Producer Claims Disbarred Atty Lied About Mel Gibson Film
Media & Entertainment
From Law 360
Producer Claims Disbarred Atty Lied About Mel Gibson Film
By James Mills
An independent film production company has filed a California federal suit against a disbarred lawyer and others over allegations it was conned into investing $5 million in an action movie supposedly starring Mel Gibson.
Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Google Prioritized Being Default Search Engine, Ex-Exec Says
By Bryan Koenig
The U.S. Department of Justice used a former Google official’s testimony Wednesday to highlight the kind of value the company placed on being the default search engine on web browsers and early smartphones, a position the official said was sought in every partnership he worked on.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
News Outlets Say State’s Brief Didn’t Address Antitrust Issues
By Matthew Perlman
News outlets accused of conspiring to exclude rivals with different viewpoints from popular internet platforms by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine group told a Louisiana federal court an amicus brief from the state attorney general didn’t address the case’s core antitrust issues.
Response attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
NC Panel Rules City Docs Held By 3rd-Party Are Public Record
By Hayley Fowler
The North Carolina Appeals Court has ruled that government documents held by a third party are public records under state law and cannot be shielded from review, handing a belated victory to a local TV station that was denied access to survey responses from city council members in Charlotte.
Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Marvel Visual Effects Workers Vote To Unionize With IATSE
By Emily Brill
Visual effects workers at Marvel Studios voted 32-0 in favor of representation by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a “significant milestone” for a largely nonunion corner of the entertainment industry, the union announced Wednesday.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
SEC Fines Celeb-Backed NFT Project In Latest Crackdown
By Aislinn Keely
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday levied a $1 million penalty against the entity behind animated web series “Stoner Cats,” which features celebrities including Mila Kunis, over the sale of non-fungible tokens that it allegedly used to fund its production.
Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Feds Seek Prison For Financial Adviser In $86M Art Fraud
By Elliot Weld
A financial adviser who helped former art dealer Inigo Philbrick with an $86 million scheme to deceive art collectors and investors should see the inside of a prison cell, prosecutors told a Manhattan federal judge.
Memorandum attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Grievances Over Broadcast ‘Blackouts’ Aired In House Panel
By Christopher Cole
The broadcast and cable industries each sought Wednesday to convince Congress they are on the right side of repeated fights between TV station owners and multi-platform media conglomerates like Disney against pay-TV providers that in recent years have led to “blackouts” of news, sports and entertainment programming.
4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
DEALS
Major League Pickleball Unites With Rival In PE-Backed Deal
By Jade Martinez-Pogue
Top professional pickleball organizations Major League Pickleball and Carvana PPA Tour on Wednesday announced that they have agreed to merge under a unified professional pickleball holding company in a deal that is backed by a $50 million private equity investment.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
DuPont Wants Terms Of PFAS Deal With Ga. City Kept Secret
By Madeline Lyskawa
DuPont, Chemours and Corteva slapped Rome, Georgia, and two publications with a complaint seeking to keep private the terms of a settlement reached in June resolving the alleged discharge of toxic “forever chemicals” in the city’s drinking water, saying making the deal public could reveal their confidential trade secrets.
Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
PRIVACY & CONSUMER PROTECTION
Delaware Joins Growing State Data Privacy Law Patchwork
By Allison Grande
Delaware’s governor has signed a privacy law aimed at giving consumers more access to and control over the personal information that companies collect about them, becoming the 12th U.S. state to enact such comprehensive protections.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
MGM Resorts Websites Shut Down By Cyberattack
By Joyce Hanson
MGM Resorts International has reported that the casino-hotel entertainment giant is experiencing a cybersecurity incident that has continued for several days, keeping some of its nationwide websites and computer systems shut down as of Wednesday afternoon.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
COMPETITION
Las Vegas Paper Wants To End Pact With Rival Now
By Matthew Perlman
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is asking a federal court to let it dissolve an agreement with the Las Vegas Sun to distribute the papers as a single product amid a simmering legal battle centered on the pact.
2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
EMPLOYMENT
Nielsen To Pay $570K To Settle DOL’s Race Bias Allegations
By Patrick Hoff
Data analytics and market research firm Nielsen will pay $570,000 and change its hiring policies to clear up U.S. Department of Labor allegations that it favored Hispanic job applicants over hundreds of white, Black and Asian workers at two Texas facilities.
1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
SECURITIES & WHITE COLLAR
Hilton, Fallon, Bieber Want Out Of Bored Ape NFT Suit
By Katryna Perera
Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber and other celebrities who have been sued by crypto investors over their endorsements of Yuga Labs’s Bored Ape non-fungible tokens have urged a California federal judge to throw out the case, arguing their endorsements were only “innocuous” statements that cannot subject them to any liability.
