SeaWorld Entertainment’s former associate general counsel, who was fired last October, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of insider trading that allowed him to make nearly $65,000 from a stock sale last year, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Paul B. Powers, 60, entered his plea before a U.S. district judge in Florida. Sentencing has not yet been determined, writes the Union-Tribune‘s Lori Weisberg.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that it had also charged Powers with insider trading based on confidential information he received that SeaWorld’s revenue would be better than anticipated for the second quarter of 2018.

Read the Union-Tribune article.

A U.S. district judge has ordered Pepper Hamilton LLP to turn over materials tied to the law firm’s 2015-16 investigation that led Baylor University regents to report the school had fundamentally failed in its Title IX implementation duties, reports the Waco Tribune-Herald.

“The significance is we are continuing to get to the bottom of who, what, where and when in regard to the failures at Baylor,” said Jim Dunnam, a Waco attorney who represent the 15 plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers had filed for a subpoena in March 2017 seeking materials from Pepper Hamilton and in June filed a motion to compel the firm to comply, but the firm did not respond to the request, according to the Tribune-Herald‘s Phillip Ericksen.

Read the Tribune-Herald article.

Image by Steve Jurvetson

A federal judge in New York will hear oral arguments next week in a lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that seeks to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk in contempt for violating a settlement deal, according to a CNN report.

Judge Alison Nathan will consider the SEC’s request that Musk be held in contempt for violating a settlement agreement reached last year, which required he get pre-approval for social media posts about the electric car company, writes CNN’s Victoria Cavaliere.

Musk tweeted on Feb. 19 that Tesla would produce “around 500k [cars] in 2019.” Hours later, he posted a follow-up tweet indicating that the company will actually deliver just 400,000 cars this year.

Although Musk corrected his mistake, regulators said he had “once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers,” according to court papers.

Read the CNN article.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is continuing to aggressively investigate and bring enforcement action against companies that engage in energy market manipulation, reports WilmerHale in its 10-in-10 Hot Topics in Energy Series.

These investigations and proceedings mirror Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) action on financial market manipulation in the energy area.

“As the recent Powhatan and Silkman decisions indicate, the body of case law defining FERC’s enforcement authority continues to develop. Regulated companies should be aware that the statute of limitations in market manipulation cases will likely be read permissively. A strong internal compliance program, coupled with self-reporting in appropriate instances, can help reduce risk,” according to the article’s authors.

Read the article.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore is being sued by a former public shareholder of a grocery chain in a class action that alleges the firm breached its fiduciary duty by providing tainted advice that directed the grocer toward a buyer, private equity group Apollo Global Management, reports Bloomberg Law.

In the complaint, the former shareholder claims Cravath crafted a “false and misleading” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing relating to the 2016 $1.36 billion leveraged buyout of The Fresh Market by Apollo.

The complaint alleges Cravath drafted the SEC filing “to procure stockholder approval and cover up prior wrongdoing,” and in doing so, pocketed $5.5 million in fees in what amounted to “a sham sale process.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will present a free webinar, “Back on Track?: Obtaining Software Patents Using New Patent Office Guidance,” featuring Fitch Even attorneys Timothy R. Baumann and George N. Dandalides.

The event will be on Wednesday, March 20, 2019, at 9 am PDT / 10 am MDT / 11 am CDT / 12 noon EDT. It also will be available as an on-demand webinar after presentation.

Obtaining patents for software-related inventions has become more difficult in recent years, in the U.S. and throughout the world. However, recently released USPTO guidance addressing patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and § 112, among other developments, offers some amount of much-needed clarity and direction.

During this webinar, presenters will share information and insights on:
• USPTO’s 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance
• USPTO’s 2019 Guidance on Examining Computer-Implemented Functional Claim Limitations
• How to use the recent guidance fruitfully, including claim-drafting strategies and evaluation of example claims
• Drafting strategies for filing software patent applications in foreign jurisdictions
• What the future may hold for software patentability

Register for the webinar.

CNN is reporting that Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has argued in court filings that Johnson & Johnson should be compelled to release millions of pages of documents about its role in the opioid epidemic.

