Reuters reports that the Trump administration’s effort to cut red tape and speed up major energy projects has backfired in the case of the three biggest U.S. pipelines now planned or under construction.

Reuters reporters Scott DiSavino and Stephanie Kelly explain:

“The Republican administration tried to accelerate permits for two multi-billion-dollar natural gas lines and jumpstart the long-stalled Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that would start in Canada. Judges halted construction on all three over the past two years, ruling that the administration granted permits without conducting adequate studies or providing enough alternatives to protect endangered species or national forests.”

Read the Reuters article.

Litigation is a cost of business, but many savvy in-house counsel effectively manage that cost by including pre-dispute jury waivers in counterparty contracts, points out Bloomberg Law.

Jury waivers memorialize an agreement between contracting parties that fact-finding in disputes arising between them will be decided by judges, and not by juries, according to authors David L. Goldberg and Sean M. Akchin of Katten.

They discuss their five suggestions, under the headings Be Careful What You Wish For, Be Conspicuous, Be Specific, Don’t Be Greedy, and Don’t Be Tardy.

Read the article.

To avoid surprises and unanticipated liability on construction projects, the parties should modify contracts consistent with Texas law—or at least be aware of the limitations that are in place due to certain Texas statutes, according to a post on the Porter Hedges Texas Construction Law blog.

Author Amy Wolfshohl discusses the top five  modifications to consider on private commercial construction projects.

Those topics include retainage, indemnity, AI coverage, Texas law, and lien releases.

Read the article.

Letitia James
Image by Thomas Good

Roughly 40 state attorneys general plan to take part in a New York-led antitrust investigation of Facebook, reflecting a broadening belief among the country’s top Democrats and Republicans that the tech giant may be undermining its social-networking rivals, reports The Washington Post.

New York Attorney General Letitia James first announced a wide-ranging probe with seven other states and the District of Columbia to explore whether, in James’s words at the time, Facebook has “endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices, or increased the price of advertising,” writes the Post‘s Tony Romm.

Sources told the newspaper that New York continues to solicit support from other states, meaning the number could grow before it is formally announced.

Read the Post article.

Bloomberg Law reports that law students from elite universities protested outside DLA Piper offices in three cities Oct. 10, calling on the firm to drop arbitration agreements from employee contracts.

“Demonstrators from Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Georgetown law schools handed out leaflets in New York, Washington, and Boston,” writes Bloomberg’s Stephanie Russell-Kraft. “They’re part of a student-led initiative leveraging their status as top Big Law recruits to fight what they says is ‘harassment and discrimination in the legal profession.’”

DLA Piper partner Vanina Guerrero, who claims she was sexually assaulted and retaliated against by a fellow partner, said she is unable to bring those claims in court because of a mandatory arbitration agreement.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Thomas Lagan, one of two lawyers who took part in a nearly $9 million scheme that victimized the elderly, has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, the New York state attorney general’s office announced.

Lagan and fellow lawyer and co-defendant Richard Sherwood were charged with stealing almost $10 million from family trusts they were responsible for overseeing, reports the Albany Times Union.

Lagan, 60, pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny in state court in Albany. He pleaded guilty to federal charges in August.

Sherwood, who has pleaded guilty, awaits sentencing.

Read the  Times Union article.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will present a free webinar, “Patent Prosecution Options at the USPTO: Tried-and-True or New to You,” featuring Fitch Even attorneys Alan E. Schiavelli and George N. Dandalides.

The event will be on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019, at 9 am PDT / 10 am MDT / 11 am CDT / 12 noon EDT. It will also be available as an on-demand webinar after the presentation.

The firm said the USPTO is constantly striving to reduce average pendency and achieve compact prosecution office-wide, but that’s of little consequence if your patent application is bogged down in prosecution with the examiner—or if business reasons dictate a patent be obtained more quickly than usual. Fortunately, the USPTO offers several programs and initiatives to applicants designed to advance the examination process.

During this webinar, presenters will provide background information and helpful advice on these prosecution tactics and publication strategies:

• Track One prioritized examination
• Petitions to make special and accelerated examination
• First Action Interview Pilot Program
• Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
• Early publication and non-publication
• After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 (AFCP 2.0)
• Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Pilot Program

Register for the webinar.

The California Supreme Court invalidated a mandatory arbitration agreement involving a former employee’s wage claims, finding the agreement was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable, according to a Ford Harrison post by partner Frederick L. Warren.

“The Court found that the arbitration agreement’s execution involved a high degree of procedural unconscionability,” explained Warren. “The Court stated that ‘the agreement appears to have been drafted with an aim to thwart, rather than promote, understanding.'”

Read the article.

Regina Campbell offers an overview of the three types of contracts and agreements that companies should consider using.

Writing on Lawyers. com, Campbell, of The Campbell Law Group, discusses employee agreements, advising that companies should use an at-will agreement that clearly states that a new hire’s employment can be terminated at any time for any reason.

She also discusses vendor agreements and independent contractor agreements.

Read the article.

San Antonio law firm Langley & Banack, Inc. announced it has launched a new podcast featuring in-depth discussions and stories based on cases from the field.

