A Las Vegas law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against a bump stock manufacturer on behalf of all those “who tragically suffered emotional distress” as a result of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival, the Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting.

Authorities have said unman Stephen Paddock used an attachment on semi-automatic weapons known as a “bump stock” to increase the firing capacity of his rifles when he killed 58 and injured hundreds on Oct. 1.

Eglet Prince law firm filed the 30-page suit in state district court, citing claims of negligence, infliction of emotional distress, products liability and public nuisance, according to reporter David Ferrara.

Read the Review-Journal article.

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Fox News general counsel Dianne Brandi will take an unspecified leave of absence from the company, in the latest sign of fallout from the network’s long-running sexual harassment scandal, reports The Washington Post.

Brandi has been named in four lawsuits filed by former Fox employees or contributors alleging harassment. And a federal investigation into Fox News’ financial practices began to focus on her role during the long tenure of its co-founder and former chairman, Roger Ailes, sources told the Post. Investigators are looking into payments made under Ailes to employees who had accused him and other executives of harassment or mistreatment.

“Brandi could prove to be a key figure in the investigation because of her long and close association with Ailes, who was ousted from Fox last year amid harassment allegations and died in May,” writes reporter Paul Farhi. “She may have direct knowledge of some of his more secretive and allegedly sinister management practices, people who are involved in the investigation said.”

Read the Post article.

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When the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, it will take up a docket filled with some of the moment’s most contentious issues: voting rights, religious liberty, protection from discrimination, and privacy in an increasingly monitored society, reports The Washington Post.

Reporter Robert Barnes quotes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who told Georgetown University law students recently: “There is only one prediction that is entirely safe about the upcoming term, and that is: It will be momentous.”

He lists three cases that will get the most attention:

* Whether the court for the first time will find that a state’s electoral districts were gerrymandered with such a partisan skew that they violate the Constitution.

* Whether prosecutors must seek a judge’s permission before securing cellphone tower records that contain months of details about a person’s whereabouts.

* Whether a wedding vendor whose religious beliefs do not condone same-sex marriage must comply with a state law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Read The Washington Post article.

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Zapproved and General Counsel News recently presented a webinar on how to keep your scope, and custodian obligations, in check with FRCP requirements. The replay is available below.

It’s been nearly two years since the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. While they promised more reasoned scope of discovery by bringing proportionality and cooperation to the forefront, the reality may feel very different.

How are we doing — and how can we be better at negotiating a reasonable scope of discovery? Know your rights and responsibilities for responding to demands for electronic evidence. This session focused on the scope of custodians, keywords and retention policies.

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An article on the website of Fisher & Phillips discusses the question: Will a noncompetition agreement be enforceable against the independent contractor?

The Eight Circuit recently addressed this question in Ag Spectrum Co. v. Elder. In that case, Ag Spectrum contracted with Vaughn Elder to work as an independent contractor and entered into a three-year noncompete agreement.

“Elder argued that the agreement was unenforceable under Iowa law. He argued that because he was an independent contractor the noncompete was unenforceable per se. The district court granted Elder summary judgment on this basis, and Ag Spectrum appealed,” according to the article.

“The Eighth Circuit affirmed but on an alternative basis. The noncompete was not unenforceable per se but it was unreasonable under the circumstances.”

Read the article.

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When The Wall Street Journal broke a story about the firing of PepsiCo Inc.’s general counsel, the newspaper had some inside information: someone at WilmerHale accidentally sent a privileged memo about the case to the publication.

Above the Law recounts the story of how the memo, discussing a subpoena whistleblower/GC Maura Smith received, was sent to a group of lawyers — and the Journal.

Writer Joe Patrice speculates that “someone’s inline autocomplete got the better of them.” He also has some tongue-in-cheek advice for WilmerHale: call the whole thing fake news.

Read the Above the Law article.

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Exterro has released a new guide titled “Rule 26(f) Meet & Confer Checklist: How to Be Prepared.” The guide can be downloaded from Exterro’s website.

