Zapproved has published a new Electronic Discovery Management Model that addresses the overarching importance of information governance, advances in legal technology, and the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The updated version can be downloaded from the company’s website at no charge.

The original Electronic Discovery Reference Model successfully described the nascent ediscovery process and gave ediscovery practitioners a common language and framework for evolving their own approaches, but a lot has changed since then, Zapproved says on its website.

The company says it grappled with the overarching importance of information governance, advances in legal technology, and the expansion of data identification. It also considered recent changes in legal department operations and the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which sought to stem the tide of out-of-control ediscovery by re-emphasizing proportionality.

Download the new version.

JPMorgan Chase said on Thursday that it agreed to pay $5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of male employees who contend they were denied access to the same paid parental leave as mothers between 2011 and 2017.

The Washington Post‘s Samantha Schmidt reports the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented named plaintiff Derek Rotondo, said “this marks the first settlement of its kind stemming from a class-action lawsuit on behalf of male employees claiming they were denied the same equal paid parental leave as women. The settlement comes amid growing pressure on employers to adopt gender-neutral paid-leave policies that encourage more equitable caregiving roles in the home.”

While not admitting liability, the company pledged to train those administering the policy and pay $5 million to male employees who claim they were denied additional paid parental leave as primary caregivers.

Read the Post article.

In a stern rebuke, a judge ordered maverick Texas lawyer Phil Ross and his clients to pay more than $220,000 in sanctions for their serial misconduct during an ongoing guardianship case involving Charlie Thrash, a mentally incapacitated millionaire, according to a report in the San Antonio Express-News.

Bexar County Probate Court Judge Oscar Kazen ruled that Ross and his clients, Laura and Brittany Martinez, had “designed and carried out a vexatious litigation campaign … against Thrash, his property, the guardians and the Court,” writes Express-News reporter John McCormack.

The judge characterized the conduct of Ross and the Martinezes as “intentional, knowing and outrageous.” The court’s order cited Ross’ assistance in the marriage of Thrash and his girlfriend Martinez, which had been forbidden by the court because of Thrash’s mental incapacity.

Read the Express-News article.

An assistant public defender in Illinois has been fired after her boss discovered she is not an attorney, reports the Belleville News-Democrat.

Kelcie Miller was hired in October and had worked for the Madison County public defender’s office until last week, when her boss, John Rekowski, fired her.

“Rekowski said during the news conference he found out that Miller was not an attorney after a judge had checked the state’s Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission database of registered lawyers because a court reporter had asked the judge how to spell Miller’s first name. She was not listed,” write the News-Democrat‘s Lexi Cortes and Mike Koziatek.

Read the News-Democrat article.

ContractWorks has published “The Contract Management Software Implementation Guide” and made it available for downloading from the company’s website.

The guide is designed to help readers identify and mitigate some of the common obstacles organizations experience when implementing contract management software.

ContractWorks says the implementation guide helps readers learn:

• Why successful software implementation is a must for your team
• How to develop a successful software implementation strategy
• What you can do to resurrect failing contract management software
• The 7 crucial steps for successful software on-boarding

Download the free guide.

If technology vendors will have access to the personal information of their customers’ end users (regardless of whether the end users are employees or customers), treatment on caps on liability take on heightened importance, points out Janine Anthony Bowen in a post on the Data Privacy Monitor blog of BakerHostetler.

“Vendors have become increasingly reluctant to provide unlimited liability to protect customers against harms caused by security incidents, going to great lengths to narrowly tailor the situations under which the vendors will bear risk,” she writes.

She cites the 2019 Data Security Incident Report for guidance on decision-making regarding acceptable financial risk allocation.

Read the article.

The Aldous\Walker law firm has earned a place on The National Law Journal’s 2018 list of Top 100 Verdicts for securing a $25 million verdict against a former Dallas Cowboys player and the nightclub that over-served him, leading to a fatal DWI crash.

The firm represented Stacey Jackson, mother of former Cowboys practice squad player Jerry Brown, who died in the 2012 crash. Brown was a passenger in the car driven by former star defensive lineman Josh Brent. Both had visited Privae Lounge in Dallas the night of the accident, and tests showed Brent’s blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit at the time of the crash, according to a release from the law firm.

The Aldous\Walker team successfully argued that the club shared responsibility for continuing to serve alcohol to Brent after he was intoxicated. The jury found Privae Lounge’s owners and Brent were equally liable for Brown’s death.

The verdict is among the largest in Texas for this kind of case. The full list of the NLJ Top 100 Verdicts for 2018 appears in the publication’s June issue.

