Chief Justice Set to ‘Umpire’ Senate Impeachment Fight

The Wake Up Call is taking a break for the holidays, beginning on Monday, Dec. 23. It will return in 2020 on Monday Jan. 6. Until then, have a happy and safe holiday.

• Chief Justice John Roberts has tried to maintain a “nonpartisan” role as leader of the Supreme Court. Now he’s getting dragged into President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, where his rulings can be overridden by the majority. (BN via BLAW)

• A Georgia federal judge yesterday okayed a $1.4 billion settlement between Equifax and a class of 147 million consumers whose financial and personal data was exposed in the credit report agency’s huge 2017 data breach. The agreement includes $380 million for consumers, plus $77.5 million in legal fees and more than $1.4 million in expenses sought by plaintiff consumers’ class counsel. King & Spalding advised Equifax. (DailyReportonline.com)

• The Legal Services Corporation said the Senate has approved a $25 million funding boost for the nonprofit in appropriations legislation President Trump is expected to sign today. The boost gives the LSC a record $440 million in 2020 for its programs providing civil legal aid to low-income Americans, it said. (LSC.gov)

• ViacomCBS Inc. has appointed in-house veteran Henry Moniz as compliance chief, the latest significant legal appointment by the media giant recently formed out of the merger of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. Moniz is a former Bingham McCutchen partner who joined Viacom in 2004 and most recently led its compliance function. (BLAW via BLB)

• An internet domain company filed a $25 million malpractice suit against Akin Gump, alleging among other things that one of its former lawyers used client money to pay for vacation on a Caribbean island and tickets for Broadway shows. (American Lawyer)

• Gibson Dunn & Crutcher rejected plaintiff allegations that it custom-wrote rules for a “neutral” dispute resolution service provider to benefit its client, California-based food delivery service company DoorDash. (The Recorder)

• Google’s Keker, Van Nest & Peters lawyers got a California federal judge to dismiss a proposed class action accusing the tech giant of unlawfully storing users’ geolocation data. But plaintiffs can amend and refile part of their complaint. (BLAW)

• Ten years after its launch, the North Carolina-based nonprofit group Law School Transparency plays a key role in helping consumers weigh the benefits versus costs of law school. (BLAW via BLB)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Litigation boutique Selendy & Gay is the latest small firm to announce year-end associate bonuses that beat the scale set by Milbank. (BLAW via BLB)

• A Los Angeles plaintiff’s attorney facing sanctions over expletive-filled messages he sent to Allstate’s Sheppard Mullin legal team in an insurance dispute has hired a good malpractice lawyer. He might need one after a federal judge this week demanded he quit the legal profession. (The Recorder)

• And in New York a lawyer suspended for allegedly calling female prosecutors “sluts” is suing the court system. (New York Law Journal)

• A jury hit Alston & Bird with a $4.7 million malpractice verdict in a case over allegedly bad tax advice. King & Spalding represented Alston & Bird. (DailyReportonline.com)

Deals

• Cooley advised TiVo Corp., the inventor of the digital video recorder, on its ~$3 billion merger with technology licensing company Xperi Corp., advised by Skadden Arps. (BN)

• Cooley also advised in a merger of two advertising tech companies. Cooley advised New York-based Telaria while Gibson Dunn advised Rubicon Project in the tie-up they said will create the world’s largest sell-side advertising platform. (AdExchanger.com)

• Helen of Troy Corp., an El Paso, Texas-based consumer products company, acquired the hair-care products line of Cooley client Drybar for about $255 million. (El Paso Times)

• Hogan Lovells lawyers in New York and Paris represented European contract logistics group ID Logistics in its acquisition of Tampa, Florida-based logistics software group Jagged Peak. (Businesswire.com)

• Morrison & Foerster advised SoftBank on a $150 million financing round led by Softbank’s Latin America fund and Chinese tech giant Tencent in Argentina’s Ualá, a fintech startup whose mobile banking app is linked to a pre-paid Mastercard. (BN)

• Milbank advised Ellaktor, SA, a Greek infrastructure company, on a 600 million euro ($667 million) “debut” international bond offering. (GlobalCapital.com)

• Management-side worklaw firm Littler partnered with AxisCare, a nonmedical home care software company, to provide Littler’s compliance toolkit for employers to AxisCare’s clients. (Littler)

Laterals, Moves

• Holland & Knight added litigators Brandon J. Williams, as senior counsel, and Kalpesh Mehta, as staff attorney, in Miami, Florida. They were both previously at Foley & Lardner. (HKLaw.com)

Promotions

• Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough promoted 29 lawyers to partner, including 14 women, effective Jan. 1, 2020. (NelsonMullins.com)

• Keker, Van Nest & Peters promoted associates Nic Marais and Ben Rothstein to partner effective Jan. 1, 2020. (Keker.com)

• Eversheds Sutherland promoted six U.S. lawyers, including two women, to partner effective Jan. 1, 2020. (Eversheds-Sutherland.com)

Legal Actions, Decisions

• Investors who lost money to R. Allen Stanford’s “infamous” $7 billion Ponzi scheme lost, on statute of limitation grounds, their Florida state fraud claims against clearing broker Pershing LLC, which was represented by McGuireWoods and Akerman. (BLAW)

• A California state appeals court ruled IKEA US Retail LLC must face revived class claims that it violated California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act by asking for ZIP codes to complete credit card transactions. Robins Kaplan represented IKEA. (BLAW)