U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx

Bloomberg Law examines a lawsuit involving U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who is the target of an attempt to recover salary Foxx collected during his three-and-a-half year tenure as deputy general counsel at a now-defunct company.

“From 2009 to 2013, Foxx worked as a deputy general counsel at the bankrupt Charlotte bus maker DesignLine. During that time, he also served as mayor of Charlotte on a part-time basis, writes Gabe Friedman. “Now, the liquidating trustee in bankruptcy court is seeking to recover his pay — as a fraudulent transfer — during a three-and-a-half year stretch.”

The salary in question works out to $309,760, or $88,502.86 per year.

“The parties in the case have agreed to participate in a voluntary, non-binding mediation in Charlotte that will occur on or before Sept. 30, according to an order filed in federal bankruptcy court this month,” according to The Charlotte Observer.

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CNN is reporting that Kentucky’s attorney general is suing health-care giant Johnson & Johnson for millions of dollars, saying the company “concealed and misrepresented” the risk of its transvaginal mesh products to doctors and patients.

In the lawsuit, AG Andy Beshear alleged Johnson & Johnson’s medical device company, Ethicon, didn’t provide enough information about possible adverse effects to more than 15,000 women in Kentucky who had the transvaginal mesh implanted.

The company called the suit justified.

“The lawsuit says women have reported chronic pelvic pain, pain associated with intercourse and/or the loss sexual function, and other health problems,” according to the report by Steve Almasy.

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A federal appeals panel in Chicago has tossed out a settlement intended to end a shareholder class action brought over the Walgreens Boots Alliance merger, saying the lawsuit and related settlement did nothing more than contribute a quick $370,000 payment to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, reports the Cook County Record.

“The type of class action illustrated by this case — the class action that yields fees for class counsel and nothing for the class — is no better than a racket,” wrote Judge Richard Posner in the unanimous decision. “It must end. No class action settlement that yields zero benefits for the class should be approved, and a class action that seeks only worthless benefits for the class should be dismissed out of hand.”

The firms representing the plaintiffs were Pomerantz LLP, of Chicago and New York; DiTomasso Lubin P.C., of Oakbrook Terrace; Friedman Oster PLLC, of New York; Law Office of Alfred G. Yates Jr. P.C., of Pittsburgh; and Levi & Korsinsky LLP, of New York, reports Jonathan Bilyk.

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Bloomberg Law takes a look at prospects for the U.S. Supreme Court if Hillary Clinton is elected president, considering that she may have have the opportunity to offer one or more nominations to seats on the court.

“A left-leaning court with at least one appointment from potential President Hillary Clinton would mean a big shift in areas of the law such as voting rights and gun control, but panelists making predictions at the American Bar Association annual meeting doubted the new court would overturn major precedents,” reports Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson.

She writes that professors on the panel believe the new court is unlikely to outright overrule some of the court’s more controversial precedents. But while the new court is unlikely to overrule precedent on cases involving voters’ rights, handgun regulation, and campaign finance, there still is plenty of room for a new majority to make substantive changes.

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Corporations seeking to avoid enforcement of foreign judgments they contend are based on corrupt proceedings may have a new weapon now, thanks to a ruling by a federal appeals court over Chevron’s long-running Ecuadorian pollution litigation, reports BloombergBusinessWeek.

The court affirmed that a lawyer for victims engaged in wrongdoing to secure a $9.5 billion verdict in the South American country.

“The decision hands well-heeled corporations a template for avoiding legal accountability anywhere in the world,” says Deepak Gupta, the lawyer representing Steven Donziger, the controversial New York attorney who has been battling Chevron over pollution liability in Ecuador for decades.

Paul Barrett explains that “the case began with pollution in oil fields operated by Texaco Inc. in the rain forests of Ecuador in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993, Donziger and other U.S. lawyers sued Texaco in New York on behalf of villagers and indigenous tribe members. Chevron acquired Texaco and its potential liabilities in 2001. The pollution case was dismissed by U.S. courts and restarted in Ecuador in 2003.”

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A Denver judge has fined one of the city’s prolific foreclosure attorneys $1.8 million for billing thousands of consumers facing the loss of their homes for title-insurance policies that did not exist, reports The Denver Post.

David Migoya writes that the Colorado Attorney General’s office argued in a seven-day trial in February had alleged in a February trial that Robert Hopp Jr., while working at his now-defunct law firm, billed customers fighting foreclosure for policies that were never issued. And Hopp inflated the cost of the few that were, the AG’s office claimed.

“The 37-page judgement handed down last week by Denver District Judge Shelley Gilman is the latest in a number of cases the state filed in 2013 against lawyers that specialized in foreclosures and allegedly padded their bills for costs that were ultimately borne by consumers losing their homes, the banks foreclosing on them and taxpayers whose federal insurance agencies covered the costs,” according to the report.

“Homeowners facing foreclosure had no choice but to pay the costs in order to stop the foreclosure process, and there was no process in place to challenge any of the fees lawyers said they were owed,” Migoya writes.

