“The bank has asked the U.S. to review demands that any settlement include a guilty plea to a felony charge, according to people briefed on the matter,” reports Matthew Goldstein in The New York Times Business.

“Lawyers for the bank have asked Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to review demands by some federal prosecutors that Goldman pay more than $2 billion in fines and plead guilty to a felony charge…”

“The bank has sought to pay a lower fine and avoid a guilty plea, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are continuing.”

“Authorities in the United States and Malaysia say more than $2.7 billion was diverted from the fund, known as 1MDB, in a scheme that involved the flamboyant financier Jho Low, the country’s former prime minister, and other powerful people. The fund was meant to finance projects for the benefit of the people of Malaysia, but some of the cash went to buy luxury apartments, yachts, paintings and even finance the movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.'”

Read the article.

“Philip Morris International Inc. announced Thursday its hire of Suzanne Rich Folsom to head its legal, ethics, and compliance functions as of July 1,” reports Daniel Acker in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Folsom, a former general counsel at U.S. Steel Corp., will succeed Marc Firestone, who Philip Morris said will retire from the global tobacco giant later this year. Firestone joined Philip Morris in 2012, having previously served as general counsel at Kraft Foods Inc., now called Mondelez International Inc.

“Philip Morris said in a statement that Folsom is a ‘results-oriented business leader with decades of broad international experience and a track record of successfully driving transformation within public and private corporations during periods of heightened regulatory and public scrutiny.'”

Read the article.

“A 49-year-old Canon City man remains hospitalized after being shot during a downtown protest” by an Alamosa attorney, reports Meg Colwell in Alamosa News.

The man was in critical but stable condition.

“Law enforcement identified a suspect, 27-year-old Alamosa resident James Marshall, and subsequently placed him into custody … Marshall was charged with attempted 2nd Degree homicide, 1st Degree assault, reckless endangerment, felony menacing, criminal mischief, illegal discharge of a firearm, and prohibited use of weapons. Marshall reportedly is an attorney with a second-story office in downtown Alamosa.”

Read the article.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that Matt Wright, a partner at McCarter & English, LLP, in Washington, D.C., has accepted an invitation to join the IADC, the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to work with, and learn from, some of the best lawyers in the country and around the world,” Mr. Wright said. “IADC will help me stay abreast of cutting-edge developments in the law so I can better serve my clients.”
Mr. Wright is a trial lawyer who focuses on commercial litigation, advertising, products liability, and government contract disputes.

Mr. Wright received his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his A.B. (cum laude) from Princeton University.

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, 51 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.

As industries become increasingly specialized, you need the relevant knowledge to stay competitive in the job market. Drexel University’s online LLM programs from the Thomas R. Kline School of Law help you gain the expertise you need to establish yourself as a specialist in either cybersecurity and data privacy or health care and pharmaceutical compliance. With the ability to complete the program online on either a full- or part-time basis, Drexel makes earning your degree convenient for you.

LLM in Cyber Law and Data Privacy
With a focus on topics like EU data privacy and internet law, this specialized program will help you fill a knowledge gap that’s needed in the cyber law and data privacy field. You can also tailor elective courses to specific fields such as health care, finance or higher education.

LLM in Health Care and Pharmaceutical Compliance
The health care and pharmaceutical industry is increasingly complicated and ever-changing, and this program prepares you with the insider knowledge you need to successfully navigate the system. You can focus on either Health Care Compliance or Pharmaceutical Compliance or take classes in both areas.

Learn more.

Eversheds Sutherland today announced the further global expansion of Konexo to provide alternative legal and compliance services in the US, under the leadership of Carmen L. Brun, who previously practiced in Eversheds Sutherland’s Securities Enforcement and Litigation practice.

Brun is responsible for the development and delivery of Konexo’s strategy and services in the US and works closely with Graham Richardson, Head of Konexo, on coordinating global matters and overall strategy. Konexo offerings in the US include litigation services; investigation, due diligence and regulatory research services; contract analysis; commercial contracting; financial services investigations and remediation; interim resourcing; consulting; and global legal entity management – with plans to expand and diversify service offerings in tandem with client needs.

In June 2019, Eversheds Sutherland leveraged existing teams in the UK and Asia to launch Konexo with plans to expand to the US shortly thereafter. With the ongoing global COVID-19 crisis, the firm anticipates an even higher demand for alternative legal services powered by a top global legal brand.

The US launch comes on the heels of Konexo’s launch and significant growth globally last year. With several offices in the UK, and with the opening of new offices in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 2019, Konexo has already established a presence around the world. “We work hard to be where our clients need us to be – and to provide what they need us to provide – and that’s apparent in the moves we are making to grow and refine our service offerings in the US and globally,” said Mr. Wasserman.

