Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that four attorneys in the firm’s Charlotte office have been named to the 2020 class of the North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society. Corby C. Anderson, Matthew S. DeAntonio, Erin Jane Illman, and Jonathan E. Schulz each provided 50 or more hours of pro bono legal services in 2020 to North Carolinians who are unable to pay.

The North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society is administered by the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center, which was launched in 2016 as a program of the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission. The commission works to increase North Carolina attorney pro bono legal service as a way to meet the legal needs of people of low-income and modest means in the state.

Attorneys in Bradley’s Charlotte office are actively involved in a number of pro bono efforts, including working with the Safe Alliance’s Victim Assistance/Legal Representation Program, which helps victims of domestic violence who seek Domestic Violence Protective Orders, and supporting the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, which provides a wide range of civil legal assistance to low-income people in the Charlotte metropolitan area and west-central North Carolina.

Global law firm Hogan Lovells obtained a rare ruling on interlocutory appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which held that the district court should have dismissed a False Claims Act complaint at the outset for failure to plausibly plead the claims.

Hogan Lovells represented Nuance Communications (formerly known as J.A. Thomas & Associates, or JATA), a company that provides clinical documentation support and products for hospitals to help them ensure patient medical records capture the full severity of patients’ conditions.

Integra Med Analytics, a data analytics company, brought a qui tam action under the False Claims Act, alleging that Providence Health & Services, certain affiliated hospitals, and JATA submitted false claims to Medicare that were coded for more lucrative secondary diagnoses than were supported by patients’ actual medical conditions.

Integra based its complaint primarily on a statistical analysis of Medicare claims data that it said demonstrated Providence hospitals had submitted proportionally more claims with three higher paying diagnosis codes than other hospitals.

The district court ruled that the plaintiff’s pleadings were sufficient to move forward to discovery, because it was plausible that the statistical outcome resulted from fraud. But the lower court certified this question for interlocutory appeal.

The Hogan Lovells team petitioned the Ninth Circuit to accept the case on interlocutory appeal, and Hogan Lovells partner Jessica Ellsworth argued the case on appeal. The Defendants argued that the statistical analysis and other complaint allegations did not plausibly plead fraud, given the “obvious, alternative explanation” that the hospitals submitted more claims with these diagnoses because of work done by their clinical documentation improvement departments, with JATA, to capture all appropriate medical diagnoses, exactly as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had encouraged hospitals to do.

The Ninth Circuit agreed. It held that Integra failed to state a plausible claim for relief. In its decision, the Ninth Circuit noted that the plaintiffs’ allegations “do not eliminate an obvious alternative explanation—that Providence, with JATA’s assistance, was more effective at properly coding for better Medicare reimbursement than others in the healthcare industry.”

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s order denying the Defendant’s motion to discuss, and remanded the case. It then denied Integra’s motion for rehearing en banc.

In addition to Ellsworth, the Hogan Lovells team included partners Jonathan Diesenhaus (Washington, D.C.) and Mike Maddigan (Los Angeles), and former associates Ben Field and Michael West.

“Shad Sumrow, who practiced at Thompson & Knight for more than two decades and led its firmwide finance group, is taking his practice to fellow Texas firm Baker Botts,” reports David Thomas in Reuters’ US Legal News.

“He joins Baker Botts as a partner in Dallas, the firm said Tuesday, touting his work on oil and gas and asset-based lending and structured finance transactions as well as restructurings. The firm noted that it added Doug Getten, the former chair of Paul Hastings’ Houston corporate department, as a partner last week.”

“Sumrow’s departure from Thompson & Knight comes a little more than a month after the firm and Miami-based Holland & Knight said that they were in talks to merge later this summer.”

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“Union Square Ventures LLC, which scored big with an investment in newly public cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc., has hired its first-ever general counsel,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s US Law Week.

“Samson Mesele, who spent the past half-dozen years as a corporate associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, confirmed in an email to Bloomberg Law that he became the New York-based venture capital firm’s first legal chief last month.”

“USV, co-founded by partners Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham, invested $2.5 million in Coinbase back in 2013. Coinbase, now the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, saw its valuation soar past $100 billion following a direct listing in April on the Nasdaq exchange.”

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“Holland & Knight has bolstered its data strategy, security and privacy team with Hilary Lane, a partner who has longtime experience both at law firms and in-house at Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal,” reports Sara Merken in Reuters.

“Lane jumps to Miami-based Holland & Knight from Quarles & Brady, which she joined about a year ago.”

