Wake Up Call: Barr Picks Ex-Morgan Lewis Partner as Interim DC Attorney

In today’s column, a California judge ordered J&J to pay $344 million for “deceptively” marketing vaginal-mesh implants; several law firms are competing to represent plaintiffs in a huge consolidated crypto-market manipulation lawsuit in New York; and Foley & Larder dropped a big contract with Venezuela’s isolated president, after getting criticized by a senator.

• Attorney General William Barr named one of his top advisers, former Big Law partner and federal prosecutor Timothy Shea, to be the District of Columbia’s interim U.S. attorney, putting him in charge of the biggest U.S. attorney’s office, with 300 prosecutors. Shea, who begins his new role ...