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☆ How Charlie Javice's Frank Sale to JP Morgan Wound up in Allegations of Fraud
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Katherine Long | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Her financial aid startup, Frank, was featured in the New York Times, CNBC and Wall Street Journal. After leaving the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school, Javice traded on her reputation, bolstered by glowing profiles, as a successful entrepreneur. In a 2018 interview with Insider, Javice claimed Frank secured an average of $28,000 for its users, and was helping students get "thousands off their tuition." "Charlie's first company fizzled after 18 months, so after losing all her investors' money, she convinced every one of them to fund her next company, Frank." At Frank, Javice admitted she sometimes painted a more positive picture of the company's health than was supported by the facts.

☆ Explainer: Why the U.S. is overhauling its marines on Japan's Okinawa
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Tim Kelly | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The U.S. military presence on Okinawa, which began during World War Two, includes most of the 18,000 U.S. marines stationed in Japan. MARINE LITTORAL REGIMENTSThe U.S. Marine Corps is creating 'Marine Littoral Regiments' of around 2,000 troops as part of restructuring plan proposed by the Marine Commandant General David Berger in 2020. Dispersing marine units across Okinawa, even if only temporarily, could see U.S. troops return to islands along the chain for the first time since Washington returned Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. JAPAN'S OKINAWA PIVOTTo reinforce Okinawa, Japan is building new anti-ship and air defence missile bases, and radar stations, including one on Yonaguni, it hopes will deter Chinese forces from attacking. Those weapons, along with anti-ship missiles fielded in Okinawa by the new littoral regiments, could help close a growing missile gap with China, say experts.

☆ How Anti-Abortion Activists Bought Access to the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Katherine Long | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

In exchange for as little as a few thousand dollars in contributions to the nonprofit, these people received easy access to events where Supreme Court justices would be. Supreme Court Historical society trustee Jay Sekulow, center, represented President Trump during the latter's impeachment trial in 2020. Anti-abortion advocates cheer in front of the Supreme Court after the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores was announced in 2014. Alito did not respond to a request for comment on his involvement in the Supreme Court Historical Society. Supreme Court justices, though, aren't even required to stay within those weak guardrails because no code of ethics governs justices' behavior.

[1/2] Participants look around Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force's vessel at a recruiting event in Yokosuka, Japan December 10, 2022. The five-year plan unveiled on Friday will double Japan's defence spending and add new capabilities, including long-range missiles and an expanded cyber warfare unit. "It is just a paper plan and that should be corrected," said Yoji Koda, a retired navy admiral, who commanded the Japanese fleet in 2007-2008. Koda said the plan would limit Japan's ability to fight in situations such as land invasions and sea battles, giving its foes an advantage. Japan's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Page purchased Hans Lollik and its smaller neighboring island, Little Hans Lollik, in 2014 for $23 million. The Hans Lollik Islands in the US Virgin Islands were bought by Larry Page in 2014 cdwheatley/Getty ImagesPage purchased the islands from Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company using a limited-liability company called Virgin Island Properties LLC. Page's intentions for the Hans Lollik islands are unclear, but the larger island of the two may have personal significance for the Google cofounder. In the deposition, Osborne hinted that Larry proposed to his wife, the research scientist Lucinda Southworth, on Hans Lollik. Page expands to the South PacificIn 2020, Page added another island to his portfolio: the heart-shaped Tavarua island in Fiji's Mamanuca archipelago.

☆ DC United owner Jason Levien accused by MLS team's former top lawyer of dodging millions in taxes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jason Levien is CEO of DC United and owns part of Swansea City and the Brisbane Bullets. Levien denied wrongdoing and said he filed New York taxes. The lawsuit was brought by Christopher Deubert, who until last year was the top lawyer for Levien's DC United soccer club. In a statement shared with Insider, Jon Bouker, a lawyer for Levien, said his client paid all the taxes he owed and filed taxes in New York, contrary to Deubert's claims. December 14, 2022: This story has been updated to include comments from Levien's lawyer and a person close to Levien.

The answer is simple, according to more than a dozen Washington insiders, FTX employees, and crypto industry observers who spoke with Insider. I don't think anyone believed that he was going to fund candidates who were, quote unquote, committed to ending pandemics who were also hostile to the crypto industry." Alex Wong/Getty ImagesRebuffed by the SEC, Bankman-Fried turned his attention to Congress. "It's not that he was welcoming regulation," says the senior figure in the crypto industry who attended meetings with Bankman-Fried. But while Bankman-Fried was busy wooing Washington, FTX was about to become Exhibit A in the case for more effective oversight of the crypto industry.

