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

   Feb 8, 2018 | Law360

   By Aebra Coe
   
   
   Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP won the title of top legal lion this week, advising Kroger on the $2 billion sale of several hundred convenience store businesses, while Shook Hardy & Bacon ended up on the legal lambs list after its client, Boston Scientific, lost its appeal of an $18.5 million verdict in a trial over injuries allegedly caused by its Obtryx pelvic mesh devices.

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

Online Sources

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

   Feb 8, 2018 | Law360

   By Aebra Coe

   Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP won the title of top legal lion this week, advising Kroger on the $2 billion sale of several hundred convenience store businesses, while Shook Hardy & Bacon ended up on the legal lambs list after its client, Boston Scientific, lost its appeal of an $18.5 million verdict in a trial over injuries allegedly caused by its Obtryx pelvic mesh devices.
   
   Legal Lions
   
   This week's top legal lion Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP advised The Kroger Co. on its $2.15 billion sale of several hundred convenience store businesses to U.K.-based privately held gas station operator EG Group, a deal that marks EG's entry into the U.S. market, the firm and companies said Monday. Kroger was advised by Michael Aiello, Matthew Gilroy, Renee Pristas, Ariel Simon, Kelsey Pfleger, Sam Hulsey, Michael Epstein, Lauren Springer, Phillip Grudzina,Kenneth Heitner, Steven Ort, Lora Shub, Paul Wessel, Jennifer Britz, Philip Rosen, Elliot Ganchrow, Justin Lee, Jeffrey Perry, Lisa Madalone, Annemargaret Connolly, Thomas Goslin and Thomas McCarthy of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP. Arnold & Porter attorneys Michael B. Bernstein and Matthew Shultz advised Kroger on the transaction's antitrust issues.
   
   Next up on the lions list is Jenner & Block LLP. The Third Circuit on Friday heeded the law firm’s arguments and revived claims by Kraft Foods Inc. and others that certain suppliers conspired to fix the prices of eggs, finding in an issue of first impression that direct purchasers of an allegedly fixed-price product can sue even if some of the products come from nonconspirators. Kraft, Nestlé, Kellogg and General Mills were represented at oral argument by Michael T. Brody of Jenner & Block LLP.
   
   The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday handed a win to plaintiffs attorneys at Clark Love & Hutson GP and Powell & Majestro PLLC, rejecting Boston Scientific Corp.'s appeal of an $18.5 million verdict in a trial over injuries allegedly caused by its Obtryx pelvic mesh devices, saying the company had gotten a fair trial. The plaintiffs are represented by Anthony J. Majestro of Powell & Majestro PLLC and Scott A. Loveof Clark Love & Hutson GP.
   
   The Seventh Circuit on Friday upheld Starbucks Corp.'s quick win in a case accusing the company of negligence after a child's in-store finger injury required same-day amputation, agreeing with the lower court that the Chicago shop, represented by Miller Law Group, didn't owe the child a legal duty since he was under his parents' supervision. Starbucks is represented by Elizabeth Boratto and Andrew Miller of Miller Law Group.
   
   Schiff Hardin LLP and Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP scored a win for Ford Motor Co. Monday when a federal magistrate judge concluded that a suit from a Michigan lawyer casting herself as the victim of a conspiracy led by a Ford lawyer to keep her from getting hundreds of potential jobs should be thrown out, recommending dismissal of the suit. "There must be something more than a defendant’s personal belief that he or she is the victim of retaliation or conspiracy," U.S. Magistrate R. Steven Whalen said. Ford is represented by Gregory L. Curtner of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP and Suzanne L. Wahl of Schiff Hardin LLP.
   
   Legal Lambs
   
   The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday rejected Boston Scientific Corp.'s appealof an $18.5 million verdict in a trial over injuries allegedly caused by its Obtryx pelvic mesh devices, saying the company had gotten a fair trial, landing the company’s attorneys at Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP on this week’s legal lambs list. Boston Scientific is represented by Daniel B. Rogers and Robert T. Adams of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.
   
   A New York state judge chewed out a Georgia real estate developer Wednesday, refusing his request to overturn Deutsche Bank AG's $50 million judgment against him from 2011 after saying he gave "no real proof" that the bank misled the court and accusing him of "gamesmanship." Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich read Chip Drury and his lawyer from Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP the riot act over their effort to nix Deutsche subsidiary German American Capital Corp.'s 6-year-old judgment for a loan that Drury and his companies defaulted on. Drury and his companies are represented by Andrew Miltenberg and Jeffrey Berkowitz of Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP.
   
   In a blow to the tobacco giant's attorneys at King & Spalding LLP, a Florida jury on Monday hit R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. with $27.8 million in punitive damages after finding last week the company owed nearly $14 million in compensatory damages to a woman who needed a lung transplant after smoking cigarettes for decades. RJR is represented by W. Ray Persons and Kathryn S. Lehman of King & Spalding LLP.
   
   A California federal judge on Friday chastised counsel for both parties in a suit brought by consumers accusing SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. of lying about the health and treatment of its orcas to induce them into purchasing tickets and merchandise, saying there has been an "utter lack of civility exercised among counsel." The consumers were represented by Christine Saunders Haskett, Lindsey C. Barnhart, Udit Sood and Tracy Zinsou of Covington & Burling LLP. SeaWorld was represented by John M. Simpson of Norton Rose Fulbright and Lawrence Y. Iser of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP.
   
   Last up on this week’s legal lambs list is a Florida attorney who was chided by a Philadelphia judge last month for posting courtroom photos on social media with the inflammatory hashtag “#killinnazis." The attorney will not be involved in six upcoming trials over injuries allegedly caused by Bayer AG's blood thinner Xarelto, according to an order docketed Friday. Ned McWilliams, a partner at Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor PA, withdrew his authorization to participate as an out-of-state attorney in the second Xarelto case that will be tried in Philadelphia, along with five others.

   https://www.law360.com/articles/1010577/law360-s-weekly-verdict-legal-lions-lambs
   

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