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3. BigLaw attorneys who are ‘frequent practitioners’…

Civil Procedure

BigLaw attorneys who are ‘frequent practitioners’ in federal district can’t be admitted pro hac vice, judge says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 5, 2025, 3:45 pm CST

Two Baker & Hostetler lawyers won’t be able to represent a compounding pharmacy in a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, at least for now, after a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas denied their application to appear pro hac vice.

Partner Andrew M. Grossman and associate Marc N. Wagner cannot be admitted pro hac vice because they are “frequent practitioners” in cases filed in the Northern District of Texas, said U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman of the Northern District of Texas in a March 3 order.

Law360 covered the decision, noting that pro hac vice motions “are common and usually regarded as an afterthought. They are rarely denied.”

A pro hac vice admission means that a lawyer has been admitted to practice in a jurisdiction in only one particular case, Pittman said. In the past year, however, Grossman submitted three such applications, while Wagner submitted four of them in the Northern District of Texas, including the applications in the case before Pittman.

The lawyers, Pittman said, are encouraged “to file applications to be admitted to practice in this court, and [this court] would happily welcome them as members of the bar.”

Grossman is licensed in Washington, D.C., and admitted to practice before nearly every federal appeals court. Wagner is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Wagner and Grossman did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment. They are among six Baker & Hostetler lawyers who signed the Feb. 24 suit and among four who planned to seek pro hac vice admission in the case.

The suit challenges an FDA decision to remove the weight loss drug semaglutide from a shortage list, which meant that compounding pharmacies were no longer allowed to help satisfy demand. The plaintiffs in the suit are a compounding pharmacy and a trade association that represents compounding facilities.

Pittman appears to be a stickler for the rules. He previously dismissed a suit because of a missed deadline to file a certificate of interested persons and sanctioned two lawyers in a different suit for submitting declarations instead of notarized affidavits as he had directed.

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3. MacArthur ‘genius grants’ fellows include…

Careers

MacArthur ‘genius grants’ fellows include law prof, domestic violence researcher

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 3, 2024, 2:30 pm CDT

Among the winners of the 2024 MacArthur Foundation fellowships, commonly known as “genius grants,” are a law professor who studies racial inequities and a researcher who studies the impact of technology on intimate partner abuse.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced 22 fellows Tuesday who will each receive no-strings-attached grants of $800,000 paid over five years, report the New York Times and the Associated Press.

The winners include:

  • Dorothy Roberts, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Her work has exposed racial inequities embedded within health and social service systems. One topic of her writing has been the prosecution of pregnant Black women for using drugs, she told the New York Times.

“I started this work in 1988,” Roberts told the New York Times. “To get this kind of recognition is very gratifying. Not only for me personally but for all the people, especially Black women, who’ve been devalued in these systems.”

  • Nicola Dell, a computer and information scientist. Dell studied the tactics used by domestic abusers to surveil their intimate partners. Dell co-founded the Clinic to End Tech Abuse. The group is staffed with volunteers who “check survivors’ devices for spyware, disentangle joint accounts, and provide other forms of privacy and safety guidance,” according to the MacArthur Foundation’s description.

  • Loka Ashwood, a professor at the University of Kentucky and a sociologist who has examined environmental injustice and anti-government sentiment in rural communities. She co-authored a book in 2023 that provides an overview of right to farm laws. Intended to protect family farms, the laws have been used by agricultural corporations to boost profits, Ashwood found.

  • Alice Wong, a writer, an editor and a disability activist. Wong founded the Disability Visibility Project “to amplify the unfiltered voices of disabled people and explore the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender identity and disability,” according to the MacArthur Foundation. She has also brought attention to policies that adversely affect people with disabilities, including bans on drinking straws and health care systems that don’t require masks.

Other grant winners include artists, writers, an oceanographer, an evolutionary biologist, historians, a cabaret performer, a filmmaker and an astronomer.

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3. Florida can’t enforce law blocking real estate…

Real Estate & Property Law

Florida can’t enforce law blocking real estate purchases by Chinese citizens against 2 plaintiffs, court rules

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 6, 2024, 1:05 pm CST

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Florida law barring real estate purchases by Chinese citizens can’t be enforced against two plaintiffs while their court challenge continues.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta said the plaintiffs had shown a substantial likelihood of success on their claim that the Florida statute is preempted by federal law. The appeals court blocked enforcement against two plaintiffs with pending real estate transactions.

Reuters and Politico have coverage of the Feb. 1 decision, while the Volokh Conspiracy has highlights.

The federal law establishes a system for security review of real estate purchases by foreign nationals, according to a Feb. 1 press release by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which seeks to protect and promote the civil rights of Asian Americans.

The Florida law, Senate Bill 264, generally bars any real-property purchases in the state by any person whose permanent domicile is in China and who is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

People domiciled in other countries “of concern” who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents may buy Florida property—unless it is within 10 miles of a military installation or critical infrastructure facility.

In a concurrence, Judge Nancy G. Abudu said she agreed that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their preemption argument. But she would have also granted the preliminary injunction based on a second ground— that the law likely violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Abudu acknowledged U.S. Supreme Court precedent holding that any state can deny aliens the right to own land within its borders. But the Supreme Court has since called into question that decision, Terrace v. Thompson, and the cases that followed, Abudu said.

Abudu is an appointee of President Joe Biden. Other judges on the panel are Judge Kevin Newsom, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, and Judge Adalberto Jordan, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton.

The case is Shen v. Commissioner, Florida Department of Agriculture.

The plaintiffs are a real estate company and Chinese immigrants who can’t buy a home in Florida, even though they live, work and raise families there.

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, the DeHeng Law Offices, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.