Ross Todd

Ross Todd is the Editor/columnist for the Am Law Litigation Daily. He writes about litigation of all sorts. Previously, Ross was the Bureau Chief of The Recorder, ALM's California affiliate. Contact Ross at [email protected]. On Twitter: @Ross_Todd.

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July 26, 2023 | Litigation Daily

The Serious Emotional Work Judges Have to Do to Come Across as Dispassionate

"In an odd sort of way, the requirement to be impartial, and the related qualities of dispassion are actually sustained by emotion and emotion work," says Kathy Mack, an emeritus professor at Flinders Law School in southern Australia. "So rather than being opposites, they're actually very deeply enmeshed."

By Ross Todd

4 minute read

July 25, 2023 | Litigation Daily

'Fight Like Your Life Depended on It': Cooley's Kathleen Hartnett Reflects on a Decades-Long Relationship With a Pro Bono Client

"I think there is some lesson here for the skeptical at times lawyers to just really keep it up and not give up," said Hartnett of her client Nakia Roy, who at times in his decades-long appeals represented himself pro se.

By Ross Todd

6 minute read

July 24, 2023 | Litigation Daily

The Regional Bank Swoon Yielded a Securities Class Action Boomlet

Cornerstone Research noted in its midyear assessment of securities class actions that the string of bank failures that rocked the markets earlier this year already generated six securities class actions.

By Ross Todd

5 minute read

July 21, 2023 | Litigation Daily

Litigators of the Week: The Defense Team that Showed Ripple's XRP Isn't 'In and Of Itself' a Security

The eyes of the cryptocurrency industry have been on the SEC's case with Debevoise and Kellogg Hansen representing Ripple Labs and Cleary and Paul Weiss representing company executives.

By Ross Todd

11 minute read

July 21, 2023 | Litigation Daily

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week include lawyers from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, Latham, Cravath, Kirkland, Cleary and Cooley.

By Ross Todd

6 minute read

July 20, 2023 | Litigation Daily

After Steep Pro Bono Hours Falloff in 2021, a Steady 2022

In what our friends at The American Lawyer called a "post-pandemic reset," average hours were flat in the latest Pro Bono Scorecard, after an earlier, precipitous drop from the time when lawyers filled their pandemic-stalled dockets with pro bono work.

By Ross Todd

5 minute read

July 19, 2023 | Litigation Daily

Paul Hastings Beats Coke's DQ Motion—and the Judge Breaks Out an Apt Metaphor

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Norway compared the Coca-Cola Co. to a "jaundiced-eyed vaudeville actor." It might sound like a stretch, but the comparison is actually quite illuminating once you hear the judge's setup.

By Ross Todd

4 minute read

July 18, 2023 | Litigation Daily

Getting Judges to Engage With the Science Early in MDLs

Loren Brown and Matt Holian of DLA Piper and Christa Cottrell of Kirkland & Ellis discuss the advantages of having education, explanatory court sessions early in multidistrict litigation.

By Ross Todd

5 minute read

July 17, 2023 | Litigation Daily

'Let Them Get There on Their Own': Notes on Closing Arguments from Two Bronx Criminal Law Vets

The MTA Inspector General Office's Shareema Abel and Fordham Law's Adam Shlahet share tips on closing arguments from their time practicing in the Bronx, where they served as a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney, respectively.

By Ross Todd

5 minute read

July 14, 2023 | Litigation Daily

Litigator of the Week: Beth Wilkinson Takes the Lead for Microsoft in Fending Off FTC Challenge to Activision Deal

After Wilkinson and her team at Wilkinson Stekloff took the lead in a five-day evidentiary hearing, a federal judge in San Francisco refused the FTC's request to pump the brakes on the $69 billion deal.

By Ross Todd

6 minute read

Ross Todd

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