Proposals to allow the use of trade names in law firm advertising drew a big response to proposals by the State Bar of Texas to change ad rules, writes Bruce Vincent in a blog post for Muse Communications.

Response to the ad proposal and other possible revisions led the State Bar of Texas’ Committee on Rules and Referenda to scrap the original proposal and issue a new one based on the committee’s work and public comments.

“Several attorneys supported the idea of using trade names but most people who weighed in say it is a bad idea,” Vincent writes. “Those in favor typically argued that they were put at a competitive disadvantage by not being allowed to use trade names. Those on the other side often went to great lengths to explain why they think trade names will hurt the profession.”

The Bar also drew responses on the “specialist” label in advertising and on the requirement to have lawyer websites preapproved by the Bar — for a fee.

Read the article.

Duane Morris will present a webinar titled “Understanding the New California Consumer Privacy Act: Why The CCPA Applies to You and Practical Steps You Can Take Now to Comply.”

The event will be Thursday, May 23, 2019, beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific time.

The firm said the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018 is the strictest privacy law in the United States and has national impact for anyone doing business in California. The new law takes effect January 1, 2020, and gives consumers greater control over their personal information, including the right to:

•Be informed which categories of their data will be collected by a business before it is collected;
•Opt out of the sale of their personal information;
•Delete their data from a business’ database;
•Be informed of any changes to categories of their data a business collects;
•Know the categories of the third parties with whom their data is being shared;
•Know the categories of sources of information from whom their data is acquired;
•Know the business purpose for collecting their data;
•Be aware of all their data a business has collected (annually and free of charge at the consumer’s request).

Enforcement of the CCPA will be through consumer lawsuits for data breaches, along with enforcement action by the California attorney general, who can impose fines of up to $2,500 per violation or $7,500 per intentional violation of the CCPA.

Led by an interdisciplinary team of Duane Morris attorneys, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 Webinar Series offers a discussion and analysis of the CCPA, along with strategies to prepare a business for compliance with this complex rule.

The first session will discuss:

•Understanding the CCPA
•How this law affects your business
•What steps can a business take to ensure compliance?

Register for the webinar.

Judge Amit P. Mehta

A federal judge expressed astonishment Tuesday at arguments raised by President Trump’s lawyers seeking to block his accounting firm from turning over years of financial records to the House Oversight and Reform Committee and seemed to signal a swift ruling in favor of lawmakers, reports The Washington Post.

“U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta fired pointed questions at the president’s lawyers, who argued in an April 22 lawsuit that the committee’s sweeping subpoena to Mazars USA for the financial records of Trump and various associated entities since 2011 was not ‘a valid exercise of legislative power,’” writes the Post‘s Spencer S. Hsu.

A lawyer representing Trump accused Democrats of “assuming the powers of the Department of Justice” on a partisan crusade.

Read the Post article.

Financial Advisor reports that a Nevada man has settled charges with the SEC that he took inside information while a guest at the home of a longtime friend — Cintas Corp.’s general counsel — and used it to generate $250,000 in illegal profits.

The SEC’s complaint in the U.S. Southern District of Florida alleges that Brian Fettner, 51, of Henderson, Nev., “surreptiously viewed documents contemplating an acquisition of G&K Services Inc. by Cintas [Corp.]” while changing his golf shoes in the den of a longtime friend who was also the general counsel of Cintas.

Raymond Fazzi of Financial Advisor writes:

Without telling his friend, whom he attended middle school and high school with as a child, Fettner then started purchasing G&K Services stock that very same day on his mobile phone, as he played golf with his friend, the SEC said. He continued buying G&K stocks in the brokerage accounts of his ex-wife and a former girlfriend, and persuaded his father and another girlfriend to purchase G&K shares, the SEC said

Read the Financial Advisor article.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed weaker standards for cleaning up dangerous groundwater contamination sites across the country where chemicals containing fluorine-based PFAS compounds threaten drinking supplies of millions of Americans, according to a post by Androvett Legal Media & Marketing. The proposal would lower existing requirements for addressing groundwater contamination at military bases where large amounts of contamination have been documented.

“We’ve seen companies like 3M and DuPont fail to take responsibility for the health risks caused by the chemicals they created. Federal regulators should be increasing – not decreasing – oversight at this time,” said water contamination attorney Bryan Fears of Dallas-based Fears Nachawati, who represents individuals and local governments in water contamination litigation against makers of the chemicals. “This problem is not going away and cleaning up these sites must be a priority.”

Called “forever chemicals” because they never fully degrade, PFAS compounds have been found in drinking water used by 110 million people across the nation and in the blood of 98 percent of Americans. The compounds, which are found in hundreds of consumer and industrial products, have been linked to immune system problems and cancer. The EPA proposal would extend the timetable for cleanup at more than 400 military bases where the use of fire-retardant foam containing the chemicals has been blamed for serious groundwater contamination problems.

The EPA proposal is under a 45-day review and comment period. “Now is the time for Americans to speak up about this problem and ensure that contamination is addressed sooner rather than later,” said Fears. “This is a fight for safe drinking water for our communities, families and future generations to come.”

NAVEX Global will present a complimentary webinar, “Decoding Regulations: An Insider’s Guide,” on Wednesday, May 15, 2019, at 10 a.m. Pacific/ 1 p.m. Eastern time.

Speakers will be Hui Chen, former DOJ compliance counsel expert, and Carrie Penman, Chief Compliance Officer of NAVEX Global. Chen wrote the DOJ’s “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance” guidelines and can provide an insider’s view of what to include in a program and how to define effectiveness.

