A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Diana Novak Jones, Mike Scarcella and Sara Merken

Good morning. Here are some of the major stories driving the day. Rudy Giuliani at a civil trial today will fight to keep his Florida condo, and Luc Cohen looks at how we got here. Plus, California wildfire victims are suing a utility under a unique legal doctrine; the justices boosted defenses in wage lawsuits; and Pam Bondi returns to Capitol Hill for her hearing to serve as U.S. attorney general. Let’s dive in. 

Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.

REUTERS/David Dee Delgado

Rudy Giuliani heads to trial today in his bid to block two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of helping steal the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden from seizing his condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, our colleague Luc Cohen reports.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan will oversee the non-jury civil trial, capping off a rough month for Giuliani, who has twice been held in contempt of court over his treatment of the workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss. Once praised for his response as mayor to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Giuliani's reputation has fallen into tatters.

Giuliani already has turned over his Manhattan apartment, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz vehicle and other assets to Freeman and Moss to help pay off a $148 million judgment they won after a jury found that he defamed them. Giuliani contends he should be allowed to keep his Palm Beach condominium because it is now his permanent residence, an issue that the judge will have to decide in the trial. 

That’s how much Mozilla agreed to pay to settle a National Labor Relations Board case claiming that it illegally refused to hire a former Apple software engineer who said the tech giant forced her to quit over her workplace activism. The board said in its complaint that Mozilla turned down Cher Scarlett for a senior engineering job in 2021, shortly after she left Apple. Mozilla denied any wrongdoing. 

Amid widespread speculation on the cause of the Los Angeles-area fires, another unanswered question looms: Who will pay for the damages? The liability landscape for the state’s biggest privately-owned utilities has shifted since lawmakers in 2019 created the $21 billion California Wildfire Fund. But despite its inclusive-sounding name, the fund’s coverage is limited, which likely means uneven recompense for those who have suffered from the devastation. In her latest column, Jenna Greene digs into potential liability for Southern California Edison and how the fund’s money could come into play.

—Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, vowing not to use the DOJ to target people based on their politics, seeking to allay concerns the president-elect will use law enforcement to go after his opponents. Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she “will not politicize that office.” Read more from the hearing, which is set to resume today.