The ABA Journal reports that two former mobile home owners have filed a malpractice suit against Jones Day that claims that the law firm’s work on their eviction case was a “fiasco.”

Two California residents allege that Jones Day pressured them to accept a “burdensome settlement” without asserting legitimate defenses and then dropped them as clients a few weeks after the deal was signed, writes the Journal‘s Debra Cassens Weiss. The two say they couldn’t navigate the deal themselves, and they became “permanently homeless” after being evicted.

Read the ABA Journal article.

The expiration of an oil and gas lease’s primary term does not necessarily release all non-producing lands, writes J. Mark Robinette.

“This can be so even when the lease contains a Pugh Clause. Typically, most leases contain savings provisions that extend the lease beyond the primary term when the lessee ‘continuously prosecutes’ drilling operations,” he explains.

In a post on his website, he provides a sample of this saving provision from the Producer’s 88 lease form.

Read the article.

If a contract is too one-sided, it can be ruled illusory and unenforceable, warns Shepard Davidson in the Burns Levinson In-House Advisor blog.

That is exactly what happened to the defendant in McNamara v. S.I. Logistics, Inc. when it tried to enforce its contractual right to arbitration he writes.

In that case, the defendant sought to compel arbitration based on an agreement that  purported to grant the company the unilateral right to modify its terms without any prior notice to McNamara, a former affiliate.

The court found in favor of McNamara, finding that the agreement was illusory.

Read the article.

A post by Material Handling & Logistics offers 12 tips for a company to reduce legal risk while building a foundation for a long-term relationship with a new transportation provider.

Authors Martin Robins and Lauren Pittelli explain that “the contract is the beginning of your relationship with a transportation provider. A collaborative contracting process with shared goals and understandings, clear expectations and mutual obligations will reduce your company’s legal risk while building a foundation for a long-term relationship.”

The tips cover such topics as due diligence, enforcement practicalities, insurance, performance requirements, and more.

Read the article.

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to resolve a key issue in international arbitration agreements: whether the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards permits a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement to compel arbitration against a signatory to arbitration based on the doctrine of equitable estoppel.

A post on the Harris Bricken China Law Blog points out that the question has split the circuit courts, meaning that now the answer to the question depends on where in the United States the dispute is being litigated.

Read the article.

The American Bar Association has issued a finding stating that Justin Walker, President Trump’s nominee for the federal bench in Kentucky, is unqualified because of his lack of experience, reports the Louisville Courier Journal.

The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary says Walker “does not presently have the requisite trial or litigation experience or its equivalent.”

Walker, 37, is a conservative intellectual who clerked for Brett Kavanaugh when he sat on the U.S. District Court of Appeals, according to the Courier Journal‘s Andrew Wolfson. He has practiced at Dinsmore Shohl in Louisville since January and is co-director of University of Louisville’s new Ordered Liberty Program.

Read the  Courier Journal article.

Image by Mitch Barrie

Gun manufacturer Remington Arms asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn a ruling from Connecticut’s high court allowing the company to be sued by one survivor and the families of nine victims killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, reports Courthouse News Service.

The North Carolina-based company argued in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the 2005 federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act shields firearm makers from liability in every circumstance when their products are used in acts of violence, reports Courthouse News’ Christine Stuart.

The Connecticut Supreme Court in May refused to strike arguments regarding the marketing of the XM15-E2S weapon, a type of AR-15 semiautomatic gun that killed 20 first graders and six educators in 264 seconds.

Read the Courthouse News article.

New Orleans attorney Gregory Joseph St. Angelo, former general counsel at a failed First NBC Bank who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a bank fraud charge, was indefinitely suspended following a Louisiana Supreme Court order, reports Louisiana Record.

St. Angelo had pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud after the former general counsel reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“By the time First NBC Bank failed in late April 2017, the balances on loans issued to St. Angelo and certain entities totaled approximately $46.7 million, and First NBC Bank had also paid St. Angelo approximately $9.6 million for purported tax credit investments,” a criminal bill of information said.

Read the Louisiana Record article.

The key to becoming one of those lawyers who seemingly turn up in every media report involving a legal issue is knowing how to deliver what the media wants, which is making complicated legal issues understandable for the masses, advises Bruce Vincent of Muse Communications.

“Not unlike presenting a case to a jury, the goal of any legal commentator is to prove to the audience that they know what they’re talking about,” he explains.