SmileDirectClub (SDC) “sued NBC in Tennessee federal court seeking more than $2.85 billion. The teledentistry company claims the network made more than 40 false and misleading statements in a February 2020 broadcast of NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt, including that SDC-affiliated doctors aren’t involved in treating patients, that the company’s platform amounts to “do it yourself” dentistry and that it flouts state and federal regulations,” reports Ashley Cullins in The Hollywood Reporter’s Labor.

“SmileDirectClub also alleges NBC was aware of the inaccuracies because the company had sent hundreds of pages of documents about its treatments, made senior officers available for questions, and offered to arrange interviews with dentists, orthodontists and patients. It also alleges that it told the network ‘dental trade associations and organizations have orchestrated a campaign to discredit SDC and, therefore, had a motivation to publish false information about SDC, including regarding the safety of treatment’ and says reporter Vicky Nguyen had a conflict of interest because her husband is an anesthesiologist at a brick-and-mortar oral surgery practice that competes with SDC.”

“SDC is suing for defamation and violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.”

Read the article.

“Beong-Soo Kim, a leading attorney with over two decades of experience in the private and public sectors, including the better part of a decade at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in L.A., has been named senior vice president and general counsel of USC, President Carol L. Folt announced Tuesday,” announced Grayson Schmidt in USC News’ University.

“Kim led the nation’s largest federal white-collar prosecution section before moving to Kaiser Permanente, where he’s spent nearly six years. As vice president in the national legal department, he is responsible for overseeing all major litigation and investigations, as well as the health plan and payor operations legal team. Kim will join USC on July 1.”

“Kim, whose father attended graduate school at USC, was born and raised in Woodland Hills and grew up watching Trojan football games. In high school, Kim furthered one of his lifelong passions and studied the cello with the late Eleanore Schoenfeld, a legendary professor at the USC Thornton School of Music. Though he moved to the east coast to attend college, Kim said his life story exemplifies USC’s broad impact on residents of Southern California.”

Read the article.

“HP Inc. will get to keep all the cash, factories and patents Quanta Storage Inc. was ordered to turn over to satisfy a $439 million antitrust judgment from 2019, a federal appeals court ruled,” reported by Laurel Calkins of Bloomberg in Yahoo Finance.

“The Taiwanese disk drive maker was ordered to surrender almost all its assets before its appellate challenge had played out because it failed to post an $85 million bond to prevent early collection of the crippling award. The appellate court did agree to give it more time to comply.”

“‘Quanta risked bet-the-company litigation and lost, so the district court ordered it to hand over the company,’ a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals in New Orleans said Friday in a 21-page ruling.”

“Quanta tried repeatedly in April to delay HP’s push to collect on the judgment. It claimed that coronavirus travel and business restrictions in Taiwan and China, where most of its executives and factories are, prevented it from posting the bond while complying with Taiwanese regulations on asset transfers by publicly traded companies. HP said Quanta was using the pandemic as a ploy to dissipate assets that could be used to satisfy the judgment.”

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A guide to help you identify the best type of solution to solve your specific contract management needs and goals.

Making sense of the contract management software landscape.

Whether your legal team has already made the decision to implement contract management software or you’re still determining the best way to take control of your corporate agreements, this guide will help you start your search for the right solution.

This Guide includes:

• An overview of the primary types of solutions used to solve contract management challenges – including a Solutions Comparison Chart.
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• A Contract Management Software Selection Checklist to help you get the information you need during the buying process.

Fill out the form to receive your copy now.

Companies shifted to remote work overnight and need practical insights for mitigating risk and tips on how to leverage Slack data for efficient internal investigations.

Hanzo, a pioneer of contextual collection and dynamic web content ediscovery and compliance software, today announced a stellar lineup of industry experts for an upcoming live webinar, Effective Internal Investigations In The Age Of Collaboration And Remote Work, on July 9, 2020, at 1:00 pm ET.  In this webinar event, panelists will explore how to conduct effective internal workplace investigations in the age of collaboration and remote work.

EVENT DESCRIPTION
We live in a shifting landscape where the COVID-19 pandemic has moved the workforce from their standard physical offices to a work-from-home world. This change accelerated the adoption of collaborative business communication platforms—replacing email as the primary method of business communication.  Almost overnight, applications like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and others have shot up in daily use and have become where the work gets done.

This unprecedented overnight migration to remote work presents a host of new challenges: increased business risk from lack of oversight and wrongdoing, and at the same time increasing the complexity to effectively conduct internal investigations and maintain safe working environments.

