“As is common with a blockbuster drug, AbbVie’s Humira faced an antitrust challenge from third-party payers,” writes Richard D. Kelly in Oblon’s Publications.

“The third-party payers filed an antitrust action claiming AbbVie’s patent strategy stifled competition by forcing prospective competitors to settle on terms allowing Humira to enjoy a monopoly long after patent protection should have ended. The complaint alleges that AbbVie cornered the market for Humira and its biosimilars by obtaining a thicket of patents which allowed it to gain the market power it needed to prevent competitors from entering the U.S. market (violation of Sherman Act section 2). It used this market power to enter into settlement agreements with potential competitors to keep their products out of the U.S. market in return for early launch dates in Europe, also an important market which they termed a pay-for delay and market division (violation of Sherman Act section 1). ”

Read the article.

There are some nuanced—and frequently sticky—issues regarding third-party products and how they can be resolved, discuss Barbara Murphy Melby and A. Benjamin Klaber in Morgan Lewis’ Tech & Sourcing.

“The indemnifying party commonly takes the position that it should not be responsible for infringement arising from combinations with other products or services. But what if the indemnifying party delivers or provides access to third-party products (e.g., software) as part of the overall design or relationship? Or what if certain ‘third party’ products are produced or distributed by one of the indemnifying party’s affiliates? Or what if the indemnifying party provides documentation or instructions that specifically recommend third-party products as compatible with the underlying technology? Or what if specific third-party products are necessary for the operation of the underlying technology? Under these circumstances, the indemnifying party’s core argument—that it has no control over third-party products or services—requires careful consideration.”

Read the article.

Efforts to prepare the defense budget is in process. “Both the House and Senate are working on their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA). The House version is in committee markup. The Senate version has been rolled out of committee and is being considered by the full Senate,” reports Susan Ebner in Government Contracting Matters.

Read the article for some key points regarding the government contracting aspects of the current Senate bill:

Read the article.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that Andrew S. Chamberlin, a partner at Ellis & Winters LLP in Greensboro, North Carolina, has been elected president of the IADC for the 2020-21 term. The IADC, which is the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests, has provided and continues to provide influential leadership on legal reform issues.

Chamberlin, who served as IADC president-elect for 2019-20, was formally installed as president as the IADC celebrated its 100th anniversary at the IADC’s 2020 Annual Meeting. The IADC also elected new board members for 2020-21, including new board leaders.

“I am honored to serve the IADC as its president at this critical juncture in our history and to help set the course for the future.” Chamberlin said. “I look forward to furthering the IADC’s mission of serving our members, the legal profession and civil justice systems throughout the U.S. and the world, by enhancing the development of skills, professionalism, diversity, and camaraderie in the practice of law.”

In his practice, Chamberlin is a trial lawyer with a broad national and international practice. He has handled product liability and catastrophic injury defense cases as well as the prosecution and defense of commercial, construction and intellectual property disputes. He has appeared in state and federal courts across the United States.

In addition to his leadership role with the IADC, Mr. Chamberlin is an active member of the Defense Research Institute and the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys. Chamberlin has been recognized among the “Best Lawyers in America” and has been selected as a “North Carolina Super Lawyer.”

Chamberlin received his J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Georgia.

In addition to its core purpose involving professional development for members, the IADC takes a leadership role in many areas of legal reform. IADC members are among the world’s leading corporate and insurance lawyers at large and small law firms and senior counsel in corporate law departments, as well as corporate and insurance executives. Members represent the largest corporations around the world, including the majority of companies listed in the FORTUNE 500.

About the International Association of Defense Counsel
The IADC is the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests. Founded in 1920, the IADC has members who hail from six continents, 54 countries and territories, and all 50 U.S. states. The core purposes of the IADC are to enhance the development of skills, promote professionalism, and facilitate camaraderie among its members and their clients, as well as the broader civil justice community. For more information, visit www.iadclaw.org.

“Despite citing the surge in coronavirus cases and economic fallout from the pandemic in California, Sutter Health failed to persuade a state judge on Thursday to delay the $575 million settlement it reached last December over accusations of price gouging and monopolistic practices,” reports Reed Abelson in The New York Times’ Health.

“Sutter, which has already received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid, argued it needed three more months to decide whether it should try to abandon the settlement terms. The sprawling health system in Northern California warned that the costs of the pandemic might force it to raise rates for patient care beyond caps set by the proposed settlement.”

