Senate approves 66 new judgeships, ABA pushes for attorney unplug time, Texas law firms pursue $1.4 bln Meta settlement share, and more➡

☀️ Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:

⌛US Senate approves bill to create 66 new federal judgeships

The U.S. Senate on Aug. 1 unanimously approved a bipartisan proposal that would add 66 new judges to understaffed federal district courts around the country over the next decade, which if enacted would be the first major expansion of the judiciary since 1990.

The bill, which passed by unanimous consent, is designed to address longstanding requests, from the judiciary to help address rising caseloads by adding judges in 25 district courts in 13 states including California, Texas, and Delaware. The bill now goes to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans and Democrats who co-sponsored the bill have said it is necessary to address a sharp increase in court filings since 1990, when Congress created 11 new circuit court judgeships and 74 new seats on district courts in the last comprehensive judgeship bill.

"For decades, Congress has failed to authorize new federal judgeships, creating a massive backlog of case filings for our nation’s federal judges – especially in Delaware, where there are only four active judgeships," one of the sponsors, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, said in a statement.

The JUDGES Act was initially introduced in 2023 and would have added half of the new judges in 2025 and the other half in 2029. The amended version passed by the Senate on Aug. 1 will add new judgeships in five tranches through 2035.

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📅Law firms should let attorneys unplug with billable hour credit, ABA proposal says

Legal employers should encourage their employees to fully unplug from work for a minimum of one week a year to reduce burnout and improve well-being, according to an American Bar Association proposal.

Law firms should also issue lawyers 40 billable hour credits to incentivize them to log off email and step away from all work duties for a consecutive week each year, under a resolution, submitted by the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division.

The ABA’s National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being says about a quarter of lawyers are “workaholics,” compared with about 10% of U.S. adults. Work addiction correlates to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and work burnout, it found.

“Attorneys work long hours and often do not take time to truly unplug from work,” read a report on the resolution, which is scheduled to be considered by the ABA’s policymaking policy body when it meets on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6.

The ABA has no direct authority over law firms, but as the largest voluntary bar association in the country with about 150,000 paying members, its resolutions send a strong message to the legal industry. The resolution comes at a time of increasing concern over lawyer mental health.

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💸Legal Fee Tracker: Texas contracts show law firms' stake in $1.4 bln Meta settlement

Two private law firms that helped Texas ink a $1.4 billion biometric privacy settlement with Facebook parent Meta Platforms this week could wind up with more than $300 million in combined legal fees for their work on the case, according to contracts they signed with the state.

The Texas attorney general's office hired Chicago-founded Keller Postman, and Dallas-founded McKool Smith, to sue Meta in 2022, agreeing to two paths for their eventual payment. One option grants each firm 11% of the recovery, which works out to about $154 million apiece from the settlement. The other provides for them be paid by the hour, with individual lawyer rates ranging up to $945 per hour, but with the total multiplied by four.

The firms will receive whatever option produces the smaller sum, according to the contracts, so they could not collect more than the 11% contingency fee. They have not disclosed their hours.

Keller Postman and McKool Smith must submit a final written statement detailing their fees and expenses within 60 days of the Meta settlement being "fully executed."

It was the first lawsuit the state had brought under its 2009 biometric privacy law, according to law firms that tracked the litigation. The law provides for damages of up to $25,000 per violation.

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👩⚖️Two Biden picks for US appeals courts advance in US Senate

Two of President Joe Biden's nominees to fill U.S. appeals court vacancies will move on to a full U.S. Senate vote, after the Senate Judiciary Committee on Aug. 1 advanced their nominations.

The Democratic-led Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 along party lines to advance the nominations of Judge Julia Lipez in Maine to serve on the Boston-based 1st Circuit and labor lawyer Karla Campbell in Nashville for a seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit.

Campbell is a labor lawyer who is of counsel at the law firm Stranch, Jennings, and Garvey. Her practice has focused on the federal Employment Retirement Income Security Act. She clerked for Judge Jane Stranch of the 6th Circuit. Durbin has called Campbell a “highly experienced trial attorney and appellate practitioner.”

Lipez, a former U.S. prosecutor, has served on the Maine Superior Court bench since 2022. A group of former prosecutors in a letter to the judiciary committee called Lipez “exceptionally well qualified” for the appeals court.

Lipez received support from survivor advocacy groups for her work prosecuting or presiding over cases involving sexual assault or domestic violence, Durbin said at Lipez's confirmation hearing.

The Senate so far has confirmed 205 of Biden’s judicial nominees, including 43 appointments to the nation's 13 federal appeals courts. Biden has prioritized appointing women and minorities to the federal bench, in a bid to increase the diversity of the courts.

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👋 That's all for today, thank you for reading The Legal File, and have a great weekend!

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