“AT&T Inc.’s top lawyer David McAtee made nearly double the compensation in 2020 he did the previous year, due to an equity award infusion,” reports Ruiqi Chen in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“McAtee made over $18.6 million in 2020 as the Dallas-based telecom giant’s general counsel and senior executive vice president, compared to $9.4 million in 2019, according to a Thursday SEC filing.”

“The increase comes from a ‘career retention grant’ in the form of an additional $9 million in stock awards over what he received in 2019, on top of his base salary of $1.3 million. The grant does not vest until 2030.”

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“Two property titans’ real estate development firms, MV Ventures and Turnberry Associates, have picked up a pair of law firm partners to be their top lawyers,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Eagan, Minn.-based MV Ventures, owned by the family of shopping mall billionaire and Minnesota Vikings owner Zygmunt “Zygi” Wilf, hired Matthew Slaven to be its general counsel as of Feb. 15. Slaven was a real estate, environmental, and construction law partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Minneapolis.”

“Turnberry Associates, an Aventura, Fla.-based real estate developer controlled by the family of billionaire Donald Soffer, brought on Julian Chung to serve as its general counsel. Chung was a Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson real estate finance partner in New York.”

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“Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has set aside $3.9 billion for talc-related litigation, according to a regulatory filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington D.C.” reports Tim Povtak in Asbestos.com’s Legislation & Litigation.

“The company said it’s now facing more than 25,000 lawsuits related to various talc products that have allegedly caused cancers, primarily from asbestos fiber contamination.”

“The $3.9 billion is almost double the amount that Johnson & Johnson reported being set aside for litigation expenses in its 2020 fiscal year-end results.”

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“The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) became a law on January 1, 2021, and it has significant implications for many new and existing United States and foreign business entities,” report Matthew J. Ertman and Max Brunner in The National Law Review.

“The law will impose completely new, time-consuming and expensive compliance requirements on normal small business enterprises, even though it is expressly targeted to combat “money laundering, the financing of terrorism, proliferation financing, serious tax fraud, human and drug trafficking, counterfeiting, piracy, securities fraud, financial fraud, and acts of foreign corruption …” There are significant penalties, including fines and imprisonment, for willful failures to report according to the CTA. This article provides an executive summary of what you need to know to be ready for the CTA.”

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“Amazon will pay $61.7 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission that it failed to pay Flex delivery drivers the full amount of tips received from customers,” reports Annie Palmer in CNBC’s Tech.

“The commission voted 4-0 in favor of the settlement, which was announced Tuesday. In the complaint, the FTC alleges that Amazon in 2016 shifted from paying drivers the promised rate of $18 to $25 per hour, plus tips, to paying drivers a lower hourly rate.”

“Amazon ‘intentionally failed’ to notify drivers of this change and used the tips to make up the difference between the promised rate and the new lower hourly rate, according to the FTC.”

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“Even for a company as big as Anthem Inc., the nation’s largest marketer of Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, paying a half-billion-dollar settlement might seem like a painful way to resolve litigation,” reports Greg Andrews and Indianapolis Business Journal Staff in The Indiana Lawyer.

“But some investment analysts and health care observers say changes to Blue Cross Blue Shield rules that are stipulated in the settlement are so favorable to Indianapolis-based Anthem’s growth prospects that they view the deal as a huge win for the company.”

“The settlement, struck last fall and awaiting final approval in an Alabama federal court, resolves lawsuits filed in 2012 by insurance customers alleging the Chicago-based Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the nation’s 36 Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers violated antitrust laws through practices that limited competition and caused higher prices. The total settlement is $2.7 billion, with Anthem shouldering $594 million.”

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“Tyson Foods Inc said on Wednesday it would pay $221.5 million to settle a price-fixing litigation with three groups of plaintiffs accusing it of illegally conspiring to inflate prices in the $65 billion chicken industry,” report Jonathan Stempel and Nivedita Balu in Reuters’ Healthcare.

“The amount will be reflected in its first-quarter statements, the company said in a regulatory filing.”