“But Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo was not swayed. While sympathetic to concerns over the rising number of infections in California, the judge refused to give Sutter more time, scheduling a hearing next month on the preliminary agreement. Sutter Health could still try to block final approval of the settlement, which also prevents it from forcing insurers to include all of its health facilities in insurance policies rather than coverage for some.”

Read the article.

“Nashville, Tennessee-based Envision Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest medical groups, has named two new members of its senior leadership team,” reports Becker’s Hospital Review.

“Wessel “Wes” Booysen will serve as executive vice president and CFO, effective July 13. Ilene Moore will serve as senior vice president and general counsel, effective Aug. 1.”

Read the article.

“The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s dismissal of a trademark dispute for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, noting that the dispute arose under contractual standing, which is not a jurisdictional issue. SM Kids, LLC v. Google LLC, Alphabet Inc.,” reported by Jodi Benassi in McDermott, Will & Emery’s Trademarks.

“In 1997, Googles Children’s Workshop registered the trademark GOOGLES and the internet domain name www.googles.com. The website launched in 1998 and focused on children’s education and entertainment. That same year, Google adopted its name, and in 2004 it registered the GOOGLE mark. In 2005, the founder of Googles Children’s Workshop sued Google for trademark infringement.”

“In 2007, the Googles Children’s Workshop founder assigned all rights in the mark GOOGLES to Stelor Productions. In 2008, Stelor and Google settled the trademark infringement dispute, with Google agreeing to not intentionally make material modifications to its then-current offering of products and services in a manner that would likely create confusion in connection with the Children’s Workshop mark GOOGLES. Specifically, Google agreed not to create, develop and publish children’s books and fictional children’s content with the title of ‘GOOGLE or a GOOGLE-.'”

Read the article.

“Italian supercar maker Ferrari has lost the trademark rights to the world’s most expensive car and arguably the most iconic car in its storied history, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO,” reports Michael Taylor in Forbes’ Transportation.

“Though the Ferrari 250 GTO only cost US$18,000 in the United States when they were new, one of them set a new record for the world’s most expensive car in 2018 when it sold privately for US$70 million.”

“Ferrari lost its trademark to the shape of the 250 GTO by falling foul of the European Union Intellectual Protection Office’s (EUIPO) ‘Use It Or Lose It’ rules.”

Read the article.

“Hughes Hubbard & Reed has laid off some associates and staff members after receiving a paycheck protection loan from the federal government,” reported by Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal.

“The law firm confirmed layoffs of “certain attorneys and staff” in a statement to Above the Law. The statement did not provide specifics.”

“Hughes Hubbard provided this statement to the ABA Journal: “We decided in the early stage of the pandemic to keep our entire team intact for as long as we could, hopeful for a swift economic recovery. We were one of the more than 100 firms that decided in the early stage of the pandemic to apply for the [paycheck protection program] and were approved based on the [Small Business Administration] criteria. That money was used for its intended purpose, to save jobs during the worst of the crisis.”

Read the article.

“Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer, was in good spirits on Thursday when he arrived at a Manhattan federal courthouse, where he expected to complete routine paperwork related to his home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic,” reports Maggie Haberman, William K. Rashbaum and Nicole Hong in The New York Times.

“Mr. Cohen, who was released from prison in May on a medical furlough, was stunned when probation officers asked him to sign a document that would have barred him from speaking to reporters or publishing a book during the rest of his sentence, his legal adviser said.”

“Mr. Cohen, believing the agreement violated his First Amendment rights, refused to sign it, the adviser, Lanny Davis, said. Less than two hours later, federal marshals stepped out of an elevator with handcuffs and took Mr. Cohen back into custody.”

“Mr. Cohen’s return to jail was the latest twist in a case whose dizzying ups and downs have prolonged the legal woes of a man who once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump and later implicated the president in federal crimes.”

Read the article.

“Velocity Financial, Inc. announced Roland Kelly has joined Velocity’s Executive Leadership team as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In this role, Roland will oversee the company’s legal, compliance and corporate secretary functions, reporting to Velocity’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Farrar, and Velocity’s Board of Directors,” reported in Business Wire.

