N.Y. lawyer disbarred, Ketanji Brown Jackson faces Senate vote, C.A. court rules diversity law unconstitutional
Reuters Legal
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New York real estate lawyer Mitchell Kossoff, who stole millions from clients disbarred, SCOTUS nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faces Senate panel vote, and a Los Angeles court found a corporate diversity law unconstitutional. ?? Good morning! Here's a look at the latest in the industry from?Reuters Legal ??
Attorney regulators in New York have disbarred Mitchell Kossoff after the real estate lawyer pleaded guilty in December 2021 to criminal charges over his theft of millions of dollars in client funds.
Prosecutors said Kossoff, the owner of the now-defunct Kossoff PLLC law firm, misappropriated more than $14.6 million from at least 35 people and companies, which he admitted to in his plea agreement, New York's Appellate Division, First Department said.
Walter Mack, Kossoff's criminal defense attorney, said in an email the official disbarment was anticipated as a result of his client's guilty plea, and Kossoff had "tendered his resignation from the bar" a year ago.
Kossoff, a fixture of the New York real estate market, began transferring funds from his clients' accounts in December 2017, using the money to support another family business and personal expenses, prosecutors said.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's U.S. Supreme Court nominee, faces another hurdle in her journey toward Senate confirmation with a vote in a Judiciary Committee evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans that could end up in a tie.
Even with a possible 11-11 committee deadlock, Jackson's nomination still would proceed to the full Senate, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last week saying the chamber was on track to confirm the D.C. Circuit judge to the lifetime post before its planned holiday recess begins on April 8.
If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman to serve on the top U.S. judiciary body, joining the liberal bloc on a court with a 6-3 conservative majority.
With a simple majority needed for confirmation and the Senate divided 50-50 between the parties, Jackson would get the job if Democrats remain united regardless of how the Republicans vote.
A Los Angeles court has found a California law mandating that publicly traded companies include people from underrepresented communities on their boards unconstitutional, ruling in favor of a conservative group seeking an injunction against the measure.
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Los Angeles County Superior Court granted summary judgment to Judicial Watch on April 1. The conservative legal group had argued the law violates the equal protection clause of California's constitution.
The law required that publicly traded companies with a main office in California appoint at least one member of the Asian, Black, Latino, LGBT, Native American, or Pacific Islander communities to their boards by the end of 2021 through either filling a vacant seat or creating a new one.
The law intends to give minorities a voice within powerful corporation, Governor Gavin Newsom said when he signed it.
It passed following the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer during an arrest, which galvanized a national protest movement against racism and the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.
In other news from the legal sector...
Privacy and cybersecurity lawyer Dominique Shelton Leipzig, who has advised technology giants Amazon.com, Microsoft and Meta Platforms, is taking her practice from Perkins Coie to Mayer Brown, the Chicago-founded law firm said.
Shelton Leipzig joins as a Los Angeles-based partner, where she will lead teams focused on global data innovation and advertising technology privacy and data management, as she did at Perkins Coie.
"What drove the move [to Mayer Brown] is really the inflection point where we are with data right now, with it driving really everything that we do."
Companies want to leverage data to be competitive and are also grappling with a "minefield" of data protection and security laws globally.
Those factors have also driven many other large law firms to bulk up their privacy and data security practice groups in recent years with both new partners and associates.
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