☆ A group of Taylor Swift fans is demanding the Federal Trade Commission investigate Ticketmaster for "predatory" and "misleading" tactics. Read their complaint.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Nine Swifties have asked the FTC to look into Ticketmaster's ticket presale for her upcoming tour. The group is urging Swift fans to file complaints with their state attorneys general. The complaint also claimed that Ticketmaster violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not making clear which seats were accessible to people with disabilities. The complaint claims Ticketmaster's 2010 tie-up with Live Nation should have been blocked. "This is bigger than Taylor Swift," said Burger.

☆ Inside the new database disclosing judicial wealth and potential conflicts, from Justice Neil Gorsuch's $700 cowboy boots to Justice John Roberts' Irish cottage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

One judge disclosed a six-figure investment in cryptocurrency. Those judges' financial lives, and more than 400 others, are laid bare in a new federal database that went live this month. Litigants looking for potential conflicts of interest, and pretty much anybody else, can see what federal judges own, who they owe, what side hustles they have, and what their spouses do. And while private-sector 401(k) plans need to be disclosed, federal employee retirement plans, known as thrift savings plans, don't. It only includes 2021 financial disclosures, and users who want information about previous years' disclosures will have to submit their requests manually.

☆ FTX's future went from being in the hands of the young disrupters to grizzled veteran lawyers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The two key lawyers involved — who were profiled here by Insider's Jack Newsham — have quite the track record, including stints working with Enron, Michael Milken, and Elon Musk. In other news:Mia Lee decided to become a professional girlfriend for a living after her Wall Street accounting job left her burnt out. Here's where they say Wall Street got it wrong when it comes to VC. Salesforce evaluated employees in a way that actually set up some of its top salespeople to get axed, insiders say. "You can take the girl off Wall Street, but you can't take the banker out of the whore."

☆ The future of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried is now in the hands of these 3 lawyers who have worked for Enron, Michael Milken, and Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A senior Paul Weiss lawyer has been hired to defend FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX said on Twitter that a sprawling group of companies founded by Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. The new CEO of FTX is John J. Ray III, a lawyer-turned-executive with a colorful past leading troubled companies, most notably Enron. The firm Paul Weiss and its lawyer Martin Flumenbaum, who represented the junk-bonds king Michael Milken, are representing Bankman-Fried personally. John J. Ray IIIRay joined FTX as CEO just in time to sign its bankruptcy filing.

☆ 'Bulldog' lawyer Thomas Lauria Lauria predicted a crypto 'liquidation boom' well before Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX filed for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jack Newsham | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Thomas Lauria runs the bankruptcy team at White & Case where clients have included Hertz and Johnson & Johnson. But Lauria told Insider that the ability of crypto companies to reorganize will depend on whether they have any real assets. Notably, when Lauria represented Hertz in its Chapter 11 case during the coronavirus pandemic, even its unsecured creditors were repaid in full. So I'm not sure that what's happening in crypto right now is really going to be a reorganization boom, but really probably more of a liquidation boom. About $10 billion of Hertz debt, when they filed, was related to financing in connection with their US fleet.

☆ Court records show law firm Brown Rudnick was hacked in 2020 and its insurance paid a $2 million ransom
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The law firm's cyber insurer paid a ransom and wants to hold a tech vendor liable for $2.4 million. The law firm was one of several breached, including Goodwin Procter and Jones Day. The law firm Brown Rudnick paid criminal hackers $2 million in 2020 so they wouldn't publish confidential records online, and its insurer is still trying to recoup the money it spent responding to the attack, Insider has discovered. The software company paid out millions of dollars to settle with people and businesses impacted by the hack. Brown Rudnick’s name was included in a technical alert that was pasted into the lawsuit by its insurance company.

☆ Law firms that make billions fighting injuries and frauds are very hush-hush about what they pay. Here are the starting salaries at 19 firms from Altshuler to Wigdor.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Many plaintiffs' firms pay somewhere in between. Despite more law firms increasingly paying their top earners like professional athletes, many law school grads only make between $50,000 and $80,000 a year. Things do appear to be changing as more plaintiffs firms seek to compete with Big Law firm talent. But firms like Edelson that pay as much as Big Law firms are the exception. For more information on how these law firms pay, see our table below:Do you have more information on how plaintiffs' firms pay their lawyers?