The first series focuses on fiduciary litigation, hosted and produced by attorneys Chris Hodge and Jobe Jackson. Attached is a photo of Hodge (left) and Jackson (right).

In a release, the firm said each Langley & Banack law podcast offers in-depth discussions about litigation that involves will and trust clashes, power of attorney contests, declaratory judgments and guardianship challenges. Together, Hodge and Jackson examine cases and approaches to this area of the law using real-world examples and high-profile guests who add to the conversation.

S. Patrick McKey has joined Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.’s Chicago office as an officer in the Litigation practice group.

The firm said McKey focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, international business disputes, product liability, environmental and intellectual property litigation, as well as corporate counseling and public law. He has experience with clients in the retail, fashion and apparel industries and obtained multimillion-dollar judgments for leading fashion and apparel brands against individuals and entities selling counterfeit merchandise online.

The firm said McKey has represented clients in courts throughout the United States, as well as domestic and foreign clients before entities including the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the American Arbitration Association. He has worked as lead counsel in the defense of U.S. class actions and multidistrict litigation, as well as the defense of claims for clients in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Italy, Ireland, Libya, Korea, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

McKey has conducted internal investigations on behalf of clients in the United States and abroad and has counseled on the risks associated with potential litigation or regulatory action, including strategies for minimizing such risks.

McKey’s interests include working with the many businesses that have U.S.-Ireland connections, and he has been involved with Chicago’s Irish community for many years, including Irish business and social organizations. He studied comparative law at University College Cork (Ireland) Faculty of Law.

Prior to joining Greensfelder, McKey was a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. He received both his J.D. and Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin.

Attorneys Allen Griffin and John Kappel have joined boutique family law firm Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson, LLP in the Dallas office.

Allen Griffin

Griffin joins the firm as an associate with a practice covering a range of family law litigation matters. He is a former Dallas assistant city attorney, and before that, practiced family law at his own firm as well as with several Dallas law firms. Griffin is a graduate of Baylor Law School and Baylor University.

John Kappel

Also joining the firm as an associate, Kappel focuses on divorce, child custody and property division matters, as well as probate and estate planning. A native of Dallas, he is a graduate of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, with an undergraduate degree from Baylor University. He is a member of the Dallas Bar Association Family Law Section, Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, and the Collin County Young Lawyers Association.

“Allen and John are experienced attorneys with backgrounds steeped in family law issues,” said firm partner Brad LaMorgese. “Their skill sets will certainly complement and add value to our team.”

Sidley Austin LLP announced that Eleanor Shanks will join the firm in London. She will be a member of Sidley’s global M&A and Private Equity practice. Shanks formerly worked at Proskauer Rose LLP.

In a release, the firm said Shanks’ practice includes private equity and corporate transactions, including cross-border acquisitions and disposals, real estate, infrastructure and life sciences transactions, and joint ventures. She also advises clients in shareholder arrangements and managed equity plans, co-investments, and corporate governance and general corporate matters. Her clients include private equity sponsors, investors and funds, financial institutions, corporates and management teams.

Bailey Brauer co-founders Clayton Bailey and Alex Brauer are among the “agents of change” in the legal profession singled out by Texas Lawyer magazine to receive the publication’s inaugural Texas Trailblazers recognition.

Bailey and Brauer were chosen for their leadership in reshaping expectations for legal boutiques in Texas.

In a release, the firm said the pair, unsatisfied with the burdensome constraints of Big Law, walked away from their positions at an international law firm to open their own firm six years ago. From the start, their business model was unwavering.

“Our approach is very similar to that of a Big Law litigation or appellate practice, but without the inflexibility that results from overhead demands and far-reaching conflicts,” said Bailey. “We provide the same level of expertise and sophistication demanded of Big Law, but in a much nimbler fashion.”

The firm said former clients immediately took notice, bringing their work to Bailey Brauer. Since then, many more companies and individuals have engaged the six-attorney firm on new high-stakes litigation matters.

The legal community too has taken notice, with the firm receiving professional accolades that frequently take other firms more than twice as long to achieve. These individual and firm honors include recognition from Benchmark Litigation, Chambers USA, BTI Consulting Group, The Best Lawyers in America, the National Law Journal, Texas Super Lawyers and D Magazine.

“Honors are a tricky thing,” said Brauer. “Winning them is not something you spend a lot of time trying to accomplish. But when you earn recognition from your peers, that validates that your focus is in the right place. You don’t earn respect without achieving a certain amount of success on behalf of your clients.”

The 2019 Texas Trailblazers listing recognizes the efforts of 50 innovative attorneys throughout the state who have made significant contributions to the practice, policy and technological advancements of the legal profession.

Tadashi Okamoto has joined Reed Smith as a partner in the Global Corporate Group in the New York office. Formerly with Morrison & Foerster LLP, Okamoto has worked with clients on debt and equity securities offerings and other capital markets transactions, including representation of both issuers and underwriters.

