On The Merits

Dr. Anthony Fauci is leaving the National Institutes of Health, but he's been very clear that he's not retiring.The man who is arguably America's most famous physician announced in late August that his more than five decade career in government will be coming to an end. But, he says he will continue to work in the field of medical science—especially with the Covid-19 pandemic still lingering.On this episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, we feature an exclusive interview with Dr. Fauci by a trio of Bloomberg reporters. They discuss his post-NIH plans—including potentially penning a memoir— as well as his desire to continue serving on medical advisory boards and helping develop universal vaccines for Covid, HIV, and the flu.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's a near certainty that someone, somewhere will challenge President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan in court. What's uncertain is what will happen if Biden loses.As a legal justification for wiping out billions in student loans, the White House cited a post-9/11 law originally conceived as a way to help soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some administrative law experts question the legality of using this law to forgive student loans during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.On today's episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law White House reporter Courtney Rozen sets up the coming legal fight over the extent of presidential authority around student loans. And she discusses what could happen if the program ultimately gets struck down in court.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The revolving door in Tesla's legal department is spinning as fast as ever. A few weeks ago, it appointed its seventh chief legal officer within just the past four years.Amid Tesla's many legal problems - from allegations of unfair labor practices to Tesla's auto-pilot issues - is the automaker's inability to hold onto a general counsel actually a problem? Or is this a non-issue for the electric car giant and its billionaire owner Elon Musk's ?On today's episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, we hear from Bloomberg Law reporter Brian Baxter, who broke the news last week of the latest attorney to leave Tesla. He talks about why this has been happening, how he learned about it, and what Tesla is or isn't doing to stop this trend.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's been 10 years since the epic collapse of mega-law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, and we've never heard from its former chairman, Steven Davis.Until now.Davis spoke at length with Andrew Satter and Josh Block, the directors of a new documentary, about how Dewey grew so big so fast—and why it fell so far.The documentary video on Davis and his firm comes out Aug. 3. But in this episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, Satter and Block give a preview about why Davis chose to break his silence now, and why law firms should look to Dewey as a cautionary tale.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

In the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal in the late 2000s, the SEC set up a program to reward whistleblowers who uncover fraud against investors. Since then, the program has paid out more than $1.3 billion.But who's receiving this money? And what information are they providing to the agency? And why is a huge chunk of the money going to whistleblowers represented by attorneys who used to work at the SEC?Bloomberg Law reporter John Holland recently published an investigative report looking at all of these questions. He found that the SEC's whistleblower program is operating with shockingly little oversight from either the courts or Congress. Holland joins this week's episode of our legal news podcast, On The Merits, with two of his sources: whistleblower attorney Reuben Guttman, and University of Kansas law professor Alex Platt, who's conducted research into what's happening here.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

For months now, both the legal and financial worlds have had their eyes glued to billionaire Elon Musk's theatrical attempt to purchase (or not) the social media giant Twitter.Musk is now trying to back out of the $44 billion deal, claiming Twitter refused to provide him with vital information. Twitter is trying to force Musk to follow through on the purchase by taking him to court in Delaware, where earlier today a judge set an expedited trial date for October.If this deal ultimately does go unconsummated, it may not be the only one. A contracting economy and tumbling stock markets mean that mergers and acquisitions that made sense during expansionary times may not make sense any longer.On today's episode of On The Merits, our weekly legal news podcast, Bloomberg Law's Matthew Bultman and Bloomberg News' Ed Hammond discuss what the Delaware Chancery Court can really do in Twitter v. Musk, what happens if Musk loses this case, and why Twitter would even still want to be owned by someone who is publicly bashing the company.They also talk about the rocky future for the broader deals market in an ailing economy—and what that may mean for the attorneys who rely on it for billable hours.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The Supreme Court's landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last month was the end of Roe v. Wade, but the beginning of a whole new era of turmoil over reproductive rights in corporate America.For example, big corporations and law firms are weighing whether they should offer to pay for their employees to travel to receive an abortion. And if they do, how to respond if Republican lawmakers retaliate against them. Will some of these companies play both sides of the issue and continue to donate to GOP lawmakers, while publicly denouncing the abortion laws they enact?Beyond corporate politics, there's also the more tangible issue of health care access. Some new state anti-abortion laws place restrictions on drugs that can terminate a pregnancy. But some doctors, pharmacists, and patients say it's unclear if it's still legal to prescribe these drugs for vital off-label uses.Bloomberg Law has been covering all of the fallout from the abortion ruling, and on this week's episode of On The Merits, our weekly legal news podcast, reporters Maia Spoto, Clara Hudson, and Celine Castronuovo dig into all of the new issues that have arisen in the past few weeks.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Last week Paul Clement, arguably the most experienced Supreme Court litigator ever, announced he was leaving Kirkland & Ellis, arguably the largest law firm ever. He cited "client loyalty" as his reason for packing his bags.Clement left after the mega-firm decided, in the wake of several mass shootings, that it would no longer work on gun rights issues. He said he disagreed with this decision and that attorneys have a "professional responsibility" to represent these clients.The move raised an eternal question within the legal world: do clients choose their attorneys, or do attorneys choose their clients?On this week's episode of our legal news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Roy Strom weighs in. He says, at least in civil cases, there's no ethical problem with dropping a client and that firms have a long history of being selective about whom they represent.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The actor Seth Green has reportedly paid a ransom for the return of his purloined NFT, and that's disappointing some intellectual property attorneys.For those not in the know: Green, who played Dr. Evil's son in the Austin Powers franchise, was planning to develop a TV show around an NFT he had purchased. But then a hacker stole the digital token from him. This raised all sorts of novel legal issues around whether Green still had the rights to exploit the IP.Riddhi Setty, an IP reporter with Bloomberg Law, says a lot of attorneys were hoping Green would go to court and get a ruling from a judge about whether he still owned the stolen token's IP. This could have cleared up some unanswered intellectual property questions around digital assets.For this episode of our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, Setty explains to us why Green was in this situation in the first place, and why Green's decision not to go to court only delays the legal reckoning for NFTs and intellectual property.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

As the pandemic started to ease, big law leaders worked to fine-tune their remote work policies. Should lawyers be in the office two days a week? Three? Quinn Emanuel had another idea—never.The Los Angeles-based firm, led by its iconoclastic founder, John Quinn, embraced a work-from-anywhere policy. Quinn says it wasn't without its challenges, but that he's glad his namesake firm made this move. At the very least, he says, he hopes it will spur disgruntled attorneys working at more inflexible firms to send him their résumés.On this week's episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Quinn speaks to Bloomberg Law's Roy Strom about why Quinn Emanuel is going all in on the remote work trend within Big Law. He also talks about why he thinks a tremendously profitable 2021 was not a fluke for the litigation-focused Quinn Emanuel.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.