A Houston Astros' affiliate on Thursday slammed the Major League Baseball team and league for allegedly pulling the plug on their affiliation with the minor league team without notice, hitting the MLB with a $15 million suit over the decision.
A California federal judge has lambasted a Taiwanese automobile lights maker's "foolish and spiteful" sanctions bid after it asked the judge to make its former U.S. distributor pay attorney fees for initiating the case rather than arbitrating it.
EQT accused two West Virginia state court judges Friday of not disclosing financial and personal interests in the outcome of royalty disputes they hear, claiming both judges own oil and gas interests in a significant amount of land in the counties they preside over.
Korean pharmaceutical company Kolon Life Science Inc. must pay Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. $33 million over a soured licensing partnership, the International Chamber of Commerce's International Court of Arbitration recently ruled.
An Eastern District of Texas judge on Friday pushed a retrial to March 8 in a breach of contract case that was disrupted halfway through testimony in November when 15 trial participants tested positive for the coronavirus.
A California judge has rejected a bid by the Pinoleville Pomo Nation to undo his ruling that the tribe breached a 2012 agreement with JW Gaming Development related to a botched casino, saying new evidence the tribe put forward doesn't add up.
A Texas geneticist accused of stealing the DNA of an Argentinian polo star's horse and selling clones of it has asked a Florida federal judge to toss the suit, arguing that the court does not have jurisdiction over him and his companies because of their minimal connections to Florida.
A new federal law clamping down on surprise medical billing will likely trigger a short-term increase in employers' compliance spending, a long-term decrease in patients' out-of-pocket medical costs and an as-yet-unknown impact on employee health plans' overall price tag, experts say.
The European Court of Human Rights concluded Thursday that Ukrainian courts violated the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by failing to notify a pair of companies about court hearings as they tried to enforce a $4 million British arbitral award against a Ukrainian company.
Virgin America urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to overturn flight attendants' $77 million wage-and-hour win, along with a $6 million attorney fees award, arguing that federal aviation safety regulations preempt the Golden State's meal-and-rest break laws and the California Supreme Court's recent Ward and Oman rulings clear it of liability.
Intel Corp. told a Delaware state court Thursday that Fortress Investment Group and its subsidiaries had violated the terms of a patent licensing agreement, claiming that one of the subsidiaries was suing it over patents that are covered by a 2012 agreement with another subsidiary.
General Electric Co. on Thursday accused Siemens Energy Inc. of using its trade secrets to fix highly sought-after gas turbine contracts, telling a Virginia federal court that Siemens partly exploited the confidential information to secure contracts to augment its September initial public offering.
A Dallas judge on Thursday disputed Credit Suisse's argument that a Highland Capital Management LP unit should receive none of a $40 million jury verdict for a bungled land appraisal ahead of a 2007 Las Vegas real estate deal.
California restaurant owners say they shouldn't face fees for liquor licenses and health permits when state and county officials won't allow them to operate, the federal government can continue requiring in-person clinic visits to obtain abortion-inducing medication, and a cannabis farm is the latest to be hit with claims it fired workers who complained about workplace conditions amid the pandemic.
A California federal judge has disqualified an attorney and his law firm from representing an NFL player who is suing his agent, saying the attorney has insider knowledge that he appears to already be using in the case.
An international arbitration tribunal that focuses on setting global licensing rates for standard-essential patents may be the cure to countries issuing endless anti-suit injunctions to keep rate disputes in their courts, attorneys say.
The California Supreme Court's 2018 Dynamex ruling that made it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors applies retroactively, the justices held Thursday, signaling that courts should apply the tougher standard to weigh suits that were pending when it was handed down.
An Ohio construction excavator machine company must pay an employee for overtime hours he did not actually work due to a collective bargaining agreement violation, after a federal judge in the state said an arbitrator was right to issue the award for the payment.
A California federal judge has axed a proposed class action accusing a private Los Angeles beach club of shorting bartenders and other service staff on wages, ruling that the claims belong in individual arbitration because the two former employees bringing suit each signed agreements to arbitrate.
A Cherokee Nation consulting arm has asked a Colorado federal court to dismiss information technology company LS3 Inc.'s breach of contract lawsuit over alleged poaching of employees, claiming in a Wednesday filing that no valid contract existed.
A proposed class of employees sued Associated Banc-Corp in Wisconsin federal court Wednesday, alleging that the bank holding company violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act by prioritizing underperforming investment vehicles associated with itself for its workers' 401(k) plan.
A Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday affirmed a trial court's decision to absolve a criminal defense attorney from paying an outdoor advertising company for a full month to display a billboard taunting Santander Bank after the advertisement was pulled after just a few days.
A Colorado federal magistrate judge dismissed the vast majority of a complex lawsuit brought by an investor of a failed marijuana scheme after finding that he couldn't enforce a contract that involves a federally illegal business.
Kevin Costner said in a $15 million California state court complaint that his former business partner James Wilson is holding the movie star's company hostage and that Wilson's attorney took unauthorized material about the company with him when he left Greenberg Traurig LLP.
A declining Intellectual Ventures has licensed a portfolio of 18,000 patents to members of RPX Corp., and a second round of licensing for more members is in the works, RPX's CEO confirmed Wednesday. Here, Law360 breaks down the deal and how it may impact future litigation and the patent market.
Some recent litigation developments demonstrate efforts by law firms and their clients to search for opportunities in the COVID-19 economic fallout, while others — such as the rise of contingency fee arrangements — reflect acceleration of tendencies that were already underway, says William Weisman at Therium Capital.
In the face of rising client demands due to the pandemic and the changing regulatory environment, and with remote work continuing for the foreseeable future, lawyers should invest in their well-being by establishing inspiring yet realistic goals for 2021 — one month at a time, says Krista Larson at Morgan Lewis.
Clickwrap litigation is expected to increase this year, following several 2020 judgments that show the courts' growing sophistication on assessing online user agreements and a continued surge in user growth fueled by COVID-19, says Brian Powers of PactSafe.
Recent New York decisions concerning commercial lease disputes amid the pandemic have produced inconsistent results, but highlight some arguments that tenants should consider emphasizing in subsequent cases, says Cassandra Porsch at Scarola Zubatov.
"Confidential" and other search terms commonly used to locate privileged documents during e-discovery are pretty ineffective, so practitioners should consider including specific types of keywords that are demonstrably better at targeting privilege, say Robert Keeling at Sidley and Rishi Chhatwal at AT&T.
For the world of advertising, 2021 will bring new challenges and considerations shaped not only by the ongoing pandemic, but also by new legal developments regarding social media, cannabis and consumer privacy, say Jason Gordon and Casey Perrino at Reed Smith.
Lawyers working remotely during the pandemic while physically outside the jurisdictions in which they are licensed will find some comfort in a recent American Bar Association opinion sanctioning such practice, but there is ambiguity regarding the contours of what's allowed, say attorneys at Harris Wiltshire.
Opinion
A Virginia federal court's recent decision in Elegant Massage v. State Farm held that an insurance policy's virus exclusion did not apply to a spa's COVID-19 business income claim, ignoring well-established contract interpretation principles and should be rejected by other courts, says George Reede at Zelle.
Whether geared toward a global audience or a particular client, a law firm's articles, blog posts and client alerts should strive to be original by harnessing a few editorial tools and following the right distribution sequence, say Steven Andersen and Tal Donahue at Infinite Global.
Any franchisor considering marketing new franchises in 2021 by leaning on pre-pandemic financial results and omitting 2020 declines should know the perils of this plan, says Rochelle Spandorf at Davis Wright.
Perspectives
Judges should take into consideration the several points of law enforcement and prosecutorial discretion — from traffic stops to charging decisions and sentencing recommendations — that often lead to race-based disparate treatment before a criminal defendant even reaches the courthouse, say Judge Juan Villaseñor and Laurel Quinto at Colorado's Eighth Judicial District Court.
In addition to the increased activity and scrutiny COVID-19 brought to the drug and device industries in 2020, major developments included the continued momentum of snap removal and renewed U.S. Supreme Court interest in the scope of state courts' jurisdiction, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
Notwithstanding the expectations at the time, the Seventh Circuit's landmark 1995 decision in the PepsiCo v. Redmond trade secret case has not made the doctrine of inevitable disclosure an alternative to, or backstop for, traditional post-employment noncompetition agreements — though the doctrine continues to be applied, say Peter Steinmeyer and Brian Spang at Epstein Becker.
Lawyers should remember that the basics of interpersonal relationships have not changed despite the completely virtual environment caused by the pandemic, and should leverage the new year as an excuse to connect with clients in several ways, say Megan Senese and Courtney Hudson at Pillsbury.
For law firms planning overhauls in their information technology infrastructures in light of hard lessons learned from pandemic-era transition to remote work, there are five ways to ensure even the biggest tech upgrade has minimal impact on client service, says Brad Paubel at Lexicon.