“Previously, Roland was a Managing Director and Associate General Counsel for Jefferies Financial Group Inc., a Fortune 500 company focused on investment and merchant banking. Earlier in his career, he worked for the international law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and was a regulator with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”

“Roland earned his Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law and his Bachelor of Science in business administration/finance from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.”

Read the article.

On June 5, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a judgment for $438.65 million in favor of Beck Redden client HP, Inc. This antitrust judgment, based on a price-fixing conspiracy that resulted in federal criminal convictions and provoked employees of Quanta Storage, Inc., to invoke their right to remain silent, is one of the largest civil judgments ever affirmed by the Fifth Circuit.

The Fifth Circuit also upheld the district court’s ability to enforce its judgment by ordering the defendant to turn over its assets to HP. As the Fifth Circuit put it, “Quanta risked bet-the-company litigation and lost, so the district court ordered it to hand over the company.”

Beck Redden appellate partner Russell Post praised the Fifth Circuit’s ruling: “Although the damage award was certainly substantial, the issues in this appeal were ultimately straightforward. The Fifth Circuit’s decision is a powerful reaffirmation of basic principles of appellate review. The court correctly rejected Quanta’s effort to relitigate the facts on appeal, and it correctly repudiated Quanta’s ongoing attempt to defy U.S. antitrust law by refusing to honor the judgment.”

Beck Redden secured the judgment after years of litigation in an MDL proceeding and a six-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Beck Redden partners Alistair Dawson and Alex Roberts, assisted by associate Garrett Brawley, persuaded the jury that Quanta had intentionally participated in a price-fixing conspiracy related to optical disk drives that were sold to HP. The jury awarded $176 million to HP, and the district court trebled damages in accordance with U.S. antitrust law. According to Dawson: “For years, companies like Quanta have conspired to cheat American companies like HP out of millions of dollars in lost profits. This verdict and this judgment send a powerful message to the group of co-conspirators and others like them that if they violate U.S. antitrust laws, there will be significant consequences. We look forward to enforcing this judgment so HP can recover some of the money it lost at the hands of Quanta and its co-conspirators.”

When Quanta failed either to post a bond or to perform the judgment, HP moved to enforce its judgment. The district court issued a turnover order compelling Quanta to turn over its assets to HP. Quanta appealed the judgment and the turnover order, and the Fifth Circuit consolidated and expedited the appeals.

In appellate briefs authored by Post with the able assistance of associate Parth Gejji, HP demonstrated that the judgment was supported by uncontested evidence proving Quanta’s role in the conspiracy and ample evidence supporting the damage award. HP further argued that Quanta could be compelled to turn over all of its assets – including foreign property – to satisfy a judgment based on wrongdoing in the U.S. At bottom, HP argued, Quanta is simply unwilling to respect U.S. antitrust law.

The Fifth Circuit agreed with HP. In a unanimous opinion, the court held that the antitrust judgment is sound and the district court can lawfully compel the turnover of Quanta’s property. Although the Fifth Circuit offered some grace to Quanta by allowing more time for compliance, it made clear that the choice is now stark: “Quanta’s board has a simple choice: obey the district court’s Turnover Orders or risk contempt proceedings.”

A hearing is set in the district court for June 19 on HP’s motion to hold Quanta in contempt for its failure to perform the judgment.

The case is Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Quanta Storage, Inc., No. 19-20799 c/w No. 20-20235, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Click here to read the opinion.

Vist Beck Redden.

“Deutsche Bank AG agreed Tuesday to pay a $150 million penalty to settle ‘significant compliance failures’ in its dealings with convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein,” reports VOA News.

“The New York State Department of Financial Services said the bank did not properly monitor Epstein’s transactions, despite widespread public knowledge about his sexual misconduct.”

“It said Deutsche Bank’s failure led to its processing of hundreds of Epstein’s transactions that should have been more closely scrutinized, including payments to victims and law firms representing him and his accomplices.”

“The state regulator said Deutsche Bank also failed in its relationships with Danske Bank Estonia and FBME Bank by not properly monitoring their correspondent and clearing operations.”

Read the article.

“Florida’s largest nursing home provider is again facing a quarter-billion-dollar judgment for fraud,” reported with updates in The St. Augustine Record by Ryan Mills Naples of the Naples News.

“An appeals court last week affirmed part of a jury’s finding that Consulate Health Care, which operates a tenth of all Florida nursing homes, systematically defrauded the government by providing medically unnecessary treatments to patients.”

