“A company that does not perform adequate due diligence before a merger or acquisition may face legal and business risks. Perhaps most commonly, inadequate due diligence can allow a course of bribery to continue – with all the attendant harms to a business’s profitability and reputation, as well as potential civil and criminal liability,” reports Thomas Fox in JD Supra.

“While most compliance practitioners have been long aware of the requirement in the post-acquisition context, the 2012 FCPA Guidance focused many compliance practitioners on the need to engage in”

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“As of February 2021, pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), which created the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and supplemental funding such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the United States government has made available an estimated four trillion dollars in relief funds to businesses and individuals, and the Biden administration is proposing roughly two trillion dollars more,” write Merle M. DeLancey Jr. and Craig Stetson in Blank Rome’s Government Contracts Navigator.

“In addition to the relief funds, the Government has easily awarded more than billions in pandemic-related contracts for everything from vaccines to PPE to hand sanitizers. These levels of funding and spending are unprecedented and have been made at breakneck speed (for the government). Based on these factors and lessons from the past, audits of relief recipients and contractors to confirm appropriate use of government funds are inevitable. And the government has said as much. Of course, if an audit reveals potential wrongdoing or malfeasance, relief recipients and contractors should expect follow-on investigations and enforcement activity.”

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“Robinhood Markets has agreed to pay $65 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the broker failed to properly inform clients that it sold their stock orders to high-frequency traders and other financial firms,” reports Bloomberg in Fortune’s Finance.

“Robinhood, known for its popular smart-phone app that offers commission-free trading, also agreed to have an outside consultant monitor its compliance with rules that require firms to provide best execution for trades. Robinhood has gained notoriety during the pandemic by attracting a massive customer base of younger investors.”

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“The Texas attorney general’s office has named The Lanier Law Firm and the law firm Keller Lenkner to the litigation team that would face off against Alphabet’s Google in an expected antitrust lawsuit, the office said on Tuesday,” reports Diane Bartz in Reuters’ Technology News.

“Texas, backed by other states, has long been expected to follow the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google but unrelated allegations against Attorney General Ken Paxton of bribery and abuse of office led to the departure of several lawyers who were key to the Google investigation.”

“With the new hires, the Texas lawsuit could come as early as this month, according to a source familiar with the office’s planning.”

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“2021 will see a sharp rise in climate change litigation against companies and their executives around the world as cases begin to impact more individuals across a broader range of sectors,” writes Emma Ager in Clyde & Co’s Insights.

“Underpinning the rising concern around climate change are a range of cases – in the US more filings by cities and states seeking remediation from companies considered to be contributing to climate change impacts such as rising sea levels or increasing flood risks. In the UK, European, Canadian and Australian courts, by contrast, we are seeing more human rights cases typically brought by young people seeking to hold businesses and governments to account for failing to protect and preserve the environment for their and future generations.”

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“California’s new privacy agency means a fresh set of regulatory headaches for tech companies and other businesses operating in California that are already grappling with the state’s landmark 2018 law,” reports Jake Holland in Bloomberg Law’s Privacy & Data Security Law News.

“The new regulator was established with the passage of the Proposition 24 ballot measure on Tuesday to police California’s broad data privacy laws. Companies need to be more diligent about their data retention and sharing practices or risk hefty fines of as much as $2,500 per violation or $7,500 per intentional violation.”

“‘The law is chock full of new things,’ said Kristen Mathews, a privacy and data security partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP in New York. ‘Most of the provisions require extra compliance, and it’s a big lift for businesses.'”

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“The 45th Investigating Statewide Grand Jury announced charges against a Chester County magisterial district judge for using $4,000 in campaign contributions for personal benefit, which included gambling at various casinos in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and violating campaign reporting requirements,” reported via a press release on Josh Shapiro Attorney General’s website.

“In 2016, Cabry established the ‘Citizens for Cabry’ political action committee (PAC) in order to collect and spend campaign donations in compliance with Pennsylvania campaign finance law. Cabry submitted several campaign finance reports related to this PAC, all of which were filed, sworn to, signed, and filed by Cabry in his capacity as a magisterial district judge.”

“Cabry failed to file campaign finance reports during the fall of 2017, despite dozens of purchases being made on the PAC’s debit card for groceries, laundry services, hotel stays, and more cash withdrawals at casinos. The Grand Jury’s review of Cabry’s campaign finance records also revealed that, in 2017 alone, Cabry visited the Delaware Park Casino at least once per week, and withdrew campaign funds on several of those visits. Many reports failed to include cash withdrawals used by Cabry to gamble at various casinos.”

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“A federal grand jury has indicted Stephen L. Snyder, age 72, of Miami Beach, Florida, on the federal charges of attempted extortion and interstate travel and use of an interstate facility to carry on unlawful activity, also known as the Travel Act. Snyder was the senior partner at a Baltimore-based law firm specializing in plaintiff-side medical malpractice litigation,” released in the The United States Attorney’s Office District of Maryland.

