Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that six attorneys in the firm’s Healthcare Practice Group have been appointed to leadership positions with the American Health Law Association (AHLA), beginning July 1.

The firm’s attorneys newly appointed as AHLA leaders are Justin K. Brown, Alé Dalton, Amy S. Leopard, Russell B. Morgan, Janus Pan and Wendi Rogaliner.

AHLA is the nation’s largest, nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization devoted to legal issues in the health care field. Its mission is to provide a collegial forum for interaction and information exchange to enable its members to serve their clients more effectively; to produce the highest quality non-partisan educational programs, products, and services concerning health law issues; and to serve as a public resource on selected health care legal issues. Members practice in law and consulting firms; academic, in-house, and in a variety of public sector work settings and represent the entire spectrum of the health care industry.

Based in Bradley’s Birmingham office, Brown will serve as vice chair for the Educational Programming of the Enterprise Risk Management Task Force. He represents hospitals and healthcare providers in a variety of transactional, regulatory, and operational matters.

Based in the firm’s Nashville office, Dalton will serve a two-year term on the Young Professionals Council. Her practice focuses on providing counsel during mergers and acquisitions. She has experience handling acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures involving hospitals, physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, and other providers, and regularly advises clients in matters involving clinical research and telemedicine.

A partner in the firm’s Nashville office, Leopard will serve a second term on the Board of Directors and Nominating Committee At-Large. Leopard regularly provides trusted counsel to healthcare providers, entrepreneurs, and service providers on licensing, payment, regulatory compliance, privacy and technology issues.

A partner in the firm’s Nashville office, Morgan will continue to serve on the Dispute Resolution Service Council. He has extensive experience representing healthcare providers in all aspects of their business, including payor disputes, compliance issues, internal investigations, technology disputes and qui tam litigation.

Based in the firm’s Nashville office, Pan was appointed vice chair of the Regulation, Accreditation, and Payment Practice Group. Pan assists healthcare entities in transactional and regulatory matters. She has advised clients on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, and worked on hospital mergers and acquisitions.

A partner in Bradley’s Dallas office, Rogaliner will continue to serve on the Journal of Health and Life Sciences Law editorial board. Rogaliner’s practice focuses on complex regulatory and compliance matters in the healthcare industry. She has extensive experience in regulatory compliance matters, including service as a legal IRO for entities under a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General, and is routinely called upon to advise her institutional clients in their day to operations and transactions within the heavily regulated healthcare industry.

3 May 2021- Luminance has announced that Ireland’s leading provider of information security and risk management solutions, Ward Solutions, has adopted Luminance’s cutting-edge AI platform to assist their in-house legal and data protection team when responding to Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) arising under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Ward Solutions have opted to adopt Luminance’s AI-powered eDiscovery solution instead of outsourcing this work to expensive third party providers, allowing Ward to analyse vast datasets in record time and maintain maximum compliance, whilst also reducing overall costs.

Luminance’s eDiscovery platform uses a combination of both supervised and unsupervised machine learning to read and form an understanding of the firm’s vast dataset. Luminance’s ability to automatically identify Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as party names, security numbers and addresses ensures that Ward Solutions are able to rapidly identify personal information within documents collated in response to a DSAR. By using Luminance’s revolutionary bulk redaction feature, the legal team can then isolate all of the relevant information and remove irrelevant data, a process that would be extremely resource and time-intensive to do manually.

Luminance is used in over 300 law firms and organisations across the world. The company was recently recognised as a ‘Future Fifty’ firm by Tech Nation.

DALLAS – Bailey Brauer PLLC, is proud to announce the promotion of Ben Stewart to partner in the Dallas-based litigation boutique, effective May 1.

Stewart’s practice focuses on representing clients in federal and state courts in matters including contractual disputes, breaches of fiduciary duties, insurance coverage, officer/director liability, and other complex litigation.

He also serves as a mediator and assists companies with both internal and governmental investigations, including responses to civil investigative demands from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Stewart has earned repeat recognition to Texas Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars listing of the top young attorneys in the state. He earned his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has added Alan L. Merriman as an associate in its New Haven office. Merriman joins Littler from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), where he was a field attorney from 2014 to 2021.

During his time at the NLRB, Merriman handled hundreds of unfair labor practice charges and representation case investigations involving both petitions and elections. He has managed several unfair labor practice hearings before administrative law judges and has successfully negotiated resolutions to a variety of complex labor matters.

