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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

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FIREWORKS - The first bellwether trial in the multidistrict litigation targeting Monsanto Co. with claims that its herbicide Roundup causes cancer got off to a fiery start Monday, as Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco chided plaintiffs lawyer Aimee Wagstaff multiple times to keep her opening statement within the limits he'd already established, namely to causation. Ross Todd reports that the judge issued a show cause order asking Wagstaff to respond in writing last night as to why she should not be sanctioned “for willfully and repeatedly violating the limitations on the subject matter that could be discussed in her opening statement.” You'll recall that Monsanto was hit last year with a $289 million verdict, later slashed by more than $200 million, in San Francisco Superior Court in a Roundup case outside the MDL proceedings.

ON THE HILL - Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify this week before three different congressional committees starting today, when he goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee, privately, as part of its investigation into Russia's U.S. election interference. On Wednesday, the former personal lawyer for President Trump is expected to testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee on a variety of topics, including finances of the Trump Foundation. Cohen on Thursday is scheduled to testify in a closed session before the House Intelligence Committee. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December after pleading guilty to charges related to campaign-finance violations tied to payments he made for Trump to silence women who claimed sexual relations with him.

EASTWARD - Alternative legal service providers are marching across Asia. As John Kang reports, among them Herbert Smith Freehills, which will expand its Alternative Legal Services business into Hong Kong starting in April. Pinsent Masons' flexible lawyering arm, Vario, plans to open in Hong Kong later this year. And last month, Los Angeles-based Elevate entered Hong Kong by acquiring locally based flexible lawyering service provider Cognatio Law.

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EDITOR'S PICKS

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Big Company GCs Sign On as Mentors to Foster Big Law Diversity

Midsize Firms Learning to Compete With Big Law While Avoiding an 'Identity Crisis'

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

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BIG PLANS - Cooley is gearing up to launch a third Asian office. Anna Zhang reports that the Palo Alto-based law firm is opening a Hong Kong location and has recruited Skadden partner Will Cai, who advises Chinese tech and Internet companies on listings in Hong Kong and the U.S. Cooley first entered Asia in Shanghai in 2011, and in early 2018 it added a second office in Beijing. The Beijing and Shanghai offices focus on the firm's funds practice.

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WHAT YOU SAID

“[I]f anybody is going to represent them in legal affairs, of course, they would love somebody from their own tribe.”

— ADAM MOSKOWITZ, OF THE MOSKOWITZ LAW FIRM, WHO FILED AN OPIOID CASE IN FLORIDA AGAINST BIG PHARMA COMPANIES ON BEHALF OF THE MICCOSUKEE TRIBE. THE FIRST MICCOSUKEE INDIAN TO HAVE EVER GRADUATED FROM LAW SCHOOL, CURTIS OSCEOLA, WORKS AT THE FIRM AND IS ALSO HANDLING THE CASE.

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