2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
REAL ESTATE
Mass. Justices On The Fence Over $19M Casino Land Deal
By Brian Dowling
A pair of Massachusetts justices appeared unwilling Wednesday to find that a $19 million handshake agreement over land for the site of Wynn Resort’s Boston-area casino clearly violated state restrictions on side deals, but said the pact may raise public policy concerns relating to integrity in the gambling industry.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
SPORTS & BETTING
Caesars Sportsbook Lies About Risk-Free Bets, Suit Claims
By Khadrice Rollins
A potential class action filed in New York federal court accuses William Hill and Caesars Sportsbook of lying to customers about “risk-free bets” that are actually just one-time refunds that still carry the same initial risk.
Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
LEGAL INDUSTRY
BAL Names First Latina Managing Partner
By Adrian Cruz
Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP announced Wednesday that it had named longtime attorney Frieda Garcia managing partner, the first woman and Latino to be in the role in the corporate immigration firm’s 43-year history.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Thompson Coburn Names Next Firm Chair, Senior Leaders
By Xiumei Dong
Thompson Coburn LLP has named litigation department leader Chris Hohn as the firm’s next chair in its most recent leadership reshuffle, which also includes the addition of a new executive committee member and the appointment of new litigation department leadership.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Microsoft Elevates New Legal Chief, General Counsel
By Lauren Berg
Microsoft has shaken up its legal leadership this month with two in-house promotions, as the tech giant continues to defend its planned $68.7 billion purchase of video game company Activision Blizzard Inc. from the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust challenge.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Gibson Dunn Amends Diversity Scholarship Description
By Kevin Penton
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has amended its description of whom it awards its diversity and inclusion scholarships to, removing a reference on its website to law students who “identify with an underrepresented group.”
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
New McGuireWoods Team To Help Clients Navigate DEI
By Andrea Keckley
McGuireWoods LLP announced the launch of a practice team to help clients facing potential legal scrutiny over their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in light of developments like the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action in higher education and the numerous legal challenges it has inspired.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
NY Justice Hom Awarded Barrier-Breaking Appellate Nod
By Tracey Read
New York Supreme Court Justice Phillip Hom has made history with his appointment to the appellate term of the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts in the Second Department, becoming the first Asian American to sit on that bench, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. Zayas announced Tuesday.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Ethics Of Litigation Funding Divides Members Of Congress
By Ryan Boysen
A congressional hearing on the ethical implications of litigation funding split along sharply partisan lines on Wednesday, with Republicans decrying the multibillion-dollar industry as a drag on other businesses and a possible national security concern, while Democrats mostly dismissed it as a nonissue and called for an investigation into recent Supreme Court ethics scandals.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Dem Sen. Peter Welch Blasts Possible Public Defender Cuts
By Courtney Buble
Years before coming to Congress, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was a public defender, and now he’s raising the alarm about proposed cuts by the House and Senate to the federal public defender system, which he calls a “bedrock requirement” of the American judicial system.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Fla. Judge Says Secure Facility Needed In Trump Docs Case
By David Minsky
A Florida federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s classified documents criminal case on Wednesday ordered the former president and his attorneys to review and discuss evidence containing “sensitive compartmented information” in a secure facility approved by the court.
Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Eastman Atty’s Leading Questions Irk State Bar Judge
By Gina Kim
A California state bar judge overseeing John Eastman’s disbarment trial repeatedly admonished his attorney Wednesday for asking leading questions throughout his examination of voterGA founder Garland Favorito.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Firm Says Ex-Army Col. Stiffed It On $140K Tab In FCPA Case
By Chris Villani
Boston boutique defense firm Fick & Marx LLP sued a former U.S. Army colonel after helping him win a new trial and the eventual dismissal of a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case, claiming the onetime client has not paid his $142,000 legal tab.
Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
10th Circ. Says COVID Court Closure Doesn’t Spell Mistrial
By Emily Johnson
The Tenth Circuit has issued a split decision denying a request for a new trial from a convicted domestic abuser and member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, arguing that his right to a public trial was not violated because he didn’t object to an audio-only feed that was set up amid pandemic-related social distancing requirements.
Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Killer And Driver Texted After Court Officer’s Murder, Jury Told
By Bonnie Eslinger
A man on trial for driving the getaway vehicle during the fatal 2020 shooting of a federal courthouse security guard engaged in friendly communications with the gunman in the weeks that followed, an FBI agent told jurors Wednesday, contradicting defense counsel’s assertion that the driver was forced into that role at gunpoint.
Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Pennsylvania Court Won’t Toss Judges’ New Retirement Plan
By Matthew Santoni
A change in state-affiliated retirement plans for Pennsylvania judges did not violate the state’s constitution under a pair of 34-year-old precedents because it’s unknown if the new retirement plans will actually result in smaller payouts, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday.
Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »
Interview
New MassBar Prez Plans To Use Tech To Close Justice Gap
By Chris Villani
The newly elected president of the Massachusetts Bar Association is a family law attorney with plans to use new technologies to achieve greater access to the court system for lower-income civil litigants.
