Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

Real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield is being sued by a former employee over claims the company failed to protect its workers’ retirement savings from climate-related risk. If successful, the lawsuit could precipitate a fundamental shift in how risk is managed across the entire $12 trillion U.S. retirement market. The complaint alleges that Cushman & Wakefield failed to evaluate, monitor and remove the Westwood Quality SmallCap Fund, which exposes retirement savers to dangerous levels of climate-related financial risk while at the same time underperforming and charging unreasonably high fees. Cushman & Wakefield declined to comment.

 

ClientEarth

Law360

A coalition of 24 U.S. states has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump seeking to block a new 10% global tariff on imports, arguing he lacks the legal authority to impose the measure. The states claim the administration is improperly using Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows temporary tariffs to address balance-of-payments crises, despite economists saying the U.S. does not face such a problem. The challenge follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down Trump’s earlier tariffs, and if successful could force the government to refund billions of dollars in tariff revenue. The case adds further legal uncertainty to Trump’s broader strategy of using tariffs to reshape global trade and support domestic manufacturing.

 

Chicago Tribune

New York Times

PBS

Politico

Reuters

The U.S. ​government is rejecting attempts to reclaim ​tariffs the Supreme ⁠Court ​has ruled ​illegal, the Financial Times has ​reported, citing ‌people ⁠familiar with the ​matter.

 

Financial Times

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has apologized for a leaked memo in which he questioned the Trump administration’s motives for declaring his artificial-intelligence company a supply-chain risk and severing its government relationships, but said he would challenge the designation in court as not legally tenable. It is one of the first times the supply-chain risk designation has been applied to a U.S. company. The memo that was leaked last week said the White House was targeting the company because it hasn’t “given dictator-style praise” to President Trump. 

 

The Economist

Wall Street Journal

The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that New Jersey Transit is not an arm of the state, and so it is not protected by sovereign immunity from lawsuits in other states. “States are generally entitled to immunity from being sued in another State's courts without their consent,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. “That sovereign immunity is personal to the State and thus extends only to arms of the State itself.” The decision arose from two consolidated personal injury lawsuits against NJ Transit for accidents occurring outside New Jersey. The ruling reversed a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision and affirmed a New York Court of Appeals ruling that NJ Transit can be sued in New York. The attorney for the plaintiffs, Michael B. Kimberly, criticized NJ Transit’s legal structure as a “mishmash” that does not qualify for sovereign immunity.

 

Law

NJ.com

The Trump administration has proposed a change to employee retention rules. The new proposed rule would substitute job performance for seniority in deciding who is fired when an agency institutes layoffs. The proposal would rank employees primarily by a numerical "performance credit" based on their three most recent ratings of record, with veterans' preference points added on top. The proposal would make reduction-in-force regulations "more streamlined, efficient, and merit-based," the Office of Personnel Management said. Everett Kelley, the President of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, said: “This proposal is part of a coordinated campaign . . . these proposed rules represent a blueprint for faster, less accountable mass firings and another step in the administration’s effort to dismantle the nonpartisan civil service.”

 

Bloomberg

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) plan to introduce legislation imposing a 5% federal wealth tax on billionaires, aiming to generate an estimated $4.4tn in revenue without raising taxes on individuals with net worths below $1bn. The proposal comes as Democrats increasingly campaign on economic inequality and affordability, with growing public support for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy. Sanders said the measure would ensure billionaires “pay their fair share” and help fund programs benefiting working families. According to the bill summary, the revenue would finance a $3,000 direct payment to households earning $150,000 or less, reverse Republican-backed Medicaid cuts, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing, invest in affordable housing, cap childcare costs at 7% of income, raise minimum teacher salaries to $60,000, and expand Medicaid home health coverage.

 

CNBC	Washington Post

Investors in Florida have filed a class action lawsuit against Alston & Bird, alleging the law firm played a crucial role in a $328m cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme involving Goliath Ventures. The complaint, submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, claims that Alston & Bird "architected the legal framework through which investor funds and retirement funds were solicited, pooled, transferred, and deployed." This lawsuit is part of a wave of legal actions from investors who assert they were misled by Goliath's CEO, Christopher Alexander.

 

Bloomberg Law

J. Emmett Murphy has rejoined King & Spalding as a partner in its business litigation practice in New York, focusing on professional liability litigation, regulatory matters, and securities class actions. With extensive experience in federal and state courts, Murphy has also served as a senior trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission. His expertise includes complex commercial disputes, particularly in financial reporting and accounting. 

 

Bloomberg Law

Two former senior executives of casino operator Star Entertainment have been found in breach of duties by Australia's federal court in relation to the handling of ​risks associated with money laundering and criminal activity. The court's decision comes a year after the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the country's corporate regulator, fined two ​former Star executives, including a CFO, and disqualified them from managing any ​companies after they admitted to breaches of duties. The two ex-Star ​executives found in breach of duties are former CEO and MD Matthias Bekier and former chief legal & risk officer Paula Martin.

 

Reuters

China is set to enact a landmark law requiring ethnic minorities to use Mandarin Chinese as their main language of instruction, the Financial Times reports.

 

Financial Times