John Beckworth has joined Jackson Walker as of counsel in the firm’s Austin office. He is a lecturer and former associate dean at The University of Texas School of Law.

“To welcome an attorney of John’s exceptional reputation is a significant accomplishment,” managing partner C. Wade Cooper said. “He is a prominent voice in energy law and arbitration, having been in private practice for 30 years before joining The University of Texas School of Law. We are fortunate to have him on our team here at Jackson Walker.”

“Jackson Walker is a great fit,” Beckworth said. “I’m proud to join a firm with such a long track record of leadership in energy law and many areas, and one with a strong presence in Austin and throughout Texas.”

Beckworth began his career in 1983 in the Litigation Section of Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston where he was a partner in the law firm before leaving in 1994 to start his own practice. During his time in private practice in Houston, Beckworth handled and tried civil cases and appeals in Texas and across the country, and he continues to serve as an energy and business lawyer and arbitrator, according to a release from the firm.

In 2013, Beckworth left his active law practice in Houston to join The University of Texas School of Law in Austin as Associate Dean for Administration and Strategic Planning and as a lecturer. “John has a tremendous following throughout the Texas legal and business communities – especially in Houston, where he lived and practiced for three decades before moving to Austin,” said Houston partner Alfred M. Meyerson. “Our clients will certainly benefit from his extensive experience and vast network of professional contacts.”

In addition to his roles as Associate Dean and lecturer in the Law School, Beckworth has served The University of Texas as a former trustee of the University of Texas Law School Foundation and as president and chairman of the board of the Texas Exes. In 2018 he was elected to become a trustee of the LBJ Foundation.

Beckworth is a longstanding appointed member of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee. In 2017, he became a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Board Leadership Fellow.

Miller & Chevalier Chartered announced that Loren C. Ponds will join the firm as a member in the Tax Department, effective Oct. 29, 2018. Previously, Ponds served as tax counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, where she was instrumental in the development of the international tax provisions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA).

“Miller & Chevalier is known for tax excellence,” Ponds said. “I was drawn to the firm’s outstanding reputation and talented practitioners, who are able to provide specialized tax guidance across varied issues, an important factor given my interdisciplinary practice.”

Prior to her role with the Committee on Ways and Means, Ponds worked in Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department, with a focus on transfer pricing. She advised multinational companies on international tax planning projects, including intellectual property planning, supply chain optimization, and restructuring projects. In addition, Ponds regularly counseled companies on a wide variety of controversy matters, including advance pricing agreements, mutual agreement procedure cases, and Internal Revenue Service audit defense projects. She also spent two years working directly with the leader of Ernst & Young’s global transfer pricing practice in Germany.

At Miller & Chevalier, Ponds will focus her practice on the implementation of the TCJA and other tax policy matters. She will also work with clients on transfer pricing and broader international tax issues.

“Loren’s first-hand experience at the Committee on Ways and Means, especially the critical role she played in drafting the international tax provisions of the TCJA, makes her one of the most well-equipped lawyers to advise clients navigating the new legislation,” said George A. Hani, Chair of Miller & Chevalier’s Tax Department. “Her counsel is grounded in deep knowledge of the underlying policies and her perspective from inside the process. She offers unique, detailed insight that few in the field can provide.”

“From executing complicated supply-chain restructurings, to guiding companies through transfer pricing dispute resolution, to drafting international tax legislation, Loren has gained vital experience and will be a tremendous resource to our clients. Her legislative experience, combined with her technical expertise, makes her uniquely situated to assist our clients as they seek to implement the TCJA, as well as pursue related technical corrections and administrative guidance,” said Marc J. Gerson, Chair of Miller & Chevalier’s Executive Committee. “We are thrilled to welcome her to the firm.”

Ponds earned an LL.M. in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center, a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law, and an A.B. from Davidson College.

Lowenstein Sandler LLP has launched a Global Trade & Policy practice that advises clients on the growing array of U.S. government regulations of global investments and trade, including foreign investment restrictions, trade sanctions, import tariffs, and evolving export controls. Doreen M. Edelman, most recently the co-leader of the Global Business Team at law firm Baker Donelson, will chair the group. Based out of Lowenstein’s Washington, D.C. office, Global Trade & Policy joins the Antitrust & Regulatory and Insurance Recovery teams as the third practice group in the firm’s D.C. office.