“While calling the judgment ‘huge,’one industry watcher predicted that Consulate homes will continue operating, even if the company continues to appeal the ruling or files for bankruptcy.”

“Consulate, based in Maitland, a suburb of Orlando, owns about 70 of Florida’s 693 nursing homes, and operates in every metro area. In all, the privately held company owns and controls about 150 nursing homes and assisted living facilities, mostly in the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic states.”

Read the article.

“Miami lawyer Samuel J. Rabin Jr. decided not to take any chances when he went to the federal courthouse recently for his client’s sentencing hearing amid the novel coronavirus crisis,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s News.

“Rabin wore a full, disposable hazmat suit that he obtained from a contact who sells medical supplies, the Daily Business Review reports.”

“Rabin had the option of appearing by Zoom after the judge denied a continuance for his client. But Rabin told the Daily Business Review that he thought it was important to be there in person for his client.”

Read the article.

“MyoKardia, Inc. (MYOK) announced the appointment of Denelle Waynick as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Waynick joins MyoKardia from UCB, Inc., bringing more than 25 years of domestic and international legal and business expertise in the healthcare and life-science industry,” reported on Intrado GlobalNewswire.

“Ms. Waynick most recently served as Vice President, Legal Affairs (US), US General Counsel & Head of Global Enterprise Risk Management at UCB. In this role, Ms. Waynick served as the secretary and a member of the company’s US Board of Directors overseeing its governance while also serving as a member of the US Leadership Team, which oversees corporate operations.”

“Ms. Waynick holds a Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Newark.”

Read the article.

Buchalter is pleased to welcome and announce that Joshua Robbins has joined the Firm as Chair of its newly formed White Collar & Investigations practice. He will work out of both the Los Angeles and Orange County offices. Robbins, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, previously led the white-collar defense practice at boutique firm Greenberg Gross LLP.

While in private practice and government, Robbins led large-scale trials, appeals, and investigations, many drawing national and international media attention and raising novel legal issues. His cases, which often focus on claims of fraud, corruption, and theft, have spanned industries from health care to finance to technology, and involved representation of Fortune 500 companies, sovereign governments, and prominent individuals. Examples include the prosecution of a $900 million health care kickback scheme involving Pacific Hospital of Long Beach described as the largest insurance fraud case in California history, and the trials of $170 million securities fraud and $200 million tax fraud schemes.

Robbins is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Harvard College, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and is the President of the Harvard Law School Association of Orange County. He previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable Stanley Marcus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Hanzo, the company known for its pioneering technology in dynamic web archiving for ediscovery and compliance, today announced new features and efficiency-boosting user experience in its purpose-built discovery solution for Slack, Hanzo Hold.

As many companies have rapidly adopted Slack in this remote working world, legal and compliance teams need greater visibility into their Slack data to mitigate risk, support efficient investigations, and scope legal matters effectively to reduce the overall cost of discovery.

Hanzo’s Unparalleled Approach To Slack Data Intelligence

The process of discovery or internal investigations with Slack often starts with a handful of custodians and a date range. The process then requires iteration which can be wastefully expensive and time-consuming when using traditional approaches that begin with a new collection for every matter. Because defining scope is challenging at the outset it’s not uncommon for legal teams to be off of the mark, resulting in too little data and lacking good pointers of where to look within their data sets. Or conversely, they get too much data which can be costly to preserve—especially when redundant copies of the same content are created. Hanzo’s unique approach enables easy collection of only what you need when you need it, and to retain it for only as long as you require. Hanzo’s targeted preservation has been expanded with the click-of-a-button ease to add or remove custodians paired with enhanced matter scope and Slack channel management capabilities. Hanzo Hold’s latest release uniquely supports these goals.

Matter Scope Flexibility With Full Slack Channel Choices

Hanzo Hold customers now have increased scope flexibility to easily identify and select amongst a myriad of Slack channels, including direct messages, that may be responsive to a matter. Better visibility empowers users to know where to look further, and easily refine matter scope over time. When combined with robust keyword and searching capabilities, corporate legal, HR and audit teams can perform quick analysis to understand where custodians are active and with whom they’ve been communicating, and quickly identify relevant conversations and message content.

Audit Log

Hanzo Hold features a comprehensive audit record of user actions. The Matter Audit Log provides access to all actions taken to create and revise matter scope, add or remove custodians, and include or exclude channels over the life of the matter. Matter administrators can see the “who, what, when, where, and why” of the investigation at hand.