“Tyson has also faced price-fixing claims by large restaurant and supermarket operators such as Chick-fil-A, Kroger Co and Walmart Inc.”

“Court approvals are required.”

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“Internet service provider (ISP) Cox Communications’ attempt to reduce a $1 billion award of damages for copyright infringement has failed, in a win for music companies including Sony, Universal, and Warner,” reports in World IP Preview’s News.

“The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, upheld the award of damages in a decision dated Tuesday, January 12.”

“In 2018, members of the music industry including Sony, Universal, and Warner accused American ISP Cox of contributory copyright infringement and vicarious copyright infringement. The plaintiffs claimed that a total of 10,017 copyrights were infringed on peer-to-peer networks.”

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“A federal judge denied Apple Inc’s bid to set aside or reduce a $502.8 million patent infringement verdict favoring VirnetX Holding Corp, and awarded interest and royalties that could boost Apple’s total payout in two lawsuits above $1.1 billion,” reports Jonathan Stempel in Reuters’ U.S. Legal News.

“In a decision issued on Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder in Tyler, Texas rejected Apple’s request for a new trial and several other claims.”

“These included that VirnetX’s award should not exceed $113.7 million, and that jurors should have been told the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had deemed VirnetX’s claims ‘unpatentable.’”

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“Tyson Foods separately struck an agreement to settle with the group of chicken buyers to settle price-fixing claims, but did not disclose the amount … Tyson reportedly did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, which is still subject to court approval, reports Lillianna Byington in Food Dive.

“Pilgrim’s Pride agreed to pay $75 million to chicken buyers to settle price-fixing claims, according to an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount will be reflected in Pilgrim’s upcoming Q4 earnings.”

“This settlement comes just months after Pilgrim’s agreed to pay a $110.5 million fine as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division in the price-fixing investigation.”

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“A Texas-based insurance company fired one of its senior lawyers, the company said Thursday, after the attorney was identified as one of the hundreds of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol a day earlier,” reports Caroline Spiezio in Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw Today.

“Goosehead Insurance said in a Thursday morning tweet that associate general counsel Paul MacNeal Davis is “no longer employed” at the company.”

“He joined the Dallas-area company in mid-2020. His profile on the State Bar of Texas website lists a number for law firm Clark Hill. Court records show he also previously worked at Andrews Kurth, since merged to become Hunton Andrews Kurth. Representatives for those firms did not immediately respond to request for comment.”

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“The mass exodus of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top staff over accusations of bribery against their former boss has left the Republican seeking $43 million in public funds to replace some of them with outside lawyers to lead a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Google,” reports Jake Bleiberg from the Associated Press in ABC News’ U.S. News.

“Former Paxton aides told The Associated Press that before they reported him to the FBI in September and began resigning, the lawsuit against the search engine giant was set to be handled internally by what is one of the largest state attorney general’s offices in the U.S.”

“The outside lawyers’ contracts put a price tag on the fallout from Paxton’s deputies accusing him of crimes in the service of a wealthy donor who employs a woman with whom the attorney general allegedly had an extramarital affair. It remains to be seen how much taxpayers will ultimately shell out under the complex deals.”

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“Google faced its third major lawsuit in two months on Thursday as 38 U.S. states and territories accused the $1 trillion company of abusing its market power to try to make its search engine as dominant inside cars, TVs and speakers as it is in phones,” report Diane Bartz and Paresh Dave in Reuters’ U.S. Legal News.

“The lawsuit against the company’s parent Alphabet Inc follows years of complaints that it and other big tech firms including Facebook and Amazon use their massive market power to smite competitors in pursuit of profits.”

“The states asked the court to find Google guilty of breaking antitrust law and to order an end to any agreements or other behavior that it finds to be exclusionary. It raised the possibility of requiring asset sales but did not go into detail.”

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“The Texas attorney general’s office has named The Lanier Law Firm and the law firm Keller Lenkner to the litigation team that would face off against Alphabet’s Google in an expected antitrust lawsuit, the office said on Tuesday,” reports Diane Bartz in Reuters’ Technology News.