In a post on the Muse website, Vincent discusses some examples of how an attorney can build successful media relationships and promote their role as an expert source to best benefit their practice. Getting in front of reporters and demonstrating an ability to effectively break down complex legal issues are the first steps on the road to being one of the lawyers that media always seem to call on.

Read the article.

Center for Board Excellence and Corporate Board Member have published “Guide to Board Assessments,” a practical and digestible guide to getting the most out of the board assessment process.

The guide can be downloaded at no charge.

“An annual board assessment is a mainspring process for maximizing board effectiveness,” CBE says. “Corporate governance is not one-size-fits-all, and a board’s assessment process should be appropriately tailored to meet each board’s objectives. Performing an annual board assessment is fundamental to strong governance.”

Some of the benefits of conducting an effective board assessment are:

• Promote stronger board and management alignment
• Enhance focus on key strategic areas
• Clarify board composition needs
• Identify board culture strengths and improvements

Download the guide.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Sean D. Jordan of Jackson Walker as a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas. On January 16, 2019, President Donald Trump nominated Sean to succeed Senior District Judge Richard Schell, filling the final vacancy on the court.

Jordan joined Jackson Walker in 2000 and was elected to partnership in 2002, prior to serving as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General of Texas. In that role, he represented the state, its agencies and officials in numerous appeals and led a team of appellate lawyers in supervising the federal and state court appeals handled by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. He also coordinated the amicus curiae practice of the State of Texas in the U.S. Supreme Court, and federal circuit and state appellate courts.

He later rejoined the firm in 2015 with Kent Sullivan, who had previously served as a justice on Texas’ Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston, as a state district judge, and as First Assistant Attorney General under Greg Abbott. Together, Jordan and Sullivan co-chaired Jackson Walker’s Appellate practice group before Sullivan was named the state’s Commissioner of Insurance in 2017.

“Sean Jordan is an excellent appellate lawyer with an outstanding record,” said C. Wade Cooper, Jackson Walker managing partner. “His prior experiences as Texas’ deputy solicitor general, and as a trial lawyer, have prepared him to be an exceedingly effective federal judge. Sean will serve with great distinction.”

In a release, the firm said Jordan  has handled complex civil litigation and appellate cases in both government service and private practice. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and has written numerous Supreme Court briefs, twice winning the “Best Brief Award” from the National Association of Attorneys General for outstanding brief-writing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jordan is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. From 2016 to 2018, he was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters). In 2015, he was recognized by The Legal 500 United States in the area of Commercial Litigation.

He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at Austin and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law. Prior to attending UT Austin, he served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman and paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.

Trial lawyer Clayton Bailey, co-founder of Dallas litigation boutique Bailey Brauer, is a primary contributor to the first edition of the American Bar Association’s recently released Agriculture and Food Handbook.

The handbook provides a comprehensive review of the regulatory, antitrust and consumer protection issues affecting the food and agriculture industries.

The firm said Bailey contributed to sections exploring issues specifically affecting the beef and poultry industries. He also explained the administration and enforcement of the USDA’s Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, which ensures fair competition and fair trade practices in the livestock and poultry industries.

Bailey’s legal practice involves trying and appealing cases in state and federal courts across the country. He also represents clients before federal and state agencies, including the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bailey Brauer represents some of the world’s largest agriculture companies, including some that are engaged in the biggest litigation disputes in the industry.

The Agriculture and Food Handbook is available for purchase from the American Bar Association.

Scott D. Samlin has joined Blank Rome LLP as a partner in the Consumer Financial Services group in the New York office.

In a release, the firm said Samlin represents financial institutions, corporations, and other entities, providing regulatory counsel related to mortgage banking and consumer financial services matters. He joins Blank Rome from Pepper Hamilton LLP, where he was a partner in the firm’s financial services practice group and leader of the consumer financial services and bank regulatory practice.

The firm said Samlin’s regulatory compliance advice extends to state and federal laws affecting mortgage lending and servicing activities, including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Ac, Truth in Lending Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Samlin works with the American Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services, Banking Law, and Corporate Counsel committees; the Mortgage Bankers Association’s State Legislative and Regulatory, and Servicer Best Practices committees; the Conference on Consumer Finance Law’s Governing Committee; and the Structured Finance Association’s TPR/RA Compliance Review Scope (TRID Grid) Task Force, among others.

He received his J.D. from New York Law School and his B.A. in Political Science and Government from Rutgers University – New Brunswick.

