How Paul Weiss boosts Harris campaign, law firms fight over Apple pie, ex-public defender loses sexual harassment case against judiciary, and more ?

?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:

??? Harris presidential campaign finds legal world booster in Paul Weiss firm

U.S. Vice President?Kamala Harris' ?campaign to win the White House is getting a huge boost from Paul Weiss, a white shoe law firm with deep links to the Democratic Party.

A favorite of Big Tech and Wall Street, Paul Weiss employees have donated more to Democratic candidates?this election cycle ?than any other law firm. A partner from the firm has also helped Harris prepare for debates, while Chairman Brad Karp is rallying other lawyers around the vice president.

Relationships between law firms and political candidates — particularly a candidate like Harris who is herself a lawyer — are nothing new. But advocacy groups are concerned that funders with corporate ties could wield outsized influence, shifting Harris away from policies under?President Joe Biden ?that have chafed the business community.

"There is definitely a concern that the revolving door between the Democratic Party and Big Law serves the interests of not only the politicians but clients of the revolving-door officials," said Jeff Hauser, founder of the Revolving Door Project.

Karen Dunn — who co-leads the firm's litigation group and is part of Harris' debate prep team, according to sources familiar with preparations — is the lead lawyer for Alphabet's Google at an antitrust trial scheduled to start on Sept. 9, the day before Harris' first debate with?former President Donald Trump .

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?? Ex-public defender loses sexual harassment case against US judiciary

A federal judge ruled on Friday that a former public defender in North Carolina had failed to prove that U.S. federal judiciary officials mishandled a sexual harassment complaint she lodged against her supervisor.

U.S. District Judge William Young found that Caryn Strickland had failed to establish during a non-jury trial in Asheville, North Carolina, that her rights under the U.S. Constitution to equal protection under the law and due process were violated.

Strickland was among a group of female former judiciary employees who testified to Congress in 2022 in support of legislation to give judicial employees greater rights, a proposal Democratic lawmakers continue to pursue while calling for the judiciary to do more to deter workplace misconduct.

Young joined those calls for reforms of the federal judiciary on Friday, saying even though Strickland lost her case, the "inconvenient truth" was that her career withered and her services in public service were lost after she made a "good faith" claim of sexual harassment.

"That she is without redress under the present legal framework cannot be a cause for congratulation on the part of federal judges or administrators," wrote Young, a Boston-based judge who heard the North Carolina case due to conflicts.

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??Law firms suing Apple over smartphone dominance fight for lead roles

Two competing groups of law firms are pressing a judge to appoint them as leaders of potentially lucrative consumer class actions accusing Apple of monopolizing the smartphone market.

The opposing coalitions of plaintiffs lawyers on Thursday made their pitches to U.S. District Judge Julien Neals in New Jersey, who is presiding over private antitrust cases that were?filed against Apple ?after the U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of states sued the iPhone maker in March.

The firms seeking to represent consumers who bought iPhones from Apple include Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, Girard Sharp, Seeger Weiss and Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Brody & Agnello on one side, with Hausfeld and Susman Godfrey on the other.

At stake is the chance to win an outsized share of legal fees stemming from any settlement of judgment in the consolidated case, which could be worth billions of dollars if it succeeds. The firms all have a track record of securing large antitrust recoveries.

In?their pitch , Hagens Berman's Steven Berman and his team said their rivals' coalition "would place the fate of this groundbreaking case in the hands" of just two law firms. They called that proposal “unrealistic” given the complexity, size and stakes of the case.

Hausfeld and Susman Godfrey in their?counter proposal ?said the interests of the class in a single-defendant case would not “be served by the inefficiencies that come from a sprawling, multi-firm, multi-layered leadership structure.” The two firms touted their "efficient, lean leadership structure."

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?? Micron, Dell, HP win appeal over conflict claims tied to US patent official

A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rulings for Micron, Dell?and HP, finding that the decisions could stand even though the attorney who represented the tech companies later became the office's director.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the companies' adversary in the USPTO case, patent owner Unification Technologies,?had not shown that Kathi Vidal's previous participation in the case influenced the administrative judges who invalidated its patents.

Unification's lead attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. Micron, Dell and HP's attorney Linda Coberly of Winston & Strawn and a USPTO spokesperson declined to comment.

Unification sued Micron, Dell and HP for infringing the patents, which relate to managing and deleting data in memory chips, in Texas federal court in 2020. The HP and Dell cases have since been dismissed, while the Micron case is ongoing.

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?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great weekend!

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