Uncertain times and rapid technology changes can make any legal or compliance team feel vulnerable. The best time to make sure you are prepared to conduct an investigation —especially leveraging new tools and data sources— is before an avalanche of investigation needs arise.

This educational webinar is developed to provide attendees with practical insights for reducing risk while planning and conducting effective internal investigations leveraging data from collaboration applications. Learn how to conduct effective internal workplace investigations in the age of collaboration and remote work.

Panelists will discuss:
– The changing business environment
– The effect of collaboration tools on business communications
– The role of internal investigations for employment compliance, litigation, and corporate culture.
– Strategies for conducting internal investigations
– How to add and manage new data sources for effective internal investigations
– Determining if a full investigation is required

SPEAKERS
– Stacey Blaustein, Counsel, IBM
– Kyle Kelly, Senior E-Discovery and Litigation Support Specialist, Coinbase
– Kimberly Quan, Global Head of eDiscovery & Digital Forensics, Juniper Networks
– Brad Harris, VP of Product, Hanzo

WEBINAR REGISTRATION

Title: Effective Internal Investigations In The Age Of Collaboration And Remote Work
Date: July 9, 2020
Time: 1:00 pm ET
Cost: Free
Register

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 https://www.hanzo.co and follow updates on Twitter: @gethanzo or on LinkedIn.

Robert Mercer is pleased to announce the launch of Mercer Law LLC, a bankruptcy and insolvency boutique law firm in Atlanta serving clients in a wide range of industries nationwide. Mercer Law will represent a full range of bankruptcy and insolvency clients including post-confirmation trustees, receivers, assignees for the benefit of creditors, lenders, borrowers, professionals, licensors and licensees of intellectual property, landlords, trade creditors, directors and officers, and purchasers of distressed businesses.

In addition to his broad bankruptcy and insolvency practice, Mercer works with personal injury plaintiffs’ lawyers when their clients are asserting large claims against insolvent entities. He also represents fiduciaries on a contingency-fee basis in high-stakes bankruptcy and insolvency litigation. Mercer Law intentionally does not represent any national banks because of the constraints often imposed by national bank conflicts of interest.

The culmination of his successful career built over the past two decades, Mercer’s plans to open his boutique firm were laid in advance of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his services are required now more than ever.

Mercer serves on the board of directors of the Atlanta chapter of the Turnaround Management Association and the Advisory Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop. Mercer has been recognized by Chambers USA for Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Georgia for the last 8 consecutive years and is only one of three attorneys ranked in Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Georgia who works in a boutique law firm.

“Three Amazon.com Inc. employees at its Staten Island facility have sued the company for the lack of safety measures against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19),” reports Neer Varshney in Benzinga’s News.

“The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for New York’s Eastern District last Wednesday, alleges that the e-commerce giant violated several Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York state guidelines in its response to the pandemic at the State Island warehouse.”

“The workers have alleged that Amazon discouraged workers from performing basic hygiene like washing or sanitizing hands if it interfered with their work ‘even for a moment.'”

“The Seattle-based company also purposefully concealed information about workers testing positive for COVID-19 from their coworkers at the facility, the lawsuit claims.”

Read the article.

“Apple will have to face a lawsuit claiming the tech giant fraudulently concealed decreased demand for iPhones, leading to tens of billions of dollars in shareholder losses,” reports Ryan J. Farrick in Legal Reader’s Lawsuits & Litigation.

“According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers trimmed the lawsuit’s scope substantially. But she maintained that shareholders may still sue Apple over Tim Cook’s comments about the iPhone’s robust performance during a November 1^st analyst call.”

“The lawsuit takes particular issue with Cook’s claim that the iPhone was faring well in China through the fourth quarter of 2018, even though sales were struggling due to political tensions.”

“In her ruling, Gonzalez Rogers found it ‘implausible’ that Apple’s chief executive would not know that iPhone demand was dropping in China—especially when, days after the call took place, Apple instructed its largest manufacturers to slow iPhone production.”

Read the article.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka is pleased to announce that Philadelphia-based Shareholder Philip Karter was named a Lifetime Achievement honoree and Shareholder Kevin F. Sweeney was named a Lawyer on the Fast Track nominee in the 2020 Professional Excellence Awards by The Legal Intelligencer. The honor of Lifetime Achievement recognizes industry professionals who have “left an imprint on the legal history of the state during their career.” The Lawyers on the Fast Track designation “celebrates the next generation of legal leaders.” The full list on honorees can be found here.