Lawyers with Houston-based Heard Law Firm achieved a settlement for an offshore pipeline technician who was blown into the air, suffering back injuries and burns in an explosion on an oil and gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Donald Champion, who lives near Lake Charles, Louisiana, was working on the Garden Banks Gas Pipeline owned by Enbridge Offshore LLC more than 100 miles south of New Orleans. In November 2017, an explosion caused by equipment failure knocked him through the air into a stack of pipe, injuring his back and leaving him with serious burns to his face, arms and hands.

In addition to the treatment for his burns, Champion underwent back surgery and may require more operations in the future.

See details and a video.

Michael Mulvania has joined Richards Carrington as of counsel in the firm’s Denver office.

Mulvania focuses on complex commercial and general business litigation at the trial level. He represents clients in diverse industries and areas of practice, including commercial, oil and gas, trade secrets, class actions, securities, antitrust, products liability, and environmental litigation.

Prior to joining Richards Carrington, LLC, he practiced in Denver at litigation boutique Wheeler, Trigg, O’Donnell LLP, and in Washington, D.C. at litigation boutique Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel P.L.L.C.

See more details.

Bloomberg Law reports the California Supreme Court opened an investigation into how law school deans were tipped to subject areas in this week’s bar exam.

“Topics were released in an email last week to deans of 16 law schools invited to observe the California Bar Examination grading process. The bar said it ‘had no evidence’ that leaked information had been shared with students,” explains Bloomberg’s Joyce E. Cutler.

The email listed subject areas of civil procedure, remedies/constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, professional responsibility, and contracts.

The California Bar decided to release the list instead of canceling the exam or changing the topics for the two-day test starting July 30.

Read the Bloomberg article.

The 2016 death of Blaise Gamba, an associate in the Tampa office of Carlton Fields, has been declared an accident, despite her family’s suspicions that her husband may have been responsible.

The  Tampa Bay Times reports on the case, which involved a $1 million life insurance policy and her husband’s alleged infidelity.

Blaise and William Gamba were visiting fishing spots near Tampa in their 22-foot boat when something went horribly awry, writes the Times‘ Kathryn Varn.

William Gamba claimed he was scuba diving when he looked up and saw his wife in distress above him. He hoisted her into the boat and sought help. She was pronounced dead at a hospital the next day.

“Suspicion first turned toward William Gamba five days later, when detectives spoke to two of his wife’s close friends,” Varn writes.

Read the Times  article.

Actions by two Massachusetts lab technicians over several years led to courts retroactively dismissing nearly 38,000 drug convictions dating back a decade. Now, the prosecutors who handled the case are facing their own legal troubles, reports The Washington Post.

The Massachusetts state bar has filed disciplinary charges against three of the assistant attorneys general who withheld evidence from defendants, and a federal judge has ruled that one of the prosecutors is not entitled to immunity and can be sued by one-time defendant Renaldo Penate for violating his civil rights, writes the Post‘s Tom Jackman.

Records indicate one of the technicians was suspected of stealing and using illegal drugs that had been submitted to her for testing.

Read the  Post article.

The first Texas trial addressing the role of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and physicians in creating and fueling the state’s opioid crisis has been scheduled for Dallas County next year.

Judge Robert Schaffer, who will preside over Texas’ opioid multidistrict litigation (MDL), announced the initial county cases will include Dallas, Angelina, Freestone and Kendall counties. The first, Dallas County, will be heard in the fall of 2020. Dallas County is represented in its opioid-related case by the law firms of Simon Greenstone Panatier, P.C., The Lanier Firm and The Cochran Firm.

“The public nuisance these drug companies have created is of epidemic proportions, destroying countless lives and families, and costing Dallas County taxpayers far too much. There must be a reckoning, and through this case, there soon will be,” said Jeffrey Simon of Simon Greenstone Panatier, P.C.

The Dallas County MDL seeks to hold several prescription opioid manufacturers, wholesale distributors and certain doctors responsible for their role in the opioid painkiller epidemic.

“Recently uncovered records reveal that more than 461 million prescription pain pills were supplied to Dallas County residents from 2006 to 2012. That’s enough for every man, woman and child in Dallas County to consume 28 narcotic pills a year,” said Simon.

A release from the firm states:

Once tightly regulated, the pharmaceutical industry made a dedicated push to encourage doctors to expand the prescription of the powerful painkillers beginning in the late 1990s, promoting claims that opioids were a safe, non-addictive means to treat even moderate chronic pain on a long-term basis. The resulting epidemic caused significant increases in addiction and overdose deaths, skyrocketing health care costs and demands on community services, such as courts, child services, treatment centers, emergency response and public safety.