Preparation is key for any meet and confer conference to be successful, the company says on its website. This checklist can help a practitioner ensure you’re adequate preparation to negotiate and identify reasonable e-discovery terms within any meet and confer.

The guide includes:

• 39 Questions you must ask your legal team and your opponent before and during meet & confer
• A list of questions that will help you negotiate e-discovery parameters that are proportionate and reasonable
• Reassurance that all the necessary e-discovery questions are asked every time for every matter

Download the guide.

Lawyers expect a spate of force majeure contract lawsuits after Hurricane Harvey tore through Southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana last month, paralyzing a fifth of U.S. fuel output and pushing some oil production offline, Reuters reports.

“Many chemical and refinery plants along the U.S. Gulf Coast have already restarted operations or are beginning to ramp up after damage by Harvey,” writes Bryan Sims. “Once they do, customers may insist on reviewing contractual terms with their energy industry suppliers for the product they did not receive while plants were shuttered.”

He quotes Jessica Crutcher, an attorney for Houston law firm Mayer Brown:

“Every force majeure clause is different, especially when you’re dealing with heavily negotiated contracts in the energy sector.”

Read the article.

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When the Supreme Court opens its 2017 term on the first Monday in October, its very first cases will serve as a stark reminder of why elections matter, predicts USA Today.

Reporter Richard Wolf writes that the upcoming term stands “a real chance of being a one-two punch against workers’ rights,” says Claire Prestel, associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union.

Wolf points out how things have changed:

When the court was asked to hear three cases on labor arbitration agreements last September, Barack Obama was president, Hillary Clinton was heavily favored to succeed him, and federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland was in line to replace the late Antonin Scalia. Garland had a strong record of defending workers’ rights.

Read the USA Today article.

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Zapproved has published The 3 Archetypes of Corporate E-Discovery to shed light on the widening gap between corporate legal teams that have conquered their e-discovery challenges and those that are still struggling to do so — or simply haven’t prioritized it.

The report summarizes the common attitudes held by e-discovery executives — and how those beliefs are influencing behaviors, processes and priorities.

Amid this environment are the inescapable pressures nearly every legal professional faces:

• Responsibly lower costs while managing risk.
• Provide better visibility and accuracy into litigation timelines and costs.
• Expand portfolio to manage compliance and regulatory response.
• Keep up with the rapidly evolving digital data and ephemeral communications landscape.

By identifying Achievers, Strugglers and Idlers as the three predominant archetypes amongst corporate e-discovery professionals, the report shows how each attitude impacts success. Achievers, which represent 30% of the e-discovery market, believe automation is good for business and report high confidence in defensibility. That leaves 70% of e-discovery professionals struggling or disengaged.

Download the report.

Veteran trial lawyer David Elrod has joined the business and entertainment law firm Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton, LLP, as a partner in the Dallas office, marking a significant expansion of the firm’s existing litigation practice, the firm announces.

Also joining Shackelford are partner Worthy Walker, of counsel Barbara Wohlrabe and associate Hayley Ellison. The attorneys all have substantial experience in complex commercial and energy disputes in Texas and around the country.

“It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to bring upper-tier litigators such as David and his team into your firm. Their addition strengthens our litigation and trial capabilities regionally and throughout the country, while also adding a robust energy litigation section.”

Read the firm’s announcement.

The Winn-Dixie grocery chain is the latest and perhaps highest-profile business to face penalties for websites that are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but it’s not likely to be the last, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.

A federal judge in Florida found that the grocery chain’s website was inaccessible to visually impaired individuals and thus violated the ADA because features such as the website’s online coupons and pharmacy could not be accessed using a screen reader. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff on all issues and awarded injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees.

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public places, like stores and movie theaters. Increasingly, a battle has been brewing over whether or not websites for such “places of accommodation” must also be accessible.

“In Winn-Dixie’s case, the court agreed that because its website was closely integrated with its stores, the web content must be accessible to the hearing and visually impaired,” said employment attorney Audrey Mross of Dallas-based Munck Wilson Mandala. “If consumer-facing businesses were not aware of ADA website compliance, this case should be an eye-opener.

