched the probe after his predecessor Cyrus Vance twice looked into the payment and did not bring charges, in part because winning a conviction would rely on untested legal strategies, according to a new book by Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the office. Specifically, there were questions about whether the D.A.’s office could bring state felony charges against a candidate for federal office and whether the conduct could be considered money laundering, according to the book, “People vs. Donald Trump.”
It’s unclear what charges Bragg is considering bringing or if he is approaching the case with a legal theory similar to his predecessor’s. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels, and his lawyer Joseph Tacopina has said in television interviews that Trump was a victim of extortion by Daniels.
Read more about the theories Pomerantz says the office was considering in the case.
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- New York lawyer Anthony DiPietro sued employment litigation firm Wigdor for attorney fees, alleging the firm and one of its partners, David Gottlieb, lured a former client of his away from the $165 million settlement he struck with Columbia University over claims of sexual abuse by one of its doctors. Gottlieb said the settlement was not in the client’s interest and that DiPietro “violated numerous ethical and fiduciary obligations to her.” (Reuters)
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Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles cast doubt on disbarred California lawyer Tom Girardi’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, as the two sides spar over the best way to test whether Girardi is mentally competent enough to stand trial. The two sides have asked U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton to rule on the dispute quickly. Girardi faces criminal charges in Chicago and Los Angeles accusing him of taking more than $18 million in funds belonging to his firm’s clients. He has entered not guilty pleas in both cases. (Reuters)
- A 6th Circuit panel said a former Tennessee state legal ethics attorney who was fired in 2020 over social media posts about Islam will have a new chance to pursue employment-related damages. The appeals court said the head of the state’s attorney discipline office did not enjoy an “absolute” immunity shield from damages that can be accorded to shield judges and judicial acts from liability. (Reuters)
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That’s how much White & Case said a special purpose acquisition company owed the law firm after the SPAC failed to complete a deal. The firm sued former client Colonnade Acquisition and its directors in New York state court, arguing the firm will be “irreparably harmed” if the blank-check company liquidates and dissolves before paying the fees it owes for several years of work. Colonnade Acquisition said it was “unfortunate White & Case took this action given the mutually agreed-upon terms of the engagement letters and the totality of the circumstances.” White & Case’s complaint said several demands requesting payment were “either ignored or rebuffed.”
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As Dominion Voting Systems heads toward a possible jury trial next month in its $1.6 billion defamation case against Fox, Fox producer Abby Grossberg seems like she’d be a compelling witness. Grossberg worked on shows hosted by two of the Fox stars who allegedly aired defamatory election fraud claims about Dominion. In gender bias lawsuits filed on Monday night, she claims that Fox lawyers pressured her to “distort the truth and shade her deposition testimony” in coaching sessions about what Grossberg would say to Dominion lawyers. But to get Grossberg’s tale of corporate witness intimidation to jurors, writes Alison Frankel, Dominion will have to fend off Fox arguments that Grossberg’s deposition prep was privileged — and that the privilege belongs to the company, not Grossberg. That might be possible, an ethics guru told Frankel. But it won’t be cheap.
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“They chose to let the story be out there — to let out the hoax, to release the Kraken.“
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A poop-themed dog toy shaped like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey is at the center of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court this morning, in a case that could shape how the high court handles trademark, parodies and free speech disputes. Jack Daniel’s Properties, represented by Lisa Blatt of Williams & Connolly, is appealing a lower court’s decision that dog toy maker VIP Products’ “Bad Spaniels” chew toy is an “expressive work” covered by the First Amendment. President Joe Biden’s administration supports Jack Daniel’s appeal, and the DOJ’s Matthew Guarnieri will present arguments. VIP Products is represented by Dickinson Wright’s Bennett Cooper.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the nominations of Amanda Brailsford for U.S. district judge in Idaho; S. Kato Crews for U.S. district judge in Colorado; and Molly Silfen to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Brailsford is currently a judge on Idaho’s Supreme Court, and Crews is a federal magistrate. Silfen is associate solicitor at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Meanwhile, the full Senate is slated to vote on confirmation of Gordon Gallagher to serve on the U.S. district court in Colorado.
