• The FBI yesterday raided the New York office, home and hotel room of Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen as part of an investigation into possible financial crimes. (Bloomberg) After the raid was announced, law firm Squire Patton Boggs said it had cut its one-year-old “strategic” link with Cohen, who had been using the firm’s offices in New York. Squire said the raid has nothing to do with the firm and it will cooperate with federal authorities. (National Law Journal)
• As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to apologize for his company’s data protection failures to Congress, his lawyers, led by Orin Snyder of Gibson Dunn, have been taking a much tougher line on some 20 consumer class actions pending over the social network’s Cambridge Analytica fiasco. (The Recorder)
• The Federal Trade Commission, the chief data protection regulator in the U.S., is wary of potential dangers that data-hungry companies pose for consumers, FTC commissioner Terrell McSweeny said in a video interview. (Bloomberg Law)
• Morgan Lewis said it is expanding its employee benefits practice by adding attorney Daniel Salemi as a partner in its Chicago office. Salemi’s Linkedin page says he was previously at Franczek Radelet P.C. and Winston Strawn. (MorganLewis.com)
• As an acting U.S. Solicitor General under the Obama administration, Neal Katyal argued cases for the White House at the Supreme Court. Today, Katyal runs a legal SWAT team to contest what he sees as an overreach of executive power by Donald Trump. He also moonlights as a Washington-based partner for Hogan Lovells. (Bloomberg Businessweek via BLB)
• Reed Smith attorneys are representing different companies in a contentious Education Department student debt collection bid protest that has already been marked by conflict-of-interest allegations. A federal judge disqualified a Pillsbury team from the case in March, and Hogan Lovells withdrew earlier in the year. (Bloomberg Law via BLB)
• The American Bar Association filled in more details about a planned “major restructuring” it has said it needs to offset declines in members and dues revenue. ABA Executive Director Jack Rives announced staff buyouts in February and said last week that an unspecified number of layoffs are coming later this month. (ABA)
Lawyers and Law Firms
• Atlanta-based Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP announced a big expansion of its Washington, D.C., office, adding 11 attorneys and patent agents, and seven staff members. It said the hires are for a new government contracts practice group and its existing IP practice group. (MMMLaw.com)
• Cozen O’Connor said former Wilson Sonsini antitrust litigator David Reichenberg, who has advised tech giants including Google, Netflix, Twitter, and YouTube, joined the firm’s commercial litigation department as a member in New York. (Cozen.com)
• Proskauer announced that former SEC lawyer Samuel Waldon joined its litigation department as a partner in Washington. Waldon served as assistant chief counsel in the SEC’s enforcement division for eight years, the firm said. (Proskauer)
• Holland & Knight said financial services attorney Jennifer Connors joined the firm as a partner in its New York office, coming over from Alston & Bird. The firm also added environmental litigators John Riley and Paul Sarahan as partners in Austin, Texas, both coming from Kelley Drye. (HKLaw.com)
• Carlton Fields has a new director for its legal project and practice management department, hiring veteran C. Peter Hitson, who was previously at Wilson Elser, and at insurance company The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. before that. (CarltonFields.com)
• JAMS, the alternative dispute resolution provider, said it added retired federal Magistrate Judge William Connelly, of Maryland, to its panel in Washington, D.C. (JAMSadr)
• Worklaw firm Jackson Lewis P.C. said it added attorneys Brian L. McDermott and Robert F. Seidler, both formerly at Ogletree Deakins, as principals in the firm’s Indianapolis office. (JacksonLewis.com)
Legal Actions
• A California school system’s pay structure that factors in employee salary history violates a federal law intended to reduce the gender pay gap, a federal appeals court ruled. (Bloomberg Law)
• The #MeToo movement exposed pervasive workplace harassment suffered by women at the hands of men. Meanwhile, the Post reports that 17 percent of sexual harassment complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are made by men. (Washington Post)
• Franklin Resources Inc., an investment company represented by O’Melveny Myers, along with its executives must defend allegations that it shortchanged workers by offering expensive, underperforming proprietary funds in the firm’s 401(k) plan. (Bloomberg Law)
• California law firms are anticipating a spike in lawsuits after the state’s high court made it possible for employees to sue their employers for workplace safety violations under the state’s consumer laws. (Bloomberg Law)
Technology
• Amidst a crackdown on cryptocurrencies by regulators worldwide, Japan has emerged as a major “crypto haven.” (Bloomberg)
• U.K.-headquartered bank HSBC is the latest multinational financial institution to partner with artificial intelligence specialists to root out terrorist funding, money laundering and other kinds of fraud. (Financial Times)
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Tom Taylor.