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Burford’s 2017 Litigation Finance Survey shows that litigation finance continues to achieve dramatic growth, finding that the use of litigation finance in the United States grew by 28% from last year, to 36%. And it has grown 414% since 2013.

Among respondents in the US, UK and Australia, a majority of users (59%) say their use of litigation finance has increased in the last two years.

A strong majority (72%) of all respondents agree that litigation finance is a growing and increasingly important area of the business of law—and, notably, 40% of US companies report having foregone claims due to the cost of litigation.

Pointing to continued growth on the horizon, among all respondents whose organizations have not yet used litigation finance, a majority of law firm respondents (57%) and nearly half of in-house respondents (49%) are likely to consider its use in the next two years.

Some early concerns about litigation finance have evaporated. For example, in the US, the number of in-house respondents with concerns about litigation finance leading to unnecessary litigation fell to 10% from 81% five years ago. Among all respondents, ethical concerns rank dead last among obstacles to use, at 9%.

Only 7% of all respondents are unfamiliar with litigation finance, and only 4% of law firm respondents.

Christopher Bogart, Burford’s CEO, commented: “Burford’s latest research affirms our own experience: More and more often, clients and law firms are turning to litigation finance as a solution to some of the intractable challenges and pressures of managing legal cost and risk, and that strong demand is driving dramatic growth.”

Burford’s 2017 Litigation Finance Survey was conducted by ALM Intelligence, the research arm of ALM Media, publisher of The American Lawyer, from May 17 to June 16, 2017. The full report is available online.

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The Dallas-based trial and appellate law firm Bailey Brauer PLLC has again earned a spot among an elite group of firms that corporate lawyers most fear facing in court.

According to a release from the firm, Bailey Brauer, founded in 2913, is among the youngest and smallest firms included on BTI Litigation Outlook 2018’s Honor Roll of the nation’s Most Feared Law Firms. This is the second time the firm has been recognized for its complex commercial litigation, class action and other litigation work. Selection is based upon interviews with general counsel and in-house litigation leaders nationwide who were asked which lawyers they would least like to face in litigation.

The release continues:

“To earn a place on the BTI list is an honor because it’s based on corporate counsel feedback,” said firm co-founder attorney Alex Brauer. “And what it tells me is that the businesses we represent appreciate how we handle their most important cases, and that is being noticed by those across the table as well.”

BTI Consulting Group, based in Massachusetts, is a national business research company that conducts independent research on how Fortune 1000 companies buy, manage and evaluate their professional service providers. A full list of its 2018 honorees is available at https://www.bticonsulting.com/litigation-outlook-fearsome-foursome.

“What BTI focuses on is client service,” said co-founder Clayton Bailey. “And from day one, serving clients has been at the very heart of what we do. To have that dedication recognized by BTI twice in the four years since we opened is validation that we are on target with providing Big Law quality representation in a much more nimble, responsive way.”

This represents the second year in a row that BTI has recognized Bailey Brauer, adding to honors the firm has collected from Benchmark Litigation. Most recently, Mr. Brauer and Mr. Bailey were named individually to the 2017 Texas Super Lawyers listing. Mr. Brauer also was named among the Best Lawyers in Dallas by D Magazine. Mr. Bailey was named among The Best Lawyers in America, The National Law Journal’s Elite Boutique Trailblazers list and to The National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 civil plaintiff lawyers in Texas.

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A BuzzFeed News report covers the story of a federal judge in Ohio who is suing the federal judiciary, claiming that other judges violated his constitutional rights in ordering him to undergo a mental health screening.

Reporter Zoe Tillman writes that US District Judge John Adams, who sits in Akron, faced disciplinary action after a panel of judges found that he mistreated another official in his courthouse and refused to cooperate with an investigation into his behavior by undergoing a mental health exam.

The basis for the order involved a magistrate judge, Tillman explains:

“After a magistrate judge missed a deadline that Adams had set for completing work on a case in February 2013, Adams issued an order that the magistrate judge explain why that magistrate judge should not be held in contempt. The magistrate judge submitted an explanation, and Adams accepted it.”

