Reuters
When a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday that Johnson & Johnson can’t use the U.S. bankruptcy system to offload vast litigation exposure from product liability claims, the people who reacted most quickly were undoubtedly J&J investors. Within hours of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, investors drove J&J’s share price down by nearly 4% -- its biggest one-day decline in years. But another, albeit much smaller, group of people was also roiled by Monday’s ruling from the 3rd Circuit: appellate lawyers who were finishing up friend-of-the-court briefs due on Wednesday in a 7th Circuit appeal by 3M Co that presents issues similar to those in the J&J case.