“This is a very tragic case. But I was pleased we were able to bring Ms. Jackson the justice she deserved,” said Aldous\Walker co-founder Charla Aldous, who along with Brent Walker, represented Ms. Jackson at trial. “The owners of that club did everything they could – including filing for bankruptcy – to avoid their responsibility. But we stuck with it because we knew we were right.”

The win was the first of three courtroom verdicts the firm earned on behalf of its clients in less than three months, including:

• Sarah Milburn, who was left quadriplegic in a collision involving a Honda Odyssey van. In February 2019, Aldous and Walker won a $37.6 million verdict on her behalf after a jury found Honda’s design of a third-row seat belt defective.
• Isabella Fletcher, who was sexually assaulted by former Hebron High School football players when she was 14. A Denton County jury awarded her $32 million, just weeks after the Milburn victory.

The firm’s release said the courtroom wins represent just the latest high-profile legal successes for Aldous and Walker, both of whom also represented nurse Nina Pham, who contracted Ebola in 2014 while working at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. And in 2011, they won a $9.3 million verdict on behalf of a female student who was sexually assaulted by a teacher at the Episcopal School of Dallas.

Eric Su has joined Crowell & Moring’s New York office as a partner in its Labor & Employment Group.

In a release, the firm said Su will oversee government investigations and class and collective action litigation involving alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Davis Bacon Act, and other federal and state wage-and-hour laws. He joins the firm from FordHarrison LLP, where he was the managing partner of its New York office and co-chair of its Construction Practice Group.

The firm said Su handles investigations by federal and state labor departments, law enforcement, and municipal agencies concerning wage-and-hour issues, including compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act, Service Contract Act, and state “little Davis Bacon” and other similar laws such as the New York Real Property Tax Law 421-a, and the New York Wage Parity Act. He works on workplace issues, including compliance with wage-and-hour and EEO requirements, employment and separation agreements, and day-to-day personnel matters. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner and is one of the most senior Mandarin-speaking management-side labor and employment litigators in the country.

Su frequently participates in industry and regulatory-agency speaking engagements alongside federal and state labor department investigators, where he advises business owners and their accountants on how to navigate the requirements of labor and employment laws and regulations and handling and resolving government investigations.

Born in Taiwan, Su earned his bachelor’s degree in history and international relations at Johns Hopkins University, his master’s degree in international relations at The London School of Economics and Political Science, and his law degree at Vanderbilt University Law School.

The U.S. Supreme Court has turned away an appeal of a ruling against the widow of a Reed Smith partner who blamed the labeling of the antidepressant Paxil for her husband’s suicide.

The court denied the appeal petition from plaintiff Wendy Dolin in her lawsuit against pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, reports the Cook County Record.

“Dolin had sued GSK over the death of her husband, Stewart Dolin, who had committed suicide in a downtown Chicago transit station in 2010,” writes the Record‘s Jonathan Bilyk. “Dolin alleged her husband’s suicidal behavior was caused by the drug paroxetine, the generic version of GSK’s Paxil. The warning label for paroxetine is identical to the label for Paxil.”

Read the Cook County Record report.

The Miami Herald reports that a federal judge ordered top Carnival Corporation executives, including chairman Micky Arison and president Arnold Donald, to appear in court on June 3 because the company is charged with violating its probation.

“Federal prosecutors announced last week that they had reached a deal with Carnival Corp. on the charges, which include dumping plastic into Bahamian waters and falsifying records. At the June 3 hearing, Judge Patricia Seitz will review the deal, and she wants Carnival Corp.’s C-suite to be there,” explains the Herald‘s Taylor Dolven.

The world’s largest cruise company was put on probation for its 2016 conviction for environmental crimes on its Princess Cruises ships. Carnival paid $40 million as part of its guilty plea and began its five-year probation in April 2017. It was Carnival Corp.’s third conviction for the same crime of dumping oily waste into the ocean since 1998.

Read the Miami Herald report.

Colorado attorney and former Holland & Hart patent partner Christopher Kulish died Monday after reaching the summit of Mount Everest, the latest climber to perish in what’s become a deadly season on the mountain, according to Bloomberg Law.

“Kulish, 62, died early in the morning at a camp below the summit on its southeast ridge during his descent,” writes Bloomberg’s Meghan Tribe. She reports that an initial assessment of Kulish’s death indicates that he died of cardiac arrest, though the cause is not yet known, his brother said.