Read the BuzzFeed article.

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Bloomberg Law reports that Google Inc. was accused in a class action of systematically paying male employees more than females, adding the internet giant to a growing list of technology companies sued for gender discrimination.

“Three women who worked at Google in recent years sued in San Francisco Superior Court alleging that the company pays women less than men for equal or similar work,” according to reporter Erik Larson. “They also say it puts them on career paths with lower pay ceilings, according to a copy of a complaint provided by their lawyer. The filing couldn’t be immediately verified in court records.”

Some other tech companies, including Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc., have been targets of similar litigation claiming men are favored for advancement.

Read the Bloomberg article.

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Bloomberg reports that a proposed class-action lawsuit was filed against Equifax Inc. late Thursday evening, shortly after the company reported that an unprecedented hack had compromised the private information of about 143 million people.

The law firms filing the suit are Olsen Daines PC and Geragos & Geragos, a celebrity law firm known for blockbuster class actions. Reporter Polly Mosendz writes that Ben Meiselas, an attorney for Geragos, said the class will seek as much as $70 billion in damages nationally.

In the security breach, hackers are believed to have accessed Social Security numbers, addresses, driver’s license data, and birth dates. Some credit card information was also put at risk.

Read the Bloomberg article.

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Trump administration lawyers joined sides with a Colorado baker Thursday and urged the Supreme Court to rule that he has the right to refuse to provide a wedding cake to celebrate the marriage of two men, reports The Los Angeles Times.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, Acting Solicitor Gen. Jeffrey B. Wall argued that the cake maker’s rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion should prevail over a Colorado civil rights law that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to the report by David G. Savage.

Savage writes: “The brief filed Thursday is likely to bolster the cake maker’s case, and is in line President Trump’s repeated promises to protect ‘religious liberty.'”

Read the LA Times article.

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DLA Piper announced the addition of Ilana Eisenstein to the firm’s Litigation practice as a partner in Philadelphia.

Eisenstein joins DLA Piper after three years as Assistant to the Solicitor General in the US Department of Justice, where she briefed and argued extensively before the US Supreme Court. She also advised the Solicitor General regarding federal appellate litigation on civil, criminal and administrative law matters.

“Ilana’s experience before the Supreme Court and other outstanding efforts with the Solicitor General provides a tremendous addition to the firm’s strategic commitment to provide appellate capabilities to our clients at the highest level; and, her superb trial, case management and leadership experience adds a wonderful breadth to our complex litigation, white collar and investigations practices,” said James Brogan, co-chair of DLA Piper’s US Litigation group.

Before joining the Office of the Solicitor General, Eisenstein served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Delaware for eight years. While there, she was the lead attorney on more than 100 cases and tried 11 jury trials to verdict. She was involved in a wide array of cases, including a three-year pharmaceutical pricing investigation, securities and financial fraud investigations, and cases involving bank and tax fraud.

“We are excited to add this talented trial and appellate lawyer to our office, which celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year and continues to grow,” said Joseph Kernen, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office. “Ilana has roots in the Philadelphia area, as she grew up here and has developed a strong reputation working in and around the region.”

Earlier in her career, Eisenstein clerked for Judge Edward R. Becker of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She received her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

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Alison Frankel reports for Reuters that briefing wrapped up this week on Proskauer’s motion to end a sex bias suit by an anonymous partner in its Washington, D.C., office.

She writes that Proskauer’s motion for summary judgment, the woman simply can’t sue the firm under federal and state anti-discrimination laws because those laws protect employees and she’s an equity partner — not an employee.

“The woman, who is represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp, tells a different story in her brief opposing summary judgment,” Frankel writes. “According to her, Proskauer’s rank-and-file partners have effectively no control over the firm. All important decisions about hiring, firing, governance and compensation are delegated to Proskauer’s seven-member executive committee, which she depicts as the power center of the firm.”

Read the Reuters article.