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☆ Kanye West is no longer working with the white-shoe lawyers who helped him break his deal with the Gap. Here's what they have to say.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Now his lawyers at Cadwalader and Brown Rudnick appear to be distancing themselves. Now, even lawyers that have prided themselves on representing controversial clients appear to be doing the same. A Brown Rudnick spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the TMZ report. Ekwan Rhow, a principal at the law firm Bird Marella, previously referred to himself as a "personal adviser" to West in his online biography, an archived version shows. Gravante made a similar comment to the Cadwalader spokesman when asked for comment about the "Love Lockdown" singer.

☆ Gold rush: Lawyers are flocking to Arizona to take advantage of new rules resulting in a flood of outside investments in law firms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

In 2021, Arizona changed its rules to let non-lawyers co-own law firms, many of which are highly profitable: They collectively made an estimated $320 billion in the US last year. Today, 47 states — all but Arizona, Utah, and Washington — ban anyone but lawyers from owning law firms. Some of the firms Arizona has approved have said they plan to advertise nationwide, and refer cases to other law firms that will actually do the work. Pre-settlement funding, which is one of the riskier kinds of loan for plaintiffs' law firms, often has interest rates of 12 to 20 percent, Ziser said. The UK has allowed outside investment in law firms since 2007 without major scandal, he said, but it also takes a loser-pays approach to lawsuits that can cut down on frivolous claims.

☆ How Equifax used employment records it collects from 2.5 million companies to fire dozens of its own employees for working second jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Kate Taylor | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The crackdown was the result of an investigation that unfolded in recent months conducted by Equifax employees, including HR and cybersecurity, according to a document seen by Insider. The product has employment records, including weekly pay, of 105 million US workers, according to the company's last annual report. At one point, 25 employees were interviewed on the investigation's findings, and 24 were terminated, resulting in savings of $3.2 million, according to a document. In one author's case, this included all salaried positions since graduating college in 2013, as well as a job working in the college library as a student. "With predictions of more than 36 million employees working remotely by the year 2025, the need to monitor an employee's employment status will continue to grow," the company says in marketing material.

☆ Meet the 2022 Supreme Court clerks: 38 lawyers who could be tomorrow's politicians, judges, and influential strategists
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Jack Newsham | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's ClerksSupreme Court Nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. In the interim, Murray has had several different jobs, most recently as an associate professor at Columbia University Law School, where he focused on "constitutional law, election law, and race and the law, among other topics." Michael F. QianQian is no stranger to a SCOTUS clerkship, having worked in the chambers of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from 2019 to 2020. She previously worked at the law firm Hogan Lovells, where she was on a team that helped a Colorado prisoner with an appeal to the Supreme Court. Before clerking for Judge Jackson, Salmanowitz clerked for Judge Paul Watford on the Ninth Circuit.

Alums include 6 judges, Big Law partners, top law school professors, Hunter Biden, and a priest. Yale Law School is one of the most prestigious law schools in the world, and arguably one of the most powerful. Graduates of Yale Law are known for going into public service and academia, but alumni have also landed top positions at elite law firms and Fortune 500 companies. But Yale Law still carries cachet in the legal community, and many top law firms, schools, judges, and agencies hire its alumni. Here's a look at the careers of some notable alumni of the Yale Law Class of 1996, more than a quarter of a century years after their graduation.

Elon Musk could be facing up to $100 million in personal legal fees after renewing his offer to buy Twitter. Both Twitter and Musk employed over 50 lawyers in the months leading up to the trial. A lot of the cost, of course, is going straight to the lawyers and major firms Musk and Twitter employed. He added that hourly billing is unlikely to be how Musk and Twitter were solely charged in this case. Are you legal professional involved in Musk vs. Twitter or someone with insight to share?

☆ A member of the billionaire Safra family who owns the Encyclopedia Britannica might be about to lose his $204 million Napa Valley vineyard after defaulting on a loan
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-30 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But one of his top holdings — Spring Mountain Vineyard, valued at $204 million — could be seized. But that may not stop a private lender from grabbing a prized California vineyard owned by Jacob E. "Jaqui" Safra, a colorful investor and member of the family who lives in Switzerland. With interest accruing at 16%, as of late July, the balance on the loan is $192 million, Safra's lawyer Marc Kasowitz said in court papers. Atmosphere at Live In The Vineyard on Day 1 at Spring Mountain Vineyard for music, food and wine on November 6, 2014 in St Helena, California. "Applicant seeks to restrain defendants from exercising their rights…with respect to a California vineyard," he wrote.

