“Apple Inc. blocked an antitrust lawsuit over App Store fees filed by a handful of iPhone users from being expanded to include millions of customers across the U.S,” reports Malathi Nayak in Bloomberg.

“U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles approved the consent degree between the company and the EEOC over the objections of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which has a separate lawsuit pending against Activision in state court on similar claims. Fischer’s approval came a day after the Ninth Circuit.”

Read the article.

“Biglaw firms seemed to have cracked the code on what it takes these days to be considered as a member of the elite, and as it turns out, the secret isn’t really that secret. A Cravath salary match is what it will take to propel your firm into the Biglaw stratosphere during this hot lateral market, and the latest,” reports Staci Zaretsky in Above The Law.

“Sources say the firm which brought in $430,200,000 gross revenue in 2020, landing it at #93 in the most recent Am Law 100 — doesn’t usually send out mass emails to reflect compensation or bonus news, but it looks like a Cravath match has been made. From what I can tell talking to associates in multiple classes, it is a Cravath match.”

Read the article.

“I am thrilled to welcome Andrew as our new General Counsel and look forward to leveraging his knowledge of global markets as we accelerate our commercial efforts. Andrew’s proven operational and commercial expertise will be invaluable to the senior management team as we scale-up and further expand,” reports PR Newswire in their blog.

“Andrew joins the senior management team in the UK as General Counsel, with significant global pharmaceutical corporate and mergers and acquisitions experience. Prior to joining Essential Pharma, Andrew spent over 3 years at Accord Healthcare where he worked as UK & Ireland General Counsel and Associate Vice President of Legal.”

Read the article.

“Siskinds of London, Ontario, Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman of Vancouver, BC and Liebman Legal Inc. of Montreal, Quebec announced court approval of a protocol for the second distribution of settlement funds in the Canadian Air Cargo price-fixing class action. The class action relates,” reports PR Newswire in their blog.

“Settlements totalling $16 million have been reached with British Airways and Air Canada. This brings total settlements reached in this action to over $45 million. The settled defendants do not admit any wrongdoing or liability. The Ontario, British Columbia and Québec courts approved the settlements and a protocol for distributing.”

Read the article.

“Activision Blizzard — maker of the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft video games — won a federal judge’s approval Tuesday of a $18 million settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination in its workplace,” reports Edvard Pettersson in Court House News Service.

“U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles approved the consent degree between the company and the EEOC over the objections of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which has a separate lawsuit pending against Activision in state court on similar claims. Fischer’s approval came a day after the Ninth Circuit.”

Read the article.

“On March 22, the Ninth Circuit reversed the trial court’s order and underlying decision in Wit et. al. v. United Behavioral Health and Alexander et al. v. United Behavioral Health (Case Numbers 20-17363, 20-17364, 21-15193, and 21-15194). In doing so, the court undid a pair of orders that had required UnitedHealthcare Group, Inc.’s (United) behavioral health unit to reprocess thousands of claims for substance abuse and mental health treatment after finding United’s coverage guidelines were improper — and thus its denials were unreasonable,” reports Top Class Actions in their JDSupra.

“The Ninth Circuit considered, in large part, whether United’s internal guidelines for mental health and substance abuse coverage contravened generally accepted standards of care. It held that United’s interpretation — that the plans did not require consistency with the generally accepted standards of care — was not unreasonable. In so holding, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the lower court was wrong in finding that United abandoned its duties under ERISA.”

Read the article.

“The Director-General for Energy of the European Commission launched in 2021 a series of stakeholder dialogues co-organised with Representations of the European Commission in some EU countries. The objective of these dialogues is to offer invited stakeholders the possibility to exchange,” reports European Commission in their blog.

“Officials on the European Green Deal package. Ten dialogues took place in 2021 in Sweden, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia, Ireland, Latvia, Italy, Portugal and Greece, with over 600 participants in total. As in 2021, the planning and topics of the Energy stakeholder dialogues taking place in 2022 will take into account the political.”

Read the article.

“The Los Angeles Dodgers completed the majority of their offseason transactions after they signed Freddie Freeman and Tyler Anderson, but the club still had some contracts to sort out. The first three came last Tuesday when the Dodgers avoided arbitration with Trea Turner, Julio Urias and Caleb,” reports Blake Williams in Dodger Blue.

“By signing them all to one-year deals. Bellinger, who was also arbitration-eligible, signed a one-year contract prior to the MLB lockout. The next day was the deadline for teams to renew the contracts of players who are not eligible for arbitration but still remain under team control. If a team chose not to renew their contract, the player.”

Read the article.

“City Council approved three-year contracts with three city employee unions at a special meeting Monday evening. The three contracts include raises ranging between 3% and 4% annually and bonuses for working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees will pay a larger share of insurance premiums,” reports Nancy Molnar in Times Reporter.

“Council unanimously approved the contract for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4. Councilman Matthew Fox voted against the collective bargaining agreement for Local 1958 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents street department workers. Members James Zucal, Amy Myers.”

Read the article.

“The Klamath Falls City Council has approved two contracts totaling $52,396 annually for landscaping and maintenance services at Crater Lake – Klamath Falls Regional Airport. Both contracts renew airport work for two existing vendors. Those vendors were the only bidders in the,” reports Mike Sunnucks in Herald and News.

“The city council approved a $25,000 contract with Klamath Falls-based Troy’s Janitorial to provide custodial and maintenance service at the airport. Troy’s has handled maintenance at the local airport since July 1985, according to city documents. The city issued a request for proposals (RFP) in February for custodial contract. Two firms showed.”

Read the article.