A native of Japan, Okamoto is fluent in Japanese and has experience in both New York and Tokyo markets. He focuses his practice on securities and financings, assisting issuers, sponsors, agents, dealers and underwriters with various domestic and international transactions, including IPOs, equity, investment-grade and high-yield debt, convertible debt, securitized products, derivative and balance sheet restructuring transactions. In addition, Okamoto represents emerging companies and venture capital funds as well as investors on various matters such as fundraising and investment activities and helps clients with restructuring needs. He also assists clients in the FinTech sector with development of asset trading platforms and token offerings.

Prior to Morrison Foerster, Okamoto was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP from 2010 to 2017, including a secondment to the firm’s Tokyo office. He earned a law degree from the University of Tokyo and his LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor.

Justice Neil Gorsuch

The Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Tuesday and a bit uncertain over whether to make it illegal under federal law for companies and public agencies to fire employees solely because they are gay, lesbian or transgender, with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch likely the deciding vote, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Trump-appointee Gorsuch described the case as “really close…. Assume for the moment I’m with you on the textual evidence,” he told an ACLU lawyer representing a transgender woman who was fired from her job at a funeral home in Detroit.

“The four liberal justices, joined at times by Gorsuch, said they agreed that firing gay or transgender employees was discrimination based on sex as the law defined it,” writes the Times‘ David G. Savage. “But others, including most of the conservatives, said that Congress in 1964 did not mean to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Read the  LA Times article.

An attorney and former police officer was found guilty Friday in a Virginia federal court of defrauding his former employer, an autism education organization and the campaign of a Virginia Democratic political leader, reports The Washington Post.

“David Miller, 70, conspired with his wife to embezzle more than $1.5 million by creating fake law firms that siphoned funds from then-Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), SkyLink Aviation, and the Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities,” according to the Post‘s Rachel Weiner. “Linda Wallis Miller, who had served as Saslaw’s campaign treasurer, pleaded guilty to the three fraud schemes in 2015 and was sentenced to 56 months in prison. David Miller faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the 10 counts of conviction when he is sentenced Jan. 24.”

Read the Post report.

Each of the thousands affected by the Las Vegas mass shooting ultimately will receive a share of a legal settlement announced last week, but experts caution that the shares will not be equal, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report.

The experts said the differences for the families of the 58 who died in the shooting will depend on factors such as the victim’s level of income, how long that person was expected to live and how many children that person had, explains the Review-Journal‘s Rachel Crosby.

For the more than 800 injured in the attack, the calculation will be even more complicated. And an undetermined number of the 22,000 in attendance at the event suffered mental trauma.

Read the Review-Journal article.

Dykema announced the appointment of Michael Carey and Mark Malven to lead the firm’s Mobility and Advanced Transportation Team. Both members of Dykema’s Automotive Industry Group, each attorney has several years of automotive practice in different disciplines; Carey as a litigator and Malven as a transactional attorney.

Carey is a trial lawyer with experience in complex commercial litigation and products liability defense. He counsels mobility industry clients on proactive risk mitigation strategies relating to Automated Driving Systems (ADS) and other advanced automotive safety technologies. In addition, Carey has taken numerous automotive industry cases to successful verdict in state and federal courts across the country. He has also defended and prosecuted appeals before the Minnesota Appellate Courts and in the Eighth and Ninth Circuits.

Carey earned a J.D., cum laude, from the William Mitchell College of Law and a B.A. from St. John’s University. He is frequently called upon to publish and present on legal issues and advances in mobility.

Malven, who also leads Dykema’s Technology and Outsourcing Transaction practice, has more than 25 years of experience representing both customers and technology vendors in technology transactions. He has handled more than 2,000 technology transactions involving a wide array of matters, including outsourcing, licensing, cloud services, development, consulting, distribution, sponsored university research, manufacturing, value-added reseller, acquisition, and joint venture relationships.

The firm said Malven uses his technology transactions and automotive industry experience to serve leading providers of autonomous vehicle and advanced mobility technologies in some of their most mission-critical transactions. Malven’s experience also includes serving as a primary negotiator for some of the largest outsourcing transactions of their kind ever undertaken, which have involved billions of dollars in services.

Also a licensed patent attorney, Malven earned a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. Before attending law school, he was a crash safety engineer at Chrysler Motors. He is the lead author of the best-selling treatise Technology Transactions: A Practical Guide to Drafting and Negotiating Commercial Agreements published by Practising Law Institute.

Former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chief Trial Counsel Charles “Chuck” Loughlin has joined Hogan Lovells’ Washington D.C. office as a partner in its Antitrust, Competition, and Economic Regulation (ACER) group within the Global Regulatory Practice.

Loughlin served as chief trial counsel at the Federal Trade Commission since August 2016, and previously served as deputy chief trial counsel. In a release, the firm said Loughlin has worked on significant recent matters: He led the Impax Labs trial, co-led the Staples/Office Depot trial, and supervised both the Tronox/Cristal trial and the 1-800 Contacts trial.

Before entering public service, Loughlin was a partner in the antitrust groups at law firms Baker Botts and Howrey where he focused on private antitrust litigation, particularly defending against class action cases. Additionally, he served as lead antitrust counsel for the country’s largest options exchange in a number of alleged price-fixing and market allocation cases.

Loughlin graduated, summa cum laude, from the University of New Hampshire and received his J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.