☆ Get ready for 'stealth layoffs' at Big Law firms as the economy slows
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Jack Newsham | Peter Coutu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But at Big Law firms, "managing out" is common, with lawyers quietly directed to look for work elsewhere. O's story stands to become more common as the economy cools and Big Law firms seek to quietly cut costs without technically laying people off. Here's how Big Law firms let people go. Most Big Law firms operate under an "up or out" system, where lawyers are either expected to make partner or leave. Big Law lets more people go and slows down hiring in tough economic timesOne point of agreement is that stealth layoffs rise in economic downturns.

☆ Jesse Watters' rise at Fox, from Bill O'Reilly's ambush man to Tucker Carlson wannabe
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Noah Hurowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +23 min

At the time, Watters was best known for pulling off elaborately planned ambush interviews on "The O'Reilly Factor," then Fox News' top-rated show. When Grim picked his phone up and trained it again on Watters, the smile was gone from Watters' face. Watters on the set of his show "Jesse Watters Primetime." In early 2022, "Jesse Watters Primetime" debuted, airing right before "Hannity." Watters, whose entire career has been at Fox News, might be a safer bet, according to Muto, the former O'Reilly producer.

Persons: Jesse Watters, MSNBC's swank, Watters, O'Reilly, Ryan Grim, Amanda Terkel, Terkel, he'd, Grim, Drudge, Roger Ailes, Tucker Carlson's, Erik Wemple, Tucker Carlson, Carlson's, Carlson, who's, Donald Trump's, Don Jr, Eric, Julio Cortez, David Hockney, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Limbaugh, Mueller, Jon Stewart, Tucker, it's, Wemple, Andrew Lawrence, Lawrence, " Watters, Joe Muto, Jesse, Muto, Clowning, irked O'Reilly, stoke —, Obama, Lefties, Al Qaeda's, Breitbart, Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Bill O'Reilly, Spencer Platt, O'Reilly's, cohosts, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Greg Gutfeld, Juan Williams, Ivanka Trump, Emma DiGiovine, DiGiovine, John Lamparski, Hannity, Sean Hannity, Biden, doesn't, You've, we'll, Newt Gingrich, Watters nodded, Neil Cavuto, Chris Wallace, Mike Pence, Tom Brenner, Wallace, gunning, There's, Bill, Jack Newsham, Katherine Long Organizations: Fox News, DC, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Fox, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Better Homes, Gardens, America, East Coast, Quaker, Trinity, Trump National Golf Club, Republican, CNN, Media, Gawker, Ivy League, Fox Nation, stoke, CIA, Corp's, The New York Times, Democrat, Dominion Voting Systems, Daily, Trump, Reuters, OG Locations: O'Reilly's crosshairs, Washington ,, Virginia, Watters, Terkel's, East, St, Middletown , Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Long, Hartford , Connecticut, Bedminster , NJ, San Diego, An Alabama, Chinatown, Telluride, New York's Chinatown, York, New York, Los Angeles

☆ Ex-Cravath lawyer Andy Klein wants to raise $5 million for his new startup. Here's his pitch to get the Big Law lawyers who use his company's tech to also invest.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

His company Reynen Court is now looking to raise $5 million using a provision of the JOBS Act. More recently, Klein, who lives in Amsterdam, has been growing Reynen Court. The company launched in 2018 with financial backing from a consortium of large law firms, including Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance. Klein said Reynen Court really took off once he was able to persuade 20 of the world's largest law firms to begin using the platform. If the offering succeeds, Reynen Court expects to go forward with a series B fundraising next year, Klein said.

☆ From Jay-Z to Elon Musk: Inside the rise of Quinn Emanuel partner Alex Spiro, one of the lawyers helping the billionaire break out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Elon Musk has fired many lawyers but hired Alex Spiro for at least five cases, with a mixed record. But there's at least one lawyer who Musk seems to get along with: Alex Spiro. Spiro had been working behind the scenes for the billionaire when he was trying to buy Twitter. But they are hardly the "hardcore street fighters" Musk wants in a lawyer, according to a recent tweet of his. It's not clear how Spiro and Musk connected in the first place, but they seem to operate on the same wavelength.

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