In a release, the firm said the Global Trade & Policy group will provide U.S.-based clients, foreign clients, and foreign-owned U.S. companies with compliance and policy development services. Areas of emphasis will include import tariffs and classifications, OFAC regulations and sanctions, CFIUS review protocols, and export controls. The team will assist clients in managing and reducing risk, especially regarding Chinese tariffs, by drafting exclusion requests and providing strategic guidance on these matters. Lowenstein clients in key economic sectors will benefit from the team’s counsel regarding foreign investment risks, evolving regulatory burdens, and technology-related issues pertaining to export issues.

“Whether it’s new CFIUS requirements for foreign investments in U.S. businesses, secondary sanctions issues, or evolving export controls on technology, nearly every transaction we are seeing requires a command of the global trade landscape,” said Gary M. Wingens, Lowenstein Sandler’s Chairman and Managing Partner. “Doreen and her team provide our firm with world-class experience to help guide our clients through this increasingly complex area.”

The firm said Edelman advises clients on the risks associated with export controls, customs matters administered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. economic sanctions in cross-border M&A and investment transactions and on requirements pertaining to technology, software, defense articles and services, and commercial goods. She has deep knowledge of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the new requirements under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA). Edelman counsels companies on Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and Directorate of Defense Controls (DDTC) export control regulations. She also counsels on the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requirements, including compliance with U.S. sanctions frameworks, OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals list, and the ever-evolving sanctioned-countries programs involving nations such as Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Russia/Crimea, Syria, and Sudan.

Edelman has represented high-profile international clients such as the Sultanate of Oman, where she secured passage of the U.S.-Oman FTA, and she also served as general counsel to the American-Turkish Council.

“Our new practice group will dovetail with Lowenstein Sandler’s existing transactional work in private equity, M&A, trade, and import-export compliance,” Edelman said. “Companies around the world are facing new challenges when it comes to emerging technologies, global investments, international trade, and complex regulatory challenges. Helping our clients navigate this space to minimize risks and improve diligence with respect to trade regulatory compliance is imperative to avoiding serious problems down the road. Our team is situated perfectly to provide important guidance while bolstering Lowenstein Sandler’s global footprint.”

The team members joining Edelman at Lowenstein Sandler include:
• Abbey E. Baker, who joins as counsel, advises clients on a broad array of trade compliance issues, including import and export controls, economic sanctions, anti-bribery and anti-boycott compliance, CFIUS and FIRRMA reviews and filings, CBP procedures and regulations, USCIS Form I-129 Part 6 certifications, and immigration-related sanctions issues.
• Andrew Bisbas, who joins as an associate, focuses his practice on import and export controls, anti-dumping, economic sanctions, anti-boycott and anti-bribery compliance, CFIUS foreign investment issues, business-related USCIS immigration issues, and CBP procedures and regulations. He assists clients with import/export classifications and securing licenses from the BIS, the DDTC, and OFAC.
• Megan C. Bodie, trade analyst, researches a broad array of trade topics, including customs classifications, statutory and regulatory updates, international trade statistics and trends, and government enforcement actions.

Gary Klein and Alex Edelman of recruiting firm Klein Landau LLC introduced Edelman to Lowenstein Sandler.

Ryan J. Letson has joined the Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP’s Huntsville office as an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group.

“We welcome Ryan to Bradley in our Huntsville office,” said Bradley Huntsville Office Managing Partner Frank M. Caprio. “Ryan is a great addition to our experienced team of attorneys with diverse backgrounds who excel at protecting and enforcing the IP rights of our clients.”

In a release, the firm said Letson focuses his practice on intellectual property and technology matters. He handles patent and trademark prosecution before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and represents clients in proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In addition, he assists clients in disputes involving patents and other intellectual property in federal and state courts. His technical experience covers a wide range of areas including computer hardware and software, electronics, data communication networks, autonomous vehicles, electromechanical devices, payment processing and e-commerce systems, biometric sensors, and structural systems. Mr. Letson’s experience also includes litigating matters involving contract, business tort, government contract and real estate issues.

Prior to joining Bradley, Letson was an attorney with Maynard Cooper & Gale in Huntsville. He also previously worked as a systems engineer with The Boeing Company.

