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May 23, 2024
Ex-Fund Manager Settles SEC's $264M Offering Fraud Claims
A former private fund manager has agreed to pay $250,000 to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims he violated securities fraud laws by making promises that funds he handled would invest almost $264 million that they did not actually have on hand in issuers, including two special purpose acquisition vehicles.
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May 23, 2024
Length A 'Red Herring' In Black Student's Hair Bias Case
A Black Texas high school student claiming his Houston-area district is discriminating against him for wearing his hair in locs told a Galveston judge Thursday the district forces students to choose a religion if they want to style their hair outside the district's dress code, as he fought off multiple dismissal bids.
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May 23, 2024
Ex-Judge Pushed False Narrative On Atty Romance, Firm Says
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones of Texas, who resigned last year after his secret relationship with a Jackson Walker LLP partner was revealed, attempted to head off rumors about the relationship by asking the firm to file a false, partial disclosure in 2022, the firm alleged.
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May 23, 2024
Houston Law Firm Wants To DQ Creditors' Counsel In Ch. 11
Troubled MMA Law Firm PLLC is seeking to stop another firm from representing its bankruptcy creditors, arguing that MMA's principal had previously spoken with the other firm as a prospective client and had shared confidential information that now could be used against his firm.
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May 23, 2024
5th Circ. Won't Fast-Track Challenge To DOL's OT Rule
The Fifth Circuit won't speed up a Dairy Queen franchisee's challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor's decision to increase the salary threshold for a Fair Labor Standards Act overtime exemption, turning down the entity and its owner's bid to expedite the appeal.
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May 23, 2024
Virtual Reality Startup's $150M SPAC Merger Is Scrapped
Blank-check company Maquia Capital Acquisition Corp. and virtual reality software provider Immersaid have mutually agreed to cancel their planned merger that would have taken Immersed public at an estimated $150 million valuation.
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May 23, 2024
DOJ Sues Live Nation 14 Years After Ticketmaster Deal
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Live Nation Thursday over the 2010 agreement clearing the concert promotion giant's purchase of Ticketmaster, an oft-maligned deal that enforcers now want to unwind and that is blamed for fiascoes like the meltdown of ticket sales for Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
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May 22, 2024
American Air Pilots Win Cert. Over 401(k)'s ESG Investments
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday certified a class of pilots accusing American Airlines of packing its $26 billion retirement plan with investments that focused too heavily on environmental, social and governance factors, like climate change, and too little on financial returns.
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May 22, 2024
Activist Investor Must Face Exxon's Suit Over Proxy Proposal
A Texas federal judge Wednesday refused to dismiss an Exxon Mobil Corp. lawsuit against a U.S.-based activist investor over a now-withdrawn shareholder proposal concerning climate change, saying it isn't certain they won't refile their proposal in the future.
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May 22, 2024
Salesforce Gets Texas Judge To Move Patent Suit To California
For at least the second time in a week, a federal judge in Austin, Texas, has explained why he has shipped a patent lawsuit from his court to the Northern District of California — this time in a case brought by a bankrupt startup against one of Salesforce's brands.
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May 22, 2024
5th Circ. Reopens Black Diner's Bias Suit Against Texas Chili's
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday revived a Black diner's suit against Chili's alleging she was denied a table that was later offered to her white fiancé, finding direct evidence of discrimination, including the hostess's apology for discriminating against her, and the lack of service once her group was seated.
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May 22, 2024
Feds To Extend Plea Offer To Oath Keepers Atty In Jan. 6 Case
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to extend a plea offer to an attorney for the far-right Oath Keepers group charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but the specifics of the offer could depend on the U.S. Supreme Court's stance on a federal statute often used to prosecute alleged Capitol rioters.
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May 22, 2024
DC Judge Ships CFTC Election Betting Suit Back To Texas
A federal judge in the District of Columbia said Wednesday that a case challenging a Commodity Futures Trading Commission ban on an elections betting platform should never have been sent to her court, shipping the lawsuit back to Texas over the objections of the agency.
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May 22, 2024
CBRE Calls Exec's Noncompete Right Fit In A Small World
A Texas appellate court wondered Wednesday whether a temporary injunction that seemingly bars a former CBRE executive from working in his trade anywhere in the world goes too far, and questioned the validity of the underlying noncompete agreement at the center of the legal battle.
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May 22, 2024
Cancer Patients Target J&J Talc Unit's Asset Shuffles
Cancer patients who have sued Johnson & Johnson alleging that its talcum powder caused their illness alleged Wednesday that the company has tried to intentionally prevent tort victims from getting their day in court through a scheme of fraudulent corporate transactions.
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May 22, 2024
PTAB Finds Inergy's Chip Patent Challenges 'Compelling'
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has decided to review Force Mos Technology chip patents, saying it won't rely on a 2020 precedent to discretionarily deny challenges by Inergy Technology Inc. in light of a looming district court trial because the petitions raise "compelling evidence of unpatentability."
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May 22, 2024
Justices' CFPB Alliance May Save SEC Courts, Not Chevron
A four-justice concurrence to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's unique funding scheme last week carries implications for other cases pending before the court that challenge the so-called administrative state, or the permanent cadre of regulatory agencies and career government enforcers who hold sway over vast swaths of American economic life.
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May 22, 2024
Solar Cell Duties May Inadvertently Crush Domestic Industry
A bevy of new duty rules on solar cell imports from Asia, coupled with a government investigation instigated by domestic producers unconventionally claiming to protect future homegrown manufacturing, could backfire on the Biden administration's efforts to boost the nascent domestic sector.
