 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33543455&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33543455&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33543455&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33543455&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33543455&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33543455&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. A potential deal between rivals Cigna and Humana would face significant antitrust scrutiny, and the DOJ has some success stopping mega health insurance deals in court. Plus, a U.S. judge blocked Montana from banning TikTok in the state; Texas accused Pfizer of misrepresenting claims about its COVID-19 vaccine; and a Delaware Chancery judge is expected today to issue a key ruling in a Berkshire Hathaway case. Hello, December!
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
The DOJ can be expected to closely scrutinize any potential deal between U.S. health insurers Cigna and Humana if antitrust history with similarly sized deals is any indication, our colleague Diane Bartz reports. The two insurers are in talks to merge in a tie-up that could exceed $60 billion in value. U.S. antitrust enforcers in 2017 successfully stopped Anthem, now Elevance Health, from buying Cigna for $54 billion, and thwarted Aetna’s plan to purchase rival Humana for $34 billion.
D.C.-based U.S. District Judge John Bates said Aetna’s proposed deal with rival Humana would “substantially lessen competition” in the sale of Medicare Advantage plans. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, also in D.C., ordered Anthem’s deal for Cigna stopped. Jackson agreed with the government’s assessment that it would reduce competition in an already concentrated health insurance market, particularly for big national employers.
But the DOJ doesn’t always win. The Biden administration fought a plan by UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. health insurer, to buy Change Healthcare for $8 billion, arguing it would give UnitedHealth access to its competitors’ data and ultimately push up healthcare costs. In 2022, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in D.C. ruled that efforts the companies undertook to address antitrust concerns were sufficient.
|
|
|
|
- A former McDermott lawyer accused the firm of excluding him from a salary increase for U.S. partners despite his designation in tax and hiring documents as a Chicago-based attorney. David Huberman, now at Greenberg Traurig, alleged he was excluded from a 2022 pay increase for income partners because he was living in Israel. McDermott did not respond to a request for comment.
- Seth Aframe’s nomination to the Boston-based 1st Circuit will advance to full consideration by the U.S. Senate, after the judiciary committee voted to approve him. The panel also advanced a group of district court nominees.
- Loeb & Loeb elected two of its partners, Mitchell Nussbaum and Arash Khalili, to lead the firm as co-chairs. The partners, who are currently co-chairs of the firm’s capital markets and corporate department, will take over on Feb. 5 from current chairman Kenneth Florin.
- A lawyer’s failure to show up for court appearances in her exotic dancer client’s race bias lawsuit against a strip club did not warrant dismissal of the case, the 11th Circuit ruled.
|
That’s how many food-labeling lawsuits that Spencer Sheehan filed since 2021 in the Northern District of New York, as counted by a judge who intends to sanction the attorney for a case that the court said was filed in bad faith. Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin Jr in an order found Sheehan in civil contempt in litigation over labeling of Starbucks’ French Roast Ground 100% Arabica coffee. Sheehan and his attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sheehan has filed hundreds of cases he had filed against the biggest food companies.
|
Here is a jurisdictional curiosity, courtesy of the 9th Circuit. If an online retailer delivers physical products to California, Arizona, Nevada or other states in the circuit, the business can be sued in that state, even if the online seller is not incorporated or headquartered on the West Coast. But if the purchaser used a nationwide online payment platform like Shopify to complete the transaction, the platform can’t be forced into court in the 9th Circuit, even if both the purchaser and the online merchant are based in a 9th Circuit state. Confused? Alison Frankel explains the 9th Circuit’s ruling this week for Shopify.
|
“We determined it is no longer viable to offer this degree program.“
|
|
|
|
- The DOJ will ask a D.C. Circuit panel to revive the agency’s investigation of the National Association of Realtors, in a closely watched case amid a flurry of private suits challenging real estate broker commissions. The realtors group contends the DOJ probe is barred based on the settlement and closure of a prior inquiry led by the U.S. government. The DOJ’s antitrust lawyers said they withdrew from the prior settlement to initiate a broader investigation. Quinn Emanuel’s Christopher Michel will argue for the realtors group, facing the DOJ’s Frederick Liu.
- Vice Chancellor Morgan Zurn in Delaware Chancery Court said she will decide by today whether to give Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway a January trial date over how to value truck stop operator Pilot Travel Centers, alongside a related lawsuit by the billionaire Haslam family. Berkshire already owns 80% of Pilot, having paid the Haslams about $2.8 billion for a stake in 2017 and $8.2 billion for another stake in January. The dispute concerns how much Berkshire would owe if the Haslams exercised their option to sell the other 20% in the first two months of 2024.
- Lawyers in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas who use AI tools like ChatGPT will need to “review and verify any computer-generated content” under a new local rule that takes effect today.
- Olympic gold medalist Klete Keller is set to be sentenced in D.C. federal court after pleading guilty to charges stemming from his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Keller’s defense lawyer Zachary Deubler has asked U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to impose a sentence of probation. Prosecutors want Keller sentenced to 10 months in prison.
- The U.S. Naval Academy is slated to file a response to a lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions that seeks to end an exemption tucked inside the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on race-conscious college admissions policies that allowed U.S. military academies to continue considering race as a factor in student admissions.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- Wells Fargo was hit with a lawsuit accusing it of depriving hundreds of its U.S. branch workers of overtime pay, as the bank faces an unprecedented campaign to unionize its workforce. The proposed class action filed in San Francisco federal court claims Wells Fargo improperly classified “senior premier bankers” as management-level employees who are exempt from overtime pay under federal and state laws.
- Meta filed a lawsuit to stop the FTC from re-opening a consent agreement and ordering it to stop collecting revenue on data from people under age 18. The case in D.C. federal court names the agency, chair Lina Khan and Democratic commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya as defendants.
- French building materials giant Saint-Gobain and other major European makers of construction chemicals, including Switzerland’s Sika and Master Builders of Germany, are facing a lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court from the plaintiffs firm Hausfeld over claims they conspired to fix the prices of key ingredients that are added to cement, concrete and mortar.
- Novo Nordisk sued one compounding pharmacy and refiled a lawsuit against another after finding their products claiming to contain the active ingredient for its in-demand weight-loss drug Wegovy were impure, some by as much as 33%. The drugmaker has already filed 12 lawsuits against medical spas, weight-loss clinics and compounding pharmacies offering products that claim to contain semaglutide, the main ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.
|
|
|
- Greenberg Traurig brought on partner Vivek Chavan for its real estate practice in Silicon Valley. Chavan rejoins the firm from DLA Piper. (Greenberg Traurig)
|
|
|
|
