Trump’s Georgia indictment, LSAT offers re-test, Orrick sued over data breach and Leon Black's third lawsuit against law firm over rape claims ??
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump was hit with a fourth set of criminal charges when a Georgia grand jury issued a sweeping indictment accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
The charges, brought late on Monday by Fulton County District Attorney?Fani Willis ?and which Trump called a "witch hunt", add to the?legal woes ?facing the former president, the?front-runner ?in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 election.
The 98-page indictment listed 19 defendants and 41 criminal counts in all.?All of the defendants ?were charged with racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman were among those charged.
Trump and the other defendants have until noon EDT (1600 GMT) on Friday, Aug. 25, to?surrender voluntarily , rather than face arrest, Willis said. She said she intends to try all 19 defendants together.
More on Donald Trump's indictment:
Hundreds of would-be lawyers faced significant delays while trying to take the remote Law School Admission Test on Friday and Saturday, marring the first-ever hybrid LSAT.
The Law School Admissions Council, which administers the LSAT, said the problems stemmed from the online proctoring system. Council spokesman Mark Murray said Monday that "hundreds and hundreds" of examinees were affected, but official numbers are not yet available. Frustrated test takers flooded social media sites with complaints about absent proctors and unexpected delays.
The LSAT is the dominant exam used by law school admissions departments in the United States. August marks the first time LSAT takers could choose between taking the test online or in person, after the exam had been exclusively online since May 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
The council apologized to test takers in an email on August 13 and offered free LSAT retakes on August 19 and 20 with the option of taking the exam in person or remotely. Examinees may also reschedule for another free test through June 2024.
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Law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is facing a new class action lawsuit over a March 2023 data breach that allegedly compromised the personal information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, of more than 152,000 people.
The?lawsuit ?filed Friday in Oakland federal court said Orrick did not inform the alleged victims of the data breach until June, more than three months after it occurred. The firm reported the breach to several state regulators last month.
The breach involved Orrick client data, including people who have dental plans with Delta Dental of California and people who have vision plans with EyeMed Vision Care, according to?sample ?notification ?letters posted by the California attorney general.
Orrick said it will provide up to two years of identity monitoring to the data breach victims. That offer is "woefully inadequate," the lawsuit said.
Law firms and other legal service providers that hold sensitive and confidential data have increasingly faced cybersecurity attacks involving their clients' data and their own business information.
Apollo Global Management?co-founder?Leon Black?has filed a third lawsuit against New York-based law firm?Wigdor, which has represented three women who claimed Black raped them.?
Black's malicious prosecution lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court claims the firm's business model is based on threatening "to sue defendants with scandalous allegations that can be avoided only at the cost of a large settlement, of which Wigdor takes a substantial cut."
The lawsuit said Wigdor has filed three cases on behalf of women asserting false claims of rape against Black — Russian model?Guzel Ganieva , Virginia resident?Cheri Pierson , and an?anonymous plaintiff .
Jeanne Christensen, a partner at Wigdor who has represented the women who have sued Black, said the billionaire's claims are "frivolous" and are aimed at intimidating other women and their lawyers.
A federal judge last year?dismissed ?one of Black's lawsuits, which accused Ganieva and Wigdor of a "criminal enterprise." The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in March.
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