• Federal prosecutors urged a Brooklyn judge to keep ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli and his former outside counsel, Evan Greebel as co-defendants in one trial on fraud charges. Shkreli and Greebel have pointed fingers at one another and seek separate trials. (New York Law Journal)
• After splurging $200 billion building the world’s biggest gas export plants, producers in Australia are now locked in legal battles with contractors over who should shoulder billions of dollars in liabilities sparked by delays and cost blow-outs. (Bloomberg via BLB)
• Wells Fargo & Co. named C. Allen Parker general counsel, replacing James Strother, a 30-year bank veteran who’s retiring and was among executives whose bonuses were withheld in the wake of as bogus account scandal. (Bloomberg via BLB)
• Viacom General Counsel Michael Fricklas is leaving his job, but he’s due to keep drawing his salary for another two years, about $2.6 million’s worth, according to a company filing. (BLB)
• White & Case formally opened its Sydney, Australia, office and said it had welcomed 10 partners from U.K. firm Herbert Smith Freehills, initially bringing them in as senior lawyers. HSF won a temporary court injunction blocking eight former partners from becoming White & Case partners or doing work for HSF clients. (Australasian Lawyer)
• In series of upcoming cases, federal courts will seek to clarify when information given to close personal friends or family crosses the boundary into insider trading. (New York Times DealBook)
• Female partners at Chadbourne & Parke earned about 72 percent as much as their male counterparts over a recent three-year period, according to data filed in a proposed gender discrimination federal class-action against the firm in Manhattan. (BLB)
Legal Market
• An ex-partner at the Australian arm of Norton Rose Fulbright, which Chadbourne is due to merge with later this year, is suing the firm and four partners over claims that his termination last year damaged his wallet and his reputation. (Asian Lawyer via Law.com)
• The European Union’s executive body is leading an EU-wide push aimed at getting national consumer agencies to sue Volkswagen AG for allegedly fraudulent marketing claims linked to its “clean” diesel vehicles. (Financial Times) As VW struggles with the biggest crisis in its history, its chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said the number of employees implicated in its diesel-emissions scandal could rise beyond those identified so far. (Bloomberg)
• With Trump spending cuts looming for the SEC enforcement department, there’s already no more money for hiring or use of outside contractors who help SEC lawyers with cases. There’s also a ban on non-essential travel for agents, which means SEC cops didn’t attend last week’s meeting in Las Vegas of Wall Street bond dealmakers. (Bloomberg via BLB)
• Sandwich-restaurant Subway faces a proposed federal class action lawsuit over allegations that the it falsely advertises its chicken sandwiches, after a report found the “chicken” actually included high percentages of soy. Subway challenged the validity of the report. (Connecticut Law Tribune)
Immigration Order
• Trump signed a new executive order on immigration March 6, rather than continue fighting court challenges to his Jan. 27 order closing U.S. borders to refugees and citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries. (Bloomberg via BLB) New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and other opponents of the Trump administration’s first travel ban vowed to fight the second, more limited order. (Law.com)
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Services said that it will suspend its 15-day “premium processing” program for applicants of H-1B visas, starting April 1. Large technology companies often use the visas to bring top engineering talent into the country. (Recode.net)
President Trump’s First 100 Days
• Expect policy changes but continued corporate enforcement at the Justice Department under the Trump administration: BLB talked to Matt Axelrod, who recently left his job principal associate deputy attorney general in the department and is now a partner at Linklaters. (BLB)
• How legislation proposed by the Republican party would unwind Obamacare. (Bloomberg)
• Trump’s allegations that then-President Barack Obama had his phones wiretapped during the presidential election campaign have cast light on the typically discreet Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. A look at U.S. law governing wiretaps and the implications for Trump’s charges. (Financial Times)
• President Donald Trump’s $25 million class action settlement of former students’ fraud charges against Trump University could be on the rocks. An ex-student at the school wants to drop out of the class and sue Trump. (New York Daily News)
Happening in SCOTUS and Other Courts
• In the U.S. Supreme Court’s highest-profile case this term, it canceled a scheduled showdown over the bathroom rights of transgender students in public schools, sending the case back to a Virginia lower court after the Trump administration changed a pivotal federal policy. (Bloomberg)
• The Supreme Court opened the way for greater post-trial scrutiny of jury verdicts in criminal cases, ruling that judges can consider evidence that a juror made racially biased comments during deliberations. (Bloomberg)
• What’s a “harangue?” At the Supreme Court, the meaning is clear, or at least so says a Washington federal appeals court.(Bloomberg)
• The former Port Authority chairman who pressured United Airlines to fly to an airport near his South Carolina weekend home was spared prison by a judge who sentenced him to a year of confinement in a tony equestrian community. Prosecutors had urged U.S. District Judge Jose Linares to impose a two-year prison term. (Bloomberg)
• The large settlement a woman won from a Missouri Gun & Pawn shop that sold the gun her daughter used to kill her father could serve as a model for similar suits. The shop sold the gun despite knowing the daughter was mentally ill. (Washington Post)
• A former Barclays Plc trader charged with rigging a key interest-rate benchmark wasn’t involved in any subterfuge and did everything in the open, his lawyer told jurors in a London courtroom. (Bloomberg)
Laterals and Moves
• California-based Munger, Tolles & Olson hired Ginger Anders, a former Justice Department lawyer and Jenner & Block attorney, reuniting her with former U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., who launched Munger’s office in Washington, D.C. late last year. Other firms also announced major hires from the federal government Monday. (National Law Journal)
• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe said it is opening an office in Santa Monica, California, as part of a broad effort to expand its technology focus. (The Recorder)
• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it named Proskauer Rose LLP special counsel Daniel J. Davis its new general counsel, effective immediately, in another sign the agency is moving ahead despite having only two commissioners and lacking a permanent chairman. (Bloomberg BNA via BLB)
• Holland & Knight said it has appointed Washington, D.C.-based partner David Whitestone the new head of its government section. Whitestone takes over from Gerry Sikorski, who led the group for over a decade after retiring as a congressman from Minnesota, and who continues as the section’s chair emeritus. (HK.com)
• Elite London-based firm Linklaters named U.K. real estate head Andy Bruce as global head of its real estate practice. (The Lawyer)
Technology
• Given that almost half of Americans get their news from Facebook, which is now producing video content, the company’s argument that is not a traditional media company no longer holds water. (Wired)
• Billionaire Alibaba-founder Jack Ma wants China’s top lawmakers to come down harder on fake goods — the same plea voiced by global brands that have accused his e-commerce service of harboring knock-offs. (Bloomberg)
• A German lawsuit over a photo showing a Syrian refugee with Chancellor Angela Merkel has put Facebook Inc.’s hate-speech policies under scrutiny. But the high-profile case has also shed light on complaints that say the company tries to avoid and delay lawsuits in the country. (Bloomberg)
Miscellaneous
• The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has warned local and airport police about its new airport pat-down procedures because they expect some passengers to be unhappy about getting touched. (Bloomberg)
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Casey Sullivan.