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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FTX Says Full Recovery Coming Based On 2022 Crypto Price

By Yun Park

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. has claimed its proposed Chapter 11 plan would be able to pay creditors in full with a $13 billion distribution that exceeds the estimated allowable $11.2 billion in claims, but the payout is based on the value of cryptocurrency in November 2022, when the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection. 

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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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Truth Social Backer's Insider Trading Alibi In Jury's Hands

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal jury weighed charges Wednesday against a Florida investor accused of fueling a $23 million insider trading scheme that exploited confidential plans to take Truth Social public, after the defense argued it was someone else who tipped speculators.

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Analysis

Upstate NY Cities Aim To Join Rent-Regulated Ranks

By Grace Dixon

After a 2019 tweak to state law allowed localities beyond New York City and its surrounding counties to opt into rent stabilization for the first time since the original legislation was passed in 1974, a smattering of upstate cities have attempted to do just that, to varying degrees of success.

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Madison Square Garden Escapes Federal Suit Over Facial ID

By David Steele

A proposed class action challenging Madison Square Garden's use of facial recognition to ban attorneys from its properties was dismissed Wednesday, with a New York federal judge ruling that contracting with the third-party provider of the software did not break the law.

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Icahn, Xerox Investors Settle Nixed HP Merger Suit For $2.2M

By Elliot Weld

Carl Icahn will pay $2.2 million to Xerox under an agreement reached with a pair of the company's stockholders, who accused the billionaire investor in a consolidated shareholder derivative lawsuit of trading on non-public information regarding Xerox's now-doomed bid to acquire HP Inc. for $33 billion.

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Prison Officer Gets 2 Years For Bribes Linked To Rajaratnam

By Brian Dowling

A former federal corrections officer in Massachusetts who accepted bribes and a loan from a billionaire inmate, reportedly the convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam, was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for engaging in what a Boston federal judge called "corruption of the most dangerous sort."  

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NY AG Says $6M NRA Verdict Should Stand

By Cara Salvatore

A New York state court should not undo a jury's finding that the National Rifle Association allowed its officers to misappropriate $6.4 million of donor money, the state's attorney general has argued, saying trial evidence abundantly laid out evidence of misconduct and organizational failures.

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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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AGs Blast Federal Data Privacy Law's Proposed State Override

By Allison Grande

California joined attorneys general from more than a dozen other states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to urge Congress to ensure that proposed federal data privacy legislation sets a "floor, not a ceiling" that would preserve more stringent protections states have enacted and allow them to add new laws to address rapid technological developments. 

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Water-Damaged Conn. Hotel Sues Insurer For More Coverage

By Ryan Harroff

A Connecticut hotel took Sompo America Insurance Co. to state court after the insurer only partially covered substantial water damage that forced the newly opened lodge's closure and purportedly offered "nonsensical" justifications for denying full coverage.

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SEC Doubles Down On $2B Ripple Labs Sanction Bid

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is standing by its call for crypto platform Ripple Labs to pay $2 billion as punishment for selling unregistered securities, telling a New York federal judge that a lower penalty would send the wrong message to the industry at large.

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SEC Fines Real Estate Developer Over Unregistered Offering

By Sydney Price

A real estate development company and its owner will pay $250,000 to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's claims they sold investors $1.4 million in promissory notes in an unregistered offering.

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Labaton, Boston Pension Win Bid to Lead NYCB Investor Suit

By Katryna Perera

A New York magistrate judge appointed Boston's municipal pension plan and its attorneys from Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP to lead a proposed securities class action against New York Community Bancorp Inc. after the pension plan successfully showed that the plaintiff with the greatest losses bought their shares too late.

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Google Fights Subpoena On Texas Amid Ad Tech MDL

By Ali Sullivan

Google is urging a New York federal judge overseeing sweeping multidistrict litigation over the tech giant's alleged monopoly in digital advertising to stamp out a subpoena seeking discovery from Texas in related litigation in the Lone Star State.

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Simpson Thacher-Led Silver Lake Lands $20.5B For 7th Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Technology-focused private equity shop Silver Lake, advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, announced Wednesday the closing of its seventh flagship fund after securing $20.5 billion from investors, beating out the amount raised in its predecessor fund by about half a billion dollars.

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Skadden Taps SoFi Bank, Shearman Attys For Co-Lead Roles

By Jack Rodgers

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP has hired two new co-leaders of its financial institutions regulatory group to advise banks, financial institutions and other market participants on regulatory and legislative developments, the firm announced Wednesday.

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Gibson Dunn Adds Ex-Wachtell, Paul Weiss Attys As Partners

By Kevin Penton

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has added a former Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz corporate attorney and a former Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP lawyer who specializes in liability management as partners in New York, the firm has announced.

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A Foley Hoag Co-Chair Joins Litigation Firm As Name Partner

By Andrea Keckley

Litigation and dispute resolution firm Elliott Kwok Levine & Jaroslaw LLP will operate under a new name after welcoming as its newest name partner a former federal prosecutor who most recently co-chaired Foley Hoag LLP's white-collar crime and government investigations practice.

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Jones Day Hires Eversheds Construction Law Partner In NY

By Jack Rodgers

Jones Day has hired a former Eversheds Sutherland construction litigation partner, who is joining the firm in New York to continue his practice focused on major infrastructure projects and other construction-related work, the firm recently announced.

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Nelson Mullins Adds Linklaters, Foley & Lardner Litigators

By James Mills

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP announced Wednesday it is expanding its team with two new litigators, adding a Foley & Lardner LLP securities and healthcare ace in the Chicago office and a Linklaters LLP banking industry pro in the New York and Washington, D.C., offices.

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Is The Digital Accessibility Storm Almost Over?

Though private businesses have faced a decadelong deluge of digital accessibility complaints in the absence of clear regulations or uniformity among the courts, attorneys at Epstein Becker address how recent federal courts’ pushback against serial Americans with Disabilities Act plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice’s proposed government accessibility standards may presage a break in the downpour.

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How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling

In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.

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Justices Clarify FAA But Leave Behind Important Questions

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Bissonnette v. LePage firmly shuts the door on any argument that the Federal Arbitration Act's Section 1 exemption is limited to transportation workers whose employers transport goods on behalf of others, but two major issues remain unresolved, say Joshua Wesneski and Crystal Weeks at Weil.

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5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

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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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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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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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