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Wearable electronic monitoring devices have been long used to help monitor an individual’s health and fitness, writes Karen Turner for The Washington Post. “But now wearable use is becoming increasingly common in the workplace to record, analyze and enhance worker productivity, raising concerns among lawyers and labor specialists who feel that it’s a step toward stripping employees of workplace rights.”

She quoted from a recent study by customer management software company Salesforce showing that 86 percent of U.S. companies plan to invest more in wearable applications on the job this year. And 40 percent are considering using wearables to monitor employee time management and real-time employee communication.

But some labor lawyers are concerned about unintended legal consequences. For instance, some employees might not be meeting productivity standards due to a medical condition or disability. And employers could be sued simply because they have access to physical data about their employees.

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Reuters is reporting that a federal appeals court rejected a one-time Florida billionaire’s bid to revive his $800 million lawsuit accusing Citigroup Inc. of fraudulently hiding its exposure to subprime and other toxic mortgages, inducing him to hold on to shares he otherwise would have sold.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Citigroup and former officials, including two chief executives Charles Prince and Vikram Pandit, were not liable to trusts and corporate entities overseen by Arthur Williams and his wife, according to the report by Jonathan Stempel.

“Williams, the founder of what became Primerica Financial Services, has said he had planned in May 2007 to sell his 17.6 million Citigroup share stake, but decided to sell just 1 million because the bank assured investors it was in good shape,” the report says. but the assurance proved faulty, as the share price declined, with Williams saying he lost “the financial benefit” of his life’s work.

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A federal judge has reprimanded Texarkana attorney and University of Arkansas System Trustee John Goodson, his law partner and three other lawyers for ethics violations and abuse of the court system, according to a report on Arkansas Online.

Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III’s also included Goodson’s Texarkana partner Matt Keil, Jason Roselius of Oklahoma City, and Richard Norman and Martin Weber Jr. of Houston.

The judge had earlier accused Goodson and 16 other lawyers of forum-shopping a class-action lawsuit all were involved in, reports Lisa Hammersly.

The judge wrote in his order that the lawyers “engaged in improper mid-litigation forum shopping in a manner calculated to evade federal review and prevent the court from carrying out its obligation” to class members.

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A California appellate court closely parsed the language in an arbitration clause and reversed an order compelling arbitration of a dispute between a lawyer and his client-turned-business-partner, reports Karen Rubin in Thompson Hine’s blog, The Law for Lawyers Today.

She writes that the lawyer must now defend against a $1.5 million claim based on malpractice and breach of the operating agreement that he had drafted in connection with his real estate venture with the former client.

“Of course, it is no news that a case can turn on contract interpretation,” Rubin writes. “But this one emphasizes the small drafting choices that can send a case to a full-blown jury trial or keep it in arbitration.  That’s of special concern to lawyers and their clients at the front end of a relationship — pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate are increasingly included in retainer agreements.”

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An article written by Deborah H. Share for Porzio, Bromberg & Newman‘s Employment Law Monthly reports that employers cannot contract with employees to reduce limitations periods for discrimination claims, according to a recent New Jersey Supreme Court decision.

According to the facts of the suit as presented to the court, a job applicant signed an application form that included language that appeared to waive any statute of limitation in the filing of a lawsuit against the employer. The language limited the applicant to a deadline of six months from the date of any alleged employment action that was the subject of a suit.

Share’s article detailed the court’s reasoning and listed and discussed three recommendations for employers to consider: remove such waivers from applications, shore up all processes related to employee terminations, and consider other useful tools for employers in this area.

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A 20-year-old woman is being sued by a Houston law firm after she wrote negative reviews of the firm on Facebook and Yelp, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

Lan Cai, who had been injured in a serious auto accident, says the lawyers in the Law Offices of Tuan A. Khuu and Associates failed to work with her after she hired them, so she vented her frustration online which spurred the law firm to sue her.

According to the Chronicle, she posted on Facebook, “…they came to my house and into my room to talk to me when I was sleeping in my underwear. Seriously, it’s super unprofessional! After that I found someone else to switch to… I came in the office to meet with my previous attorney, but he literally ran off… So please DON’T waste your time…”

Keith Nguyen, an attorney with Tuan A. Khuu, said what Cai posted online isn’t true but wouldn’t explain what was false about it, reports Will Axford.

The firm is seeking $100,000 to $200,000 in damages, according to reports.

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The Dallas-based law firm Standly Hamilton, LLP, announces that personal injury attorney Stephen Blackburn has joined the firm.

Blackburn is a trial lawyer who focuses his practice on cases involving serious personal injuries, wrongful death and dangerous water contamination. He previously worked with the Baron & Budd law firm in Dallas.

Blackburn also has experience representing people and communities in environmental contamination claims, in addition to working on cases involving dangerous medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs and exposure to toxic chemicals and other dangerous products.

“I am very excited about continuing my work at Standly Hamilton by helping people who often are facing life-altering injuries that were caused by a corporation or someone else’s negligence,” says Blackburn. “Chris Hamilton and I have worked together over the years, and we both are looking forward to protecting our clients’ rights and growing the firm.”

