• A spurned Texas-based recruiter is using an audio phone recording to back up his lawsuit seeking up to $1 million in damages from a labor and employment partner he alleges committed breach of contract, fraud and negligent misrepresentation when he used another headhunter to place him at Holland & Knight. (Big Law Business)
• The National Labor Relations Board ruled that students working as teaching and research assistants at private universities can be considered employees and thus have a federal right to unionize. (New York Times)
• The Beverly Hills lawyer who won a $140 million verdict for Hulk Hogan in his defamation lawsuit against Gawker Media is now representing Melania Trump in her fight against news outlets that published parts of a book “From the Whore House to the White House: The True Story of Melania Trump.” (Law.com)
• A federal appeals court revived a bias lawsuit by a former in-house lawyer for Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. alleging that the firm pushed her out as part of a pattern of discriminating against women over 40. (National Law Journal)
• Apollo Global Management’s agreement to pay $52.7 million to settle an SEC investigation into alleged disclosure and supervisory failures stems from the commission’s crackdown on the private-equity industry’s habit of charging whatever fees it can get away with. (BloombergView)
Legal Market
• A consumer advocacy nonprofit alleges that a Chicago plaintiffs’ attorney colluded in a “reverse auction” with a defendant to reach a proposed class action settlement with CVS Pharmacy Inc. on behalf of a litigant that he has represented in dozens of other lawsuits. (Law.com)
• Lawyers expressed doubts the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will be ratified by year’s end, despite President Barack Obama’s efforts to push it through. (Big Law Business)
• General Motors LLC failed to derail a Texas family’s claim for damages over a car crash blamed on a faulty ignition-switch. (Bloomberg)
• Some debate whether the American Bar Association’s recent rule changes classifying as ethics violations discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and other areas advance legal justice or inhibit lawyers’ rights to free speech. (Wall Street Journal)
SCOTUS and Other Courts
• Mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts are enforceable under California law, even if they oblige the losing party to pay attorney fees and other related legal costs, a federal appeals court ruled. (The Recorder)
• A Virginia federal court dismissed a lawsuit brought by a shareholder of Freddie Mac seeking an order to force Freddie to allow the shareholder to inspect its books. (WSJ Law Blog)
• Philip R. Shawe, co-CEO of New York-based translation company TransPerfect Global Inc., must pay more than $7.1 million to the company’s other co-CEO for alleged misconduct during the pair’s ongoing battle for control of the company, a Delaware court ruled. (Bloomberg BNA/Big Law Business)
• A litigation funder and his company have sued in federal court arguing that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s administrative enforcement proceedings against them in a fraud investigation are unconstitutional. (New Jersey Law Journal)
• A California federal court affirmed the state’s law outlawing psychotherapy that aims to change gay minors’ sexual orientation. (The Recorder)
• A federal judge threw out a class-action lawsuit against Starbucks, ridiculing its allegations that the coffee company misleads customers about the ice-to-product ratio of its cold drinks. (WSJ Law Blog)
Laterals and Moves
• Days after U.K. firm Clifford Chance announced it is replacing its Saudi Arabian office with a local alliance, rival U.K. firm DWF said it is considering opening an office in the Kingdom as part a broader expansion in the Middle East. (The Lawyer)
• Dentons has vacuumed a fifth London-based partner away from Irwin Mitchell in a week, getting real estate finance partner Simon Tweedle. (The Lawyer)
• A look at five law firms that have acquired major rainmakers through lateral hires this year. (Law 360)
• Tucker Ellis, a Cleveland-based law firm with more than 200 lawyers, is expanding to St. Louis, adding an eighth office in the city on top its branches in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. (Big Law Business)
Technology
• Since January, Baltimore police have been secretly testing an aerial surveillance system originally developed for Iraq. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
• Russia-backed hackers targeted reporters at The New York Times and other news organizations, according to U.S. officials. (Politico)
• A joint investigation by Canadian and Australian privacy watchdogs concluded that the parent company of marital-cheating website Ashley Madison failed to implement a privacy and security framework to protect its customers. (Wall Street Journal)
• As the U.K. prepares to exit the European Union, EU-based multinational companies may need to find a new route for sending personal data back to the United States, as the currently favored way via London could become more uncertain. (Bloomberg BNA/Big Law Business)
• A new report by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher shows an evolving e-discovery landscape. (Legaltech News)
• Fear is keeping law firms from adopting new technologies. (Lexology)
• Israel-based networking company Radware Ltd. won a ruling from a California federal court, barring a rival from selling products. (The Recorder)
• As both major presidential candidates call for U.S. tax policies aimed at ending special tax treatment for investment managers’ income, Silicon Valley is girding itself for potential reforms. (Bloomberg)
Legal Education
• Founded in 1784, America’s “first law school” in rural Litchfield, Connecticut, has educated more than 1,100 people, including 100 congressmen, 28 senators, three Supreme Court justices and 14 governors. (Big Law Business/Law.com)
Miscellaneous
• Ex-Fox News host and political analyst Andrea Tantaros is the second woman to sue the cable channel and former chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, alleging the network pretends to act as a defender of family values while operating like a “sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult.” (Bloomberg)
• The American legal system is a mechanism for “rich guys” to get revenge, says author Malcolm Gladwell in a recent Longform podcast in which he discussed PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel’s funding of Hulk Hogan’s litigation against Gawker Media. (Big Law Business)
• San Francisco-based courtroom sketch artist Vicki Ellen Behringer has produced drawings of murderers, gangsters and other figures in dramatic trials, as well as scenes from some more mundane cases. An interview. (Law.com)
• Lawyers are using cycling as a way to network with existing and potential clients at the time same time they improve their fitness. (Law.com)
• Big law partners are some of society’s best-educated and paid people, but when it comes time to retire they face a “perfect storm” of competing trends. (Financial Advisor)
Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Casey Sullivan.