Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will present a free webinar, “Alphabet Soup: A Review and Summary of Post-Grant Practice at the USPTO,” featuring Fitch Even partner David A. Gosse.

The event will be on Thursday, November 21, 2019, at 9 am PST / 10 am MST / 11 am CST / 12 noon EST. It will also be available as an on-demand webinar after the presentation.

After a U.S. patent issues, many procedures are available to correct the patent, challenge its validity, and even change its scope. These include a bewildering array of procedures sprinkled with Latin phrases and confusing acronyms. The America Invents Act, passed in 2011, changed the face of post-grant practice at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As the procedures presented in that bill have matured, keeping up with ever-evolving policies and practices has been a challenge even for highly engaged practitioners. This webinar will provide a summary of post-grant procedures and an introduction to when, why, and how each procedure is useful (or not) to patent owners and third parties.

During the webinar, the presenter will cover these topics and more:
• Review of post-grant procedures at the USPTO including inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), covered business method review (CBM), supplemental examination, ex parte reexamination, and reissue applications
• Strategic purposes of the various post-grant procedures
• Tactics for petitioners and patent owners in USPTO trial proceedings

Register for the webinar.

Joel Forman has joined Akerman LLP’s national Litigation Practice Group as a partner in New York.

In a release, the firm said Forman brings decades of experience resolving securities civil litigation and government enforcement cases, having represented broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment banks, mutual funds, hedge funds, boards of directors, and industry executives involved in allegations of corporate and individual misconduct.

The firm said Forman defends financial services companies and associated persons in federal and state court trials and appeals, arbitrations, and mediations. His cases involve sales practices and supervision, insider trading, money laundering, prime brokerage, trade execution and clearing, research, privacy and cybersecurity, public and private funds, variable annuities, securities lending, and sales charges, fees, and commissions.

In enforcement matters, Forman represents clients before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Financial Conduct Authority (UK) and state securities regulators. He also represents companies in SEC broker-dealer and investment adviser registrations, disclosure documents including investment adviser brochures, as well as filing new and continuing membership applications with FINRA. Before entering private practice, Forman served as a staff attorney for the New York Regional Office of the SEC in the Division of Enforcement.

Stacey L. McGraw has joined Dykema in its Insurance Industry Group and Business Litigation Practice as a member in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. McGraw joins Dykema from Troutman Sanders LLP.

The firm said McGraw’s practice focuses on providing counsel to and representing major professional liability insurance carriers with respect to coverage issues, ultimate exposure and underwriting strategy. She advises clients on matters involving complex insurance policies for directors and officers and other professionals, including those in quickly growing areas of technology, telecommunications and media.

McGraw frequently represents directors and officers and other professional liability carriers at private and court-ordered mediations. She has also defended professionals, including attorneys, against allegations of malpractice, and has represented nonprofits in litigation and other contexts.

McGraw earned a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A., with distinction, from the University of Virginia.

Michael J. Altieri has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as senior attorney in the firm’s global environmental practice in the Boston office.

In a release, the firm said Altieri’s practice focuses on issues relating to environmental permitting and energy infrastructure siting, including for renewable energy projects. He has experience overseeing environmental matters, dispute resolution and enforcement actions involving infrastructure construction projects, energy resources, contaminated lands and much more.

Prior to joining Hunton Andrews Kurth, Altieri worked for regulatory agencies in Massachusetts and New York, including the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, Massachusetts Department of the Environment, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as several others.

The law firm of Thompson & Knight LLP advised Oilfield Water Logistics, LLC (OWL) in connection with the sale of its midstream water infrastructure and services business to InstarAGF Asset Management Inc. and its Canadian and international co-investors.

The Thompson & Knight team representing and advising OWL was led by Jesse E. Betts and J. Holt Foster, III, with assistance from Partners Debra J. Villarreal, William M. Katz, Jr., Anthony J. Campiti, Shad E. Sumrow, Todd D. Keator, Jason Patrick Loden, Elizabeth A. Schartz, Gregg C. Davis, Kurt Summers, and James C. Morriss III; and Associates Courtney J. Roane, James Bedotto, John B. Phair, Timothy J. Johnston, Jana Benson Wight, Aaron C. Powell, Craig Carpenter, Lindsay Kirton, and Leslie Reynolds.