Littler’s Labor Management Relations Practice Group is comprised of attorneys, including several former NLRB attorneys, with deep experience representing management in all aspects of labor relations. The group counsels companies on such issues as lawful union avoidance, managing the myriad issues that arise during union elections, collective bargaining and labor arbitrations. Littler’s attorneys have brought thousands of matters before the NLRB and regularly navigate unfair labor practice charges through investigations, favorable settlements, hearings and appeals.

In addition to his legal practice, Merriman currently serves as a Major, Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer for the National Guard. His duties in that role include serving as Special Victims’ Counsel for service members who report sexual assault and harassment and providing counsel on cyber law and ethics issues. He also regularly advises the Connecticut National Guard command on sexual harassment and assault prevention and response actions.

Merriman is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and was the 2005 Connecticut National Guard Soldier of the Year. He received his J.D. and B.S. from the University of Connecticut.

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.

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.

Prior to joining Lowenstein, Johnston held several compliance and legal roles at Sculptor Capital Management, formerly known as Och-Ziff Capital Management, one of the world’s largest publicly traded institutional alternative asset managers. Most recently, he served as Sculptor’s Managing Director and General Counsel-Asia; previously, he served as Deputy Chief Compliance Officer. During his five years at Sculptor, he developed an industry-leading FCPA and AML compliance program that included the implementation of numerous proprietary, web-based, technological solutions and controls.

Before Sculptor, Johnston practiced securities litigation at Jones Day with a focus on internal investigations, white collar criminal defense, compliance advice, and M&A due diligence. He spent one year in the firm’s Shanghai office, where he acted on behalf of multinational corporations investigating allegations of bribery, corruption, and fraud in their Chinese and East Asian operations. He has experience with investigations on behalf of U.S. and foreign companies into alleged violations of AML, FCPA, OFAC, and RICO; accounting fraud; securities fraud; procurement fraud; vendor fraud; illegal gratuities; tax evasion; and employee embezzlement and misconduct throughout the world.

Earlier in his career, Johnston was associated with DLA Piper. Fluent in French and Spanish, he received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and his B.A. from Georgetown University.

Century City – Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that Maureen Gorsen has joined the firm in Los Angeles as a partner in its Environmental practice. She joins Sidley from Alston & Bird, where she was a partner in the firm’s Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources practice.

Gorsen has extensive experience defending clients in a wide array of federal and state environmental enforcement actions involving air quality, waste and stormwater, chemical regulation, California’s AB 32 and Proposition 65, product liability, food packaging, and tax and business regulations. She also devotes a significant portion of her practice to regulatory issues, advising clients on environmental, tax, financial, supply chain, and consumer products regulatory matters. Gorsen also works with clients to develop policies to minimize product liability risk and meet conflict minerals, anti-slavery and human trafficking and sustainability requirements.

Previously, Gorsen spent more than ten years in three pivotal state government roles: Director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, General Counsel of the California Environmental Protection Agency, and General Counsel of the California Natural Resources Agency. These roles provided Gorsen tremendous breadth in terms of her knowledge of and experience in virtually all aspects of environmental law.

Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that Ranah Esmaili, former Assistant Director in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has joined the firm in Washington, D.C., as a partner in its Securities Enforcement and Regulatory practice. Esmaili served as Assistant Director of the Asset Management Unit, a national specialized unit that focuses on misconduct by private funds, investment advisers, and investment companies. Esmaili joins Sidley on the heels of Sonia Barros, the outgoing Chief Corporate Governance Counsel in the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC.

In her role as the Assistant Director of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit, Esmaili oversaw investigations into the asset management industry concerning investment strategies contrary to disclosures, undisclosed affiliated transactions and misleading performance history, undisclosed fees and compensation, and undisclosed conflicts arising from side-by-side management. The statutes and rules Esmaili enforced pertained to investment advisors, private equity firms, hedge funds, registered investment companies, venture capital firms, and separately managed accounts

Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that Thomas Ward, who previously served as Enforcement Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has joined the firm as a partner in the Banking and Financial Services Group in Washington, D.C.