The company acted as an opioid “kingpin” by using a web of foreign and domestic subsidiaries to supply raw materials “necessary to manufacture the opioid pain medications thrust upon the unsuspecting public since the 1990s,” Hunter alleged.

“The Oklahoma case is set to be the first in the nation to go before a jury that could determine pharmaceutical companies’ role in the nation’s opioid epidemic and whether Big Pharma should pay for it,” writes CNN’s Wayne Drash. “On Friday, District Court Judge Thad Balkman denied pharmaceutical companies’ request for a delay, saying it is in the public’s interest for the trial to begin May 28.”

Read the CNN article.

A post in the Seyfarth Shaw Workplace Safety and Environmental Law Alert Blog discusses the case of a construction contractor facing a perjury charge after he allegedly testified that he did not twice order employees to work on a roof. They fell through the roof both times.

During the investigation, OSHA discovered text messages indicating that the contractor had indeed issued the orders.

The case provides two important lessons, according to the authors of the post: Don’t lie under oath, especially when there exists discoverable evidence to the contrary, and be properly prepared and familiar with all relevant facts before providing testimony or statements during an investigation.

The contractor faces a potential penalty of five years in a prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted.

Read the article.

Image by Nick Youngson and Image Creator

Reuters is reporting that New York State’s financial regulator has subpoenaed the insurance broker for President Donald Trump’s family business, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The subpoena came after former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress the president inflated the value of assets to insurers, according to Reuters reporter Suzanne Barlyn.

The source said the New York State Department of Financial Services issued the subpoena late Monday to Aon Plc, a global insurance broker and risk management firm that works for the Trump Organization. The subpoena seeks files about Aon’s dealing with Trump and Trump Organization since 2009, the person said.

Read the Reuters article.

A new Trump administration rule for family-planning grants could trigger a national public health crisis, the American Medical Association and Planned Parenthood said in a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the rule, reports the Associated Press.

In addition to the AMA/Planned Parenthood lawsuit, the rule is being challenged in a lawsuit filed Monday by California officials and another filed Tuesday by officials in 20 other mostly Democratic controlled states.

The Department of Health and Human Services rule would prohibit family planning clinics funded by the federal Title X program from making abortion referrals — a provision that critics denounce as a “gag rule.”

“Pregnancies that are unintended, and thus riskier, will increase. The number of abortions will also increase. And there will be fewer tests for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screens — putting patients and their partners at great health risk,” the lawsuit said.

Read the AP article.

A federal judge has ordered Tesla chief Elon Musk to explain by March 11 why he should not be held in contempt for what the Securities and Exchange Commission described as a violation of a settlement deal last year, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Musk tweeted Feb. 19 that Tesla would make around 500,000 cars in 2019,” writes the Chronicle‘s Melia Russell. “Later that day, he sent a follow-up tweet saying that number represented Tesla’s ‘annualized production rate at end of 2019’ and it would only roll about 400,000 cars off the manufacturing line this year.”

Bloomberg explains that Tesla’s internal system to have an in-house lawyer vet Musk’s tweets didn’t work in this case because his “social-media minder didn’t bless” the Feb. 19 post:

The sitter — whose official title at Tesla is alternately Disclosure Counsel or Designated Securities Counsel — did step in after seeing the offending tweet and arranged to meet Musk to draft a clarifying post.

Read the SF Chronicle article.

In two related cases, petitioners are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down state generator subsidies that petitioners argue distort competitive wholesale power markets that are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Federal Power Act, reports Verrill Dana in its Energy Law Update.

Associate Brian Marshall of Portland, Maine, explains:

Both cases concern “zero emission credits” (ZEC) schemes, one in Illinois and one in New York, that subsidize nuclear power plants. These ZEC subsidies allow otherwise uncompetitive nuclear plants to stay profitable and continue to operate, even if they fail to receive sufficient compensation in wholesale power auctions. Both the Second and Seventh Circuits have upheld the ZEC nuclear power subsidies.

Read the article.