“Holland & Knight has more than 1,400 lawyers and professionals in 27 offices. The firm last month announced merger discussions with Dallas-based Thompson & Knight, a deal which would give it 275 additional lawyers and three new locations.”

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“Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is hiring Brock Dahl, a former deputy general counsel at the National Security Agency, as the U.K-founded firm that opened in Silicon Valley last year continues to bolster its technology practice,” reports Roy Strom in Bloomberg Law’s US Law Week.

“Dahl will serve as counsel at Freshfields, working out of Washington and Silicon Valley. He said in an interview he anticipates advising clients on issues including cross-border data transfers, data breach incidents, shifting ad-tech policies, and emerging areas such as a new subpoena power being wielded by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”

“Freshfields is the latest Big Law firm to grow its cybersecurity and data privacy practice, an area in high demand with cyberattacks on the rise and new data regulations being proposed and implemented at a rapid clip by U.S. states and foreign jurisdictions.”

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Hanzo, a pioneer in dynamic web content preservation from enterprise collaboration applications and complex websites, is pleased to announce continued momentum with impressive year-over-year revenue growth, strong adoption, and usage, and customer success with Hanzo Hold, its solution for empowering organizations to apply legal holds to collaboration data and meet the duty to preserve data for litigation, compliance and HR purposes.

2020 was the year that accelerated digital transformation initiatives. As of Q1 2021, Hanzo Hold’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has tripled year over year. Hanzo also saw two trends over that time. Not only has the user base increased by over fourfold (4X), usage by customers increased significantly (over 10X when compared to a year ago) as Slack data becomes increasingly relevant to investigations and discovery obligations.

Hanzo Hold empowers corporate legal teams to quickly and defensibly collect, preserve, and investigate data for ediscovery from collaboration applications. Customers are using the Hanzo Hold to reduce risk and effectively manage ediscovery volumes to limit downstream costs.

Read the full Hanzo Hold Postmates Case Study.

Barnes & Thornburg is pleased to announce that Minneapolis partner and Intellectual Property Department member Jeff Stone secured the 11 millionth patent issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The patent was issued for longtime client 4C Medical Technologies Inc.’s (“4C Medical”) invention, AltaValveTM, a prosthetic mitral valve replacement technology, currently being evaluated in clinical research studies. The milestone patent was awarded on May 11, 2021, three years after the USPTO issued its 10 millionth patent.

This invention is a device that delivers, positions, and repositions the prosthetic heart valve (AltaValveTM) in a patient’s heart chamber to treat primary and secondary mitral regurgitation. The implantation of the device is completed using a catheter, a minimally invasive procedure designed to expand patient population to those who are at high risk for open-heart surgery. It is currently the only device that preserves the native mitral valve and has potential to treat patients with failed mitral valve repair.

With more than 700 attorneys and other legal professionals, Barnes & Thornburg is one of the largest law firms in the country. The firm serves clients worldwide from offices in Atlanta, California, Chicago, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, New York, Ohio, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, Texas and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit us online at www.btlaw.com or on Twitter @BTLawNews.

(May 12, 2021) – Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has released the results of its ninth annual survey, completed by 1,160 in-house lawyers, C-suite executives and human resources professionals.

The Littler® Annual Employer Survey, 2021 finds employers navigating a host of issues in the transition to a post-pandemic future – chief among them addressing differences in employers’ plans and employees’ preferences when it comes to hybrid work models and returning to physical workplaces. The survey report also explores executives’ COVID-19 vaccination policies, key regulatory changes expected to impact the workplace in the next year and more.

Divergence in Employer and Employee Views on Post-Pandemic Work
Only 4 percent of the employers surveyed believe that most of their employees who can work remotely would like to return to full-time in-person work and 71 percent believe most would prefer a hybrid model (i.e., a mix of remote and in-person work). However, 28 percent of those employers plan to have most employees return full time and in person, and 55 percent are planning to offer a hybrid model.

This disconnect may be attributed to the unique set of challenges associated with hybrid working models – from scheduling obstacles and physical office changes to maintain social distancing efforts, to ensuring employees working from home don’t feel left out or passed over for opportunities. This tracks with the 73 percent of respondents who expressed concern about workforce management issues that come with employees split between in-person and remote work.

A Cautious Approach to COVID-19 Vaccination Issues
With the increased availability of COVID-19 vaccines, employers now face the thorny issue of whether to ask members of their workforce to voluntarily disclose if they’ve been vaccinated. Given the potential privacy and discrimination liabilities, employers are moving forward with caution: 41 percent of respondents say they will ask employees to voluntarily disclose, while 32 percent say they will not, and 27 percent are still unsure.

