Latest news with #Cravath
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Epic Games' Cravath team wins fees in Apple contempt ruling
By Mike Scarcella A federal judge's contempt ruling against Apple has created a major new legal headache for the iPhone maker, and also requires it to write a check to its adversary in the case: "Fortnite" maker Epic Games . U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Wednesday found Apple willfully violated an injunction she issued in Epic's 2020 lawsuit that was meant to open up the company's App Store to greater competition. The decision immediately bars Apple from restricting App Store customers' use of third-party payment systems. The judge held Apple in civil contempt and referred the case to federal prosecutors to probe whether Apple was in criminal contempt of court. Apple said it disputed the ruling and will appeal. As a sanction, Gonzalez Rogers also said Apple must pay legal fees to Epic's legal team, led by Cravath, Swaine & Moore, for the many months the lawyers spent fighting Apple for information about its compliance with the earlier injunction. Epic's team at Cravath was led by partners Gary Bornstein, Yonatan Even, Lauren Moskowitz and Michael Zaken. Bornstein declined to discuss the size of the Epic's legal tab on a call with reporters. The fee sanction could be in the tens of millions of dollars, based on the number of lawyers working for Epic, and the all-out battle that was waged over trying to pry information from Apple. Some Cravath litigation partners, including Moskowitz, have billed this year at $2,360 an hour, according to a Reuters review of U.S. court filings. "Epic's obviously not out here for fees," Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney told reporters. "We're fighting for the freedom of ourselves and all developers to do business directly with our customers, freedom from Apple interference and Apple taxation." Apple is represented by a team from Weil Gotshal led by Mark Perry. Lawyers from Gibson Dunn also represented Apple, which has denied violating the court's injunction. The court's order faulted Apple's lawyers, without naming them, for not correcting what the judge called "obvious lies" in testimony by an Apple executive. Two of Apple's chief lawyers in the Epic case did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Gonzalez Rogers' order also addressed a separate bid from Apple to recoup more than $73 million in legal fees from Epic for violating the App Store's developer agreement. The court's ruling suggested Apple will not recover that much but is due some fees from Epic. Epic's legal team predicted any award would concern only a "small amount."
Reuters
01-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Epic Games' Cravath team wins fees in Apple contempt ruling
May 1 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to opens new tab) A federal judge's contempt ruling against Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab has created a major new legal headache for the iPhone maker, and also requires it to write a check to its adversary in the case: "Fortnite" maker Epic Games. Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Wednesday found Apple willfully violated an injunction she issued in Epic's 2020 lawsuit that was meant to open up the company's App Store to greater competition. The decision, opens new tab immediately bars Apple from restricting App Store customers' use of third-party payment systems. The judge held Apple in civil contempt and referred the case to federal prosecutors to probe whether Apple was in criminal contempt of court. Apple said it disputed the ruling and will appeal. As a sanction, Gonzalez Rogers also said Apple must pay legal fees to Epic's legal team, led by Cravath, Swaine & Moore, for the many months the lawyers spent fighting Apple for information about its compliance with the earlier injunction. Epic's team at Cravath was led by partners Gary Bornstein, Yonatan Even, Lauren Moskowitz and Michael Zaken. Bornstein declined to discuss the size of the Epic's legal tab on a call with reporters. The fee sanction could be in the tens of millions of dollars, based on the number of lawyers working for Epic, and the all-out battle that was waged over trying to pry information from Apple. Some Cravath litigation partners, including Moskowitz, have billed this year at $2,360 an hour, according to a Reuters review of U.S. court filings. "Epic's