Analysis

Biden's Pardon Is Another Blow To Special Counsel Probes

By Phillip Bantz

President Joe Biden's pardon of his son over the weekend marks the latest example of a special counsel investigation fizzling and raises doubts over the future use of such probes, which can drag on for years and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

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Chancery OKs $345M Fee Award For $55B Musk Pay Fight

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's chancellor approved a $345 million attorney fee award Monday in the case that scuttled Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 10-year, $55.6 billion compensation plan, rejecting the plaintiff's bid for $5.6 billion in freely tradable company shares and declining to reinstate Musk's proposed pay.

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Chancery OKs $21M Deal To End Gene Co. Class Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

A $21 million settlement of stockholder challenges to a blank check company's take-public merger with clinical data and genomics company Sema4 Holdings in July 2021 won Delaware Court of Chancery approval Monday, with nearly $4.1 million carved out for attorney fees.

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Heritage's $10M Generic Drugs Deal With AGs Gets 1st OK

By Ryan Harroff

A Connecticut federal judge gave his initial approval on Monday to Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s $10 million settlement agreement with state attorneys general to resolve allegations it took part in an anticompetitive, price-fixing scheme focused on generic drugs.

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Chancery OKs Pruned $2.3M Fee For Info Tech Co. Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

A Delaware vice chancellor on Monday cut $1.7 million from a $4 million fee sought by attorneys whose suit overturned corporate governance concessions that information technology company N-able Inc. granted to its lead investors, citing partial overlaps with an earlier, high-profile case.

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Yellow Fights Teamsters' Call For 10th Circ. To Nix Claims

By Beverly Banks

The Tenth Circuit should not pay mind to arguments from the Teamsters about upholding a lower court's dismissal of Yellow Corp.'s $137 million suit against the union, the company is arguing, doubling down on its claims that it was not required to exhaust the grievance process under a contract.

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Fed. Circ. Affirms PTAB's Ax Of Telecom Patent Claims

By Andrew Karpan

Federal Circuit judges decided Monday to keep intact three patent board decisions that had knocked out claims in a patent issued to Dutch mobile telecom developer Koninklijke KPN NV that covered a way of regulating access to a telecommunications network.

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How Boards And Officers Should Prep For New Trump Admin

In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs and mass deportation campaign, company officers and board members should pursue proactive, comprehensive contingency planning to not only advance the best interests of the companies they serve, but to also properly exercise their fiduciary duty of care, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

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IP Ruling Likely To Limit Arguments Against Qualified Experts

The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Osseo v. Planmeca, clarifying when experts may offer testimony from the perspective of a skilled artisan, provides helpful guidance on expert qualifications and could quash future timing arguments regarding declarants' expertise, says Whitney Jenkins at Marshall Gerstein.

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Bonus Spotlight

Wilkinson Stekloff Exceeds BigLaw's Year-End Bonuses

By Anna Sanders

Associates at trial boutique Wilkinson Stekloff will receive year-end bonuses as much as $57,500 higher than those given across BigLaw on top of special bonuses matching those offered by other firms, founding partners said Tuesday.

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Coinbase Says It Won't Use Firms That Hire Crypto Enforcers

By Aislinn Keely

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made clear that it won't work with law firms that employ former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys who led the charge on crypto enforcement suits, singling out Milbank LLP for its hiring of ex-SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal.

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BigLaw's China Exodus Continues With Paul Weiss Closure

By Aebra Coe

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP will close its Beijing office at the end of the year, a spokesperson confirmed to Law360 Pulse Tuesday, ending the firm's physical presence in mainland China after more than 40 years amid a wider exodus of U.S. law firms from the country.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Tunheim Advises Other Jurists

For more than a decade, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim has counseled judges from other countries on quandaries jurists face internationally, from artificial intelligence to court administration to judicial independence.

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Lockheed Martin Taps Carrier CLO And DOJ Veteran As GC

By Gina Kim

Lockheed Martin has hired Carrier Corp.'s chief legal officer and U.S. Department of Justice veteran Kevin O'Connor as its new general counsel to succeed Maryanne Lavan, who is retiring after more than 30 years at the aerospace giant.

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Exelon Promotes Ex-FERC Commissioner To Top Legal Role

By Daniel Connolly

Utility company Exelon Corp. announced Tuesday that a former Reed Smith LLP partner and former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been named its next chief legal officer, and also said it's also expanding the top legal role.

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Brief

It's Not Your Imagination, SDNY Attys: PACER Really Is Slow

By Pete Brush

Recent mid-morning slowdowns of the federal courts database known as PACER in the Southern District of New York are caused by a profusion of data miners that ply their trade around the same time each day, a district official confirmed Tuesday.

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Microsoft Asks FTC Watchdog To Look Into Leaked Probe

By Lauren Berg

A Microsoft deputy general counsel on Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission's inspector general to look into whether commission management improperly told a news outlet that the FTC had opened a broad antitrust investigation of the tech giant.

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Senate Confirms Ex-Public Defender For Mass. Federal Court

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-45 Monday night to confirm Brian Murphy, a former public defender, as a U.S. district court judge for the District of Massachusetts.

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New Judges Include One Who Aided Puerto Rico Bondholders

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed two federal judges for Pennsylvania and one for the District of Columbia, who came under scrutiny during her confirmation hearing for her work at Jones Day.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

December's appellate forecast calls for a squall of showdowns in a tiny time period before the holidays, including arguments involving recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, Big Tech's patents and popular purveyors of health food. In addition, winds of change are swirling around the White House's litigation posture and judicial nominations, and we'll quiz you on the latter in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing.

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Trump Argues Immunity Extends To Local Prosecutions

By Frank G. Runyeon

President-elect Donald Trump told the New York state judge presiding over his hush money case that the criminal charges and guilty verdict should be thrown out, arguing in an expansive motion released Tuesday that allowing a local prosecution to proceed would upset the republic's balance of power.

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Judge Mulls Whether DA Willis Must Comply With Subpoenas

By Kelcey Caulder

A Fulton County judge on Tuesday considered whether a Georgia state Senate committee can force Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to testify or turn over records as part of its investigation into her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.

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Tech Giants Seek Firm's Communications With Elusive Client

By Ryan Boysen

Apple and Amazon want Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to turn over texts and emails with a client who disappeared from a putative class action against the tech giants, to determine whether the plaintiff consented to the case continuing in his absence.

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2nd Recount Underway In North Carolina Supreme Court Race

By Hayley Fowler

Election officials in North Carolina will embark on a second recount of votes in a close race for a state Supreme Court seat, at the behest of a Republican Court of Appeals judge hoping to unseat his Democratic opponent. 

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