The survey, which follows Littler’s COVID-19 Vaccine Survey Report, finds employers still largely encouraging their employees to get vaccinated, with 84 percent providing information to employees about vaccinations. Nearly half (48 percent) are offering paid time off to employees to receive the vaccine and/or recover from its side effects – up from 33 percent who indicated taking this action two months earlier.

Workplace Regulation Concerns Abound
On the regulatory front, most employers (81 percent) are concerned about how changes to paid sick and family leave requirements will impact their businesses in the next year. Other top areas where respondents expect an impact from employment law-related changes include income equality measures (64 percent); inclusion, equity and diversity considerations (55 percent); and healthcare (51 percent).

With expectations of more gridlock in Washington, evolving state and local agency regulations are high on executives’ radars, with 83 percent expressing moderate or significant concern over associated enforcement and compliance expectations over the next 12 months. Respondents expressed a similarly high level of concern about the impact of enforcement and compliance in relation to the U.S. Department of Labor (79 percent), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (76 percent) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (70 percent).

Additional Key Findings
Addressing Crisis Fatigue and Employee Well-Being: Most respondents are worried about the pandemic’s lasting impact on employee mental health and well-being, with 52 percent moderately to extremely concerned and only 3 percent not concerned at all. Many employers are also making strides to address issues of “crisis fatigue” and employee burnout, with 84 percent offering mental health services and/or Employee Assistance Programs and 52 percent providing in-house well-being programming.

Designing the Post-Pandemic Workplace: Employers are also making changes to their physical offices due to COVID-19. More than half (55 percent) are redesigning their office layouts or considering doing so and 31 percent say the same of office hoteling – whereby employees reserve desks for the day to help companies save space and facilitate flexible work schedules. While 27 percent are focused on reducing the size of their office space, only 2 percent are looking to relocate operations out of cities or densely populated areas.

Navigating Workplace Transformation: With COVID-19 accelerating the reliance on technology in the workplace, employers are taking steps to equip their employees with the technological skills they need to succeed in the future. Nearly half of respondents (49 percent) are developing internal training programs for current employees; 24 percent are hiring more employees with strong technology skills; and 22 percent are conducting an analysis to identify needed skill sets to guide talent planning and job training.

Managing a Global Workforce: Respondents from large companies (with more than 10,000 employees) identified a range of concerns in operating or doing business outside of the United States. Several pandemic-related challenges rose to the top of respondents’ list, including pandemic-related travel restrictions (56 percent), COVID-19-related workplace safety rules (40 percent) and managing remote workers who telecommute from abroad (31 percent). However, even with the pandemic’s unprecedented disruption to global workforce management, the longstanding challenge of data privacy issues and protecting confidential information across borders emerged as the primary concern for 60 percent of respondents.

ROANOKE, Va. (May 12, 2021) – The Virginia law firm Gentry Locke is pleased to welcome Partner Karen L. Cohen in Richmond. Cohen will work in the firm’s land use practice group, where she will focus on assisting clients with obtaining local approvals for solar and energy storage projects to implement the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

In addition to her extensive land use and zoning experience, Cohen’s practice includes representing developers, individuals, and businesses in land purchases and sales, due diligence, zoning analysis, the entitlement process, commercial leasing, and the preparation of deeds, easements and covenants. Cohen also advises clients on disputes involving real estate contracts and environmental issues; construction; commercial leasing; and business and financing. She will also be a member of the firm’s outdoor advertising team.

Prior to entering the legal profession, Cohen worked as an architecture associate. After completing law school, she clerked for the Honorable Leonie M. Brinkema in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, before entering private practice.

Cohen received her B.S. degree in architecture from the University of Virginia, her M.S. in real estate development from George Mason University, and her J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center.

Buchalter is pleased to announce new additions to its Board of Directors – Damaris Medina, a Los Angeles and Orange County-based Shareholder, who is also the first Hispanic female in this position, Kevin Lytle, Shareholder in the Phoenix/Scottsdale office, and Matthew Covington, Shareholder in the San Francisco office.

Medina, recognized by numerous industry publications, including the Los Angeles Business Journal as a Woman of Influence in Health Care, for her professional achievements, is also Chair of the Women at Buchalter Committee and a member of the Strategic Planning and Recruiting Committee. As Chair of the Health Care and Life Sciences Industry Group and member of the Litigation and Health Care Practice Groups, Medina represents hospital systems and a diverse array of other health care clients in high stakes litigation in federal and state court, as well as in arbitration. Medina has successfully litigated numerous large exposure reimbursement cases against major health plans and recovered millions of dollars on behalf of health care providers. She also advises hospital systems and other health care providers on managed care contracting, revenue cycle strategies, and risk and compliance issues. She joined Buchalter in 2017.

