“A suspended Harris County civil judge who last year was indicted on federal wire fraud charges has been arrested in connection to an assault involving her estranged husband’s girlfriend at a Houston home, her lawyer said,” reports Nicole Hensley in Houston Chronicle.

“Police took state District Judge Alexandra Smoots-Thomas into custody at her Rice Military home Wednesday morning, the lawyer continued, with authorities saying she was accused of firing a shotgun during an argument with a woman Monday night in the 14000 block of Jewel Meadow Drive. Smoots-Thomas, who lost her re-election bid in July, has been out on bond for federal charges and was not permitted to possess a weapon, court records show.”

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“Apple Inc. was told by a federal jury in Texas to pay Optis Wireless Technology $506.2 million in patent royalties related to 4G technology in the iPhone and other devices,” reported by Susan Decker and Blake Brittain of Bloomberg shared via Bloomberg Wire in The Dallas Morning News’ Business/Technology.

“The jury in Marshall found that five patents were infringed. It also found that the infringement was willful, which means District Judge Rodney Gilstrap could increase the amount by as much as three times the amount set by the jurors.”

“Optis and its partners in the case, Panoptis Patent Management, and Unwired Planet LLC, claimed that Apple’s smartphones, watches, and tablets that operate over the LTE cellular standard were using its technology. Apple, which argued the patents were invalid, pledged to appeal.”

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“When defending a Lanham Act claim brought by a competitor, the doctrine of unclean hands—the lawyerly version of ‘But they did it too!’—can be a case-dispositive argument. Last month, the Ninth Circuit made it a bit easier to establish this defense, holding that a defendant arguing unclean hands need not prove that the plaintiff’s unclean conduct caused ‘actual harm,'” write Michael Sochynsky and Jonah M. Knobler in Patterson Belknap’s blog.

“The unclean hands defense is based on the equitable maxim that ‘he who comes into equity must come with clean hands.’ … Its roots lie in the English Court of Chancery—a royal ‘court of conscience’ that was able to grant relief in situations where the hidebound courts of law could not. Chancery’s unique focus on conscience and morality meant that plaintiffs seeking its aid were held to a high standard of behavior.”

“Unclean hands remains a viable defense today in the context of equitable claims.”

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“A Texas justice of the peace opened the country’s first virtual criminal jury trial Tuesday, experiencing relatively few technical interruptions that have plagued other online court hearings since the Covid-19 pandemic began,” reports David Lee in Courthouse News Services.

“Travis County Justice of the Peace Nicholas Chu is presiding over the virtual courtroom using Zoom videoconferencing software and is broadcasting the trial live to the public on YouTube. Court proceedings began at 8:30 a.m. in a misdemeanor case against a Texas woman accused of speeding in a construction zone.”

“Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent the first three hours explaining how to use Zoom and engaged in voir dire by polling potential jurors as to their experiences and biases towards speeding tickets and construction zones. A six-member jury with one alternate was sworn in after 1 p.m. and the trial is expected to last all of Tuesday.”

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“Bayer is asking a California appeals court to trim $4 million from the amount of money it owes a California groundskeeper struggling to survive cancer that a trial court found was caused by the man’s exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides,” reports Carey Gillam in U.S. Right to Know.

“In a ‘petition for rehearing’ filed Monday with the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District of California, lawyers for Monsanto and its German owner Bayer AG asked the court to cut from $20.5 million to $16.5 million the damages awarded to Dewayne ‘Lee’ Johnson.”

“The appeals court ‘reached an erroneous decision based on a mistake of law,’ according to the filing by Monsanto. The issue turns on how long Johnson is expected to live. Because evidence at trial found Johnson was expected to live “no more than two years,” he should not receive money for future pain and suffering allocated for any longer than two years – despite the fact that he continues to outlive predictions, the company argues.”

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“The attorney general of New York took action Thursday to dissolve the National Rifle Association following an 18-month investigation that found evidence the powerful gun rights group is ‘fraught with fraud and abuse,'” reports Tim Mak in NPR’s Investigations.

“Attorney General Letitia James claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that she found financial misconduct in the millions of dollars and that it contributed to a loss of more than $64 million over a three-year period.”

“The suit alleges that top NRA executives misused charitable funds for personal gain, awarded contracts to friends and family members, and provided contracts to former employees to ensure loyalty.”

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“A lawsuit has accused Reed Smith of wrongly firing a lawyer after a ‘discriminatory chain of perceptions and events’ stemming from a concussion that the lawyer received while on vacation,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s News.

“The lawsuit by former of counsel Aaron Chase, filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, alleges unlawful retaliation and disability discrimination by Reed Smith.”

“Chase says he received the concussion when he hit his head hard on the frame of a vehicle that he was entering while on vacation in September 2019. He returned to work the same month and informed his direct supervisor, partner Jennifer Achilles, about the injury soon afterward.”

