“Area health care providers will finally see millions of dollars in reimbursements tied to a defunct health insurer – but some may be out more than half of the dollars they were owed,” reports Tracey Drury in Business Journal’s Health Care.

“The State Department of Financial Services this week announced a $220.8 million judgment resolving a lawsuit filed in late 2017 against the federal government tied to the collapse of Health Republic Insurance of New York.”

“According to DFS, area hospitals and physicians are expected to recoup the full value of unpaid claims. Here’s what wasn’t in the press release: Providers around the state who didn’t know the settlement was in the works signed offers from Riverdale Capital, a New York-based investment firm for pre-payments of 40 cents on the dollar and are now bound by that agreement.”

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“Teams of lawyers led by Munger, Tolles & Olson and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are handling the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates, who announced Monday the end of their 27-year marriage,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Inc., is being advised by Munger Tolles partners Ronald Olson, Robert Denham, and Eric Tuttle in Los Angeles.”

“Olson, a name partner at the firm and longtime adviser and confidant of billionaire Warren Buffett, didn’t respond to a request for comment about how his law firm came to land a role on a divorce that will divide an estimated $146 billion fortune.”

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“Maryland has finalized a $577 million settlement to end a 15-year federal lawsuit relating to underfunding at the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities, state officials announced Wednesday,” reports Brian Witte in ABC News’ U.S. News.

“The Maryland Attorney General’s Office signed the agreement with attorneys for the plaintiffs to settle the case. Lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to set aside the money, and Gov. Larry Hogan signed the bill last month.”

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“Boeing quietly agreed to repay the U.S. $10.7 million after a three-year investigation concluded it had double-billed the military for taxes paid to foreign governments on overseas employees, according to a document and officials,” reports Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg in the Seattle Times’ Business.

“The overcharges “affected hundreds of contracts across numerous Department of Defense entities,” according to the latest edition of an in-house training newsletter of the Defense Contract Management Agency highlighting contract irregularities. The agreement, reached in September, wasn’t previously disclosed.”

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“Diamond Resorts®, a global leader in the hospitality, vacation ownership and entertainment industries, announces another legal victory in its lawsuit against Pandora Marketing (d/b/a Timeshare Compliance), Intermarketing Media (d/b/a Resort Advisory Group), Carlsbad Law Group (including Slattery, Sobel & Decamp, Del Mar Law Group, and Sean Slattery), and McCroskey Legal (including Unlock Legal and Miranda McCroskey). A California federal court recently denied the majority of Carlsbad Law Group’s and McCroskey Legal’s motions to dismiss the claims leveled against them by Diamond, allowing Diamond to proceed against these timeshare “exit” lawyers for contributory false advertising under the Lanham Act, violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law, civil conspiracy, and aiding and abetting Timeshare Compliance and Resort Advisory Group’s tortious conduct,” releases Diamond Resorts in their News Releases.

“Diamond’s lawsuit details the nationwide consumer scam perpetrated by Timeshare Compliance, Resort Advisory Group, Carlsbad Law Group, and McCroskey Legal. Timeshare Compliance and Resort Advisory Group lure timeshare owners into paying exorbitant upfront fees for timeshare “exit” services, and then assign the owners to Carlsbad Law Group or McCroskey Legal, law firms that merely procure forced defaults on the timeshare contracts. Instead of providing legitimate services, Carlsbad Law Group and McCroskey Legal, with help from Timeshare Compliance and Resort Advisory Group, mislead timeshare owners, delay service to induce additional upfront “exit” fees from owners, and then encourage nonpayment on the timeshare contract. This results in defaulted contracts, damaged credit, and tax liabilities for the timeshare owners.”

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“Intel Corp. ducked getting hit with another multibillion-dollar damage award after a federal jury in Texas cleared it of claims it was infringing patents formerly owned by NXP Semiconductors NV on ways to speed up computers,” report Susan Decker, Matthew Bultman and Laurel Calkins in Bloomberg Law’s IP Law.

“Intel doesn’t infringe two patents owned by closely held VLSI Technology LLC, according to the federal jury in Waco, Texas. The trial was held in the same courthouse where a different jury toldIntel to pay VLSI $2.18 billion over other patents last month.”

“This was the second of three trials in suits VLSI lodged against Intel over patents that until early 2019 were owned by Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors. A third trial, also before U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, is scheduled to begin in June.”

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“Lawyers for former MiMedx Group Inc executives convicted of fraud in November allege the biotech company has not paid millions of dollars in attorney fees it owes for their legal defense,” reports in Westlaw Today.

“Three law firms – Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Kobre & Kim – sued MiMedx in New York County Supreme Court on Thursday, claiming the company ‘repeatedly violated its promise’ to pay them in connection with their defense of former CEO Parker ‘Pete’ Petit and former chief operating officer William Taylor.”

“Petit and Taylor were found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy in the first white-collar criminal trial to take place in Manhattan’s federal courthouse since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The jury found Petit and Taylor schemed to inflate MiMedx’s reported revenue by $9.5 million, making it look as if the company hit its public revenue targets.”