“Texas, backed by other states, has long been expected to follow the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google but unrelated allegations against Attorney General Ken Paxton of bribery and abuse of office led to the departure of several lawyers who were key to the Google investigation.”

“With the new hires, the Texas lawsuit could come as early as this month, according to a source familiar with the office’s planning.”

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“2021 will see a sharp rise in climate change litigation against companies and their executives around the world as cases begin to impact more individuals across a broader range of sectors,” writes Emma Ager in Clyde & Co’s Insights.

“Underpinning the rising concern around climate change are a range of cases – in the US more filings by cities and states seeking remediation from companies considered to be contributing to climate change impacts such as rising sea levels or increasing flood risks. In the UK, European, Canadian and Australian courts, by contrast, we are seeing more human rights cases typically brought by young people seeking to hold businesses and governments to account for failing to protect and preserve the environment for their and future generations.”

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“Facebook’s purchases of photo service Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp have helped fuel the social media giant’s massive growth. They’ve also prompted concerns from federal and state authorities about Facebook’s dominance in social networking,” reports Queenie Wong in CNET Daily News.

“The uneasiness with Facebook’s power bubbled over on Wednesday as the Federal Trade Commission and 48 attorneys general filed separate lawsuits in federal court accusing Facebook of illegally stifling its competition by snapping up its rivals.”

“The lawsuits are the latest sign that lawmakers and regulators are ratcheting up their scrutiny of the power that tech giants wield. In addition to Wednesday’s actions, the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division has been talking to developers about their interactions with Oculus, the virtual reality headset maker Facebook owns, Bloomberg reported last week. In October, the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit against Google for allegedly holding monopolies in both search and search advertising.”

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“Salesforce.com Inc. is preparing to close what would be its biggest deal ever—and it plans to do so with a new finance chief,” report Nina Trentmann and Mark Maurer in The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal.

“San Francisco-based Salesforce, which built a reputation around its customer relationship management software, Tuesday said President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Hawkins intends to retire from his role, effective Jan. 31.”

“The company on Tuesday also confirmed it would buy collaboration platform provider Slack Technologies Inc. in a $27.7 billion transaction.”

“Amy Weaver, president and chief legal officer at Salesforce.com Inc., will become chief financial officer of the company on Feb. 1.”

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“Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors’ U.S. units on Friday agreed to a record $210 million civil penalty after U.S. auto safety regulators said they failed to recall 1.6 million vehicles for engine issues in a timely fashion,” reports David Shepardson in Reuters’ Autos.

“Hyundai agreed to a total civil penalty of $140 million, including an upfront payment of $54 million, an obligation to spend $40 million on safety performance measures, and an additional $46 million deferred penalty if it does not meet requirements.”

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Revlon released that enough bondholders had taken part in its debt restructuring program for the cosmetics maker to stave off bankruptcy.

The company warned that it may be forced to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if a certain amount of its bonds worth $342.8 million were still outstanding by mid-November, as it would trigger the accelerated repayment of other debts.

Holders of about $236 million, or 68.8%, of the company’s outstanding bonds that mature in February had been tendered into an exchange offer by the end of Tuesday.

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“Purdue Pharma’s massive settlement over claims that it helped spark the opioid crisis is facing pushback in federal court, creating a potential stumbling block for the landmark deal,” reports Bloomberg in the Los Angeles Times’ Business.

“Purdue has agreed to plead guilty to three felonies and pay $8.3 billion to settle federal investigations of how it marketed the painkiller OxyContin. But the deal violates bankruptcy rules because it locks in details of Purdue’s future and forces the hand of other creditors, according to court papers filed by a group of U.S. states and bankruptcy professors.”

“States and cities suing Purdue have been in talks with the bankrupt pharmaceutical giant for months over how to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits. The settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled last month dictates that Purdue will be repurposed as a public trust after it emerges from bankruptcy, which creditors haven’t agreed to.”

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