A New Efficiency-Boosting User Experience

As a part of this release, Hanzo has enhanced the user experience to enable full visibility of everything you need — at the click of a button. We’ve designed the experience to show more records on one screen, making it easier to move through long lists of information, regardless of where it is. User experience enhancements include:

+ Improved matter dashboard with action menus for quick access to matter tasks
+ Convenient navigation bar to quickly move between managing a matter, discovery search, and matter export screens
+ Improved visibility and control over matter scope, including details on both custodians and the channels being preserved
+ Improved views over search results, messages, files, bookmarks, and exports

“When faced with a choice of legal hold and knowledge repository platforms, the market is consistently choosing best practice over boil-the-ocean,” said Keith Laska, CEO of Hanzo. “eDiscovery and Compliance teams have unique challenges, and the most successful software vendors in our space measure carefully before cutting. We have witnessed explosive adoption of our Hanzo Hold platform, and are extremely grateful to the market for working closely with us to shape the product towards our shared objective: eliminating billions of dollars in litigation costs by bringing control of corporate data back to where it belongs.”

Hanzo Hold is currently available for a wide range of corporate users, including legal teams responding to discovery demands, HR and internal audit teams conducting critical internal investigations, and IT response teams seeking timely information regarding security incidents. Learn more by visiting https://www.hanzo.co/slack-legal-hold.

About Hanzo

Hanzo provides modern ediscovery and compliance software for enterprise organizations. Our solutions empower legal and compliance teams to efficiently manage the preservation, targeted collection, and review of dynamic content from enterprise collaboration applications, social media, and complex websites. Hanzo is SOC 2® Type 2 certified, demonstrating Hanzo’s commitment to data security and serves large corporations across the globe—giving them control, visibility, and context over their data to reduce cost and mitigate risk. Learn more at hanzo.co and follow updates on Twitter: @gethanzo or on LinkedIn.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that George R. Parker and Davis H. Smith, partners in the Montgomery office, were among the recipients of the 2020 President’s Award given by Alabama State Bar President Christy Crow.

As co-chair of the Member Benefits Committee, Mr. Parker helped identify and implement numerous member benefits and discounts that are now available to members of the Alabama State Bar. Mr. Smith serves as co-chair of the Insurance Committee and was recognized for playing an integral role in the process that resulted in the Alabama State Bar’s ability to offer a Blue Cross/Blue Shield Health Insurance Plan to its members.

“We congratulate George and Davis on their recognition,” said Bradley Montgomery Office Managing Partner Robert Emmett Poundstone IV. “We are proud of their outstanding commitment to the state bar and the legal community.”

A member of Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group, Mr. Parker represents clients in a variety of matters in state and federal courts. He has spent a significant portion of his career representing Fortune 500 pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device companies in individual and mass tort actions as both national and local counsel in state and federal courts across the country. He also represents clients in product liability, premises liability, insurance, and class action matters. Mr. Parker is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Product Liability, Commercial Litigation, and Insurance Litigation.

A member of Bradley’s Corporate and Securities Practice Group, Mr. Smith advises captive insurance companies, risk retention groups and self-insured funds on transactional, regulatory and tax matters. He counsels clients on tax and business strategies in a variety of industries, with a particular focus on participants in regulated industries, including insurance companies and investment advisors, and the professional services industry. He has extensive experience advising businesses on structuring and growing their businesses in a tax-efficient manner. Mr. Smith was a co-author of the 2016 update to the Alabama Captive Insurers Act, and he is a frequent speaker and writer on tax planning for businesses, including strategies for captive insurance companies.

The ASB is dedicated to promoting the professional responsibility and competence of its members, improving the administration of justice, and increasing the public understanding of and respect for the law.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

Award-Winning Trial Practice

Jim Malone has successfully tried and managed cases in virtually every business sector and practice area. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial matters. He has been widely recognized for his securities litigation work defending individual, derivative and class-action claims against businesses and their individual directors, and has frequently been asked to respond to SEC actions and inquiries. His deep knowledge and experience make him the right choice for your new matter, or to take up the reins in the ongoing case that requires a skilled trial lawyer. Jim is also available to mediate or arbitrate selected matters.

Click here to learn more about his decades of trial experience.