“An ongoing pay war is making lawyers at some of the top firms in the world more money than ever before. It’s also exposing a growing fault line between the richest firms and everyone else. In just a few weeks, Milbank LLP, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Cravath Swaine & Moore all announced a series,” reports Meghan Tribe in Bloomberg Law.

“As the salary scales reach new heights, many of the top performing law firms have quickly moved to match—seeing it as an imperative in the tightening battle for top associate talent. Now, a small group of the richest firms appears to be pulling away from the pack. The firms that can match the Cravath salaries are making a point of setting.”

Read the article.

“Foodstuffs North Island has announced the appointment of Julian Benefield as their new General Counsel and Company Secretary who will also join the Executive Leadership team. The appointment comes seven years after Julian re-joined Foodstuffs as a Senior Solicitor. Chris Quin, CEO of Foodstuff,” reports Scoop Business in their blog.

“Julian is a natural leader and his talent, determination and passion for the co-op, and his commercial and legal guidance is always spot on. We’re committed to developing and supporting Foodies talent, so it’s awesome Julian’s taking up the opportunity of this crucial role in the Foodstuffs North Island team. Julian first joined the Foodies.”

Read the article.

“Mylan agreed to pay $264 million to resolve claims it worked with Pfizer and other companies to raise the cost of the EpiPen. The settlement benefits individuals and entities who paid for or provided reimbursement for branded EpiPens or generic equivalents between Aug. 24, 2011. EpiPens are used,” reports Top Class Actions in their blog.

“According to a 2017 class action lawsuit, Mylan may have worked with Pfizer to artificially raise the price of life saving EpiPen products. Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit claimed the companies knowingly violated antitrust and racketeering laws through their scheme. Defendants devised an illegal scheme to monopolize the market.”

Read the article.

“Burford Capital Ltd. said Monday that it has raised a $360 million for a private investment fund. The London-listed finance and asset-management company said the Burford Advantage Master Fund LP will be focused on lower risk and lower return pre-settlement litigation investments, targeting matters,” reports Michael Susin in Market Watch.

“It is expected to produce returns in the 12% and 20% internal rate of return range. The fund will provide the first 10% of annual return to fund investors while Burford retains any excess as a performance fee, it added. The company said that institutional investors have made commitments of an aggregate amount of $300 million.”

Read the article.

“OAKLAND – Shelbee Szeto pleaded guilty today to wire fraud, money laundering, and a relate tax charge in a scheme to defraud her former employer out of more than five million dollars, announced United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Mark H. Pearson.  The guilty plea was accepted by the Honorable Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., United States District Judge,” reports United States Department of Justice in their blog.

“According to the plea agreement, Szeto, 30, of Fremont, was employed by HP, Inc. (HP) as an executive assistant and finance planning manager from approximately August 2017 until June of 2021.  In these roles, Szeto was responsible for making payments to HP vendors and was issued multiple HP commercial credits cards to make the payments on HP’s behalf. Rather than make payments in accordance with the company’s policies, Szeto devised a fraudulent scheme whereby she sent approximately $4.8 million in unauthorized payments from her HP commercial credit cards to several Square, PayPal, and Stripe merchant accounts under her control.”

Read the article.

“March may be rapidly coming to a close, but that doesn’t mean the associate salary game is over! Just the other day, Holland & Knight — on the back of the firm’s strongest financial performance in the history of the firm announced raises for hardworking associates. And, of course, with $1,044,337,000,” reports Kathryn Rubino in Above The Law.

“Gross revenue in 2020, making it 38th on the Am Law 100, the firm is matching that top-of-market compensation grid popularized. For associates well, at least the ones in the Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orange County, Philadelphia, San Francisco.”

Read the article.

“United Companies hired Meagan Brien as vice president and general counsel. Brien will be responsible for ensuring risk mitigation in defined areas of corporate insurance and legal matters and will ensure full legal and regulatory compliance for business operations of United Companies and its subsidiaries,” reports Monitor Daily in their blog.

“I am thrilled at the unique opportunity as general counsel of United Companies to use my diverse background in litigation, secured transactions and corporate matters and to work for a company that is dedicated to its customers, employees and community, Brien said. Before joining United, Brien served as a partner at Dentons Bingham.”

Read the article.

“Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced an $80 million settlement with the Monsanto Co. that forces the company to pay for the long-standing environmental damage it knowingly caused in Ohio with its toxic products. Ohio has been absorbing the health and environmental costs of PCB,” reports Ohio’s Country Journal in their blog.

“The cleanup will likely continue for even longer, Yost said. This settlement not only holds Monsanto accountable for its actions but also provides significant financial resources to assist in environmental cleanup. The state filed suit against Monsanto in 2018, maintaining that the company has known for decades that it created products with.”

Read the article.

“Apple has agreed to pay out $14.8 million to U.S. residents to settle a class action lawsuit focused on the storage of user iCloud data on non-Apple servers. The complaint, filed back in 2019 in a California District Court, alleged that Apple had breached its iCloud server terms and conditions by storing user,” reports Mike Peterson in Apple Insider.

“Apple denies that it breached its promise that iCloud data is stored by Apple but has agreed to pay the sum to settle the class action lawsuit. According to the settlement’s website, the payout applies to anyone who purchased an iCloud subscription between September 16, 2015 and January 31, 2016. Users don’t need to do anything to join.”

Read the article.

“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s landmark climate change proposal thrusts the Wall Street regulator into a role it usually takes pains to avoid: setting accounting rules,” reports Nicola M. White in the Bloomberg Tax.

“Almost 50 pages of the 500-plus page plan the agency issued Monday covers details of new financial statement disclosures big companies would have to make about climate change’s impact on financial statement metrics and how much they spend to combat risk.”

Read the article.