obviously not out here for fees," Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney told reporters. "We're fighting for the freedom of ourselves and all developers to do business directly with our customers, freedom from Apple interference and Apple taxation." Apple is represented by a team from Weil Gotshal led by Mark Perry. Lawyers from Gibson Dunn also represented Apple, which has denied violating the court's injunction. The court's order faulted Apple's lawyers, without naming them, for not correcting what the judge called "obvious lies" in testimony by an Apple executive. Two of Apple's chief lawyers in the Epic case did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Gonzalez Rogers' order also addressed a separate bid from Apple to recoup more than $73 million in legal fees from Epic for violating the App Store's developer agreement. The court's ruling suggested Apple will not recover that much but is due some fees from Epic. Epic's legal team predicted any award would concern only a "small amount." -- A founder of law firm Kramer Levin's Paris office has sued the firm, opens new tab in New York state court, accusing it of failing to make certain payments in breach of their partnership agreement. Antoine Paszkiewicz, who had worked at Kramer Levin since 1999, alleged he is owed compensation following the firm's move in late 2024 to end its agreements with Paris partners as part of a plan to merge with law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. Some of Kramer Levin's Paris team jumped to rival law firm Morgan Lewis. Paszkiewicz said he was excluded from those negotiations because he was over the firm's mandatory retirement age of 65. Kramer Levin, he alleged, then failed to pay him the full compensation he was due under their partnership terms. Kramer Levin in a statement said it appreciated "the contributions of our former partners in Paris. The orderly winddown of the Paris office has fully complied with our partnership agreement." A lawyer for Paszkiewicz did not immediately respond to requests for comment. --Law firms including Constantine Cannon and Shinder Cantor Lerner said they will ask a U.S. judge to award them up to $76 million in fees as part of a $228 million antitrust class action settlement involving California's Sutter Health. Employers and individuals who sued Sutter in 2012 filed the proposed settlement in the San Francisco, California federal court, seeking a judge's approval. Sutter, represented by Jones Day, denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. US lobbying firms see early revenue boost in Trump's second term Bitcoin miner accuses K&L Gates of botching bankruptcy claim, overbilling Former top Trump diplomat settles legal fee fight for $1.1 million
Reuters
24-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Ex-DOJ criminal division chief Argentieri joins law firm Cravath
Feb 24 (Reuters) - Nicole Argentieri, the former head of the U.S. Department of Justice's criminal division during the Biden administration, is joining Cravath, Swaine & Moore as a partner, the law firm said on Monday. Argentieri oversaw 1,400 prosecutors and staff members as acting assistant attorney general and principal deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division, which she joined in 2022, the New York-founded firm said. She said in a LinkedIn post that her last day at the Justice Department was December 19. She previously worked at law firm O'Melveny & Myers and as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York. She joins Cravath's investigations and regulatory enforcement practice and will be based in New York. Top U.S. law firms have been hiring senior officials from the Justice Department and other federal agencies who are moving to the private sector since Republican President Donald Trump took office. Cravath, one of the country's most profitable firms, was historically known for infrequently making outside partner hires, instead promoting from within its ranks. But the firm has made a handful of hires in recent years, including other former government officials. In 2022, the more than 200-year-old firm opened an office in Washington, its second location in the United States. Last month Cravath hired Andrew Finch, who was a top Justice Department antitrust official in the first Donald Trump administration. Finch most recently co-chaired the antitrust practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York.