As the CFPB’s chief law enforcement officer, Ward was responsible for enforcing more than 20 enumerated consumer financial statutes and the Consumer Financial Protection Act. He established and supervised the strategy in hundreds of active investigations and cases prosecuted by the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement and managed the agency’s 165 enforcement trial lawyers, investigators, and staff. During his tenure, Ward commissioned and directed an initiative to review and centralize the Office of Enforcement’s investigative, litigation, and negotiation processes and best practices, establishing the roadmap that the Office of Enforcement uses in each of its cases and investigations. Under his leadership, in 2020, the CFPB brought the second highest number of enforcement actions since its inception, secured its fourth highest amount of redress, prosecuted its largest and most complex litigation docket, and recommitted to enforcing the Fair Lending laws, including filing the first contested Fair Lending action in the CFPB’s history.

Prior to his service at the CFPB, Ward served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he was counsel in many of the highest-profile, highest-value cases of the Consumer Protection, Torts, Commercial Litigation, Federal Programs, and Appellate branches. At DOJ, Ward managed more than 400 attorneys and staff and oversaw an active docket of more than 1,000 cases spanning the breadth of the Civil Division’s jurisdiction, including complex Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, False Claims Act, and Federal Tort Claims Act cases and investigations.

For nearly two decades prior to his service with the government, Ward was an enforcement and litigation partner at a leading global litigation firm where he represented clients in complex enforcement investigations and cases, commercial litigation, and criminal proceedings. Ward served as lead counsel for international financial institutions and investment banks, multiple Am Law 100 law firms, the World Bank, and major global corporations.

CHICAGO (May 3, 2021) – Neal Gerber Eisenberg is pleased to announce the addition of Emer Simic as partner in the Intellectual Property practice group. Simic joins from Green, Griffith & Borg-Breen LLP, where she was a partner in their IP Litigation practice.

Simic’s practice focuses on pharmaceutical patent litigation, post-grant review, opinions, and client counseling. She has additional experience in representing both patent holders and defendants in complex Hatch-Waxman and patent infringement disputes, including successfully arguing cases involving co-pending inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. District Court and Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

With degrees in science and IP law from universities in England, Ireland, and the U.S., Simic brings extensive technical understanding of the pharmaceutical, chemical, and biotech spaces and a global perspective to her work. Simic has found considerable success leveraging this knowledge in the development of innovative IP strategies for her clients. Beyond the courtroom, Simic advises her clients’ business teams on everything from product development and regulatory strategies to market launch.

In addition to practicing law, Emer is a member of the Board of the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law (Chicago Chapter) where she currently serves as Secretary. The Coalition serves to foster career advancement and professional development and provide a support network to help address the many issues facing women lawyers today.

Simic received her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law, and her Master of Philosophy and B.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. Before moving to the U.S. from Ireland, Simic earned her Barrister-at-Law degree from the Honorable Society of Kings Inns.

MINNEAPOLIS – April 29, 2021 – Meritas, a global alliance of independent business law firms, announced that it has named Brett Krantz of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz (KJK) law firm in Cleveland, Ohio, as the organization’s new chairperson. Krantz assumed the role at the 2021 Meritas Business Update & Town Hall today. He was elected by unanimous vote of the Meritas Board of Directors and will serve a two-year term. Krantz’s law firm has been a Meritas member since 2010.

Krantz has years of leadership experience within Meritas, including on the executive committee, as chair of the Meritas Quality Assurance Committee (QAC), and as a board member. He led the development of new quality assurance policies, including championing Meritas’ Global Cybersecurity Standards for member firms, which give clients peace of mind that information security is consistently strong across the network.

Krantz is co-owner of KJK, member of its executive committee, and chair of the firm’s litigation department. With more than three decades of experience, Krantz has counseled a diverse client base including individuals, owners of regulated and non-regulated companies, small entrepreneurial entities, and large public corporations. He has litigated business-to-business commercial disputes and securities issues involving Federal Courts, FINRA, the SEC, and state securities regulators.

Outside of work, Krantz and his family are passionate supporters of The Gathering Place. Additionally, Krantz has served on the Board of Directors for Cleveland’s Mandel Jewish Community Center and The Positive Education Program (PEP), an organization dedicated to helping children with severe mental health and behavioral challenges.

“Dakota Access pipeline lawyers are heading to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight a ruling that required additional environmental review for the embattled oil project and left it vulnerable to a potential shutdown,” reports Ellen M. Gilmer in Bloomberg Law’s US Law Week.