Letson received his J.D. from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and his Bachelor of Science from the University of Alabama.

Writing in ContractsProf Blog, Myanna Dellinger discusses a case that “nicely demonstrates how the consideration doctrine is still relevant and, as always, the importance of getting contracts in writing even though they do not have to be.”

The plaintiff had agreed to do some work for the defendant for $10 an hour, with the understanding that he would receive a $150,000 bonus after nine months. Somewhere along the way, the employer gave him a raise to $11, and then, after a total of 18 months of labor, fired him and refused to pay the bonus.

Dellinger explains that the court apparently found that because the plaintiff actually received one single dollar more per hour over nine months, there was no consideration for the original promise of working for a “reduced salary.”

Read the article.

David Drummond, the  chief legal officer of Google parent Alphabet Inc. and a one-time Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati partner, was cited in a New York Times report about the allegedly lax approach that Google has taken to relationships between supervisors and their subordinates.

Bloomberg Law focused  on the part of the report that detailed an alleged extramarital affair involving Drummond and a subordinate, an in-house senior contract manager at Google. The affair resulted in the woman giving birth to Drummond’s child, the Times reported.

“The report, which cited [Jennifer] Blakely and other Google employees, said she and Drummond had a son in 2007,” Bloomberg reports. “Thereafter, it said, Drummond disclosed the relationship to the company—and Blakely was asked to leave because relationships between managers and subordinates were ‘discouraged.’”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

A former partner at Balch & Bingham has been sentenced to five years in prison for a scheme to bribe an Alabama state legislator to oppose expansion of a site designated for an environmental cleanup, reports the ABA Journal.

Gilbert was part of Balch & Bingham’s environmental and natural resources practice, according to reporter Debra Cassens Weiss. Prosecutors had alleged he and a co-defendant, coal company executive David Roberson, funneled $360,000 to the state lawmaker through a consulting contract with his private foundation.

The lawmaker, former Alabama State Rep. Oliver Robinson, was previously sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud and tax evasion, the Journal reports.

Read the ABA Journal article.

Above the Law reports that the Biglaw firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath has settled a racial discrimination case filed against them earlier this year. In that case, Syneetra Hill, an African-American legal assistant in their Princeton office, alleged pay discrimination and that she was subjected to a hostile work environment and retaliation.

Editor Kathryn Rubino writes that Hill’s lawsuit alleges several problematic examples of the work environment, including a former supervising attorney who kept a collection of Confederate memorabilia throughout the office, and an of counsel who referred to Hill as “our slave” in front of a client.

Read the Above the Law article.

Texas Lawyer has singled out Heim, Payne & Chorush partner Miranda Jones as its “Top Woman in IP” for the publication’s 2018 Professional Excellence honors.

The statewide recognition is based on Jones’ intellectual property law experience and numerous successes and professional accomplishments, which include trial counsel leadership roles in multimillion-dollar patent infringement litigation and significant appellate work at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jones is a partner in the firm’s national patent litigation practice group, representing patent holders as trial and appellate counsel in infringement litigation involving new technology in cutting-edge areas.

Read more about the honor.

L-R: Jenny Brevorka, Lara Hollingsworth and Megan Moore

Texas trial lawyer Rusty Hardin has named Jennifer Brevorka, Lara Hollingsworth, and Megan Moore new partners at Rusty Hardin & Associates, LLP, the civil and criminal litigation firm he founded 22 years ago.

“These talented lawyers have repeatedly demonstrated their courtroom savvy and business sense in negotiating and winning the best results for our clients,” said Hardin. “I’m thrilled to honor their achievements and promote them to a higher level of responsibility at our firm.”

Brevorka handles both civil and criminal matters, and she has successfully tried complex lawsuits in courtrooms across the country. She has represented elected officials and CEOs, whistleblowers, and small businesses.

Hollingsworth, who has been of counsel with Rusty Hardin & Associates for 15 years, has shifted to full time and focuses primarily on appellate work. She has extensive experience as lead appellate counsel in commercial trials.

Moore is a commercial litigator who has represented a diverse group of corporate and individual clients in business and employment disputes. She was a key member of a federal trial team litigating a matter with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

Read details about the new partners.