New York Times
04-02-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Samuel Butler, Lawyer Who Helped Create Corporate Giants, Dies at 94
Samuel Butler, a Midwesterner who became a top figure of the Wall Street legal world, advising on transformative takeovers and leading city institutions like the New York Public Library, died on Jan. 4. He was 94. His death, at home in Manhattan, was confirmed by Naren Daniel, a spokesman for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the law firm where Mr. Butler worked for 47 years. Over a nearly five-decade career as a lawyer — 18 of those years as presiding partner at Cravath, one of Wall Street's most elite firms — Mr. Butler became a go-to adviser on major mergers and acquisitions, helping to create some of today's corporate giants. He is also credited with helping Cravath, long known as a law firm to blue-chip companies like J.P. Morgan, get a piece of the deals boom that took off in the 1980s. He advised the drug maker Squibb in its sale to Bristol-Myers in 1989, Time Inc. in its 1990 merger with Warner Communications, CBS in its 1995 sale to the Westinghouse Corporation, Capital Cities/ABC in its 1995 sale to Walt Disney, and Salomon Smith Barney in its 1997 sale to Travelers Group. 'When you think about all the big deals that were going on in the '80s and '90s, Sam was right there,' Faiza Saeed, Cravath's current presiding partner, who worked with Mr. Butler on the Capital Cities deal, said in an interview. Mr. Butler himself played down his mergers credentials. 'I do not regard myself as a classic M.&A. transactional lawyer,' he said in a 2004 town hall meeting at Cravath. 'I would regard myself as a relationship lawyer.' That was perhaps most evident in his decades-long bond with one of the most famous corporate deal makers of the modern era, Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway. The two got to know each other in the 1970s, when Mr. Butler was a director of Geico, then a troubled auto insurer that suddenly found itself with a major new shareholder: Mr. Buffett, who had amassed nearly a fifth of the company's shares. The men, both sons of the Midwest, formed a friendship that eventually led to one of Mr. Butler's highest-profile professional accomplishments. Mr. Buffett called him on July 27, 1995, a Thursday, saying he needed help with a transaction that was to be announced the following Monday: Disney's takeover of Capital Cities, of which Berkshire was a major shareholder. Mr. Buffett was worried that Capital Cities' lawyers did not have enough experience with big-ticket transactions — and knew that Disney was led by Michael Eisner, a hard-nosed negotiator, Mr. Butler said in a 2007 interview with The Wall Street Journal. When the Berkshire chief explained the situation to Mr. Butler, the lawyer cut him off, Mr. Buffett recalled, telling him, 'We are taking the assignment.' The two parties sprinted to finish the negotiations, and Disney's takeover was announced as scheduled, on July 31. 'During Sam's tenure at Cravath, everybody wanted him as their lawyer,' Mr. Buffett said in a statement. 'Berkshire was lucky to have the opportunity to work with him.' Samuel Coles Butler was born on March 10, 1930, in Logansport, Ind., to Melvin Butler, the business manager and co-owner of the Muehlhausen Spring Factory, and Jane (Flynn) Butler, a former schoolteacher. During World War II, he attended Culver Military Academy, a preparatory boarding school in Culver, Ind., that he credited with challenging him academically. The school's headmaster was an alumnus of Harvard, and persuaded Samuel, who was first in his class, to apply. He did, and went on to earn both his undergraduate and law degrees there. He then clerked for the Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, and later served in the Army. In 1952, he married Sally Thackston, whom he had met when he was 16. She died in 2023. He is survived by their three children, Sam, Leigh and Elizabeth; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. After military service, Mr. Butler interviewed for legal jobs in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas and Houston, hoping, as a self-described small-town kid, to avoid moving to New York City. But he realized that the best jobs were there, and in 1956 joined Cravath. He made partner in 1960. Mr. Butler, who stepped down as presiding partner in 1998 and retired in 2003, was known among colleagues not only for his expertise in the law but for an unprepossessing manner and for promoting the work of younger lawyers. 'He was not just the eminence grise, and everyone else was just a bag carrier,' Ms. Saeed said. Beyond his work for corporate giants, he also represented the European Union and the European Investment Bank in American securities law matters for more than 40 years. Outside the office, he devoted his time to several nonprofit institutions, including his alma maters Harvard and Culver, the American Museum of Natural History, Vassar College and the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund. Chief among those institutions was the New York Public Library, where Mr. Butler was a board member for 45 years and chair from 1999 to 2004. A prolific fund-raiser, he helped the library pay for building renovations and the expansion of its digital resources. 'He devoted enormous time and energy to keeping the library strong,' Ms. Saeed said. 'He viewed that as part of his responsibility, as someone who had been fortunate to have success in business.'