According to the indictment “between January and October 2018, Snyder attempted to obtain $25 million from the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) for himself, separate and apart from any claim by one of his clients, by using threats of economic and reputational harm to UMMS and its organ transplant program. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Snyder threatened that if UMMS did not pay him $25 million, Snyder would launch a public relations campaign against UMMS that alleged, among other things, that UMMS transplanted diseased organs into unsophisticated patients without informing them of the quality of the organs they were receiving in order to generate revenue. According to the indictment, Snyder told UMMS officials that the campaign would include: a front-page article in the Baltimore Sun; other national news stories; a press conference; advertisements on the Internet, including one that would run every time someone accessed the UMMS transplant site; and at least two videos Snyder produced and would air if his demand for a $25 million payment were not met.”

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“Google’s parent company has reached a $310 million settlement in a shareholder lawsuit over its treatment of allegations of executives’ sexual misconduct,” reported by Associated Press in Boston Herald’s Business.

“Alphabet Inc. said Friday that it will prohibit severance packages for anyone fired for misconduct or is the subject of a sexual misconduct investigation. A special team will investigate any allegations against executives and report to the board’s audit committee.”

“Thousands of Google employees walked out of work in protest in 2018 after The New York Times revealed Android creator Andy Rubin received $90 million in severance even though several employees had filed misconduct allegations against him. Shareholder lawsuits followed, and in 2019 Google launched a board investigation over how it handles sexual misconduct allegations.”

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“Daimler AG will pay $2.2 billion to resolve a U.S. government diesel emissions cheating investigation and claims from 250,000 U.S. vehicle owners, court documents show,” reporting by David Shepardson in U.S. News via Reuters, Wire Service Content.

“The German automaker and its Mercedes-Benz USA LLC unit disclosed on Aug. 13 it had reached a settlement in principle resolving civil and environmental claims tied to 250,000 U.S. diesel cars and vans after the automaker used software to evade emissions rules.”

“Daimler said in August expected costs of settlements with U.S. authorities would total $1.5 billion, settling with owners will cost another $700 million and also disclosed “further expenses of a mid three-digit-million EUR (euro) amount to fulfill requirements of the settlements.”

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“A 32-year-old woman suspected since July of running an unlawful law practice in Uptown Dallas has been arrested in Boston, and police are asking anyone who may have been victimized to speak up,” reports Marc Ramirez in The Dallas Morning News’ Crime.

“Massachusetts state police detained Camilia Shene Johnson at Logan International Airport on Sept. 5 as she tried to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Johnson, a convicted felon, also goes by the name Camilia Johnson Ibrahim.”

“Authorities had been looking into Johnson’s conduct since mid-July, when a skeptical DeSoto resident alerted police to say that a number of legal actions being proposed to them by the suspect were in fact not the law.”

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“In recent weeks, because of the remoteness of our work forces, we have seen an increased incidence of abusive written communications between employees. It’s fair to say that we all have certain frustrations with our current situation, but in the past, when we all worked in the office or plant together, we could often work out those frustrations through face-to-face conversation. In face-to-face conversations, it is more difficult to say rude or abusive things to other employees. Unfortunately, a similar social barrier does not seem to be present when employees write emails or text messages,” warns Thomas H. Wilson in Vinson & Elkins’ Insights.

“In the recent General Motors case, the facts indicated that the employee in question, over the course of several meetings, used profane language toward managers, threatened them, and played loud, explicit music on his phone to interrupt the conversation. The administrative law judge, citing to the Board’s prior rulings on these types of communications, found that General Motors’ discipline against the employee—namely, a series of suspensions—constituted an unfair labor practice. The current Board overturned that opinion and the prior cases that supported it in its decision.”

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“Holland & Knight is facing a lawsuit alleging that it failed to prevent the transfer of more than $3 million to a fraudster’s account in Hong Kong,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s News.

“The lawsuit, filed in June in Utah state court, was removed to federal court this week, the American Lawyer reports.”

Holland & Knight is accused of failing to investigate after the fraudster intercepted emails regarding a stock sale, posed as the seller, and instructed the law firm to wire $3.1 million from the stock buyer to another account. The new fraudulent account was identified as Wemakos Furniture Co. Limited.”

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Paul “Jake” York, an attorney in Georgia, is accused of forging not just a prosecutor’s signature but also a judge’s in the hopes of getting his client’s ankle monitor taken off. “York’s client, Valerie Ryals, was ordered to wear an electronic ankle monitor after she was arrested for aggravated stalking. That set back the single mom $380 every two weeks, and York believed the charges against his client would ultimately be dismissed, so he asked assistant District Attorney Meredith Davis to sign off on bond modification,” writes Kathryn Rubino in Above the Law’s Lethal Ethics.