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May 22, 2024
Energy Contractor Can't Get Quick Appeal In 401(k) Suit
A Texas federal judge refused to allow an energy contractor to immediately appeal a decision declining to dismiss a proposed class action accusing it of stacking its retirement plan with underperforming funds, saying allowing the Fifth Circuit to weigh in now would only slow down the litigation.
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May 22, 2024
Developer Had No Duty To Verify Flood Model, Court Hears
A Houston-area developer indicated before a state appeals court Wednesday that the consequences of entering a judgment in favor of more than 400 homeowners whose properties flooded during Hurricane Harvey would be catastrophic, as their claims boil down to the developer's alleged failure to double-check modeling conducted by an outside consultant.
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May 22, 2024
GOP State Leaders Tell Justices Mexico Can't Sue Gunmakers
Republican attorneys general of 26 states plus the Arizona Legislature have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a First Circuit decision that revived a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government seeking to hold the firearms industry responsible for drug cartel violence due to weapons trafficked across the border.
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May 22, 2024
Uvalde Families Ink $2M Deal With City Over School Shooting
The families of 19 victims of the deadly May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School announced Wednesday that they've reached a presuit settlement with the city of Uvalde, Texas, that includes $2 million in payments to the families and commitments to better train police officers in their shooting responses.
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May 22, 2024
House Dems Launch Price-Fixing Probe Of Oil Giants
U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone Jr., as ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, revealed Wednesday that he has launched an investigation into seven oil and gas companies over growing concerns that they are illegally colluding to artificially inflate gas prices.
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May 22, 2024
Texas Attys Get Green Light To Charge Subscription Fees
An opinion recently issued by the Professional Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Texas gives Lone Star State lawyers the go-ahead to offer subscription-based legal services so long as the arrangement doesn't result in the charging of an "unconscionable fee."
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May 22, 2024
Dallas-Based PE Firm Clinches $285M Fund Above Target
Dallas-based private equity shop Riata Capital Group on Wednesday announced that it clinched its second private equity fund above target with $285 million in tow.
Expert Analysis
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No AI FRAUD Act Is A Significant Step For Right Of Publicity
The No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act's proposed federal right of publicity protection, including post-mortem rights, represents a significant step toward harmonizing the landscape of right of publicity law, Rachel Hofstatter and Aaron Rosenthal at Honigman.
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Series
Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.
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After TikTok, Tiptoeing Toward Patent Transfer Alignment
Following the Fifth Circuit's TikTok decision, which aimed to standardize transfer analysis in patent cases, the Federal Circuit and Texas federal courts facing transfer requests have taken small steps to consider the practical realities of patent litigation, reinforcing the intensely factual focus of the analysis, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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Opinion
J&J Bankruptcy Could Thwart Accountability For Victims
Johnson & Johnson's latest attempt at a "Texas Two-Step" bankruptcy proceeding exemplifies the way in which corporate defendants can use bankruptcy to evade accountability, limit resources available to victims, and impose flawed, one-size-fits-all resolutions on diverse groups of plaintiffs, says Michelle Simpson Tuegel at Simpson Tuegel Law.
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Inside The PTAB's Seagen Cancer Drug Patent Decision
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's recent finding that Seagen's claims for antibody-drug conjugate technology were unpatentable — for lack of enablement, lack of written description and anticipation — mark the latest chapter in the complex patent dispute as the case heads for director review, says Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb.
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6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media
In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.
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5 Lessons For SaaS Companies After Blackbaud Data Breach
Looking at the enforcement actions that software-as-a-service provider Blackbaud resolved with state attorneys general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in the past year can help SaaS companies manage these increasingly common forms of data breaches, say attorneys at Orrick.
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A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise
After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.
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Don't Sit On Bankruptcy Sidelines, 5th Circ. Ruling Reminds
The Fifth Circuit’s recent In re: Louisiana Pellets decision, holding that a creditor couldn’t assert indemnification defenses in a suit brought by the trustee of a liquidation trust, highlights the risks faced by creditors and other contract parties that choose not to participate in a bankruptcy, say Gregory Hesse and Kaleb Bailey at Hunton.
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How High Court SEC Case Could Affect The ITC
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy will likely spare the U.S. International Trade Commission from major operative changes, the ITC’s ability to issue penalties for violations of its orders may change, say Gwendolyn Tawresey and Ryan Deck at Troutman Pepper.
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2nd Circ. Ruling Will Guide Social Media Account Ownership
The Second Circuit’s recent decision in JLM Couture v. Gutman — which held that ownership of social media accounts must be resolved using traditional property law analysis — will guide employers and employees alike in future cases, and underscores the importance of express agreements in establishing ownership of social media accounts, says Joshua Glasgow at Phillips Lytle.
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HR Antitrust Compliance Crucial Amid DOJ Scrutiny
The Justice Department's Antitrust Division recently announced a required human resources component for antitrust compliance programs, which means companies should evaluate their policies to prevent, detect and remediate potential violations as they add training for HR professionals, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Exxon ESG Proxy Statement Suit May Chill Investor Proposals
Exxon Mobil’s recent use of a Texas federal lawsuit to intimidate shareholders into withdrawing a climate-friendly proxy proposal could inspire more public companies to sue to avoid adopting ESG resolutions — a power move that would chill activist investor participation and unbalance shareholder-corporate relations, say Domenico Minerva and James Fee at Labaton Keller.
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Texas Ruling Clarifies That Bankruptcy Shields LLC Rights
A Texas bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in In re: Envision makes it clear that the Bankruptcy Code preempts a section of Delaware state law that terminates a member’s interest in an LLC upon a bankruptcy filing, clarifying conflicting case law, say Larry Halperin and Joon Hong at Chapman and Cutler.
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Series
Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.