A post on the website of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius takes a look at some of the issues involving the latest contracting trends for services agreements.

“At the outset of the contracting process, it is important for the deal team and the key stakeholders to evaluate and properly define the types of data that the service provider will access or process as part of the services,” advise the authors, Edward J. Hansen and Christopher C. Archer.

The assessment should consider the scope and types of data, and define company data and personal data.

Read  the article.

Lawyers generally associate artificial intelligence with predictive coding software that is used for analyzing data during the discovery phase, but there also isAI software specifically designed for contract analytics, according to a post on the Epiq website.

“AI contract software is ideal for organizations regularly involved in contract analysis and negotiations. For example, both corporate and estate lawyers would likely benefit from this technology because they are frequently exposed to a large number of contracts,” the post states.

The author writes that AI can speed up review and negotiations, strengthen contract capabilities, promote consistency, and give lawyers a competitive edge.

Read the article.

An Ohio company faces a record fine of more than $63 million after allegedly bilking a government aid program out of millions of dollars, some of which went toward funding the lavish lifestyle of the firm’s chief executive, federal regulators said Tuesday.

The Washington Post reports that the the Federal Communications Commission is taking action against American Broadband, a provider of low-income phone service whose agents allegedly created fake or duplicate customer accounts to claim extra federal funding under a program that offers disadvantaged Americans a small monthly discount on phone and Internet service.

Post reporter Brian Fung explains:

American Broadband’s chief executive, Jeffrey Ansted, was also held personally liable for the alleged misconduct Tuesday as the FCC accused him of embezzling aid money and using it to pay for luxury goods such as an $8 million private Cessna jet, a $1.3 million Florida condominium and a $250,000 Ferrari convertible. He also used the funds to buy memberships to yacht and country clubs, the FCC said.

Read the Washington Post article.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas businessman Christopher Faulkner, better known by his now infamous moniker “Frack Master,” has admitted to securities fraud, tax evasion and money laundering and faces up to 12 years in prison, federal officials said Tuesday.

Reporter Jess Mosier writes that Faulkner, the former CEO of Dallas-based Breitling Energy, became a star in business circles for his high-profile media appearances defending hydraulic fracturing or fracking. He used fake college degrees and skimpy business experience to convince Dallas business elite and Texas political elite that he was an oil and gas expert.

“The SEC effectively shut down Breitling Energy and related businesses after suing Faulkner and 11 others in 2016 for misusing $23.8 million of the $80 million they raised for oil and gas investments,” according to Mosier. “Besides the prison time, Faulkner must pay back the nearly $24 million made from his schemes, under the terms of his settlement.”

Read the Dallas News article.

Over the past 15 years, Key Risk Insurance Co. has made multiple trips to courts and before the North Carolina Industrial Commission to argue that Mario Seguro-Suarez has been faking his symptoms from an on-the-job injury and that his benefits should be cut off.

The Charlotte Observer reports documents show that the company disregarded years of medical opinions — including several from its own doctors — that Seguro-Suarez was indeed left disabled from his fall at a Southern Fiber factory. The 2003 head-first fall from 18 feet onto a concrete floor left him disabled.

After years of failing to cut off payments to Seguro-Suarez, the insurance company’s private detective “took what a detective would describe as misleading information to Lincolnton police to accuse Seguro-Suarez of insurance fraud. He was arrested, jailed and later indicted,” reporter Michael Gordon writes.

That attempt drew a withering rebuke from a judge, and now Seguro-Suarez is suing for malicious prosecution.

Read the Charlotte Observer article.

Cathy Altman, a partner in the Dallas office of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP, has been appointed to the Trinity River Authority Board of Directors by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Altman, who chairs Carrington Coleman’s construction group, is one of five new directors appointed to the 25-member board that oversees the development and conservation of surface water resources of the Trinity River, according to a release from the firm. Three additional members were reappointed to new six-year terms.

“The Trinity is one of this state’s most vital resources,” said Altman. The river flows 710 miles from North Texas to Galveston Bay, making it the largest river basin with a watershed entirely within the borders of Texas.

“It is a privilege to be among this select group of individuals entrusted with the responsibility of not only being good stewards of the environmental resources of the river, but also guiding development across the Trinity basin.”

