A First Circuit panel on Tuesday said Boston's process of selecting faith and community leaders to offer an opening prayer at city council meetings raises constitutional concerns, suggesting it could revive a suit over the exclusion of satanists.
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TOP NEWS

1st Circ. Critical Of Boston's Choice To Ice Out Satanists

By Brian Dowling

A First Circuit panel on Tuesday said Boston's process of selecting faith and community leaders to offer an opening prayer at city council meetings raises constitutional concerns, suggesting it could revive a suit over the exclusion of satanists.

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Fed. Circ. Seems Wary Of Broad's CRISPR Inventorship Win

By Dani Kass

Federal Circuit Judge Todd Hughes on Tuesday suggested that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board cited the correct standard when reviewing who first invented a particular use of the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9, but then applied an improper standard when ruling in favor of a Massachusetts research team.

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1st Circ. Questions SEC Walk-Back In Conn. Atty's Fraud Case

By Julie Manganis

A First Circuit panel indicated Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to have it both ways by avoiding a retrial of a fraud case against a Connecticut attorney while keeping in place an earlier win.

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Steward Health Gets Ch. 11 Loan, Says It Plans Hospital Sales

By Rick Archer

A Texas bankruptcy judge Tuesday allowed Steward Health Care to take out $75 million in Chapter 11 financing to meet its next-day payroll after being told the hospital chain plans to sell facilities to pay down its $9 billion in debt.

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POLICY & REGULATION

85 Lawmakers Join Chorus Opposing Space Force Transfers

By Chart Riggall

A bipartisan group of 85 federal lawmakers on Tuesday joined all 50 state governors in opposing a proposal to allow Air National Guard units to be transferred to the U.S. Space Force without gubernatorial approval, arguing the measure would undermine "the integrity and longstanding mission of the National Guard."

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ENFORCEMENT

Employment Agency Owner Admits Hiding $10M In Income

By Kat Lucero

The owner of a temporary employment agency pled guilty to filing false federal business tax returns to conceal more than $10 million in corporate income, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

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Feds Say Student Recruiter Charged UK Schools Illicit Fees

By Lauren Berg

A Massachusetts company that recruits American students to attend British universities unlawfully demanded that foreign schools participating in U.S. student aid programs pay it an incentive fee and then hide the payments from the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

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DEALS

WilmerHale Guides Akamai's $450M Buy Of Noname Security

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Cloud company Akamai Technologies Inc., advised by WilmerHale, on Tuesday announced plans to buy Noname Security, an application programming interface security company, for $450 million.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Analysis

In Story Of Sex And Lies, Can Cohen Write Final Chapter?

By Phillip Bantz

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has told a story of scandal and scheming to the jury in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, setting the stage for the prosecution's star witness to take the stand and wrap up the narrative.

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Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO Cops To $1.5M Theft From Firm

By George Woolston

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP's former chief financial officer admitted Wednesday to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the firm and failing to pay income tax, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced.

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Lewis Brisbois Atty Fatally Shot In McDonald's Altercation

By Ryan Boysen

A Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP attorney was fatally shot at a McDonald's in Houston after reportedly stepping in as a good Samaritan and attempting to calm down an irate customer who'd been arguing with staff at the fast food restaurant.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Lieff Cabraser's Kelly Dermody

By Irene Spezzamonte

A semester off from Harvard University in the late 1980s meant for reflection instead turned into a pivotal moment in Kelly Dermody's life, settling the roots for her successful career during which she has become a lighthouse for employment and discrimination cases.

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ABA Will Study Rape Questions' Necessity For Bar Applicants

By Cara Bayles

An American Bar Association commission will issue a report and recommendations by August on the practice of requiring would-be lawyers to disclose and discuss their experiences of sexual violence during the attorney licensure process.

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ABA Directs Attys To Avoid Sharing Client Info On Listservs

By Emily Sawicki

It is in the best interest of clients for their legal counsel to avoid sharing information related to representation while seeking advice in an online listserv forum, if the comments or questions could be connected to a client's identity, according to American Bar Association guidance published Wednesday.

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Ga. Appeals Court Will Review Trump DQ Bid In Election Case

By Kelcey Caulder

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to review a judge's ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis to continue prosecuting the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.

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Fani Willis Is Outraising Primary Challenger More Than 5 To 1

By Chart Riggall

Less than two weeks from the first hurdle in her bid for reelection, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis is boasting a​​ campaign war chest more than five times heftier than her Democratic challenger's, according to campaign finance disclosures filed this week.

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Biden Picks US Magistrate Judge In Fla. For 11th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday his intent to nominate U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry J. Kidd to the Eleventh Circuit.

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Robins Kaplan File Flub Bad Look For Both Sides, Panel Says

By Rachel Scharf

A Manhattan appeals panel expressed concern Wednesday that Robins Kaplan LLP had poked through an opposing party's Dropbox database that was accidentally shared in investor litigation, while also criticizing the other side for failing to catch the error.

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NJ Justices Approve Measures For Helping Atty Well-Being

By Emily Johnson

The New Jersey Supreme Court has accepted several recommendations from its committee focused on attorney well-being, paving the way for the committee to examine how attorneys can briefly postpone court dates or possibly receive an extension to meet deadlines so they can handle pressing wellness needs.

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Legal Access Program Being Set Up For Separated Families

By Alyssa Aquino

The Biden administration has tapped the Acacia Center for Justice to manage a court-ordered legal access program to help migrant families stay in the U.S. after they were separated under a Trump-era policy to prosecute anybody caught entering the country unlawfully.

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Colo. Judges Urge Attys To Take On More Pro Se Cases

By Thy Vo

A group of Colorado federal judges tried Wednesday to recruit more lawyers to help pro se litigants, who file about a third of the district's cases each year, with the judges recounting tactical mistakes and case delays that attorneys could have prevented.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Aidala Bertuna

Boston Law

Bradley Arant

Buchalter APC

Caldwell Carlson

Constantine Cannon

Ford O'Brien

Gibbons PC

Griffin Durham

Hamberger & Weiss

Jenner & Block

Law Office of Timothy F. McGoughran

Lewis Baach

Lewis Brisbois

Lieff Cabraser

McElroy Deutsch

Milbank LLP

MoloLamken

Nelson Mullins

Outten & Golden

Paul Hastings

Pierson Law LLC

Pillsbury Winthrop

Quinn Emanuel

Robins Kaplan

Weil Gotshal

Wheeler Trigg

Whistleblower Law Collaborative

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Zuckerman Spaeder

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Akamai Technologies Inc.

American Bar Association

Broad Institute

Center for Justice

Cerberus Capital Management LP

Getty Images Inc.

Harvard University

L'Oreal SA

LinkedIn Corp.

Los Angeles Rams

McDonald's Corp.

Medical Properties Trust Inc.

New Jersey State Bar Association

New York University

Regents of the University of California

Steward Health Care System LLC

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights

The State University of New York

Trump Organization Inc.

UnitedHealth Group Inc.

Walmart Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Georgia Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Manhattan District Attorney's Office

New Jersey Supreme Court

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York

U.S. Postal Service

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court