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A 10th Circuit panel will consider whether to revive a copyright lawsuit brought by Timothy Sepi, a former employee at Joe Exotic’s animal park, who said the popular documentary “Tiger King” used his footage without permission. An Oklahoma federal judge previously decided that some of the videos were owned by the park and that Netflix and “Tiger King” producer Royal Goode Productions made fair use of other footage. Lawyers from the Digital Justice Foundation represent Sepi. The defense team for Netflix and Royal Goode includes lawyers from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.
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Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Norfolk Southern Chief Executive Alan Shaw and National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy will testify before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing titled “Improving Rail Safety in Response to the East Palestine Derailment.” The state of Ohio has sued Norfolk Southern over the Feb. 3 derailment of a freight train that released over a million gallons of hazardous materials and pollutants into the environment. Rival groups of plaintiffs lawyers are vying for lead roles in nearly two dozen private lawsuits against the railway company.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston set an Oct. 16 nonjury trial in the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking to halt JetBlue’s planned $3.8 billion acquisition of ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines. Young scheduled the four-week trial during the first hearing to be held in the blockbuster case. He promised to move expeditiously, and said he believed he had an “obligation” to try to rule by the end of the year. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Supreme Court allowed a deaf student in Michigan to sue his public school district for allegedly failing to provide him adequate classroom instruction, a ruling that bolsters the power of students with disabilities to remedy shortcomings in their education. In a 9-0 decision, the justices ruled that Perez could sue for alleged disability discrimination under the ADA without completing certain dispute-resolution procedures available under a different law aimed at protecting the educational needs of children with disabilities, known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (Reuters)
- The U.S. International Trade Commission banned imports of SharkNinja Operating robot vacuums that infringe a patent owned by Roomba maker iRobot. The full commission upheld part of a trade judge’s October decision that SharkNinja violated two of its rival’s patents, affirming that SharkNinja’s devices mimicked iRobot navigation technology. (Reuters)
- A Utah federal judge threw out a jury’s ruling that Dish Network must pay $469 million to parental-control technology maker ClearPlay for infringing two patents related to filtering material from streaming video. U.S. District Judge David Nuffer reversed the decision that Dish’s AutoHop commercial-skipping feature violated ClearPlay’s patent rights less than two weeks after the March 10 verdict. (Reuters)
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Shareholders suing Qualcomm can form a class action to pursue their claims that the chip maker allegedly hid anticompetitive sales and licensing practices, U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta ruled. The class covers investors who bought Qualcomm common stock between February 1, 2012, and January 20, 2017, and incurred losses. Qualcomm has called the allegations meritless. (Reuters)
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White & Case hired two Silicon Valley-based IP litigators: Yar Chaikovsky and Philip Ou join the firm from Paul Hastings. Chaikovsky will become head of White & Case’s technology IP litigation group. (Reuters)
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Plaintiffs’ firm DiCello Levitt opened its first California office, adding five securities class action and corporate governance lawyers from rival Robbins Geller. The new arrivals are set to open DiCello Levitt’s San Diego office on April 1. (DiCello Levitt)
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Goodwin added intellectual property partners Scott Weingaertner, Stefan Mentzer and John Padro in New York from White & Case. (Goodwin)
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Ropes & Gray brought on Ariel Deckelbaum as a New York-based mergers and acquisitions partner. Deckelbaum previously was at Paul Weiss. (Ropes & Gray)
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Sidley picked up partner Ali Shaikley for the firm’s M&A and private equity practice in New York. Shaikley was previously a partner at White & Case. (Sidley)
- Fox Rothschild added Aaron Mapes as a Philadelphia-based partner in the environmental group. He was previously at Post & Schell. (Fox Rothschild)
- Ryan Magee has joined McCarter & English’s business litigation practice as a Newark-based partner. Magee was previously at Riker Danzig. (McCarter)
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