“Lawyers on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to freeze a mandate that would lock in its January ruling that the Energy Transfer LP pipeline was approved without proper study under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

“Once filed, the petition is expected to present the Supreme Court with a question about the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act. The D.C. Circuit said the Army Corps of Engineers fell short of NEPA when it opted for a more streamlined approach to environmental review despite expert disagreement about the potential impacts of an oil spill on neighboring Native American tribes.”

Read the article.

“At its core, this is an employer-inventor dispute in the area of gene sequencing technology. Saxonov & Hindson co-founded company QuantLife that was bought out by Bio-Rad. The pair then became Bio-Rad employees. At both companies they signed agreements to transfer invention rights to Bio-Rad. In April 2012 the pair left Bio-Rad; in July 2012 formed 10X; and began filing new patent applications in August 2012. These applications eventually issued as patents and include the patents-in-suit: US Patent Nos. 9,689,024, 9,695,468, and 9,856,530,” posts Dennis Crouch in Patentlyo.

“Bio-Rad and 10X are competitors and 10X sued for patent infringement. In defense, Bio-Rad argued that it owns the patents. The USITC rejected that argument and the Federal Circuit has now affirmed.”

“The agreements are clear that they are limited to the term of employment: Each promised to assign anything conceived, developed, or reduced-to-practice ‘during the period of my employment.'”

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“People choose Collaborative Divorce over traditional litigation when they want the divorce to be more amicable. The hallmark of a Collaborative Divorce is honesty,” writes Ron Anfuso in Collaborative Divorce California’s blog.

“Both spouses are expected to provide full disclosure about all assets, both those known to be community property and those that they claim are separate property. In rare cases during the collaborative process, one party discovers the other is hiding assets. The consequences to the dishonest person may be great.”

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“Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) announced today the appointment of Gina Beredo as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, effective June 9, 2021. She will be responsible for overseeing global legal operations, government affairs, and corporate affairs. Ms. Beredo will join Owens Corning from Nordson Corporation, a global designer and manufacturer of dispensing equipment for consumer and industrial adhesives, sealants, and coatings, where she served for eight years, most recently as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary,” releases Owens Corning in their Newsroom.

“At Nordson, Ms. Beredo oversees the company’s legal function in global mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, ethics and compliance, litigation, and other general corporate legal matters. Prior to joining Nordson in 2013, Ms. Beredo served as Chief Litigation Counsel and Director of Compliance & Ethics at American Greetings Corporation. Prior to being named General Counsel in January 2018, she served as the Deputy General Counsel. Ms. Beredo began her legal career as a litigation associate at BakerHostetler LLP.”

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“Schiff Hardin is stepping into a hot merger market that may put it in competition with other firms feeling pressure to scale up as quickly as possible,” reports David Thomas in Thomson Reuters Westlaw Today.

“The Chicago-based law firm is on the hunt for a merger partner after seeing its ranks steadily deplete over time, ever since a sizable group broke off to form Riley, Safer, Holmes & Cancila in 2016, said William Sugarman, founder and president of Windy City recruiting firm Astor Professional Research”

“Industry consultants have reported that the market for significant law firm mergers is heating up again after a pandemic-induced slowdown. Merger activity had reached record levels in recent years, only to plummet when the COVID-19 crisis led firms to tighten belts and kept law firm leaders close to home for much of 2020.”

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“Maryland has finalized a $577 million settlement to end a 15-year federal lawsuit relating to underfunding at the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities, state officials announced Wednesday,” reports Brian Witte in ABC News’ U.S. News.

“The Maryland Attorney General’s Office signed the agreement with attorneys for the plaintiffs to settle the case. Lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to set aside the money, and Gov. Larry Hogan signed the bill last month.”

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“Anyone monitoring construction industry trends is aware that the prices of raw construction materials, particularly steel and lumber, have been rapidly increasing since early 2020. Earlier this year, Associated Builders and Contractors reported that iron and steel prices were up 15.6 percent from January of 2020 to January of 2021, and that softwood lumber prices had increased by as much as 73 percent during the same period,” writes Niel Franzese in Robinson & Cole’s Construction Law Zone.

“The reasons for these price increases are varied (ranging from supply chain and shipping disruptions to the increased demand for new home construction), and many have their roots in changes introduced to the global economy by the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of the explanations for the price increases, the reality is that builders and owners are more frequently facing busted budgets and difficult conversations, sometimes resulting in litigation, about which party is responsible for absorbing the increased costs. As is often the case, the answer to resolving these disputes likely lies in the particular provisions of the contract for construction.”

