Aerospace & Defense

  • May 16, 2025

    'Tuna Bond' Defendants Ordered To Pay $352M In Restitution

    A Brooklyn federal judge ordered three former Credit Suisse bankers and the former finance minister of Mozambique to pay a combined $352 million in restitution Friday after they pled guilty or were convicted of scheming to defraud investors in a $2 billion state-backed development initiative involving tuna fishing.

  • May 16, 2025

    Judge Orders Feds To Answer Navy Housing Suit Questions

    A Court of Federal Claims judge ordered the U.S. government to answer requests for admissions it refused to respond to in litigation alleging that it reduced housing stipends and breached contracts with companies that agreed to provide housing to U.S. Navy service members.

  • May 16, 2025

    Trump Calls On Justices To Stay Block Of Gov't Restructuring

    President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to pause a California federal judge's order temporarily halting agencies from implementing an executive order to plan reorganizations and reductions in force, claiming the lower court's decision has caused confusion and wasted taxpayer dollars.

  • May 16, 2025

    Armory Sues Wayzata, Others Over 'Black Box' Funding Deals

    Armory Capital Group LLC and three affiliates sued Wayzata Investment Partners, Houlihan Lokey Inc. and others in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Friday, alleging fiduciary breaches in connection with multiple unexplained and purportedly conflicted "black box" financing deals for Oregon-based aerospace venture Erickson Incorporated.

  • May 16, 2025

    Families Rip DOJ Bid To Ditch Boeing 737 Max Criminal Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice might back down from criminally prosecuting Boeing over the deadly 737 Max crashes and save the American aerospace giant from a high-profile trial in Texas next month under a tentative deal that attorneys for crash victims' families decried Friday as offensive and "morally repugnant."

  • May 16, 2025

    DHS Illegally Freezing Counterterrorism Funds, Chicago Says

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has unconstitutionally frozen funding from a federal program intended to aid counterterrorism efforts by refusing preapproved reimbursement claims, the city of Chicago said Friday in a federal suit looking to force repayment.

  • May 16, 2025

    Calif. Atty Caught Using Claim Construction Made Up By AI

    A San Francisco-based attorney representing Magpul Industries in patent litigation has been effectively removed from the case after admitting that the claim construction chart he submitted was nearly all fabricated by artificial intelligence.

  • May 16, 2025

    NJ, DuPont To Face Off In Landmark PFAS Trial Series

    New Jersey and chemical manufacturing giant E.I. DuPont de Nemours will square off Monday over the contamination at a former Salem County manufacturing facility in a first-of-a-kind series of trials that environmental attorneys expect will impact "forever chemicals" litigation across the country.

  • May 16, 2025

    Nadine Menendez Gets 3-Month Delay Of Bribery Sentencing

    A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday granted Nadine Menendez's bid for a three-month delay of her sentencing on bribery charges, but he said he would not postpone it any further.

  • May 16, 2025

    Patent Owner Urges Justices To Take Telemedicine Case

    The owner of a pair of invalidated patents covering medical machinery pushed the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its fight over the patents' eligibility since the government said it planned to argue the patents shouldn't have been invalidated as abstract if the company's petition was granted.

  • May 16, 2025

    Trump Admin Settles Vaccine Contract Info Suit For $10K

    The Trump administration has reached a $10,000 settlement with a consumer advocacy group over allegedly withholding information about the government's billion-dollar contracts with companies that developed and manufactured the COVID-19 vaccine, including Pfizer and Moderna.

  • May 15, 2025

    KPMG Sues To Stop Air Force's 'Billion-Dollar Boondoggle'

    KPMG has lodged a bid protest accusing the U.S. Air Force of unlawfully forgoing competition when awarding Deloitte more than $1 billion worth of audit remediation contracts, telling the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that KPMG can't compete unless the "billion-dollar boondoggle" is stopped.

  • May 15, 2025

    GOP Senators Say Gov't Should Ban Chinese Co.'s Routers

    More than a dozen Republican senators have come together to urge the U.S. Department of Commerce to block the sale of Chinese-owned router-maker TP-Link's products in the United States, citing their growing fears about Chinese-made technology being used for espionage.

  • May 15, 2025

    Unions, Groups Seek Injunction To Block Gov't Restructuring

    A California federal judge must greenlight a nationwide injunction to stop multiple federal agencies from moving ahead with implementing reorganization and mass termination plans linked to an executive order, a coalition of unions and groups argued, making their request on the heels of a temporary restraining order.

  • May 15, 2025

    $60.5M In Settlements Get Final OK In RTX No-Poach Case

    A Connecticut federal judge has granted final approval to $60.5 million worth of settlements to resolve accusations that RTX Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney division and five contractors colluded to avoid hiring one another's workers, with RTX paying more than half of the total and attorneys taking nearly $20.2 million in fees.

  • May 15, 2025

    DOD Updates Plans For Trans Service Member Separations

    The U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday issued updated guidance for plans to identify and discharge transgender service members after a Supreme Court order allowed it to keep implementing a challenged policy that prohibited them from serving.

  • May 15, 2025

    Fla. Aircraft Parts Broker Pleads Guilty To Fraud Conspiracy

    An aircraft parts broker has pled guilty to fraud conspiracy in Florida federal court, admitting to netting $375,000 in a scheme involving the falsification of invoices to divert sales from his employer and use its inventory to fulfill orders through his Tennessee-based company.

  • May 15, 2025

    Feds, Immigrants Spar Over Defense Dept. Role In Removals

    A group of immigrants facing deportation to countries where they have no prior ties and may be at risk of harm urged a Massachusetts federal judge to add the U.S. Department of Defense as a defendant in their pending class action, a move the government says is unnecessary.

