Depp's Brown Rudnick lawyer makes partner, unpopular rulings, Debevoise partner pay and lawyer fee woes ??

???Good morning.?In today's Legal File: Brown Rudnick promotes the associate on Johnny Depp's defamation trial team to partner; A Trump-appointed judge warns against ruling so that "elites won’t be upset"; Partner pay revealed for Debevoise's John Gleeson; And Hagens Berman's fee award in an antitrust case fails again at the 9th Circuit. We break it all down below ??

???Johnny Depp lawyer is fast-tracked to partner after Heard trial win

Brown Rudnick?associate Camille Vasquez, who became the public face of Johnny Depp’s legal team in his closely watched defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, was promoted to partner less than a week after she helped the actor secure a?$15 million jury verdict.

The team was led by Brown Rudnick partner Benjamin Chew and included nine other attorneys but Vasquez emerged as a major player,?cross-examining?Heard and telling jurors during closing arguments that Heard been the abuser in the relationship.

"In a situation like this, there is absolutely a war for talent, and I'm sure it was very much a retention measure for Ms. Vasquez," Beth Cavagnolo of law firm consultancy Vertex Advisors said of the promotion.

?? Trump-appointed judge defends rulings unpopular with 'cultural elites'

U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, told a Florida chapter of the Federalist Society that jurists "must not be afraid of being booed" by issuing rulings unpopular with "cultural elites" and people who consider the U.S. Constitution "trash."

Ho, a former clerk to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, rebuffed criticisms of originalism, a mode of constitutional interpretation embraced by conservatives that aims to apply the intent of the U.S. Constitution's drafters.

Ho said the legal theory should not be controversial, noting liberal Justice Elena Kagan in her 2010 confirmation hearing declared "we are all originalists."

More recently, Ho noted Supreme Court Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson in March told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee she was focused on the Constitution's "original public meaning because I am constrained to interpret the text."

"You’ve heard of 'fair-weather fans.' Well, if you’re an originalist only when elites won’t be upset with you — if you’re an originalist only when it’s easy — that’s not principled judging. That’s fair-weather originalism."

?? Partner pay watch: Debevoise's John Gleeson shows $6 million in nominee filing

Prominent former U.S. federal judge John Gleeson has reported receiving more than $6 million in 2021 as a partner at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, according to a financial disclosure as part of his nomination to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Gleeson's June 3 financial disclosure showed he received more than $5.6 million in partnership share in 2020 from New York-based Debevoise. He also reported tens of thousands of dollars in royalties for his work on a criminal-practice handbook, and he earned $90,000 total between 2020 and this year in teaching income from New York University School of Law.

Gleeson, a litigation partner in New York who focuses on white-collar defense, regulatory and commercial disputes, served on the Brooklyn federal trial bench from 1994 to 2016.?He is set to?appear today?at the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing with other Biden administration nominees to serve on the sentencing panel.

The other?nominees?include Mississippi U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, who would be the first Black person to chair the commission. U.S. Circuit Judge Luis Restrepo and Laura Mate, director of the Sentencing Resource Counsel, would bring experience to the panel as public defenders.

?? Hagens Berman's fee award in antitrust case fails again at 9th Circuit

In another blow to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that a federal trial judge had used the wrong base dollar amount to calculate fees when it?awarded the plaintiffs' law firm more than $31 million last year for its work in a lawsuit over alleged price-fixing for certain optical disk drives.

The panel identified a lower starting point by several millions of dollars and said a final award of $26,646,000 would not be out of bounds.

Monday's ruling was the latest strike against fee awards in the case spanning more than a decade.

The appeals court earlier wiped out trial court decisions awarding more than $52.7 million in fees. In a 2020 ruling, panel judges found some fault over the starting-point basis for the fee award.

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?? That's all for today! Thank you for reading?The Legal File!

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