Karter specializes in tax controversy and tax litigation matters. With over 35 years of experience, he has litigated Federal tax cases in the United States District Courts, the United States Tax Court and the United States Court of Federal Claims and argued in the United States Court of Appeals in multiple circuits. Karter formerly served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America®, most recently as Lawyer of the Year for Litigation and Controversy – Tax for Philadelphia. Additionally, he has been listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Legal 500 U.S. – Tax Controversy, International Tax Review – U.S. Tax Controversy Leaders and he has been presented with the Outstanding Attorney Award – U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division. Karter earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University, his law degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Law and his Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University School of Law.

Sweeney is a member of the Tax Controversy & Litigation Practice and former federal prosecutor who specializes in defending clients in civil and criminal tax controversy and litigation matters. He represents high-net-worth individuals and businesses with complex and sensitive tax issues. Sweeney focuses on high-stakes IRS audits, civil tax litigation, white-collar criminal defense matters, and whistleblower matters for high and ultra-high net worth individuals, corporate executives, business owners, and public and private companies worldwide. He is listed in The Legal 500 U.S. for Tax Controversy and has been honored with the Tax Division Outstanding Attorney Award by the U.S. Department of Justice. Sweeney earned his undergraduate degree from Loyola University Maryland and his law degree from New York Law School.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka is a diversified business law firm with offices in Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia and San Antonio. The firm represents both public and private companies, as well as individuals and family-owned businesses across the nation. The firm offers counsel in tax planning and tax controversy, corporate, securities and finance, employment law and employee benefits, energy law, estate planning and administration, intellectual property, international and immigration law, commercial and business litigation, real estate and construction law

Lex Machina notes nearly 4,000 suits filed by Dallas firm between 2015-2019

The trial lawyers of Dallas-based Fears Nachawati Law Firm, known for its long track record of litigation on behalf of consumers, are being recognized by the legal analytics organization Lex Machina as one of the most active product liability plaintiff teams in the country.

The 3,817 cases filed between 2015-2019 represent the firm’s dedication to pursuing justice for clients harmed by the catastrophic effects of addictive pharmaceutical drugs and defective medical devices, along with other dangerous products.

“Bryan Fears and I created this firm with the goal of acting quickly and strategically when we saw corporations recklessly disregarding the safety of their customers,” said firm co-founder Majed Nachawati. “Our promise to every client is that we will navigate the complexity of product liability litigation in the pursuit of justice on their behalf.”

Fears Nachawati has played a significant leadership role in litigation on behalf of states, regional governments, public hospitals and other public entities battling the opioid epidemic. The firm’s lawyers use their multidistrict litigation expertise to help repair communities devastated by corporate wrongdoing by pharmaceutical companies, distributors and retailers.

The attorneys of Fears Nachawati have also given voice to individual plaintiffs when neglectful companies’ practices have endangered their lives. The team secured a $3 million federal jury verdict in 2019 against Cook Medical over its defective intravenous blood filter. It marked the first time a jury reached a finding that the filters, designed to stop blood clots from reaching the heart and lungs, were flawed.

Fears Nachawati Law Firm represents individuals, businesses and public entities in cases involving business interruption insurance disputes, medical device and pharmaceutical liability, environmental damage claims, and serious personal injury and wrongful death. For more information on the firm, visit www.fnlawfirm.com.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that seven attorneys in the firm’s Charlotte office have been named to the 2019 class of the North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society. Robert A. Cox Jr., Matthew S. DeAntonio, Dexter C. Hobbs Jr., Erin Jane Illman, Dana Lumsden, Steve Snyder and Bridget V. Warren each provided 50 or more hours of pro bono legal services in 2019 to North Carolinians who are unable to pay. The number of Bradley attorneys who have qualified for this recognition has more than tripled since 2018.

“We are very proud of our Charlotte attorneys and commend their efforts and contributions to help provide access to justice for all in North Carolina,” said Bradley Pro Bono Counsel Tiffany Graves.

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.

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.

A $5B lawsuit “accuses Google parent company Alphabet Inc. of quietly amassing data about what people do online and what sites they visit while in the private browser mode, ” reports Andy Meek in BGR’s Tech.

“Google promises consumers that they can ‘browse the web privately’ and stay in ‘control of what information [users] share with Google.’ To prevent information from being shared with Google, Google recommends that its consumers need only launch a browser such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox in ‘private browsing mode.’ Both statements are untrue.”

“In fact, the language in the suit continues, when users take either or both of those steps, the company ‘continues to track, collect, and identify their browsing data in real-time, in contravention of federal and state laws on wiretapping and in violation of consumers’ rights to privacy.'”

“The size of the proposed class of plaintiffs this action could include numbers in the ‘millions,’ according to the suit, which also seeks at least $5,000 in damages per user for violations of California privacy laws as well as federal wiretapping statutes.”

Read the article.