Image by William Munoz

Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson is again at the center of the climate change debate, as the former Exxon Mobil CEO prepares to take the witness stand regarding allegations his former company deceived shareholders about the financial risks posed by climate change, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Tillerson is scheduled to make an appearance at the New York Supreme Court Wednesday to answer questions about missing emails and varying carbon pricing schemes amid a growing wave of climate change litigation against the oil industry, according to the Chronicle‘s James Osborne.

The New York attorney general wants to answer the question of whether Exxon defrauded investors when it used one carbon price to estimate the potential taxes or fees the company might have to pay on greenhouse gas emissions from oil drilling projects and another in the economic modeling it presented to investors regarding future oil and gas demand.

Read the Houston Chronicle article.

Pacific Daily News reports that suspects were arrested in connection with the recent killing of Yap Acting General Rachelle Bergeron, Yap Gov. Henry S. Falan said in a statement Monday.

“The next stage in the investigation will be the court proceedings as the state moves toward the final stage of conviction,” the Yap governor said in a statement.

Bergeron, from Waukesha, Wisconsin, was shot to death in her backyard after an evening run on Oct. 14, just 11 days before she and her husband, Simon Hammerling, a missionary pilot with Pacific Mission Aviation, were to mark their first wedding anniversary.

Read the Pacific Daily News article.

DLA Piper, fighting a sexual-assault claim against a former partner, filed a response to the accusation Tuesday, saying the lawyer who filed the complaint orchestrated a “flirtation” to advance her career, reports Bloomberg News.

DLA and former partner Louis Lehot parted ways after his colleague Vanina Guerrero accused the star Silicon Valley lawyer of sexually assaulting her.

The firm said it conducted an “impartial investigation” of the matter.

“Ms. Guerrero was a willing participant in a lengthy emotional flirtation with Mr. Lehot that she orchestrated to advance her career,” DLA Piper said in a letter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing Guerrero’s emails.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP announces that Denson N. Franklin III, a partner in the firm’s Birmingham office, has been appointed senior vice president and general counsel of Birmingham-based Vulcan Materials Company, which announced the appointment Oct. 15.

In a release, the firm said Franklin will be transitioning from the firm over the next few months and will take on his new role in December.

A member of the S&P 500 index, Vulcan is the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates – primarily crushed stone, sand and gravel – and a major producer of aggregates-based construction materials, including asphalt and ready-mixed concrete.

A member of Bradley’s Corporate and Securities Practice Group, Franklin has focused his practice on corporate, mergers and acquisitions, finance transaction, and federal and state securities matters. He has represented clients ranging from established companies with global operations to early stage businesses. He has advised companies on a broad range of issues affecting their businesses, including clients in the information services, manufacturing, distribution and service, construction and engineering, construction materials, transportation and technology industries. Franklin has counseled companies and their boards on corporate governance and compliance issues, as well as family-owned businesses with ownership that spans multiple generations. In addition, he has advised emerging growth companies in their formation and funding, and has worked with companies from inception through venture capital funding and initial public offering or sale. He also has advised clients with respect to their overseas operations and acquisitions outside the United States.

Franklin received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and his Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) from Birmingham-Southern College.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that IADC member Matthew D. Keenan has been appointed by President Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as one of eight new members of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) board of directors.

Also a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. in Kansas City, Mo., Keenan was sworn in as an LSC board member Oct. 2 by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts following his Aug. 1 Senate confirmation. The LSC is the largest provider of civil legal assistance for low income people in the nation. Its 11-member board is bipartisan: No more than six members may be of the same political party.

Keenan is past chair of the Social Justice Pro Bono Committee and current member of the Trial Techniques and Tactics Committee, both of the IADC, which takes a leadership role in many areas of legal reform and promotes social justice by expanding and supporting pro bono programs among attorneys who are members of the IADC.

Keenan also serves on the board of Legal Aid of Western Missouri and previously served for eight years as chair of Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Pro Bono Committee.