“York filed an order that would allow his client to remove the ankle monitor that purported to be signed by ADA Davis and Habersham County, Georgia Superior Court Judge B. Chan Caudell. Only problem, Caudell does not recall that at all and wasn’t even able to sign the order the date it was dated.”

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“Biglaw is an industry-specific nickname for high-revenue law firms with large headcounts. It can also refer to smaller firms that pay their lawyers a market rate salary, or even a medium-sized outfit with wide, international reach and notoriety,” writes Joshua Holt in Law Fuel’s blog.

“All of these types of firms are typically headquartered in major US cities, like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, with multiple branches in smaller markets. And, most notably, lawyers who work in Biglaw can expect to be paid based on the Cravath scale.”

“The Cravath Scale, an offshoot of the Cravath system, is named after Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, the firm which is generally considered the authority on setting associate salaries. Its compensatory functions include factors like the number of years out of law school and particular law school classes, among others.”

“Lawyers on this pay scale not only earn the same salary but can also anticipate receiving the same annual market bonus. Based on the lockstep and closely monitored structure of the scale, if one firm offers an associate a higher salary, other firms tend to follow suit. But while this scale is based on a platform of consistency, changes have been experienced throughout the years.”

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“While organizations make significant investments in protecting their data from outside infiltration, they can often overlook the serious threats that exist within their own workforce. According to a 2020 study released by the Ponemon Institute, the biggest threat in terms of disclosure of sensitive information comes from so-called “insider threats,” in the form of employees who disclose protected information or provide a means of access to that information to third parties, either unwittingly or otherwise. That threat has only grown in recent years, increasing by 47% in the last two years alone,” reports Risa B. Boerner in Fisher Phillips Newsletters.

She further breaks down her article into the following sections:

• The Costs Can Be Staggering
• Why The Recent Surge?
• First Steps: Awareness + Training
• Advanced Tactics

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“There has been a veritable explosion of antitrust litigation in the workplace law field, putting employers and their executives at risk. Federal and state antitrust agencies and private plaintiffs have accelerated their attacks on employers who agree to coordinate wage levels (wage-fixing) or not solicit each other’s employees (no-poach),” writes Dennis Cuneo in Fisher Phillips’ Resources.

“Four years ago, the Department of Justice threatened criminal prosecution of companies and individuals who engaged in such activities. A few weeks ago, the nation’s top antitrust law enforcement official reiterated that threat, announcing that he plans to bring a criminal prosecution this year challenging a no-poach agreement. Attorneys General in several states have stepped up their challenges to no-poach agreements, particularly in franchise settings. Private plaintiffs have obtained huge settlements in class action lawsuits challenging no-poach agreements and exchanges of compensation data among employers.”

“The antitrust prohibitions against price fixing or market allocation in product markets are well understood. What is not as well understood is that the antitrust laws apply equally to labor markets. Just as a price fixing agreement between two companies to fix the price of widgets may lead to antitrust sanctions, a wage-fixing or no-poach agreement between two companies that compete for the same labor may also lead to antitrust sanctions.”

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“Dentons says it will appeal a $32.3 million malpractice verdict based on its disqualification in a patent case because of work done by its Canadian branch.” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s Law Firms.

“Jurors in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, had found Dentons liable Feb. 13 in a suit by its former client, laser-inscribing company RevoLaze … The verdict is thought to be the largest legal malpractice judgment in Ohio’s history, according to a press release from RevoLaze’s law firm.”

“The suit had alleged that the booting of Dentons from the case forced RevoLaze to quickly find new lawyers and impacted its leverage in settlement negotiations.”

“The case highlights legal issues related to Dentons’ Swiss verein structure in which more than 10,000 lawyers are associated with the law firm.”

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“If you’re an Ohio in-house attorney and you value your freedom to make career moves, then you’re in luck. On Feb. 7, the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct issued an opinion letter stating that in-house counsel cannot be bound by non-compete agreements.” reports Douglas M. Oldham in The National Law Review.

“Ohio Rule of Professional Conduct 5.6(a) states that a lawyer may not participate in an “agreement that restricts the right of a lawyer to practice after termination of the relationship, except an agreement concerning benefits upon retirement.” There is a strong public policy allowing parties to be represented by the counsel of their choice, and any agreement that restricts an attorney’s ability to practice would undermine that public policy.”

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“Stephanie Apostolou has been elected general counsel and secretary of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Koppers and Koppers Holdings, effective March 1,” report Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Apostolou is at present deputy general counsel and assistant secretary with the NYSE-listed company, which is a global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals and carbon compounds.”

“Her promotion follows the announcement that Steven Lacy, chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary of Koppers will retire at the end of this year after a 20-year career with the company. In the period between March 1 and December 31, Lacy will hold a new position as assistant to the president of Koppers.”

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