Judicial Notice (09.09.23): Show Me The Money
A $16 billion judgment, a $7 billion M&A deal, an exciting new boutique, and other legal news from the week that was.
Labor Day is supposed to mark the unofficial end of summer, but this year it didn’t mark the end of brutal heat. I spent most of the week indoors, in air conditioning. But Zach and I did venture into Manhattan on Saturday to attend a wonderful celebration marking the 25th judicial anniversary of Zach’s former boss, Judge Robert D. Sack of the Second Circuit. It was great to see Judge and Mrs. Sack, their family, and the “family” of former and current RDS clerks.
Speaking of family, congratulations to Sarah Isgur of Advisory Opinions (AO) on the latest addition to hers: Cavan (“Case”) Walter Keller. They’re both doing well, as are Cavan’s older brother Nate and “Husband of the Pod” Scott Keller. I continue to enjoy co-hosting AO with David French while Sarah is out on parental leave, as I did on Tuesday and Thursday, but fear not, loyal listeners—Sarah will be back soon.
Now, on to the news.
Lawyers of the Week: Paul Clement, Andrew Goldsmith, Mark Hansen, and Derek Ho.
In my recent podcast interview with Christopher Bogart, co-founder and CEO of Burford Capital, the world's largest litigation-finance firm, we discussed Burford’s investment in a multibillion-dollar litigation against Argentina, arising out of its expropriation of the national oil company, YPF. At the time of our conversation, the trial before Judge Loretta Preska (S.D.N.Y.) had been completed, but Burford was still waiting on a ruling. Bogart told me that Argentina could end up owing anywhere from $5 to $10 billion.
On Friday, Judge Preska issued her opinion, so we now have a damages number. And it’s significantly larger than $10 billion: according to Bloomberg Law, a whopping $16 billion, consisting of $8.4 billion in damages and $7.6 billion in interest. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Bogart hailed the ruling as an “extraordinary win” and “a major milestone for Burford.” His co-founder, chief investment officer Jonathan Molot, explained that it was hard-fought: “We have been pursuing this case since 2015, and it has involved substantial Burford management time along with the dedicated engagement of a team of some of the best lawyers on the planet from multiple law firms and world-class experts (going up against very good lawyers, and winning).”
As you’d expect given the billions on the line, Argentina retained excellent trial counsel: a Sullivan & Cromwell team led by Robert Giuffra, co-chair of S&C and a go-to lawyer for bet-the-company cases. But in the end, victory went to Burford’s team of Paul Clement, the legendary Supreme Court and appellate advocate (and also a past podcast guest), and his co-counsel at one of the nation’s finest litigation firms, Kellogg Hansen—specifically, name partner Mark Hansen and two of his longtime colleagues, Derek Ho and Andrew Goldsmith. Congratulations to them on an epic win, which according to Burford is the largest judgment in the history of the Southern District of New York—a leading venue for high-stakes cases.
Runner-up for Lawyer of the Week: Kerri Ruttenberg, former head of litigation at Walmart. She went viral after announcing her retirement, at the tender age of 47, in a LinkedIn post that has garnered almost 50,000 views. I was initially surprised by how much traction her announcement received; it struck me as just a classic Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) success story. But after skimming the 500-plus comments, and noticing kudos to Ruttenberg from seemingly every lawyer I know, I concluded that it’s because she’s such a well-liked and well-respected figure in the legal community. Congrats to Kerri Ruttenberg on achieving her goal. (But as someone who’s around her age, I have no desire to retire myself; I enjoy what I do, have good work-life balance, and am grateful to you, my subscribers, for making it possible.)
In memoriam:
Sarah Wunsch—a civil-rights champion, who served as deputy legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts for almost 30 years—passed away at 75.
John “Mac” MacMurray—co-founder of Reboul MacMurray, then a partner at Ropes & Gray after the firms merged—passed away at 84.
May they rest in peace.
Judge of the Week: Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
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