In a release, the firm said Keenan focuses his practice on pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. He also focuses on the preparation and defense of a number of corporate witnesses in many MDL proceedings. During his career, he has tried jury trials in seven states.

An independent nonprofit established by Congress in 1974, the LSC promotes equal access to justice by awarding grants to legal services providers through a competitive grants process. LSC distributes more than 90 percent of its total funding to 132 independent nonprofit legal aid programs with more than 800 offices. The LSC also conducts compliance reviews and program visits to oversee program quality and compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements, as well as restrictions that accompany LSC funding, and provides training and technical assistance to programs. For more information, visit www.lsc.gov.

Dykema announced the addition of attorneys Israel R. Silvas, Mike Toth and Alexis B. Farrell to its Dallas office, and to the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group. In addition, Dykema’s Dallas office also added Charleen Maranto as practice group manager for its Dental Service Organizations Industry Group.

An oil and gas trial lawyer, Silvas joins Dykema as a member from Godwin Bowman PC, which is based out of Dallas, where he served as co-chair of that firm’s Bankruptcy/Creditors’ Rights Section. At Dykema, Israel will continue to work with complex business disputes and negotiations.

A native of El Paso, Silvas earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Political Science, summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at El Paso. Following his graduation from law school, he clerked for United States District Judge Philip R. Martinez in the Western District of Texas.

Toth is a former justice on the Texas Third District Court of Appeals at Austin. Before taking the bench, Toth served as a special counsel to the Texas Office of Attorney General, where he developed and implemented litigation strategy in a broad range of high-profile cases involving significant executive-level deliberation on complex legal issues. He litigated in state and federal courts across Texas and achieved numerous nationwide victories in cases involving federal regulations, the firm said in a release.

Toth earned his J.D., as well as an M.A. in History, from the University of Virginia, and a B.A., magna cum laude, in History from Stanford University. After graduating from law school, he served as a trial attorney in the United States Marine Corps, and Toth remains a major in the United States Marine Corps Reserves assigned to the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant of the Marine Corps in the Pentagon. Toth is a former law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Farrell joins Dykema as an associate after graduating with a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School. She worked as a summer associate at Dykema in 2018. Her practice will focus on commercial litigation, including products liability matters. In law school, Farrell was an ABA team member of the Moot Court Board, served as managing editor of the Journal of Legislation, and was president of the Native American Law Students Association while working as an Alumni Fellow for the law school.

Farrell earned her B.S. in Political Science, summa cum laude, from Oklahoma Christian University where she was the Outstanding Political Science Graduate of 2016 and worked as a Political Projects Intern for the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce and a law clerk for the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office.

An experienced dental professional, Maranto joins Dykema with nearly two decades of experience working in the dental industry, including time serving as chief operating officer of Electus Health and Dental Depot, as well as more than 18 years working with Henry Schein—a distributor of health care products and services with a presence in 34 countries. She earned a degree in biology from the University of Indianapolis.

Bailey Brauer co-founders Clayton Bailey and Alex Brauer are among the “agents of change” in the legal profession singled out by Texas Lawyer magazine to receive the publication’s inaugural Texas Trailblazers recognition.

The two founders were chosen for their leadership in reshaping expectations for legal boutiques in Texas, the firm said in a release.

Other recent individual and firm honors include recognition from Benchmark Litigation, Chambers USA, BTI Consulting Group, The Best Lawyers in America, the National Law Journal, Texas Super Lawyers and D Magazine.

Read more about the honor.

Jones Day’s “hypercentralized,” subjective decision-making process places final control over pay, promotion, and other significant decisions “unchecked in the hands of one man,” six female former lawyers told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

That man is managing partner Stephen J. Brogan, claim Nilab Tolton and the five other lead plaintiffs. They filed a supplemental memorandum Oct. 24  opposing Jones Day’s motion for partial judgment on the pleadings in their proposed class action, filed in April, according to a Bloomberg Law article.

