Ethicon 10/9

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. Law360's Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs

   Oct 8, 2015 | Law360

   By Andrew Strickler
   
   
   ...Attorneys for a Johnson & Johnson unit were victorious this week in the first trial over the company's Prosima pelvic mesh device...

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. Law360's Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs

   Oct 8, 2015 | Law360

   By Andrew Strickler

   Shearman & Sterling LLP, Morvillo LLP and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP lawyers easily won the legal lions' battle this week after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand their landmark insider trading victory in the Newman case. Leading this week’s legal lambs are BigLaw teams representing DuPont Co., which got off to a bad start in the defense of thousands of claims focused on contaminated drinking water.
   
   Legal Lions
   
   The legal teams representing former hedge fund managers Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman saw the federal government’s bid to overturn a Second Circuit order throwing out their convictions hit a final failure. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorarifrom U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli for a review of the landmark Newman decision, which also also served a blow to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who prosecuted Newman and Chiasson. The denial cements a holding that raised the burden on the government to show, when prosecuting a case involving a tipper and tippee, that the tipper received a significant personal benefit for the information and that the tippee was aware of the benefit. Newman is represented by Shearman & Sterling LLP.Chiasson is represented by Morvillo LLP and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP.
   
   Attorneys for a Johnson & Johnson unit were victorious this week in the first trial over the company's Prosima pelvic mesh device. In a 10-2 verdict, a Texas state court jury rejected claims that the device was defective and that J&J's Ethicon Inc. didn't adequately warn consumers. Other J&J pelvic mesh products have racked up a mixed verdict in state court and bellwether federal trials. Ethicon is represented by William Massie Gage and Helen Kathryn Downs of Butler Snow LLP, Kat Gallagher of Beck Redden LLP, Carol Traylor and Ashley Parrish of Cantey Hanger LLP and Scott Stolley of Cherry Petersen Landry Albert LLP.
   
   Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP deal-makers led Blackstone Group LP to an $8 billion take-private deal for BioMed Realty Trust Inc. Under the terms of the deal, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII will pay $23.75 per BioMed Realty share in cash, representing a 24 percent premium to the company’s share price before rumors of the deal hit the market. BioMed targets real estate used by life sciences companies and owns or holds an interest in 18.8 million rentable square feet. Biomed is represented by Latham & Watkins LLP.
   
   Indiana firm Carson Boxberger LLP and former attorney Kevin Podlaski wereunburdened this week by an $8 million malpractice suit from one-time U.S. Navy SEAL Matthew Bissonnette. Bissonnette, who authored the book “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden,” had claimed the firm advised him to skip a prepublication military review. But after the book was released, the federal government said it disclosed confidential information and opened a criminal investigation. Bissonnette was eventually forced to forfeit most of the profits and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on other lawyers to defend him. A New York federal judge said Bissonnette couldn’t pursue the case in New York over an alleged malpractice that happened in Indiana. Bissonnette is represented by Coyt Randal Johnston andRobert Tobey of Johnston Tobey PC.
   
   Legal Lambs
   
   Lawyers for DuPont Co. lost the first trial in a multidistrict litigation accusing the company of contaminating drinking water. An Ohio federal jury handed plaintiff Carla Marie Bartlett a $1.6 million verdict for negligence and emotional distress but declined to assess punitive damages against DuPont. The verdict is the first to come for some 3,500 plaintiffs alleging health problems linked to water contamination from a DuPont plant in West Virginia. DuPont is represented by Aaron Todd Brogdon, Damond Mace and C. Craig Woods of Squire Patton Boggs LLP, Clifford Kinney Jr. and Niall Paul ofSpilman Thomas & Battle PLLC and James Lees of Hunt & Wilson. The plaintiffs are represented by Cory Watson, Davis & Young, Hill Peterson Carper Bee & Deitzler PLLC, Levin Papantonio and Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, among others.
   
   Already facing allegations of selling tainted flooring and a federal securities class action bid, Lumber Liquidators agreed to shell out $13.2 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice investigation related to hardwood flooring the company imported from foreign suppliers, including eastern Russia, that harvested more timber than permitted. As part of the deal, the company will also plead guilty to violations of federal customs law and the Lacey Act. The U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission said in March that it’s investigating the formaldehyde content of the company’s Chinese laminate tile flooring. That in turn triggered a purported investor class suit alleging the retailer’s high margins were the result of illegal harvesting and the sale of toxic flooring. Lumber Liquidators is represented in the securities case by Cooley LLP.
   
   Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP and former managing partner Alan Schiavelli were ordered to pay nearly $225,000 in sanctions for violating a court-ordered spending limitduring its appeal of an $8 million malpractice judgment for Protostorm LLC. A judge said Antonelli distributed $118,033 to firm members and others in May after it ceased to provide legal services in April. The judge’s order limited spending to operating expenses “incurred in the ordinary course of business." Protostorm won the judgment last year in a malpractice suit accusing the firm of botching a Web ad patent application. Antonelli is represented by Gregory Williams of Wiley Rein LLP. Protostorm is represented byRobert Goodman of Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP.
   
   A former social media editor at Reuters was convicted of helping hacker groupAnonymous break into The Los Angeles Times’ website. Matthew Keys, 28, was found guilty of three felonies carrying a combined maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Prosecutors alleged Keys logged into an Internet chat forum two months after he was fired from the Tribune Co.-owned KTXL Fox 40 and gave hackers a username and password for the Tribune’s server, along with a plea for them to hack into its website. Keys is represented by Tor Ekeland and Mark Jaffe of Tor Ekeland PC and Jay Leiderman ofJay Leiderman Law.
   

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