A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Blackburn earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida. He is admitted to practice law in both Texas and California, including the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and the Northern and Central Districts of California.

Blackburn is a member of the American Bar Association, American Association for Justice and the Public Justice Foundation.

Microsoft is facing two lawsuits seeking class-action status related to the company’s campaign to get people to use Windows 10, reports The Seattle Times.

A suit in U.S. District Court in Florida alleges Microsoft’s Windows 10 update prompts violated laws governing unsolicited electronic advertisements, as well as Federal Trade Commission prohibitions on deceptive and unfair practices. And a suit filed earlier in Israel, also seeking class-action status, alleges Windows 10 installed on Windows users’ computers without their consent, in violation of Israeli law.

“The lawsuits follow complaints from Windows users and longtime Microsoft watchers for what some said were pushy or deceptive prompts to update to Windows 10,” writes The Times‘ Matt Day.

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A Fort Worth attorney who helped represent residents of Johnson, Tarrant and Dallas counties in a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy and Total E&P USA is suing his co-counsel for a third of the legal fees from the nearly $53 million settlement, reports The Dallas Morning News.

Jim Ward of Wardlaw Services accuses Dan McDonald and his Fort Worth firm of breaching a 2014 agreement on how settlement proceeds would be handled and ignoring his contribution to the winning case.

“Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake and Total, an American subsidiary of a French firm, agreed in May to settle claims that they underpaid royalties to 13,000 plaintiffs in the Barnett Shale,” reports Austin Huguelet.

Huguelet explains: “In his lawsuit, Ward claims that while McDonald received ‘the recognition and spotlight’ as lead counsel in the case, the Wardlaw team spent two years assembling the research that served as a ‘blueprint for victory.'”

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A.M. Best and Best’s Directories of Insurance Professionals will host a webinar to explore the legal and insurance issues surrounding lead injuries.

The one-hour complimentary event will begin at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, August 3.

Lead was once used in a variety of construction materials, especially paint. Lead poisoning can be disastrous, if not deadly, the company says on its website. A panel of legal and insurance professionals will discuss the sources of lead injury claims, developing liability issues and the industry impact of lead-based claims.

Panelists include:

• Phil Pizzuto, partner; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.;
• Eileen Buholtz, attorney/firm member; Connors, Corcoran & Buholtz, PLLC;
• Brian Hinton, attorney; Anderson Crawley & Burke, pllc; and
• Ken Gillespie, litigation specialist; Builders Mutual Insurance Company.

Best’s Directories’ Managing Editor John Czuba will moderate the discussion.

Register for the webinar.

Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business, in partnership with Catalyst, will present a complimentary live event, “Taking Control of Corporate Discovery: What It Means for Outside Counsel,” Thursday, July 21, in New York. The event will be 3-7 p.m. EDT, at Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Ave., New York, NY.

This free event will explore the changing nature of the in-house and outside counsel relationship, given ever-tightening corporate budgets and new approaches to discovery.

Sessions will address:

• Best practices on managing costs in complex cases by leveraging technology
• An overview of the latest analytical tools to aid in discovery
• How the recently amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will affect eDiscovery

Register for the event.

A New York magistrate judge has found that a plaintiff’s request for individual defendants to search for and produce certain documents from their personal computers and email accounts was not “unduly intrusive or burdensome” because the request was limited in time frame and the parties had agreed to search terms, and granted the plaintiff’s motion to compel, according to a report by Doug Austin on eDiscoverydaily.

The magistrate judge noted that “to the extent such documents exist on the Individual Defendants’ personal computers, they may contain information going to bias or motivation which may show why a personal computer was used for such communications, including information which may support Plaintiff’s claims of deliberate indifference against the Individual Defendants.”

The case involved a transgender prison inmate who sued the defendants claiming they acted “with deliberate indifference” to serious medical needs by denying hormone therapy for gender dysphoria.

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Chesapeake Energy will pay about $51 million to wipe out hundreds of lawsuits accusing the Oklahoma City energy giant of cheating North Texas property owners out of millions of dollars in natural gas royalties, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Max B. Baker reports that the law firm representing the property owners said 91 percent of their 13,000 clients — representing 97.15 percent of the natural gas production — agreed to accept the out-of-court settlement.

“The lawsuits alleged that Chesapeake deducted higher-than-necessary postproduction costs from royalty checks,” Baker reports. “They contended that the company used sham sales to affiliates to transport and market the natural gas to increase what it earned.”

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With the recent passage of the Defense of Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), businesses are welcoming the many benefits the statute brings, including federal jurisdiction, robust equitable relief, and the ability to recover compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees, according to a report by Fisher & Phillips LLP.

The article points out that many employers may overlook a requirement that requires revisions to existing confidentiality agreements and restrictive covenants.

“Namely, employers are required to provide employees with notice that they are entitled to immunity if they disclose a trade secret for the purpose of reporting suspected illegal conduct,” writes Michael R. Greco. “If employers fail to give notice in the manner required by the DTSA, they will not be able to recover punitive damages or attorneys’ fees. Consequently, employers must pay careful attention to the DTSA notification requirements, which are not as straightforward as many believe.”

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