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“An Illinois appellate court affirmed the adjudication of a firm’s attorney’s liens down to zero, where the discharged firm failed to provide any evidence of the amount of hours it had spent on the case, and also where the firm had engaged in multiple breaches of its fiduciary duties to its clients. As a matter of law, the firm was not barred from receiving attorney’s fees, but the breaches of fiduciary duty were reasonable factors for the trial court to consider in determining the appropriate amount of fees to award,” reports Hinshaw Law in their Legal Updates.

“Scot Vandenberg was paralyzed after he fell off the upper deck of a yacht manufactured by Brunswick Corporation and Brunswick Boat Group, which was owned and operated by RQM, LLC. The McNabola Law Group represented Vandenberg and his wife in a negligence and strict liability action against Brunswick and RQM. The Vandenbergs signed a contingency fee agreement with the Firm, and agreed to pay the Firm’s actual expenses. The fee agreement also provided for compensation to the Firm in the event the Firm withdrew prior to the resolution of the Vandenbergs’ claims. In that case, the Vandenbergs agreed to pay the Firm at a rate of $450 per hour for the time spent on the claims, or 33.33% of the amount being offered in settlement at the time of the request to withdraw, whichever was greater.”

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“Bayer recently announced its intent to settle all Roundup, dicamba drift and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) water litigation cases between $10.1 and $10.9 billion. The company says this settlement is not an admission of fault, but rather a cost-effective way to end the ‘distraction,’ reports Sonja Begemann in AG Web’s Business.

“The decision to resolve these cases was driven by our desire to bring greater certainty to the farmers we serve every day,” says Liam Condon, Bayer president of the crop science division.”

“These, and all our products, bring to growers and other users around the world the ability to help them economically and sustainably produce a healthy crop.”

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“Class actions present significant risk, because a certified class exposes a class defendant to class-wide liability,” warns James Bogan III of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP in JD Supra.

“Most defendants agree to settle rather than face the risk of a class verdict. But sometimes a class defendant will roll the dice, hoping it will prevail either at trial or on appeal. In a recent case, Bahamas Surgery Center, LLC v. Kimberly-Clark Corporation, …, the class defendants did just that. Although the district court entered judgment against the class defendants in the amount of $24 million, they were ultimately saved on appeal by a split panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“By way of background, Bahamas Surgery Center, LLC (Bahamas), sued Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KC) and Halyard Health, Inc. (Halyard), for fraud, asserting that KC and Halyard misrepresented the efficacy of surgical gowns in terms of blocking the spread of pathogens. Bahamas presented evidence that the surgical gowns had been labeled as compliant with a specific standard going to that efficacy – the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Liquid Barrier Level 4 standard – when in fact the gowns did not meet that standard.”

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“After nearly four years of litigation, PAM Transport truckers will finally get to collect money owed to them after a federal court approved of a $16.5 million settlement,” reports Tyson Fisher in Land Line.

“Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas granted final approval of a settlement between PAM Transport and more than 16,000 of its drivers. The settlement agreement was reached in February just one day before the trial was scheduled to begin.”

“After attorneys take their one-third cut of $5.5 million, the three named plaintiffs collect their $40,000 each, plaintiffs who sat for deposition receive $1,000 ($31,000 total) and plaintiffs who prepared to testify at trial get $2,500 ($17,500 total), the average amount for each driver comes to around $600. Each class member will receive a minimum of $150 plus a pro-rated amount based on the number of weeks employed as a trucker. According to the settlement, any unclaimed funds will be donated to the St. Christopher Truckers Development and Relief Fund.”

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“Several women and former employees accuse a prominent Chicago family attorney of sexual assault – all of it is outlined in a complaint filed last month by a state disciplinary board,” reports Charlie De Mar of CBSN Chicago.

The day after the report of “allegations against David Pasulka, the lawyer found himself in legal trouble – arrested for driving under the influence in Glenview.”

“… police in Glenview were called on Friday, July 24, to a McDonald’s in Glenview, where they said they found Pasulka in his car intoxicated and in need of medical help.”

“Glenview police said the man behind the wheel was Pasulka, the prominent Chicago family attorney and guardian ad litem. Police said he would not wake up, and he was so drunk that was taken to Glenbrook Hospital – where police said he was too intoxicated to take a breathalyzer or field sobriety test.”

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“Shares of San Diego-based chipmaker QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) rocketed over 15% Thursday after the company topped analysts’ fiscal third quarter expectations and announced that it had come to a settlement agreement with Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Qualcomm reported adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share on sales of $4.89 billion, with the wireless chip producer benefiting from the nation’s 5G cellular rollout. Analysts had expected earnings of 72 cents per share on revenues of $4.8 billion,” reports Timothy Smith in Investopia’s Company News.

“Moreover, Qualcomm said that the settlement – which includes money owed from previous quarters and a global patent-licensing agreement – will add about $1.8 billion to its top line and $1.38 in earnings per share during the current quarter. “With the signing of the Huawei agreement, we are now entering a period in which we have multi-year license agreements with every major handset OEM,” Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told investors, per MarketWatch.”