He was a patent partner in Holland & Hart’s Boulder, Colorado, office from 2002 to 2009, before opening his own solo practice in Denver.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Eversheds Sutherland announced the opening of a Chicago office, the first new US office since the combination of Eversheds and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan in February 2017. Chicago marks the first Midwest presence for Eversheds Sutherland. Eversheds Sutherland now has 68 offices in 34 jurisdictions.

The Chicago office, which is set to be housed at 900 North Michigan Avenue, will be led by Marc A. Benjamin, a veteran real estate lawyer who will join from White & Case at the beginning of June; Susan V. Kai, a real estate lawyer who will join from Kirkland & Ellis later in June; and litigator Robert D. Owen, a partner with Eversheds Sutherland who is relocating from New York.

The firm said the Chicago opening comes shortly after Eversheds Sutherland reported global revenue of $1.175 billion for 2018 – a 10 percent increase over the previous year.

In a release, the firm said the office initially will concentrate on real Eestate, M&A and litigation work while targeting key sectors including diversified industrials, technology, media and telecommunications, financial institutions and energy.

Immigration law firm Foster LLP was ranked as a “Band 1” firm for immigration in the USA category for the firm’s Houston and Austin offices in the newly released 2019 Chambers USA Guide. Chambers provides an annual ranking of the best law firms based on independent research and interviews with lawyers and clients worldwide.

Chambers says the firm is “adept at acting for corporations, as well as individuals and families, on a range of issues, including work permits, visas and citizenship. [Foster LLP] routinely acts for investors and startups in connection with securing EB-5 visas. The full range of assistance includes litigation and appellate services.”

Notable practitioners include founding partner and Chairman Charles Foster, recognized by Chambers among the Senior Statespeople. Clients say Foster is “very knowledgeable” and a “thought leader” in the immigration space, Chambers says, and he has a well-established reputation for advising on a range of immigration strategy and policy matters for corporate clients.

Judy Lee, recognized by Chambers as a Band 1 attorney, is “highly recommended for the strength of her business immigration practice and she enjoys an excellent reputation among her clients.” Lee focuses her practice on assisting corporations with their employment-based immigration concerns.

John Meyer, recognized by Chambers as a Band 3 attorney, is regarded by peers as “a strong, competent attorney.” He has a wide-ranging business immigration practice and divides his time between the firm’s headquarters in Houston and multiple international locations, according to Chambers.

Chambers has been ranking clients and firms across many practice areas and geographies for nearly 30 years. Their independent research collects information about the organizations, individuals, and marketplaces. Their London-based team of over 200 researchers conducts thousands of interviews and collects the information by phone and email interviews.

Chambers ranks lawyers and law firms on several factors of consideration, all of which are investigated by their research team. Law firm rankings relate to a department of the firm, not the firm as a whole. Individual lawyers are ranked in their practice-area(s) on the basis of their legal knowledge and experience, their ability, their effectiveness and their client-service. Lawyers cannot buy their way into Chamber’s rankings; as a result, its annual directories are considered among the most accurate and reliable.

Mary Beth Walsh has joined Dykema as director of lateral recruiting. Prior to joining Dykema, Walsh served as director of attorney recruitment & development at the Chicago-based firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP.

In a release, the firm said that Walsh, who will work out of the firm’s Chicago office, will work closely with Dykema’s lateral hiring member Steve Gistenson and will be responsible for strategically planning, implementing and managing all aspects of firm-wide recruiting and integration efforts relating to lateral recruiting of members, senior counsel and government policy advisors.

Prior to her time with Hinshaw, Walsh served as professional hiring coordinator for Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in Philadelphia.

Walsh earned a J.D. from Marquette University Law School and B.A. in Public Relations, with a Minor in Business, from Penn State University.

Michael Best partner Lyndon L. Ricks has been appointed to the five-member State of Utah Securities Commission.

The commission formulates and makes recommendations to the division director regarding policy and budgetary matters and fees, acts in an advisory capacity to the division director and conducts administrative hearings adjudicating enforcement actions brought by the Division. Each member is appointed to the commission by the governor and with the consent of the Utah State Senate to serve a four-year term.

Ricks is a partner in Michael Best’s Corporate and Securities & Capital Markets Practice Groups. The firm said he advises clients on a broad range of securities matters including preparing limited or private offering documents for offerings exempt from registration under federal and state securities laws, ensuring compliance with reporting requirements under federal and state securities laws, and advising clients as to initial and secondary public offerings, proxy fights, and tender offers.

Ricks is a frequent lecturer and panelist at continuing legal education seminars and previously served as chair of the Securities Section of the Utah State Bar.

Ricks was sworn in on May 23.

