The U.S. Department of Justice is looking into whether Uber violated laws involving the bribery of foreign officials, the company confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday.

The privately-held ride-hailing giant is being investigated for possibly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for individuals and organizations to pay foreign government officials in order to obtain or retain business.

Alexei Otreskovic writes that the investigation follows months of controversies and internal turmoil for the company.

Read the Business Insider article.

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The Los Angeles Times reports that UC Berkeley’s chief counsel was killed Sunday in a hit-and-run crash while bicycling in Sonoma County, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol reported that the driver of a BMW apparently lost control as he entered a curve on California 116, striking and killing Christopher Patti.

“Witnesses told officers that Patti was stopped on the shoulder. The 59-year-old Berkeley resident was sitting on his bicycle and looking at his phone, according to the CHP in Santa Rosa,” according to reporter Veronica Rocha.

Patti had represented the campus in legal matters since 2010 and worked with community organizations as well as federal, state and local government agencies, Rocha writes.

Read the LA Times article.

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Students and faculty at South Texas College of Law-Houston — and Houston’s legal community at large — have bonded in response to the overwhelming humanitarian need created by the storm, reports Bloomberg Law.

“Law firm partners have opened their houses to clients and associates, according to Gibson Dunn staff. Firms that are fiercely competitive in the court room have banded together to determine how to effectively provide legal services, explained a partner at Holland & Knight,” writes Max Siegelbaum. ” And members of the legal community — from law students to big law partners — have donated time, energy and resources to helping to house, clothe and feed people displaced by the storm. Big Law Business heard from 15 people during Monday and Tuesday following the disaster.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

eSignLive by Vasco has published a white paper that provides guidance on how to create a trusted digital transaction by implementing the right user identity authentication method.

The white paper can be downloaded from eSignLive’s website free of charge.

The document is designed to answer such questions as:

• How to select the right authentication for my process?
• How do I implement strong authentication, without making the process difficult for the customer?
• Can I leverage existing credentials?
• Can I adjust my authentication criteria for different transactions and processes?
• What are other organizations using? What best practices do they rely on?
• What authentication is available out-of-the-box with e-signatures? When do I need to integrate with other systems? Will I have to pay additional fees?

Download the white paper.

A federal judge in Detroit sentenced former engineer James Liang to 40 months in prison for his role in Volkswagen AG’s multiyear scheme to sell diesel cars that generated more pollution than U.S. clean air rules allowed, Reuters is reporting.

The sentence calls for Liang to pay a $200,000 fine, 10 times the amount sought by federal prosecutors. The sentencing judge said he hoped the prison sentence and fine would deter other auto industry engineers and executives from similar schemes to deceive regulators and consumers, write David Shepardson and Joseph White.

LProsecutors said Liang was a “pivotal figure” in designing the systems used to make Volkswagen diesels appear to comply with U.S. pollution standards, when instead they could emit up to 40 times the allowed levels of smog-forming compounds in normal driving, according to the report.

Read the Reuters article.

Jackson Lewis has posted an on-demand webinar exploring recent developments and important decisions in whistleblower litigation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act.

Presenters are Richard J. Cino and Joseph C. Toris.

Topics for the free webinar include:

• The expansion of the definition of a whistleblower;
• The weakening of the standard of proof in employee whistleblower cases;
• The necessity for an effective policy and a thorough and prompt investigation.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

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Texas courts have continued to evaluate the nature and extent of liability that property owners have for the acts of independent petroleum contractors, points out Marcy Rothman in Kane Russell Coleman Logan’s Energy Law Today blog.

She explains that a new opinion from the Eastland Court of Appeals is highly relevant for owners, operators, and drillers.

The Texas Supreme Court specifically held that the plain language of the Liability for Acts of Independent Contractors statute in the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code protects only the property owner, not its employees.

Boiling the Eastland court’s decision to its most practical terms, when it comes to claims for negligent hiring, companies are subject to claims that they knew or should have known that the contractors were not competent, Rothman writes.

Read the article.

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Conga offers some tips on making the decision whether to look into contract automation.

First on the list is: “You keep your contracts on paper — in a filing cabinet.” Conga points out that B2B companies  manage an average of 20,000-40,000 contracts at one time while 85 percent of those companies are using manual processes to manage them.

Some of the other tips, each with discussion, include: missing contract renewals, the sales team uses semi-manual processes to send out contracts or quotes, and the legal team has hundreds of clauses and no way to effectively manage or maintain them.

Read the article.

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“Smart contracts” in blockchain technologyy are highly useful in many cases where contracting parties lack a strong ex post enforcement mechanism (like a court system) and need to pre-commit to not defrauding or otherwise taking advantage of each other when executing a contract, writes Max Gulker for the American Institute for Economic Research.