“Records also show that as the opioid epidemic grew worse, defendants supplied more of them,” said Simon. “They profited by flooding Dallas County with narcotic pills that were manufactured from the same base molecule – morphine – as heroin, but these pills were often sold in doses more powerful than heroin.”

In the age of information overload, in-house counsel and C-suite executives are resolute in valuing utility above other content attributes. That these busy decision-makers prioritize actionable information and insights is understandable – but how the two groups define utility is quite different, according to the 2019 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey.

The survey, by strategic communications firm Greentarget and consulting firm Zeughauser Group, compares the two groups’ information consumption preferences. This yielded important takeaways in an era when C-suite executives can be as engaged in hiring a law firm as in-house legal officers, who can wield heavy influence in hiring consulting, accounting and other professional services firms.

At a high level, the two groups are in lockstep – but there are significant differences. They prefer different types of content, have varying thoughts on why content misses the mark and diverge about how they can be effectively targeted on social or other digital media. The survey – in its ninth edition since its initial release in 2010 – is the first to offer such an in-depth, side-by-side comparison.

“Over the past decade, we’ve unearthed important insights about the content preferences of decision-makers, and the 2019 study offers our most compelling findings to date that professional services marketers can’t afford to ignore,” said John Corey, founding partner of Greentarget. “This year, by comparing the likes and dislikes of in-house counsel and C-suite executives, we’re providing greater context for marketers along with actionable guidance on the ever-elusive pursuit of bringing the right content to the right audiences on the right platforms at the right time.”

Comparing In-House Counsel and C-Suite Executives

• Traditional Media Still Highly Trusted – and Accessed: Both in-house counsel and C-suite executives highly value traditional media, even in the age of so-called “fake news.” C-suite executives placed the highest value on traditional media at 82 percent (up from 74 percent in the 2018 survey). Additionally, 79 percent of in-house counsel said traditional media is most valuable, about the same as the 80 percent who responded that way last year. The findings speak to this audience’s continued desire for curation and the role professional editors play in determining what stories and topics are most important.

• In-House Counsel Like Articles, but the C-Suite Prefers Interactive Charts:

In a revealing comparison about both the personalities and job responsibilities of the two groups surveyed, in-house counsel said their preferred content type was articles and C-suite executives picked interactive charts. Relatedly, in-house counsel picked educational as their most valued content attribute while C-suite executives chose relevance and ease of access. This makes sense as lawyers tend to take in longer-form information, and interactive charts enable C-level executives to quickly absorb complex information.

• What Makes Content Miss: The two groups also differed on why content can miss the mark. Fifty-one percent of in-house counsel said content misses most often because it’s “too salesy” while the same percentage of C-suite executives chose “not sufficiently relevant.

• LinkedIn Lessons: Fifty-three percent of in-house counsel said they find value in LinkedIn as a platform, but just 29 percent agree that it is effectively used by outside law firms. C-suite executives were more satisfied with LinkedIn’s content targeting, with 63 percent saying it is effective.

• Do Law Firms Overemphasize Rankings? CMOs say peer-driven rankings or listing services command more resources than any category of firm content aside from trade publications and traditional media. But just 9 percent of in-house counsel find the rankings “very important” when researching firms for potential hire. Forty-one percent say the rankings are “somewhat important,” which may suggest that such rankings are limited to a validation effect, an important consideration for CMOs allocating resources.

A Continued Lack of Documented Content Strategy

This year’s survey, which queried 100 in-house counsel and 100 C-suite executives, was also the first since 2017 to query law firm chief marketing officers (30 in total) about, among other things, their approaches to content strategy and marketing resource allocation, among other topics. While firms need strategic roadmaps to guide their content development and distribution efforts more than ever, just 25 percent of the law firm marketing officers said they had documented content strategies. That’s slightly down from two years ago.

“Law firms, just like all professional service organizations, understand how content can help build their brands and differentiate their organizations – but many are creating more content without documented strategies,” said Mary K. Young, a partner with Zeughauser Group. “Their reliance on implicit strategy is likely a response to the complexities of prioritizing certain practices or sectors within firms. Though it may be difficult for marketers to publicly prioritize certain practices, we encourage them to emphasize the types of content and distribution preferences that best meet the needs of audiences most critical to the firm’s success.”