Latest news with #LathamWatkins
Wall Street Journal
19-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Major Office Landlord Is Exploring a Sale of the Company
Paramount Group PGRE 14.33%increase; green up pointing triangle, a major New York City and San Francisco office landlord, is exploring strategic alternatives for its business, which could entail an outright sale of the company. The company said Monday that it has enlisted Bank of America as financial adviser and the law firm Latham & Watkins to conduct a strategic review with 'no set timetable' and 'no assurance' of its outcome. It could end in anything from a sale of the entire company, parts of it, a recapitalization or a joint venture with another entity.
Reuters
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Reuters
Anthropic's lawyers take blame for AI 'hallucination' in music publishers' lawsuit
May 15 (Reuters) - An attorney defending artificial-intelligence company Anthropic in a copyright lawsuit over music lyrics told a California federal judge on Thursday that her law firm Latham & Watkins was responsible for an incorrect footnote in an expert report caused by an AI "hallucination." Ivana Dukanovic said in a court filing, opens new tab that the expert had relied on a legitimate academic journal article, but Dukanovic created a citation for it using Anthropic's chatbot Claude, which made up a fake title and authors in what the attorney called "an embarrassing and unintentional mistake." "Unfortunately, although providing the correct publication title, publication year, and link to the provided source, the returned citation included an inaccurate title and incorrect authors," Dukanovic said. The lawsuit from music publishers Universal Music Group ( opens new tab, Concord and ABKCO over Anthropic's alleged misuse of their lyrics to train Claude is one of several high-stakes disputes between copyright owners and tech companies over the use of their work to train AI systems. The publishers' attorney Matt Oppenheim of Oppenheim + Zebrak told the court during a hearing on Tuesday that Anthropic data scientist Olivia Chen may have used an AI-fabricated source to bolster the company's argument in a dispute over evidence. U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen said at the hearing that the allegation raised "a very serious and grave issue," and that there was "a world of difference between a missed citation and a hallucination generated by AI." Dukanovic responded on Thursday that Chen had cited a real article from the journal American Statistician that supported her argument, but the attorneys had missed that Claude introduced an incorrect title and authors. A spokesperson for the plaintiffs declined to comment on the new filing. Dukanovic and a spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Several attorneys have been criticized or sanctioned by courts in recent months for mistakenly citing nonexistent cases and other incorrect information hallucinated by AI in their filings. Dukanovic said in Thursday's court filing that Latham had implemented "multiple levels of additional review to work to ensure that this does not occur again." The case is Concord Music Group Inc v. Anthropic PBC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:24-cv-03811. For the music publishers: Matt Oppenheim of Oppenheim + Zebrak For Anthropic: Sy Damle of Latham & Watkins Read more: Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics Anthropic reaches deal on AI 'guardrails' in lawsuit over music lyrics Anthropic expert accused of using AI-fabricated source in copyright case
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Law firms defend Trump deals in letters to Democratic lawmakers
May 6 (Reuters) - Five major U.S. law firms defended agreements they reached with President Donald Trump in letters to two Democratic lawmakers, saying they did not compromise their principles in pledging free legal work to causes the White House supports. Four of the firms — A&O Shearman, Cadwalader, Latham & Watkins and Simpson Thacher — specifically asserted they retained the independence to pick their clients and cases following their deals with Trump last month, according to letters, dated April 28, obtained by Reuters. A fifth firm, Kirkland & Ellis, said it would "continue to provide pro bono and other legal services on a non-partisan basis to a wide range of underserved populations." The letters did not say if the firms had dropped pro bono clients or taken on new ones in the wake of the Trump agreements. The firms were responding to requests from U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland for more information about their deals with Trump, including whether they had dropped clients afterwards. Blumenthal and Raskin said the firms were "complicit in efforts to undermine the rule of law and to turn private attorneys into President Trump's personal law firm." The lawmakers said in a joint statement on Monday that the firms' responses raised more questions about the deals. "The inability of the firms to provide serious answers calls for aggressive oversight and inspection of the president's $1 billion shakedown for free legal services for pet causes," they said. Spokespersons for the firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump in February began issuing executive orders targeting law firms for allegedly "weaponizing" the legal system against him and his allies, citing their association with his political adversaries or cases he disfavored. He also accused the firms of adopting discriminatory employment policies. His orders against four firms stripped their lawyers of security clearances, restricted their access to government buildings and threatened to cancel federal contracts held by their clients. Those firms have sued in response, and one, Perkins Coie, on Friday convinced a federal judge in Washington to strike down Trump's order against it. Nine firms in all have pledged a total of $940 million in pro bono legal work to the Trump administration to avoid Trump's actions. Many of them have defended the deals as necessary to protect their business from Trump's executive orders or from a probe of their hiring practices. A&O Shearman, Kirkland, Latham and Simpson Thacher noted in their letters that their deals with Trump resolved a separate inquiry that was launched in March by the acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC acting chair Andrea Lucas had warned 20 major law firms that their employment policies meant to boost diversity, equity and inclusion may be illegal.