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“Korea’s SK Innovation has agreed to pay 2 trillion won (about $1.8 billion) to rival electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution to settle their ongoing legal dispute, a move that will allow SK to finish out its $2.6 billion investment in Georgia and save thousands of future jobs,” reports Trevor Williams in Global Atlanta’s South Korea.

“SK said it would pay LG Energy Solutions via a lump sum and an ongoing royalty, and both parties withdrew all pending legal disputes and agreed not to launch new claims for at least a decade.”

“SK said the clarity around the legal disputes would result in ramping up its phase-one plant and building a second adjacent one more quickly. The companies said they had decided to mend their dispute “amicably” for the good of the country’s environmental goals.”

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“JM Eagle, the country’s largest manufacturer of plastic piping, filed a multimillion-dollar legal malpractice lawsuit against law firm Walsworth, claiming the firm cozied up to plaintiff firms who sued the company in asbestos lawsuits and was too willing to settle such cases,” writes Jon Parton in Courthouse News Service.

“In a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, the company alleges that it lost millions of dollars in asbestos cases due to the law firm pursuing “a self-serving, ‘settle-always’ strategy, which valued the needs of the firm, and Walsworth’s comfortable relationships with plaintiff asbestos firms, over the best interests of its client.”

“JM Eagle, or J-M Manufacturing (JMM), has long been targeted by lawsuits for previously selling pipes made with asbestos in the 1980s, though the company has stopped selling such products for decades.”

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“Ten years ago, Oracle argued that Google had infringed Oracle’s copyright, by copying the ‘structure, sequence, and organization’ of 37 Java application programming interfaces (APIs) into Android. Google replied that an API is like an alphabet or a grammar. They’re the fundamental elements used to create programs. Now, at long last, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has concluded what programmers had known all along: APIs can’t be strictly copyrighted. Fair use must play its part,” reports Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Between the Lines in ZD Net.

“Ironically, in the 90s, both Oracle and Sun, Java’s original owner, argued that software APIs shouldn’t be covered by copyright. That was then. This is now. For the last decade Oracle has been desperately trying to monetize its failed Sun purchase by attempting to squeeze $9-billion dollars out of Google’s use of Java APIs in Android.”

“After a long-delayed hearing on Oracle v. Google in October 2020, SCOTUS ruled on April 5 that Google could legally use Oracle’s Java API code when building Android.”

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“Famed plaintiffs attorney Tom Girardi is on the hook for at least $56.8 million, according to the Chapter 7 trustee overseeing his estate,” reports David Thomas in Thomson Reuters Westlaw Today.

“In a 64-page report filed in Los Angeles bankruptcy court on Wednesday, Chapter 7 trustee Jason Rund of Sheridan & Rund, detailed the parties that have claims against the attorney, who was stripped of his law license earlier this month after a state court appointed his brother to manage his legal and financial affairs.”

“Girardi’s creditors include other law firms and litigation funders. The report doesn’t detail the circumstances surrounding the alleged debts. Rund and Robert Girardi’s attorney in the proceedings, Leonard Penda, did not respond to requests for comment.”

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“The University of Southern California has agreed to an $852 million settlement with more than 700 women who have accused the college’s longtime campus gynecologist of sexual abuse, the victims’ lawyers announced Thursday,” reports Stefanie Dazio in StarTribune’s Nation.

“It’s believed to be a record amount for such a lawsuit. When combined with an earlier settlement of a separate class-action suit, USC has agreed to pay out more than $1 billion for claims against Dr. George Tyndall, who worked at the school for nearly three decades.”

“Tyndall, 74, faces 35 criminal counts of alleged sexual misconduct between 2009 and 2016 at the university’s student health center. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.”

“Hundreds of women came forward to report their allegations to police but some of the cases fell outside the 10-year statute of limitations, while others did not rise to the level of criminal charges or lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute. Still, he faces up to 64 years in prison if convicted.”

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“Apple has been ordered to pay $308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications (PMC) after a federal jury in Texas came to the conclusion that the latter’s patents were infringed,” reports Campbell Kwan in ZDNet.

“One of the patents in question is a ‘method of decrypting programming at a receiver station’, which the jury found Apple had used without permission for its digital rights management technology, FairPlay.”

“Despite PMC not being a creator or seller of any products, the court found that the company was not a patent troll as it licenses its own internally invented patent on an exclusive basis.”

“The $308.5 million figure is the culmination of royalties from when Apple first infringed the patents. In addition, the jurors have also directed that Apple pay a running royalty to PMC for when the patent is used in its products, which is based on the amount of sales of a product or service.”

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“Maryland lawmakers approved a $577 million funding bill that would grant money to the state’s four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) following a nearly 15-year lawsuit declaring unfair funding and discrimination to these institutions,” reports Khalida Volou in WUSA9’s Education.