Gulker explains that pre-commitment strategies are useful in mitigating some types of fraud: “Smart contracts based on multisignature-escrow Bitcoin wallets, such as the system employed by blockchain-based retail platform OpenBazaar, can go a long way in allowing a buyer and seller to commit to fairly executing a contract.”

Read the article.

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Daniel Chudd and James Tucker of Morrison Foerster continue their discussion of stays of contract award and performance with an examination of the issue during the pendency of a bid protest.

They explain there are two kinds of protest stays: pre-award stays and post-award stays.

Their article covers the stay of contract award, the stay of contract performance, Court of Federal Claims protests, and stay overrides.

Read the article.

California courts are often hostile toward defendants that seek to require litigious employees to honor their arbitration agreements, warns Michael Wahlander in the Seyfarth Shaw California Peculiarities Employment Law Blog.

“The defendant’s plight might seem more stark still if the defendant has not itself signed the agreement. But defendant employers still have means of enforcing such agreements, which can be especially significant in class actions claiming joint employment,” he writes.

He covers the subjects of the agency theory, equitable estoppel, and third-party beneficiary.

Read the article.

Potentially significant policy changes are on the horizon regarding federal rules that determine how and whether workers are entitled to overtime pay, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing. Businesses hoping to avoid overtime obligations for hourly workers must jump through three hoops in most cases. One of those hoops is to pay at least the minimum salary set by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Last year, the Labor Department under the Obama administration more than doubled the minimum salary threshold that is exempt from overtime, raising it from $23,600 to $47,476. But the salary increase proposal was stiff-armed by a Texas federal judge’s injunction before the change could take effect. While not endorsing the Obama-era regulations, newly appointed Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta mused in recent congressional testimony that the current salary threshold is too low and should be raised to “somewhere around $33,000.”

“The DOL is now seeking comment on how the overtime exemptions should be determined, as well as issues including whether salary levels should be allowed flexibility based on various factors, such as size of employer or region of employment,” says employment attorney Audrey Mross of Dallas-based Munck Wilson Mandala.

“There’s a lot on the line for employers who could be affected by these changes,” she said. “More than anything, employers are seeking consistency in order to plan for the future. This information-gathering phase provides parties a chance to be heard. If the salary threshold for exemption does increase, employers will be making hard decisions about whether to raise affected worker pay to maintain overtime exemptions or closely monitor worker hours, or otherwise be prepared to start paying overtime.”

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Michael Best announced the addition of James Fieweger to the firm’s Litigation Practice Group as a partner in Chicago. His addition follows partners Michael Graham, Peter Huh, and Mircea Tipescu, all of whom have joined the office in the past few months.

Fieweger has more than 25 years of experience and focuses on matters involving commercial litigation, professional and product liability, corporate internal investigations, commercial disputes involving claims of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and mass tort cases for Fortune 100 corporations. He has represented clients across several industries, including healthcare providers, retail banks, and manufacturers of medical and industrial products, and has defended more than 50 long-term care facilities against breach of contract claims.

Earlier in his career, Fieweger served for six years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, where he managed a broad scope of government and white collar investigations, including international drug trafficking, money laundering, RICO violations, insider trading, wire fraud, and cases involving the False Claims Act.

“James brings a great track record of government experience and corporate investigations work,” said John Scheller, Chair of Michael Best’s Litigation Practice Group. “With more than two decades in the private and public sectors, he will be an outstanding addition and will enhance our litigation and investigations counsel for clients.”
Most recently before joining Michael Best, Fieweger was a founding partner of law firm Falkenberg Fieweger & Ives, where he focused on representing clients in commercial litigation as well as state and federal investigations.

“We’re delighted that Jim has joined us alongside some other recent and notable hires we’ve made here in Chicago,” said Kerryann Haase Minton, Michael Best’s Chicago Office Managing Partner. “He is an accomplished and respected attorney in the litigation and investigations space and we’re confident he’ll be a great fit for our culture of providing exceptional legal counsel for our clients.”

“I’m excited to be a part of such a motivated and successful team here in Chicago,” Fieweger said. “The firm’s credentials speak for themselves and I’m thrilled to be a part of the team in Chicago and to work with the other litigation partners across the firm’s national platform.”

Fieweger received his J.D., cum laude, from DePaul University College of Law and his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. He received an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest level peer review rating an attorney can obtain for both legal abilities and ethical standards.

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A South Korean court on Friday convicted Lee Jae-yong, the heir to the Samsung business empire, of bribery and embezzlement and sentenced him to five years in prison, in a dramatic break with the country’s history of dealing light penalties to major business figures, The New York Times reports.

Reporters Jeyup S. Kwaak and Paul Mozur write that the verdict presents new challenges for the huge Samsung organization.

