In the News Today – July 21, 2016
- Yates Memo Driving Wedge Between Companies and Workers: Experts say the so-called Yates Memo has employees and their employers at odds as both feel they’ve been thrown under the bus. “In the past, if an employee committed misconduct, he’s going to get fired and that might be it,” said Ryan Rohlfsen, a partner at Ropes & Gray. “Now, that individual faces a greater risk of being personally investigated by the DOJ.” As employees become aware of these potential consequences, some have started to clam up out of fear that they might be implicated in wrongdoing. (Law360)
- Feinberg Says he was Suspicious of Watts’ 41,000 Oil Spill Claims: Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill claims office, testified yesterday in the criminal trial of plaintiffs’ attorney Mikal Watts. Watts faces allegations he inflated his client list prior to reaching a $2.3 billion settlement on behalf of 41,000 seafood workers. At the time Watts had submitted his claims, Feinberg said he had already paid $1 billion to 50,000 people, and he wrote to Watts, “it’s hard to believe there are even 41,000 fisherman in the Gulf who would even file a claim.” (Biloxi Sun-Herald)
- New Company Offers ‘Insurance for When a Case Crashes’: In what Forbes’ Daniel Fisher calls “another take” on the third party litigation finance industry, two attorneys launched Level Insurance — which allows lawyers to “buy insurance in case their case crashes.” Fisher notes the “conflicts inherent in any such arrangement, especially if lawyers put pressure on their clients to accept a settlement in order to pay back their own loans.” (Forbes)