  • May 15, 2025

    C-Band Payment Clearinghouse Says Its Work Is Done

    The Federal Communications Commission's C-Band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse is planning to wind down its operation by the end of June, saying it's "completed all substantive functions required" by the commission dating back to its 2020 order expanding use of the C-band for 5G.

  • May 14, 2025

    NY Judge Skeptical Of Huawei's Pretrial Bid To Nix Charges

    A Brooklyn federal judge seemed skeptical of a push by Huawei Technologies and affiliates to dismiss charges from a criminal case alleging Huawei deceived banks and the U.S. government for years about its business dealings in sanctioned countries and conspired to steal intellectual property from U.S. companies.

  • May 14, 2025

    Army Corps Halts Air Base Project, Cites Contractor Lapses

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reasonably terminated a $1.7 million contract for repairs to an air base in South Korea for lack of progress, but it must negotiate with the contractor to settle payment for the work completed, a contract appeals board said.

  • May 14, 2025

    Tripwire Moves To End Explosives Suit Over Licensing Issues

    Tripwire South, its affiliate Tripwire Aviation and executive Ryan Morris urged a Pennsylvania federal court to dismiss Bizzell Corp.'s fraud and contract claims, arguing Bizzell's failure to obtain proper government licenses made delivery of military-grade explosives legally impossible.

  • May 14, 2025

    Lawmakers Line Up To Unwind Trump's 'Chaotic' IEEPA Tariffs

    Nearly 150 members of Congress have thrown their support behind 12 state attorneys general suing to halt the Trump administration's "emergency" tariffs, arguing they far exceed the statutory authority of a president.

  • May 14, 2025

    Risks Abound For Higher Ed As Top Court Ruling Turns 2

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in higher education admissions, schools around the country have been looking for innovative ways to achieve diversity on campus amid constant threats of additional litigation that could make them the next high-profile high court case.

  • May 14, 2025

    11th Circ. Won't Reopen White DOD Worker's Race Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit refused to revive a commissary worker's lawsuit claiming the U.S. Department of Defense threatened to suspend her over a Black colleague's false accusations that she'd used a racial slur, ruling Wednesday that she failed to show the agency proposed the discipline because she's white.

Expert Analysis

  • Managing Litigation Side-Switching During 2nd Trump Admin

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    Now that the new presidential administration is in place, the government will likely switch positions in a number of pending cases, and stakeholders should employ strategies to protect their interests, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 3 Noteworthy Effects Of The 2025 NDAA

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    The 2025 defense budget includes further restrictions on semiconductor sales to Huawei, requiring companies to rethink customer-base oversight, but other provisions are likely to broaden procurement contract opportunities, say attorneys at Miles & Stockbridge.

  • FTC Privacy Enforcement Takeaways From 2024

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    In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission distinguished three prominent trends in its privacy-related enforcement actions: geolocation data protections, data minimization practices, and artificial intelligence use and marketing, say Cobun Zweifel-Keegan at IAPP and James Smith at Dechert.

  • Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win

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    Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.

  • Public Corruption Enforcement In 2024 Has Clues For 2025

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    If 2024 activity is any indication, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely continue to rein in expansive prosecutorial theories of fraud in the year to come, but it’s harder to predict what the new administration will mean for public corruption prosecutions in 2025, says Cathy Fleming at Offit Kurman.

  • Anticipating How GAO Pleading Standards May Shift

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    The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act's mandate to create an enhanced pleading standard at the U.S. Government Accountability Office may change the calculus for where to file when challenging a U.S. Department of Defense procurement, say attorneys at Rogers Joseph.

  • How DOGE's Bite Can Live Up To Its Bark

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    All signs suggest that the Department of Government Efficiency will be an important part of the new Trump administration, with ample tools at its disposal to effectuate change, particularly with an attentive Republican-controlled Congress, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • 5 Notable Information Security Events In 2024

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    B. Stephanie Siegmann at Hinckley Allen discusses 2024's largest and most destructive data breaches seen yet, ranging from ransomware disrupting U.S. healthcare systems on a massive scale, to tensions increasing between the U.S. and China over cyberespionage and the control of U.S. data.

  • Series

    Playing Rugby Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My experience playing rugby, including a near-fatal accident, has influenced my legal practice on a professional, organizational and personal level by showing me the importance of maintaining empathy, fostering team empowerment and embracing the art of preparation, says James Gillenwater at Greenberg Traurig.

  • How 2025 NDAA May Affect DOD Procurement Protests

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    A bid protest pilot program included in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act shifts litigation costs onto unsuccessful bid protesters and raises claim-filing thresholds, which could increase risks to U.S. Department of Defense contractors who file protests, and reduce oversight of DOD procurement awards, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Nippon, US Steel Face Long Odds On Merger Challenge

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    Following the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' review of Japan's Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel, the companies face a formidable uphill battle in challenging the president's exercise of authority to block the deal on national security grounds, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • Opinion

    No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.

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    A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.

  • 5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond

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    In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Preparing For Mexican Drug Cartels' Terrorist Designation

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    In the event President-elect Donald Trump designates Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, businesses will need to consider how their particular industry is affected and evaluate previously legitimate practices given the cartels' involvement so many sectors of the economy, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • What To Expect From Federal Cybersecurity Policy In 2025

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    There are 12 cyber policy questions to keep an eye on as the new administration and Republican control of Congress present an opportunity to advance less regulatory approaches and revisit some choices from the prior administration, say attorneys at Wiley.

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