Runners-Up for Litigator of the Week and Shout Outs
A Kirkland team that included litigation partners Susan Davies, Daniel Donovan and Michael Glick and associates Madelyn Morris, Sara Shaw Tatum and Kristen Bokhan was recognized as a runner-up for 'Litigator of the Week' by The American Lawyer's Litigation Daily for the representation of Pennsylvania’s secretary of the Department of State Kathy Boockvar.
Sometimes it takes a village: Michael Bien, Van Swearingen, Alex Gourse, and Amy Xu of the San Francisco litigation boutique Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld teamed with Clay Zhu of the prominent Chinese law firm DeHeng, Seattle litigator Angus Ni, and Davis Wright Tremaine’s Thomas Burke and David Gossett to score a last-minute preliminary injunction against an executive order barring the use of Chinese messaging, social media, and mobile payment app WeChat in the United States. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco on September 19 sided with the U.S. WeChat users, finding there are no viable substitute platforms for the Chinese-speaking community in the U.S. and that “WeChat is effectively the only means of communication for many in the community.”
A team at Kirkland & Ellis led by Susan Davies paired with lawyers at Myers Brier & Kelly to represent Pennsylvania’s secretary of the Department of State Kathy Boockvar in a case clearing the way for voters there to use drop boxes to submit their mail-in ballots. The state’s high court ruled 5-2 on September 17 that the state election code allows county boards of election to collect mail-in ballots filed at locations other than their polling places. Counties in southeastern Pennsylvania which have seen high rates of COVID-19 have sought to use the dropboxes. The Kirkland team included Dan Donovan, Michael Glick, Madelyn Morris, Sara Shaw Tatum, and Kristen Bokhan. The Myers Brier & Kelly team included Dan Brier and Donna Walsh.
Anthony Viola of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo scored a major defense win for wholesaler Quality King Distributors and its CEO Glenn Nussdorf in an expedited proceeding over price gouging claims. The New York State Attorney General’s office brought claims related to prices charged for certain Lysol products after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a state emergency in New York in early March. Following a four-hour hearing, New York Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower on September 22 dismissed the proceeding in its entirety. “Quality King demonstrated that their prices were competitive and even lower than their competitors who were offering the same products in the same market,” she wrote in a follow-up order.
Also getting a shout out this week are Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partners Luke Nikas and Maaren Shah, who previously landed Litigator of the Week honors for their work for the Morgan Art Foundation in its heated battle with the estate of Robert Indiana—famous for his “LOVE” sculpture—over rights to the artist’s works. The Quinn pair helped craft an out-of-court settlement with the Star of Hope Foundation, the sole beneficiary of Indiana’s estate, which side-steps the executor of the Indiana estate, James Brannan, with whom their client has been feuding.
And last, but not least, a Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom team including partner Joseph Larkin and associates Stephen Della Penna and Ryan Lindsay won a ruling from the Delaware Court of Chancery for Kornerstone Investment Corp. and its CEO, Eliot S. Kang. The Skadden team persuaded Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights III to rule on September 23 that their clients’ opponent in the battle for corporate control of Marketplace MSPV LLC.was obliged to pay their fees and expenses.
