Fed. Circ. Denies Siemens' Bid For Navy Energy Audit Costs

By Daniel Wilson

The Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Navy doesn't owe a Siemens unit $5.7 million for costs the company incurred to investigate potential energy savings measures at two military installations, saying a related contract clearly didn't cover those costs. 

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Kirkland Drives Vance Street To $775M Fund IV Closing

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Los Angeles-based private equity shop Vance Street Capital, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Wednesday announced it held the first and final close for its fourth fund with $775 million in tow.

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GAO Backs DLA's Sole-Source Fuel Deal With Iraqi Contractor

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has dismissed a Virginia company's protest of a jet fuel contract the Defense Logistics Agency awarded to an Iraqi competitor, saying the protester's challenge of the deal was based on factual inaccuracies.

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New Treasury Rule Amps Up Reporting Burden For Banks

By Jennifer Doherty

The U.S. Department of the Treasury introduced an interim final rule Wednesday that refines and further expands recent increases in reporting requirements, including a new obligation for financial institutions to notify the federal government any time they unblock frozen assets.

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Hyundai To Pay $334K Over Repossessing Vets' Cars

By Henrik Nilsson

Hyundai's American financing arm has agreed to pay $333,941 to resolve the government's suit in California federal court alleging the carmaker reclaimed 26 vehicles owned by members of the armed forces in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

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Fla. Defense Contractor Admits To Selling Parts From Turkey

By David Minsky

A Florida defense contractor has pled guilty to federal conspiracy charges in connection to a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Defense, admitting that she violated export control laws by using a front company to supply critical military components that were manufactured in Turkey.

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DOD Trucking Contractor Owner Indicted On $1M Tax Evasion

By Anna Scott Farrell

The owner of a trucking company that hauled military supplies for the U.S. Department of Defense tried to evade more than $1 million in taxes partly by using a nominee company headed by her former dispatcher, according to an indictment by a federal grand jury in Ohio.

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Boeing Again Seeks Exit From Suit Over Love-Triangle Murder

By Lauren Berg

The Boeing Co. is again asking a Seattle federal judge to let it escape liability in a case involving a love triangle among employees that ended in murder, saying the newest iteration of the suit still doesn't adequately allege Boeing knew or should have known about the employee's potential for violence.

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Fishermen Drop $35M Coast Guard Kidnapping Claims

By Ryan Harroff

A pair of fishermen who accused the U.S. Coast Guard of "kidnapping" them for 10 days at sea, destroying their ship and getting them sent to prison for years on drug charges that were later dismissed have voluntarily dropped their $35 million suit over the incident.

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Taliban's Unexpected Takeover Dooms Contractor's $1.5M Suit

By Alyssa Aquino

An administrative appeals board refused to order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reimburse a contractor for $1.5 million of equipment lost while evacuating Afghanistan, saying it couldn't have anticipated in 2019 a Taliban takeover just over two years later.

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8 Questions To Ask Before Final CISA Breach Reporting Rule

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recently proposed cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities represent the overall approach CISA will take in its final rule, so companies should be asking key compliance questions now and preparing for a more complicated reporting regime, say Arianna Evers and Shannon Mercer at WilmerHale.

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How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

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'Fat Leonard' Case Shows High Bar For Rescinding Guilty Plea

Prosecutors’ recent move in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, supporting several defendants’ motions to withdraw their guilty pleas, is extremely unusual – and its contrast with other prosecutions demonstrates that the procedural safeguards at plea hearings are far from enough, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.

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Series

Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

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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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