“The court ruled that Mr. Lee and four other Samsung executives paid $6.4 million in bribes and other inducements to ensure that the country’s disgraced former president, Park Geun-hye, supported a complicated corporate deal that strengthened Mr. Lee’s grip on Samsung Electronics, the conglomerate’s crown jewel,” according to the Times.

Read the NYT article.

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When the U.S. Supreme Court hears  Oil States Energy Service v. Greene’s Energy Group, the justices will have the opportunity to banish patent trolls back under the bridge where they belong, according to Above the Law.

Gary Shapiro explains that Oil States hinges on inter-partes review – “the process used by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office to determine whether a patent under question was issued based on merit. If not, the patent can be rescinded. The process is similar to a trial: Lawyers make their case to the Patent Trials and Appeals Board (PTAB), and three highly qualified administrative patent judges hear their case and come to a decision.”

He says the process is expensive, but it’s much less costly than going to court.

Read the Above the Law article.

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. has been selling assets, paying down debt and riding a recovery of its shares from their lowest point last spring. But one big uncertainty — its potential legal costs — just got bigger, reports Bloomberg.

Mutual fund company Lord Abbett & Co. filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Valeant, alleging that it bought shares in the drug giant at an artificially high price because of misinformation provided by Valeant, write Greg Farrell and Neil Weinberg. The suit, alleging violations of New Jersey’s racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) law, represents a new and potentially costly legal attack on Valeant, which is already facing lawsuits over alleged manipulation of drug prices.

“If other investors were to follow Lord Abbett’s lead, Valeant’s legal exposure could balloon,” according to Bloomberg. “In its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Valeant says that the class action suits are without merit and that it intends to fight them.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

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Barnes & Thornburg LLP has added Salvador LaViña as a partner in the Real Estate Department in Los Angeles. LaViña joins from Enenstein Ribakoff LaViña & Pham APC, where he was chair of the real estate and corporate departments.

LaViña focuses on complex real estate and corporate transactions, and has closed or supervised over $5 billion in deals in the last few years. He advises private clients – including investment companies, family offices, fund advisers and developers – in real estate, including acquisitions and sales, joint ventures, multifamily transactions, 1031 exchanges and tenant-in-common transactions, real estate fund formation, development, public-private and multistate matters.

On the corporate side, LaViña represents companies spanning a variety of industries, including e-commerce, oil & gas, music, entertainment, sports and marketing, as well as the areas where corporate and real estate deals intersect. His practice emphasizes middle-market M&A, stock and asset transactions, fund formation, syndication and private placements.

“Sal is a well-known and highly regarded real estate lawyer and brings to our firm a multifaceted transactional practice,” said David Allen, managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office. “Furthermore, Sal’s involvement in our community and commitment to civic organizations are examples for us all.”

Outside of his legal practice, LaViña is a board member and general counsel for the UCLA Alumni Association, a member of the Columbia University Alumni Association, and is on the Village Family Services board of directors. He is a former board member of the Para Los Niños and is a life member of American Mensa.

LaViña earned his J.D. from Columbia University Law School and his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is admitted to practice in California.

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AssureSign has posted an on-demand webinar on the use of SMS electronic signatures – a feature new to the legal industry.

The free on-demand webinar is available now, covering such topics as how to create and send documents for signature using SMS text messaging, how to improve your customers’ overall experience, how to close deals faster by leveraging SMS document sending, and how to use audit trails to track a document at each step of the signing process.

On its website, AssureSign says its system has been used on more than 400 million completed electronic signature transactions.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

A survey of 125 law professionals reveals that 94 percent of law firms are focused on being more efficient, but the findings within this survey indicate that only a small group of opportunistic law firms are actually executing on this focus, leading to new business opportunities for their practices.

The Exterro survey is available for downloading at no cost.

This benchmarking report discusses how this small subset of innovative law firms are beating their competition by redefining their legal processes to increase client satisfaction and revenue.

The report includes:

• 36-page comprehensive report filled with key insights on how law firms are currently managing their business.
• Insight into key topics which include how law firms are managing their legal processes, the future of legal operations and more…
• Example of one interesting stat: Compared to 5 years ago, 51% of law firms are more focused on legal project mgmt. principles and technology.

Download the report.

Bloomberg Law describes how special counsel Robert Mueller is following a time-tried strategy for looking into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia:

“Follow the money. Start small and work up. See who will ‘flip’ and testify against higher-ups by pursuing charges such as tax evasion, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.”

Reporter Chris Strohm quotes Jeffrey Cramer, a former prosecutor who’s now managing director of consulting firm Berkeley Research Group LLC: ““You go for the weakest link, and you start building up.”

Mueller’s approach has been used for decades in criminal investigations, from white-collar fraud to mob racketeering.

Read the Bloomberg article.