“The Maryland House of Delegates approved the notion voting 120-14 on Wednesday. Next, the bill is making its way to Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk for final approval.”

“Now, if the bill is signed, Bowie State, Coppin State, Morgan State and University of Maryland Eastern Shore will all be granted funds from the $577 million for the next 10 years starting in 2023.”

“This will also end a 2006 lawsuit filed by the NAACP that accused Maryland of giving more money and unique academic programs to ‘traditionally white institutions.'”

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“Purdue Pharma LP has floated a settlement plan calling for members of the billionaire Sackler family to pay more than $4.2 billion to help resolve the thousands of lawsuits that drove the maker of OxyContin opioid painkillers into bankruptcy,” report Jeremy Hill and Jef Feeley in Bloomberg Law’s Bankruptcy Law.

“Court papers filed late Monday by Purdue call for the drugmaker to hand over the company’s assets to trusts for the benefit of states, cities and counties suing to recoup billions spent dealing with the U.S. opioid crisis. Combined with the cash payment by the Sacklers — the company’s current owners — the Chapter 11 reorganization plan may be worth more than $10 billion, according to court filings.”

“In exchange for the company and the cash, slated to be paid out over nine years, Purdue and the Sacklers would be legally insulated from existing and future opioid lawsuits. Some states, cities and counties that sued the drugmaker oppose the proposal, arguing it doesn’t do enough to hold Purdue’s owners accountable.”

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“On March 3, 2021, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a landmark decision holding that Delaware law should be applied in disputes over directors and officers liability (“D&O”) insurance policies sold to companies incorporated in Delaware. RSUI Indem. Co. v. Murdock, et al. No. 154, 2020, C.A. No. N16C-01-104 CCLD (Del. Mar. 3, 2021). The court addressed this and other key issues in the long-running dispute over D&O insurance purchased by Dole Food Company, specifically addressing issues raised by Dole’s eighth-layer excess insurer, RSUI, which provided $10 million coverage excess of $75 million,” report Lorelie S. Masters, Sergio F. Oehninger, Geoffrey B. Fehling and Michael L. Huggins in The National Law Review.

“The court decided multiple important issues, finding that liability for alleged fraud is insurable under Delaware public policy, RSUI’s Profit/Fraud Exclusion did not bar coverage because there had been no “final adjudication” of fraud, and the “larger sums rule” governed allocation issues. However, among these important rulings, the most significant may be the Supreme Court’s ruling that Delaware governs the interpretation of D&O insurance issued to a company incorporated in Delaware. The court specifically rejected the insurer’s arguments that California law (which might preclude coverage) should apply under a policy that was purchased and issued in California to a Delaware corporation headquartered in California.”

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“A federal judge on Tuesday approved Daimler AG’s $1.5 billion settlement to resolve a U.S. government probe into the German automaker’s use of undisclosed software that allowed excess diesel pollution to be emitted by 250,000 of its vehicles in the United States,” reports David Shepardson in Reuters’ Autos.

“The settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and California Air Resources Board, which was announced in September, includes an $875 million civil penalty levied under the Clean Air Act, $70 million in additional penalties and $546 million to fix the polluting vehicles and offset excess emissions, court papers show.”

“As part of the settlement, Daimler will pay California $285.6 million.”

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“Lawyers who negotiated a $641 million settlement for victims of Flint’s lead-contaminated water are asking a judge to carve out as much as $209 million for fees and expenses for years of work on the case,” writes Ed White of the Associated Press in ABC News.

“If granted, the request would take nearly one-third of the overall deal made by dozens of attorneys who sued the state of Michigan, Flint, a hospital and an engineering firm, according to a court filing Monday.”

“Regulators in then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration allowed Flint to use the Flint River in 2014-15 without treating the water to reduce corrosion. As a result, lead in old pipes broke off and flowed through taps. The catastrophe in the majority-Black city, population 95,000, has been described as environmental racism.”

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“An Indianapolis lawyer who was suspended more than 20 years ago has been conditionally reinstated to the Indiana bar,” reports The Indiana Lawyer.

“The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated Scott R. Jones on the condition that he remain on probation for two years. During that time, Jones will remain under a monitoring agreement with the Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program.”

“Jones was suspended in October 2000 for at least six months without automatic reinstatement for repeated convictions of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Online court records show Jones previously petitioned for reinstatement in 2018, but that petition was denied in 2019.”

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“State Attorney General Jeff Landry authorized a $100 million settlement with one of dozens of oil and gas companies accused of destroying Louisiana’s coast,” reports Dan Copp on The Courier in Houma Today’s News.

“Lawsuits were filed by seven parishes alleging 42 energy companies damaged wetlands and marshes through drilling and other projects. The agreement releases Freeport-McMoRan Inc. from liability for any current claims and dismisses the company from the coastal parish lawsuits.”

“In exchange, the Phoenix-based company has agreed to deposit the first payment into a trust, followed by several smaller yearly payments, Landry said. Payments will not be distributed until the state Legislature creates an oversight board to hold and manage the money.”

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