Lytle serves as Co-Chair of the REIT Transactions and Compliance Industry Group and is a member of the Employee Benefits Committee. He represents clients in a broad range of real estate transactions involving sales and acquisitions, leases, sale-leasebacks, construction and permanent loans, acquisition loans, refinancings, loan and lease modifications and inter-creditor agreements. Representing public and private real estate investment trusts, family offices, private equity, and other commercial entities, Lytle also has experience in business entity creation, including bankruptcy-remote structuring and commercial landlord-tenant law. Typical matters handled by Lytle relate to commercial properties, shopping centers, gas station/convenience stores, office buildings, industrial properties, and auto dealerships. He joined the Firm in 2018.

Covington, also recently appointed Managing Office Shareholder in San Francisco, focuses his practice on franchise, real estate, environmental, and commercial disputes. Among other clients, he routinely represents energy and petroleum companies. Covington’s technical background is particularly useful in technically complex cases. He has represented clients in complex matters involving refinery operations, cogeneration plants, and geotechnical investigations. Covington joined Buchalter in 2017.

Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm, today announced litigation partner Megan Costa DeVault has been appointed to the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading network of independent law firms with 150 member firms and more than 22,000 lawyers worldwide. DeVault will work alongside 16 other Board members across the globe, and is one of only five members residing in the United States.

DeVault has been intensely involved with Lex Mundi for more than 10 years, including her nomination and participation in Lex Mundi’s Business Management Program in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, Judge School of Business where she was among 40 lawyers from 29 countries selected for this intensive training. She will serve a four-year term on the Board, where she will focus on rolling out Lex Mundi’s strategic plan, including its recruiting, retention, and branding efforts, while furthering its mission to provide integrated and high quality legal services worldwide. Over the same period, she will lend her business training to assist the audit committee with analyzing the organizations financial statements and reviewing related policies.

A first-chair trial lawyer, DeVault prosecutes and defends complex commercial, business, and real estate litigation in state and federal courts. On behalf of Fortune 500, publicly traded, and privately owned business, including builders, developers, investors, family enterprises, and corporate fiduciaries, she litigates contractual disputes, complex commercial matters, and derivative suits, including serving as lead counsel in dozens of trials and arbitrations. In addition to her thriving practice, DeVault is a member of Akerman’s Board of Directors.

Member law firms of Lex Mundi are located throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. Akerman was elected as Lex Mundi’s USA-Florida member in 2006 after undergoing the network’s rigorous assessment procedure that, among other things, evaluated the firm’s quality, responsiveness, management structure, reputation, use of technology, training programs and ethical standards.

Lansing – May 10, 2021 – Dykema, a leading national law firm, today announced the addition of Andrea M. Cascarilla to its Government Policy & Practice Group as a government policy advisor in the firm’s Lansing office. Cascarilla, who was included on the Crain’s Detroit Business 2020 “50 Names to Know in Lobbying” guide, joins Dykema from Acuitas LLC, where she was the Senior Legislative Director.

In her previous role, Cascarilla was responsible for managing various clients and played a significant role in several successful appropriations efforts, from healthcare and education to infrastructure and economic development. She was recognized by former state Reps. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis and Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, as well as the Michigan Mental Health Counselors Association, for her work on PA 96 of 2019—a law that ensures Michigan’s licensed professional counselors can continue to provide treatment to hundreds of thousands of residents in need.

In addition to her work at Acuitas, Cascarilla serves as a Board Member for Eaton County Land Bank, Board Vice President for Cristo Rey Community Center, and a Trustee for Delta Charter Township.

Cascarilla earned a B.A. in Economics from Michigan State University.

Nationally recognized Fort Worth attorney earns prestigious Blackstone Award  

FORT WORTH, Texas – Acclaimed trucking and transportation attorney Steve Laird has been named the recipient of the 2021 Blackstone Award, the Tarrant County Bar Association’s most prestigious honor.

The Blackstone Award is presented annually during the TCBA’s Law Day Celebration to an attorney whose career embodies ethical ideals, courage and service to the legal profession. The award is named after British jurist and judge Sir William Blackstone. His “Commentaries on the Laws of England” is considered the foundation of legal education in England and North America.

