Business & Practice
Wake Up Call: O'Melveny, Proskauer Advise on Record $2.3 Billion Sale of NFL Team
• O'Melveny & Myers advised billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper in his proposed $2.3 billion deal to buy the National Football League's Carolina Panthers. Proskauer Rose advised current owner Jerry Richardson Sr., who reportedly decided to sell the team after #MeToo allegations against him surfaced earlier this year. The price tag, the biggest ever for a sale of an NFL franchise, may have something to do with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on sports betting. ( American Lawyer ) ( Sports Business Daily ) ( Bloomberg via BLB )
• Reed Smith attorney Eric Dubelier lambasted special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors in a court hearing over charges against Dubelier's client, a Russian company accused of funding a wide-ranging effort to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. ( Bloomberg )
• Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to settle claims from more than 300 women and girls who said they were assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar in the worst sex-abuse case in sports history, officials announced Wednesday. Lead attorney for plaintiffs was John Manly, of California-based firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi. ( Associated Press via Bloomberg )
• As corporate clients get increasingly zealous about putting teeth in their guidelines for outside counsel, some lawyers are pushing back. "Some of the demands clients are making of their outside counsel are so over-broad that they are objectively outrageous," said Anthony Davis, a New York-based partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson. ( Corporate Counsel )
• Netflix Inc. and its Dutch subsidiary had their tax appeal rejected by the European Union's top court, in a decision that clears the way for new taxes on cross-border broadcasting services. ( Bloomberg Tax )
• American law students going to on-campus interviews for Big Law summer associate jobs this summer can find out whether firms require associates to sign mandatory arbitration agreements. They'll have access to that information because students at elite law schools including Harvard, Georgetown and others pressured their administrations to require firms to provide it. ( BLB )
• Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is on the verge of deciding three cases that will test the limits of mandatory arbitration clauses. Littler shareholder Rob Friedman talked to Bloomberg Law recently about the impact these cases could have on employers and their workers. (Video) ( Bloomberg Law )
• The Senate voted 52-47 yesterday to approve a resolution that would restore net neutrality rules. The vote is mostly a symbolic victory for Democrats, however, because the resolution--which would reverse the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of Obama-era regulations barring internet service providers from slowing or blocking traffic, or charging for faster network lanes--is unlikely to clear the Republican-controlled House. ( Bloomberg Law )
• Casino mogul Steve Wynn's claim that he couldn't have ogled scantily clad female dancers because he's legally blind doesn't hold water, says civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom, who is asking a judge to throw out Wynn's defamation suit against her. ( Bloomberg )
• The late Justice Thurgood Marshall's reaction to a president's interest in his health illustrates that most U.S. Supreme Court justices don't like to be nudged, even gently, off the bench and into retirement. But that hasn't kept presidents and others from trying. ( National Law Journal )
• This week's Know Your Judge features Chief Judge Virginia A. Phillips of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She is presiding over a high-profile case involving the retirement plans of the University of Southern California. ( Bloomberg Law )
Laterals, Moves, Law Firm Work
• JAMS, the alternative dispute resolution services provider, said it hired former Paul Weiss litigator and Novartis in-house lawyer Conna Weiner to its panel in Boston. Weiner, who was North AmericaGCat Mylan Pharmaceuticals, has been a commercial mediator and arbitrator for about five years. ( JAMSadr )
• Akerman has more than doubled the size of its labor and employment practice group in two years, and has added 13 practitioners during the past seven months to bring the roster to 50-plus. And more news about worklaw attorneys. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )
• Harness Dickey said patent attorney Scott Yackey joined the firm's Metro Dallas office. He haspreviouslybeen at Dykema Cox Smith, and Bryan Cave. ( Hdp.com )
• Mayer Brown hired a three-lawyer team away from White & Case in Mexico City, with transactional partner Raúl Fernández-Briseño leading the way. ( MayerBrown.com )
• Sports betting may become a new growth industry for blockchain companies following the U.S. Supreme Court's May 14 decision striking down a prohibition on states regulating the practice. ( Bloomberg Law via BLB )
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Tom Taylor.
To read more articles log in.