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“Boeing quietly agreed to repay the U.S. $10.7 million after a three-year investigation concluded it had double-billed the military for taxes paid to foreign governments on overseas employees, according to a document and officials,” reports Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg in the Seattle Times’ Business.

“The overcharges “affected hundreds of contracts across numerous Department of Defense entities,” according to the latest edition of an in-house training newsletter of the Defense Contract Management Agency highlighting contract irregularities. The agreement, reached in September, wasn’t previously disclosed.”

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Bailey Brauer co-founder selected to D Magazine’s Best Lawyers in Dallas for 2021

DALLAS – For a sixth consecutive year, trial lawyer Alex Brauer, co-founder of litigation boutique Bailey Brauer PLLC, has been recognized among the top attorneys in Dallas by D Magazine.

Brauer was selected to the peer-nominated 2021 Best Lawyers in Dallas listing on the strength of his commercial litigation work for clients across the country.

Brauer’s practice focuses on high-stakes business disputes ranging from allegations of fraud and deceptive practices in commercial transactions to breaches of fiduciary duties and obligations relating to non-compete agreements. He also has assisted several clients with disputes involving the sales and purchases of various businesses.

The Best Lawyers in Dallas selection is just the latest honor for Mr. Brauer. He has also earned recognition from Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, the Texas edition of Super Lawyers magazine and Texas Lawyer magazine. He also is a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and has served on several key Dallas Bar Association committees. He is a supporter of the Readers 2 Leaders literacy program and the North Texas Community Giving Foundation.

Selection to the Best Lawyers in Dallas list is based on a blue-ribbon panel’s evaluation of nominees recommended by their peers. The complete list is featured in the May 2021 edition of D Magazine and available at http://www.dmagazine.com.

Arent Fox is pleased to announce the expansion of its International Trade & Investment practice in Washington, DC with the addition of public international law Partner David Tafuri, Senior Advisor Richard Griffiths, and Associate Jasmine Zaki.

Tafuri’s practice is rooted in vast experience working with clients overseas in frontier markets and in solving complex problems at the intersection of law, diplomacy, and policy. Tafuri has worked in some of the most challenging environments and enjoys representing the underdog in international disputes and taking on novel questions of public international law. He relies upon his previous positions with the US Government and the United Nations to find creative, multi-forum solutions for his clients. Before joining Arent Fox, Tafuri chaired the Emerging Democracies practice at Dentons, working with clients to strengthen democracies abroad.

As part of Tafuri’s team, Richard counsels, advises, and leads the international strategy efforts on behalf of foreign governments in regions across the globe. Jasmine advises clients on commercial matters, including regulation and compliance issues related to companies operating in the Middle East and Africa.

Tafuri’s Experience
Tafuri’s clients include public and private companies seeking to invest in the emerging markets of the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, and US government contractors, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations.

Tafuri led a legal team that supported the World Bank’s COVID-19 crisis response for sovereign governments in Latin America and Asia. The legal team worked with governments in emerging markets to provide strategic advice concerning the pandemic’s impact on public-private partnerships (PPPs) across a broad array of industry sectors. Tafuri headed up efforts by local lawyers in various countries to reform and restructure large transportation and infrastructure PPPs, while working closely with The World Bank, Ministries of Finance, and national PPP units.

Tafuri leads the legal effort to support security sector reform in a Middle East nation, including reforming legal and institutional structures and creating a national security council, counter-terrorism center, and disarmament programs.

Tafuri previously served as the US Department of State’s Rule of Law Coordinator for Iraq at the US Embassy in Baghdad during the height of the war in Iraq. In that position, he worked directly with the Chief Justice of Iraq and Iraqi ministries to help rebuild the legal system. He was awarded the Department of State’s Superior Honor Award for his work.

He also draws on his previous experience as an aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee and a staff aide to several Presidential and Congressional campaigns to augment his practice. For example, Tafuri was an outside foreign policy advisor to President Obama’s campaign in 2008.

Before entering private practice, Tafuri worked for the United Nations in Turkey. He has served on the board of directors of USA for UNHCR, which supports the UN Refugee Agency, and is the founder and current President of the US-Kurdistan Business Council.

A prolific thought-leader, Tafuri has written articles on foreign affairs issues in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and The Hill, where he is currently a foreign policy contributor. Tafuri also frequently appears on CNN, Fox News, the BBC, and other news networks to discuss foreign policy topics.