Starting his career in 1980 in the San Antonio office of what was then one of the largest firms in the Southwest, Laird litigated and handled appellate arguments in an “extraordinary number of cases for a second-year attorney,” he said. That courtroom experience became the foundation for his career as a trial lawyer now widely considered to be among the nation’s leading truck accident attorneys. Last year, he was one of a select group of attorneys to be among the first in the nation to earn Board Certification in Truck Accident Law from the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He is also Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board Legal Specialization and as a Civil Trial Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

Laird’s reputation as a client-first, unflinching litigator came into focus early in his career when his work spurred General Motors to lift the veil of corporate secrecy surrounding known fire risks associated with defects in one of its popular truck models. GM had kept the defects out of the public eye through an excessive use of confidential settlements. His fight to open the files helped shed light on the defects, putting pressure on GM to resolve the issue.

Announcement of the Blackstone Award was made during TCBA’s annual Law Day Celebration, held May 3 via Zoom amid ongoing COVID precautions. An in-person presentation will be announced at a later date.

Government agencies can now access IPRO’s Live EDA and AI analytics via CDS’s FedRAMP-Certified Cloud Environment.

May 10, 2021—TEMPE, AZ—IPRO today announced a partnership with Complete Discovery Source (CDS) to offer IPRO’s eDiscovery Enterprise solution to U.S. government agencies through CDS’s FedRAMP-certified Federal Cloud Services (FCS) platform.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) establishes rigorous security standards for cloud services providers to the U.S. government. FedRAMP-certified since 2018, CDS provides eDiscovery services and solutions including leading-edge technology, advanced analytics, and secure scalable infrastructure to federal and state government agencies across the United States.

The CDS Federal Cloud supports the full suite of IPRO eDiscovery Enterprise capabilities, including Live EDA and AI Active Learning, that allow agencies to think more upstream and significantly reduce the amount of time spent on document collection and review.

“The world is powered by data and technology. With all the focus and new legislation on data privacy, organizations need to keep governance at the forefront when reconciling the use of emerging technologies with compliance and privacy considerations. One area where this becomes particularly important is when organizations utilize platforms, solutions, and other technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for business purposes. Some examples include creditors automating decisions on consumer approvals or employers using AI technology to assist with hiring determinations. The question becomes what framework should be placed around these processes and how can organizations implement some level of governance to avoid violations under laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or overall data mismanagement that can result in a myriad of other issues?, posts in Epiq in their blog.

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“The focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts is now more prominent than ever. With that has come an increased focus on collecting so-called “DEI data” such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and preferred pronouns from employees around the globe, report Marjorie Culver and Caitlin Lane in Seyfarth’s News & Insights.

“While collection of these data points in the US is common, and in some cases even legally required, employers should be aware of potential pitfalls and consider how to take both a legal and meaningful approach to DEI data collection for their global workforce outside the US.”

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“Global law firm Goodwin announced today the creation of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) position, and the appointment of Scott Kopcha to the role. As CISO, Kopcha, who previously served as the firm’s Managing Director of Information Security, will oversee all aspects of the firm’s global information security strategy, architecture, governance, and risk mitigation as CISO. He reports to Goodwin’s Chief Operating Officer, Michael Caplan,” announced Goodwin Law in their Press Releases.

“Kopcha brings more than 20 years of information security experience to his CISO role. Before joining Goodwin in 2013, Scott designed and executed best-in-class information and data security programs at WilmerHale. Prior to that, he was a product manager at Janus Associates where he received patents for his work with biometric authentication platforms.”

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“Under both New York and Delaware law, members of an LLC may petition for judicial dissolution on the grounds that the management is so hopelessly deadlocked that the LLC can no longer function in accordance with its purpose as defined in its governing documents,” writes Peter J. Sluka in Farrell Fritz’ New York Business Divorce.

“In those cases, courts will consider whether the LLC operating agreement contains some other mechanism to break the deadlock. If the operating agreement itself provides a fair opportunity for the dissenting member who disfavors the inertial status quo to exit and receive the fair market value of her interest, it is at least arguable that the LLC can still proceed to function, because there exists an equitable way to break the impasse.”

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“Lowenstein Sandler has announced that Robert A. Johnston, Jr. has joined the firm as partner in its White Collar Criminal Defense group. He will be based in the New York office,” announced Lowenstein Sandler in their Firm News.

“Johnston’s practice includes investigations, regulatory counseling, pre- and post-transaction due diligence and monitoring, and compliance monitorships, with a special focus on representing private fund managers and portfolio companies and advising on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-money laundering (AML), and trade sanctions compliance. His previous experience includes investigations and compliance projects in over 30 countries across six continents and matters involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commissions, and other state and local regulatory bodies, across a wide range of sectors, including technology, life sciences, consumer and retail, and financial services and private equity.”

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