The board is composed of directors representing each of the counties in the Trinity River Basin and three at-large directors. Altman, a resident of Midlothian, replaces longtime board member Harold Barnard, who represented Ellis County for 17 years. The appointment was applauded by State Sen. Brian Birdwell, who called Altman an “exceptional choice. Ellis County and the state of Texas will be well served by her.”

Altman is a member of the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Construction Law and serves on the Construction Industry specialty panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) National Roster of Arbitrators and Mediators. She is chair of the Midlothian Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is a board member of the North Texas Commission, a public-private partnership.

The U.S. International Trade Commission has unanimously affirmed that PMP Fermentation Products, Inc. was materially injured by unfairly traded sodium gluconate, gluconic acid, and derivative imports from China.

Barnes & Thornburg represented PMP before the commission.

Inn a release, the firm said the final USITC decision of Oct. 16 followed the U.S. Department of Commerce’s imposition of two sets of tariffs, antidumping and countervailing duties totaling over 408 percent on Chinese sodium gluconate products after it was determined they were subsidized and sold in the U.S. market at less than fair value. These tariffs were imposed to protect PMP from unfair Chinese trade and were in response to a petition prosecuted by Barnes & Thornburg.

“We’re delighted the USITC found that PMP was injured by reason of chronically low-priced Chinese imports underselling U.S. products,” said David Spooner of Barnes & Thornburg. “We expect this decision will help level the playing field for the U.S. manufacturer, PMP.”

The Barnes & Thornburg team representing PMP consisted of Spooner, Christine Sohar Henter and Nicholas Galbraith in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, and Mari Yamamoto Regnier in Chicago.

Olivier Dorgans has joined Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP as counsel in its Paris office to develop its French and European practice within the Sanctions, Export Controls & Anti-Money Laundering practice group and reinforce its leading Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations team.

“In terms of economic sanctions and export controls, Hughes Hubbard & Reed has a leading team in the United States, and the addition of Olivier Dorgans as its French counterpart will enable us to provide these services from Paris and respond to the concerns of our French and European clients.” Bryan J. Sillaman

“Hughes Hubbard & Reed has understood the importance of dealing with issues relating to economic sanctions and export controls encountered by French stakeholders from its Paris office via cross-functional teams. The strength of this relationship is being able to offer a single point of entry to French companies to offer them tailor-made approaches and solutions in a complex and constantly changing regulatory environment.” Olivier Dorgans

The firm said Dorgans has assisted several major French and foreign groups (financial institutions and industrial groups) with internal investigations for alleged violations of economic sanction regulations, export controls, anti-corruption matters and combatting money laundering and terrorist financing.

Dorgans is joining Hughes Hubbard alongside Paul Charlot, with whom he has worked for several years, and Camille Mayet, following recent lateral Ryan Fayhee, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office who was the former U.S. Department of Justice National Export Control Coordinator.

Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns

A former employee of Huawei Technologies Co. accuses the company of using a lawsuit against his Silicon Valley startup as part of a strategy to steal intellectual property and help China achieve technological dominance over the U.S. according to a report in The Dallas Morning News.

“Huawei and its FutureWei unit sued Huang and his startup CNEX Labs Inc. last December, accusing Huang of making off with sensitive trade secrets related to technology that uses integrated circuits as memory to store data,” the article reports. “Huang was hired as an engineer by FutureWei in Santa Clara, California, in January 2011 and left two years later to form CNEX, where he’s chief technology officer.”

But Huang responded that he was the victim of the Chinese company trying to take control of his inventions for Solid State Disk Non-Volatile Memory. Huang’s defense raised the corporate espionage allegations filed by other American companies and a congressional report that said use of Huawei equipment “could undermine core U.S. national-security interests.”

Read the Dallas News article.

A New York appeals court has suspended a Suffolk County lawyer for three months for “inexcusable” criticism about courts hearing two of his cases, reports the ABA Journal.

The court rejected a referee’s recommendation for a public censure and suspended lawyer Gino Giorgini for three months.

An example of his comments to a judge include:

“THIS IS LA LA LAND ON STEROIDS. … I CAN NOT COMPREHEND THE #%%#$^% THAT IS THIS DECISION. … This is so bizzaro land that it is hard to type. What is even more pathetic is the case I cited (citation omitted) has been ignored.”

Read the ABA Journal article.