Brogan backs his “totalitarian grip” on Jones Day with a “no whining policy” under which women aren’t allowed to raise sex-based inequities, they say.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Bankrupt coal company Blackjewel has agreed to pay roughly $5.1 million to cover back wages of more than 1,000 its Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia miners, reports The New York Times.

For two months this summer, out-of-work miners blocked a train full of coal from shipping out of an eastern Kentucky mine, demanding weeks of unpaid wages after their employer went bankrupt and shut down operations in the middle of an afternoon shift, writes the Times‘ Mihir Zaveri.

The company did not file a mandatory 60-day advance warning and did not post a bond, required by Kentucky law, to cover payroll. And workers did not receive pay for their last week on the job. Paychecks for two previous weeks bounced.

Read the  NY Times article.

When Pepper Hamilton partner David Stratton received an invitation to the firm’s upcoming judicial diversity panel, he forwarded the message to two other partners with a derisive comment about the affinity groups, according to a report on Above the Law.

The problem, though, is that he later sent an apology for his snippy comment, he used the reply-all feature. That was a bad idea, because not everyone was even aware of his original, wildly inappropriate comments until the apology was sent.

Above the Law senior editor Kathryn Rubino said the firm’s bosses weren’t happy with this turn of events. “They quickly sent their own email from managing partner Thomas Cole, distancing themselves from Stratton’s off-color comments, and assuring everyone the matter is being properly handled behind the scenes,” she writes.

Read the Above the Law article.

Over the course of the past several years, several states have banned or severely restricted the ability of businesses to bind low-wage workers to post-employment restrictive covenants, points out a Seyfarth Shaw client alert.

“While such legislation trickled out over the last several years, 2019 has seen five additional states enact prohibitions on utilizing non-compete agreements for certain low-wage employees, with at least seven other states and the District of Columbia considering similar non-compete legislation,” write the authors, Justin K. Beyer and Daniel P. Hart.

Because these new laws and other developments in restrictive covenant law over the past year may require changes to a company’s template restrictive covenant agreements, companies should consider reviewing and revising their template agreements more broadly by the end of the year, the authors advise.

Read the article.

A recent case decided in the Court of Federal Claims serves as a stark reminder that any time a contract with the Federal government is amended or modified, the parties must pay particular attention to any release language contained in the amendment, or they run the risk of releasing potential claims that are unrelated to the modification, according to the Murtha Cullina Family Business Perspectives blog.

Mark J. Tarallo discusses the case of Meridian Engineering Co. v. US, a dispute a contested release and waiver of payments for the work at issue.

“Any release document (including releases with parties other than the government) should be narrowly drawn and clearly articulate those claims that are being released,” Tarallo advises

Read the article.

To reduce the risk of a class action disrupting business operations and impacting revenue, businesses may want to consider including arbitration clauses in their employment and consumer agreements, advises Patrick K. Burns in a blog post for PilieroMazza PLLC.

Many businesses include arbitration clauses in employment and consumer agreements in an attempt to shield themselves from class action lawsuits, he explains. “The success of these types of clauses in accomplishing the same largely depends upon its wording, the respective jurisdiction, and the nature of the underlying agreement.”

In his post, he demonstrates how, if class arbitration is not explicitly addressed in an arbitration agreement, it cannot be compelled.

Read the article.

The proposed changes to the rules for lawyer advertising in Texas are on track to be submitted for official approval, according to Bruce Vincent, writing on the website of Muse Communications.

The State Bar of Texas’ board of directors will have 120 days to consider the amended rules that are expected to be submitted by the Committee on Disciplinary Rules and Referenda in January.

Some of the new rules cover such topics as the use of trade names for lawyers, claims of legal specialization, the submission of law firm websites for approval, and gifts to nonlawyer referral sources.

Read the article.

Two recent court of appeals cases address the enforceability of liquidated damages clauses, writes John McFarland in the Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog.

“A liquidated damages clause is a provision in a contract specifying a dollar amount (‘liquidated damages’) to be paid by a party if the party breaches the contract. Such clauses are common in all types of contracts, particularly in the oil and gas industry,” McFarland explains.

In his post, he discusses some recent cases that address the issue.

Read the article.