Hogan Lovells announced that David Simonds has joined the firm’s Business Restructuring and Insolvency practice as a partner based in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Simonds joined the firm from Akin Gump, where he has served as a partner since 2004, having joined as an associate in 2000.

In a release, the firm said he has more than 25 years of experience representing debtors, official and informal creditors’ committees, secured and unsecured creditors, asset purchasers and other parties in interest in chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, cross-border insolvencies, and transactions. He recently served as lead bankruptcy counsel to the owner of films and associated rights that were the subject of a complex licensing/distribution arrangement with The Weinstein Company.

He also recently represented a group of private placement noteholders in a successful cross-border, out-of-court restructuring through which his clients acquired a majority equity ownership of the Savers and Value Village retail chains, one of the largest thrift store operators in the United States and Canada, by equitizing their notes and making a substantial new money investment.

Simonds received his B.S., summa cum laude, in Accounting in 1989 from the State University of New York at Albany, and his J.D. in 1992 from the New York University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Annual Survey of American Law. He is also a certified public accountant.

Jeremy D. Sosna has joined Littler as a shareholder in its Minneapolis office. Sosna, who joined from Maslon LLP, practiced as an attorney at Littler from 1998 to 2003.

In a release, the firm said Sosna has successfully defended clients from Fortune 500 publicly traded companies to privately held corporations in jury and bench trials, arbitrations, government agency hearings, appeals and class and collective actions across in a wide-range of employment matters. He also represents companies in labor relations matters and in hearings before the National Labor Relations Board.

The firm said Sosna counsels employers on compliance with federal and state employment laws, including anti-discrimination laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the National Labor Relations Act. He also advises on non-competition and trade secret matters, issues related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and international anti-bribery laws, and the development of anticorruption compliance programs. Prior to joining Maslon, he served as Employment Law and Litigation Counsel for the Valspar Corporation, a manufacturer of paint and coatings based in Minneapolis with more than 11,000 employees.

Sosna received his J.D., with high distinction, from the University of Iowa College of Law and his B.A. from the University of Iowa. He was recently named a 2019 “Recognised Practitioner” by Chambers USA for Labor & Employment in Minnesota and has also been recognized as a leading employment lawyer by Minnesota Law & Politics.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC that a trademark licensee may retain certain rights under a trademark licensing agreement even if the licensor enters bankruptcy and rejects the licensing agreement at issue, reports Paul Weiss.

“Relying on the language of section 365(g) of the Bankruptcy Code, the Supreme Court emphasized that a debtor’s rejection of an executory contract has the ‘same effect as a breach of that contract outside bankruptcy’ and that rejection ‘cannot rescind rights that the contract previously granted,’” according to the firm.

“The Supreme Court’s decision has far-ranging implications, as the opinion’s reasoning can be expanded to apply to the vast majority of contracts that may be rejected in bankruptcy,” the article concludes.

Read the article.

Barnes & Thornburg has added Nicole Bogard as a partner in the firm’s Corporate Department in the Atlanta office.

In a release, the firm said Bogard focuses on benefits, executive compensation and matters related to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). She also handles tax and benefits issues resulting from M&A transactions and has deep experience related to health benefits, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), wellness programs and self-funded healthcare plans.

Bogard’s benefits practice encompasses flexible benefits plans, severance plans, 401(k) plans and Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs). Additionally, she frequently advises clients on matters originating from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Her clients span a variety of industries, including the entertainment, hospitality, retail and healthcare, among others, the firm said.

Bogard is the third partner to join Barnes & Thornburg’s Atlanta office this year, following the additions of Mark Keenan and Christina Baugh in March.

Previously, Bogard was a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, where she led its Atlanta office’s ERISA, employee benefits, and executive compensation practice.

Bogard earned her J.D. from Marquette University Law School, cum laude, and her B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Karen C. Hermann has joined Venable LLP’s Corporate Practice as a partner in the Washington, DC office. Hermann’s practice focuses on corporate transactions, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, carve-out transactions, corporate reorganizations, strategic alliances, and joint ventures.

The firm said Hermann has represented private and publicly held corporations, private equity firms, and startup and emerging companies in a wide range of industries, but particularly in regulated industries such as aerospace and defense, technology, federal contracting, cybersecurity, professional service, and healthcare. She has worked on business and transaction matters, including transaction structure, integration of acquired companies, and unique requirements for regulated industries, for both buy-side and sell-side deals. She also advises joint ventures and other entities on such matters as entity formation, ownership structure, corporate governance, intellectual property portfolio management, staffing and business models, and exit strategies.

Hermann received her J.D. from George Washington University Law School in 1999 and her B.A. in English from Fontbonne College in 1996.