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“An Atlanta, Texas, lawyer who was arrested last year by Texas Rangers for allegedly smuggling methamphetamine into the Cass County jail is now facing federal drug and weapons charges,” reports Lynn LaRowe in the Texarkana Gazette.

“A four-count indictment recently unsealed in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas alleges Bryan Lee Simmons, 49, is guilty of conspiracy to distribute meth from July 2019 through August 2019. Simmons was taken into custody at the Cass County jail Aug. 29, 2019.”

“Following his arrest in August 2019, Cass County District Attorney Courtney Shelton said Texas Rangers had been investigating and surveilling Simmons for at least a month. At that time, Simmons was arrested on state drug and weapons charges.”

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“A Milwaukee criminal defense lawyer found himself being handcuffed in a courtroom Thursday for the second time in less than a year,” reports Bruce Vielmetti in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“Last fall, police arrested Matthew Meyer, 35, in the Criminal Justice Facility on a host of charges related to a bitter, drawn-out exit from a volatile relationship with a former girlfriend.”

“On Thursday, a sheriff’s deputy put cuffs on Meyer again after he was sentenced to a year in jail for crimes the judge said were made worse by Meyer’s ‘energized evil’ against the woman, a 30-year-old medical professional he dated off and on for about three years starting in 2016.”

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“Judge Raag Singhal … dismissed a class action lawsuit that claimed Burger King Corporation’s advertising deceived customers by making a ‘presumption’ that its plant-based “Impossible Whopper” patties would be cooked on different grills than those used to cook meats,” writes

“Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged to have been ‘duped’ into believing that Burger King cooked its Impossible Whopper patties on dedicated grills due to the patties being marketed as ‘0% beef and 100% Whopper.’ The plaintiffs had previously argued that Burger King marketed the Impossible Whopper as vegan, but then dropped that claim given that Burger King’s advertising did not expressly mention that the Impossible Whopper was in fact vegan.”

“In dismissing the plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim, Judge Singhal held that Burger King’s promotional material did not mislead customers about cooking methods and that it did not imply that its plant-based patties would be grilled separately from meat products.”

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“Three recent decisions demonstrate how the legal landscape continues rapidly to change and evolve in response to COVID-19. These decisions highlight certain developing uncertainties in the law, including the impact of COVID-19-related executive and administrative orders on the rights of private parties,” report Jonathan P. Wolfert, Eddy Salcedo, Owen R. Wolfe, and Sarah Fedner in Seyfarth’s News & Insights.

The takeaways from these recent decisions are that “These decisions reflect the importance of staying up to date not only on various executive and administrative COVID-19 orders and anticipating the effects of those orders on pending litigation, but also Court decisions interpreting such orders or otherwise dealing with the effects of COVID-19. The legal landscape will continue to be affected as courts grapple with the continuing fallout from the pandemic.”

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“The Indiana Supreme Court has imposed a 90-day suspension jointly proposed by the Disciplinary Commission and the respondent” Andrew Homan,  with automatic reinstatement following his conviction of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and several violations, reports Mike Frisch in Legal Profession Blog.

“Respondent was arrested for, and later pled guilty to, OWI. As a result of his refusal to comply with Indiana’s implied consent law at the time of his arrest, and later as a result of his conviction, Respondent’s license was suspended from May 2017 until July 2018. Respondent twice drove while his license was suspended. In addition, Respondent’s criminal probation was revoked after he was found in violation for consuming alcohol.”

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“Holland & Knight is facing a lawsuit alleging that it failed to prevent the transfer of more than $3 million to a fraudster’s account in Hong Kong,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s News.

“The lawsuit, filed in June in Utah state court, was removed to federal court this week, the American Lawyer reports.”

Holland & Knight is accused of failing to investigate after the fraudster intercepted emails regarding a stock sale, posed as the seller, and instructed the law firm to wire $3.1 million from the stock buyer to another account. The new fraudulent account was identified as Wemakos Furniture Co. Limited.”

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Paul “Jake” York, an attorney in Georgia, is accused of forging not just a prosecutor’s signature but also a judge’s in the hopes of getting his client’s ankle monitor taken off. “York’s client, Valerie Ryals, was ordered to wear an electronic ankle monitor after she was arrested for aggravated stalking. That set back the single mom $380 every two weeks, and York believed the charges against his client would ultimately be dismissed, so he asked assistant District Attorney Meredith Davis to sign off on bond modification,” writes Kathryn Rubino in Above the Law’s Lethal Ethics.

“York filed an order that would allow his client to remove the ankle monitor that purported to be signed by ADA Davis and Habersham County, Georgia Superior Court Judge B. Chan Caudell. Only problem, Caudell does not recall that at all and wasn’t even able to sign the order the date it was dated.”

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