A prominent metro Detroit attorney is facing new claims of professional misconduct for allegedly mouthing off to a young female prosecutor and then, in a Facebook rant, misrepresenting what happened, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The complaint filed by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission accuses Clifford Woodards II of discourteous and unprofessional behavior in his March 2018 encounter with the prosecutor in Detroit’s 36th District Courthouse.

According to the complaint, Woodards challenged  the prosecutor, Heather Washington over a plea deal for his client in a traffic case. After she declined to agree to the deal without seeing the client’s driving record, Woodards acted aggressively, the complaint says.

According to the complaint:

Respondent said to Ms. Washington, something to the effect: “Little girl don’t talk to me and move out of my face” and/or “You need to back up little girl and know your place.”

Also:

Respondent told Ms. Washington that she “doesn’t know how to act like a young lady, acting immature.”

Read the Free Press article.

President Trump has declared a national emergency to finance the building of a border wall, adding fuel to the controversial issue that closed the federal government for more than three weeks.

In a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing, Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst constitutional law expert David Coale says Trump’s emergency declaration is similar to President Harry Truman’s takeover of the steel industry to avoid a strike during the Korean War by the United Steelworkers of America.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the takeover in 1952’s Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer decision, largely because the president acted without congressional approval. Today’s situation, where Congress has repeatedly refused to fund the president’s border wall, has strong echoes of the Youngstown case, Coale says.

“As for defense spending, both the House and Senate, have the power to overrule a claim of emergency,” says Coale. “If the president can clear that hurdle, there probably are billions of dollars in ‘undesignated’ defense and homeland security money that he could try to access. But ‘undesignated’ does not mean ‘free to take, no strings attached,’ and defense contractors who expect to get paid from that money will likely sue from all directions, as will private landowners in the way of the wall’s path.”

Gene Levoff — who was senior director of corporate law and corporate secretary until September 2018 — has been charged by the SEC with trading “on material nonpublic information about Apple’s earnings three times during 2015 and 2016,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, reports Forbes.

Forbes contributor Peter Cohan writes that the 44-year-old Levoff worked at Apple from 2008 until he was terminated in September 2018. At the time of his termination, he reported directly to the general counsel.

Fortune reports that the SEC alleged Levoff traded on advance knowledge of revenue-and-earnings figures multiple times dating back to 2011, with the illegal investments leading to about $227,000 in profits while allowing him to avoid $377,000 in losses.

Read the Fortune article.

Read the Forbes article.

The New York Times is reporting that Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are discussing a settlement over privacy violations that could amount to a record, multibillion-dollar fine, according to three people with knowledge of the talks.

Sources told the Times that the company and the FTC’s consumer protection and enforcement staff have been in negotiations over a financial penalty for claims that Facebook violated a 2011 privacy consent decree with the agency, according to reporter Cecilia Kang.

“The F.T.C. began its investigation into Facebook’s mishandling of data after The New York Times reported in March 2018 that the information of 87 million users had been harvested by a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, without their permission,” writes Kang.

Read the NY Times article.

A Charleston, WV attorney’s law license has been suspended for three and one-half years after attempting to raise funds via Go Fund Me in exchange for legal advice, reports the The West Virginia Record.

As treasurer of the Kanawha Valley Soccer League, lawyer Mark Allen Glover allegedly transferred money from the league’s checking account to his personal checking account, writes the Record‘s Kyla Asbury. The newspaper reported finding documents showing that Glover diverted approximately $12,000.

He lost his job after the diversion was discovered. Glover then set up a Go Fund Me fundraiser, seeking funds to help in his attempt to transition to being a solo practitioner. He offered free legal advice to those who donated to him. The state Supreme Court suspended his license for 42 months.

Read the WV Record article.

The rules governing legal advertising for Texas attorneys and law firms are scheduled for some significant changes in the coming months, writes Bruce Vincent of Muse Communications in an online summary of the revised advertising rules to help legal professionals prepare.

In his post, he discusses the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct rules governing lawyer advertising that are up for revision and the substantive differences compared to the status quo, including rules on trade names, verdict amounts and specialization, prohibited solicitations, submissions to ad review, and exempt communications.

Read the article.