“Law enforcement guidelines for evaluating your compliance program are subjective, not prescriptive,” NAVEX says on its website. “Even the Department of Justice (DOJ) expresses that their guidance is not a ‘checklist nor a formula’ for compliance.”

Register for the webinar.

The Florida Bar hit Fort Lauderdale lawyer Ashley Krapacs with an emergency suspension for alleged behavior including “terrorist legal tactics” and “cyberstalking restraining order” in online posts about two peers.

The Miami Herald reports that the case started with Krapacs filing for a restraining order against a man whom she claimed was violently abusive during their relationship. The Bar presented an example from Krapacs’ LinkedIn account that referred to one of the lawyers on the other side:

“Old White Male Attorney #2 steps up to the plate to harass a domestic violence victim with yet another baseless legal treat. Classy.”

She also accused the court of being biased, according to the Herald‘s David J. Neal.

Read the Miami Herald article.

A small Labor Department agency with sizable oversight is looking closely at Big Law firms like Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Fox Rothschild, and Paul Hastings, as part of its mission to address compensation and promotion practices in the legal industry, reports Bloomberg Law.

“The DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs recently cautioned law firms that do work with the federal government that it will be closely analyzing how their employment practices affect diversity,” reports Bloomberg’s Paige Smith. “At least 10 firms will be audited by the OFCCP in 2019, and the agency’s director Craig Leen said investigators may target the legal industry in particular in future probes.”

Some big law firms are facing a wave of litigation over alleged discrimination against women and people of color.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission have come to a settlement agreement over the Tesla CEO’s errant behavior on social media: All of Musk’s communication via social media, the company’s website, press releases, and investor calls must be preapproved by an “experienced securities lawyer.”

Musk got into trouble with the SEC earlier this year when he tweeted a projection about Tesla vehicle production that the agency considered to be misleading.

Business Insider reports that Musk must “implement mandatory procedures and controls” providing oversight of all of his communications regarding the company “made in any format.”

Read the Business Insider article.

CNBC is reporting that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation in a matter relating to Ford Motor’s emissions certification process.

“The matter stems from issues related to road load estimations, including analytical modeling and physical track testing,” writes CNBC’s Amelia Lucas. “Road load is a vehicle-specific resistance level that helps determine fuel economy ratings and emissions certifications. It does not involve the use of defeat devices to cheat on emissions tests.”

The company said it voluntarily disclosed disclosed the issue to the Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 18 and has hired outside experts to investigate its vehicle fuel economy and testing procedures after employees raised concerns.

Read the CNBC article.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that federal prosecutors have requested records to determine if there was a financial relationship between a former Atlanta city attorney and the private law firm that guided the city’s response to numerous federal grand jury subpoenas.

The firm, Paul Hastings LLP, has earned millions over the past decade handling some of the city’s most sensitive matters for both former Mayor Kasim Reed and his successor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, according to the AJC’s Stephen Deere.

The review focuses on whether there were payments from the firm to Cathy Hampton, the city’s former top lawyer.

Read the Journal-Constitution article.

A prosecutor in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, finds himself embroiled in a legal scorched earth conflict against his county commissioners — a fight that started when he used $21,000 in asset forfeiture funds to lease a car.

Above the Law traces the conflict between the commissioners and Lancaster District Attorney Craig Stedman.

Along the way, Stedman doubled down after commissioners said they would have leased him a vehicle through proper channels if he’d asked for one, but that using the forfeited funds to get a car on his own violated protocol, writes Above the Law senior editor Joe Patrice.

Stedman sued the commissioners, and they responded by blocking the use of county funds for the lawsuit. Stedman turned over documents, but the records didn’t include receipts documenting what specific seized items were sold and what items were bought with the proceeds.

Read the Above the Law article.

The U.S. Department of Justice has reported that a Tennessee man was charged for allegedly creating a fake website for a six-lawyer New York City law firm, so he could dupe people into paying him for legal services.

John Lambert, 23, was charged with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. Lambert allegedly held himself out as a lawyer using a website that cut and pasted lawyer biographies from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, according to a report by the ABA Journal.

The criminal complaint says that Lambert and a co-conspirator, non-lawyers who allegedly created a fake law firm, collected more than $50,000 in payments through a PayPal account.

Read the ABA Journal article.

Attorney Joel Brodsky, best known for representing convicted wife killer Drew Peterson, has been suspended from practicing in federal court in Chicago for one year stemming from his scorched-earth tactics in a mundane lawsuit, reports the Chicago Tribune.

A panel of federal judges found that Brodsky violated the rules of professional conduct in the civil case involving a used vehicle.

“Brodsky’s bizarre antics in the case — all but accusing a witness of inventing a son and saying his rival attorney was running a ‘criminal enterprise’ — had already garnered him a stiff $50,000 fine and an order to undergo anger management training,” writes Jason Meisner.

Read the article.

The outcome of a three-day class action trial accusing the nutritional supplement marketer ViSalus of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act hinged on the testimony of the named plaintiff, reports Reuters.

Jurors heard Lori Wakefield testify about four automated calls from ViSalus on her home phone line, according to Reuters’ Alison Frankel.

Jurors believed Wakefield and found that the calls violated the TCPA, and that the class Wakefield represents had received a grand total of 1.85 million improper robocalls. Their verdict exposes ViSalus to statutory damages of about $925 million, which could be trebled.

Read the Reuters article.