In this episode of Law, disrupted, John is joined by Lucas Bento, Of Counsel in Quinn Emanuel’s New York office. Bento is the author of The Globalization of Discovery: The Law and Practice under 28 U.S.C § 1782 (Section 1782), the first and only book to discuss the law pertaining to that Section. John and Lucas discuss how, under Section 1782, parties to proceedings outside of the US can invoke discovery procedures inside the US in aid of those foreign proceedings. John notes how many f...

John is joined by Kimberly Carson, Partner in Quinn Emanuel’s New York Office. They discuss the FTC’s recent rule banning contractual noncompete provisions in employment agreements nationwide. Kimberly explains that the new rule bans employers from enforcing existing noncompete provisions, entering new noncompete provisions, and representing that workers are subject to noncompete provisions. She also explains the exceptions to the new rule for existing noncompete provi...

John is joined by Michael K. Young, Professor of Law and Former President of Texas A&M University, the University of Washington and the University of Utah. They discuss Michael’s career in higher education, starting with his years at Columbia Law School, including the two and a half years that he was a visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo, his establishment of the East Asian Legal Studies Center at Columbia and continuing through his service at the State Department wh...

John is joined by Christine Lehman, Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP and an accomplished trial attorney focusing on patent litigation. They discuss the $525 million verdict Christine and her team recently won against Amazon Web Services (AWS) for infringing tech company Kove’s patent rights in data-storage technology. Christine describes how she presented to the jury the journey of the inventor, John Overton, from his ...

John is joined by C. Dabney O'Riordan, partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Los Angeles and DC offices and longest-serving leader of the SEC's Asset Management Unit, who left the agency last year. They discuss the actions an asset manager can take if it identifies a potential issue to minimize its risk of an SEC investigation or enforcement action. Among the actions they discuss for consideration include stopping the conduct and implementing remedial measures such as updating internal polic...

John is joined by Jesse Bernstein, Partner in Quinn Emanuel’s New York Office and Co-Chair of the Securities Litigation Practice. Jesse explains that the term “securities” applies not only to stocks and bonds, but arguably to any situation where a group of investors place their resources into a common entity where they expect to make profits from the efforts of others. He describes the sources of securities law, including state blue sky laws, the Securities Act of 1933 (which focu...

John is joined by Dr. Hamed Merah, Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) and Nasser Alrubayyi, Managing Partner (KSA), Co-Chair Middle East & North Africa Practice .  They discuss commercial arbitration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the recent impact of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration. Dr. Hamed explains SCCA’s mission to establish a world class center with full case management services where foreign parties will feel comfortable...

John is joined by Professor Song Sang-Hyun, retired Professor of Law at Seoul National University and former President of the International Criminal Court.  Professor Song explains the origins of the Korean civil justice system which is based upon the German system by way of Japan.  He discusses  how after World War II, American Army officers drafted many of Korea’s statutes and, in the past two decades, American law in fields such as corporate law, shipping and aviation law, antitrust law,...

John is joined by Eytan Liraz, the Principal of Eytan Liraz & Co. Law Offices, one of the foremost business litigation firms in Israel.  Eytan explains some of the unique aspects of business litigation in Israel, including that Israel has more lawyers per capita than any other country on earth, that aggressive litigation is a common and accepted business strategy, and that Israel has far more class action lawsuits than other countries, including lawsuits where the complaints are literally...

John is joined by Courtney Bowman, the Global Director of Privacy and Civil Liberties at Palantir, one of the foremost companies in the world specializing in software platforms for big data analytics. They discuss the emerging trends in AI regulation.  Courtney explains the AI Act recently passed by the EU Parliament, including the four levels of risk it assesses for different AI systems and the different regulatory obligations imposed on each risk level, how the Act treats general purpose AI...

John is joined by Christopher Bogart, CEO, Director and Co-Founder of Burford Capital, the largest litigation funding firm in the world.  They discuss the use of AI and data science in litigation funding decisions. Chris explains that while AI is currently not advanced enough to make decisions on whether to fund a case, advances in data science now allow litigation funders to improve their decisions by examining enormous amounts of public data to find meaningful facts such as accurate damage...

John is joined by Bethany W. Kristovich, Partner and Co-Chair of the Professional Liability Defense Group at Munger, Tolles & Olson, LLP.  They discuss some of the unique aspects of legal malpractice cases, including how often they arise from collection cases, how a plaintiff must prove not only malpractice but that without the malpractice, the case would have had a different result, the importance of expert testimony in malpractice cases, and the difficulty of mastering damages theories...

John is joined by Júlio César Bueno, Partner and Head of Litigation at Pinheiro Neto Advogados, one of the most highly regarded law firms in Brazil. Júlio explains some of the unique characteristics of the Brazilian civil justice system, including the ability of lawyers to have ex partecommunications with the judge and the severe limits on pretrial discovery. They discuss the burdens imposed by Brazil’s enormous docket (over 83 million pending cases) on the system, including the lengthy...

Guests:  Robert Zink, former head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Fraud Section and partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Washington, D.C. office and Steve Madison, former federal prosecutor and partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Los Angeles office.  John, Robert, and Steve follow up on their August 2023 podcast about the four pending criminal actions against former President Donald Trump. They discuss how events might play out if , as seems likely, Trump is convicted in one or more of the...

John is joined by Dennis Hranitzky, partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Salt Lake City, New York and London Offices,  Head of the firm’s Sovereign Litigation practice and Co-Head of the firm’s Global Asset Recovery Practice.  They discuss various kinds of litigation, arbitration and collection actions against sovereign states. They discuss collection cases against sovereign states resulting from those states’ default on debt instruments, the challenges faced by creditors who hold out after most...

John is joined by David A. Nelson, a partner in the Chicago office of Quinn Emanuel & co-chair of the firm’s National Intellectual Property Litigation Practice. David is widely recognized as one of the most successful patent trial lawyers in the United States. They discuss how trying patent cases is different than trying other commercial cases.  They also discuss how to win patent cases at trial including the importance of developing common sense explanations for technical arguments,...

John is joined by Jim Wilkinson, Executive Chairman of TrailRunner International and Former White House Director of Communications.  They discuss the art of preparing witnesses to testify before congressional committees which is very different than testifying in court. This includes the importance of researching the members of Congress who will question the witness, knowing the discussions occurring in online forums each member frequents, and the four to six categories of questions they are...

John is joined by Major Ben Wahlhaus who serves in the International Law Department of the Israel Defense Forces.   They discuss the application of the international law of armed conflict to the current operations in the Gaza Strip, including the sources of that law and the role that the International Law Department of the IDF plays in trying to assure compliance. They also discuss the three cardinal principles of targeting: distinction (which prohibits intentionally targeting civilians or...

John is joined by Hisaya Kimura, Senior Counsel in the Tokyo office of Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. They discuss aspects of the Japanese legal system, including Japan’s historical adoption of the German civil procedure system and subsequent incorporation of elements, such as cross-examination, of the American system. They also discuss how Japanese litigants typically exchange multiple detailed briefs covering both factual and legal issues in detail for years before trial followed by...

John is joined by Temi Omilabu, an associate in Quinn Emanuel’s New York office.  They discuss her remarkable journey from her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, to becoming a trial lawyer at Quinn Emanuel, including the adjustments she had to make moving from Lagos to first Florida then Texas, her years at Case Western University where she earned her Master’s degree in Bioethics and her work after graduating for two global health-focused nonprofits.  They also discuss her love of advocacy and...

John is joined by Emmanuel Givanakis, the CEO of Abu Dhabi Global Markets Financial Services Authority (ADGM).  They discuss the growth of the ADGM as a leading international financial center based on its unique structure as an independent free zone within Abu Dhabi in which English common law directly applies and judges from the UK and other common law countries hear cases in an independent common law court.  They discuss the role the ADGM plays in diversifying Abu Dhabi’s economy away from...

John is joined by Leslie Zhang Weihua, Vice President and General Counsel of United Energy Group, China, one of the largest independent oil and gas companies in the world.  They discuss Leslie’s extensive experience in international legal affairs, including his experience as general counsel for both large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private companies in China.   They discuss the differences between providing legal services for SOEs and private companies, including the additional...

John is joined by Sean Grimsley, Partner at Olson, Grimsley, Kawanabe, Hinchcliff & Murray LLC, one of the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs in the case in which the Colorado Supreme Court made the historic ruling that former President Donald Trump is not eligible to be elected President in 2024.  They discuss how Sean became involved in the case which his firm filed the day after it first opened its doors, how the case progressed rapidly as a special expedited state court proceeding...

John is joined by Michael Nosanchuk, an associate in Quinn Emanuel’s New York office.  They discuss Michael’s unique journey from studying screenwriting, to driving a taxi in New York City, to his time in sustainable farming to ultimately becoming a successful lawyer working in the premier art disputes practice in the world. They also discuss how these experiences prepared him for his career in law, including how driving a cab taught him cultural fluency, farming taught him patience and...

John is joined by Yixuan Zhu, an Associate in Quinn Emanuel’s Beijing office with a unique expertise in both Chinese and American law.  They discuss Yixuan's background studying law and passing the bar in both China and the U.S., including her experience conducting high stakes investigations in China for multinational companies involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-bribery laws, her decision to join Quinn Emanuel’s Shanghai office, and her studies at both Harvard and the...