Commercial Contracts

  • June 30, 2025

    Judge Hits Pause On Civil RICO Suit Against NJ Power Broker

    A New Jersey judge has entered a consent order pausing a real estate developer's civil racketeering suit against influential South Jersey businessman George Norcross III, holding the parties' dispute in stasis until an appeal over the dismissal of a related criminal indictment can be resolved.

  • June 30, 2025

    Calif. Panel Chides Attys Who Hid Opponent's Inactive Status

    In a precedential ruling, a California appellate panel found a party whose counsel's license was made inactive should have been treated as though the attorney had died or been suspended, overturning a $70,000 fee award levied against a woman who was not informed that her lawyer was inactive.

  • June 30, 2025

    Conn. Firm Settles Ex-Client's Malpractice Suit Over Biz Sale

    Connecticut law firm Oberst DeFala Law PC and a former client have settled a malpractice lawsuit alleging attorney Sharon Oberst DeFala improperly represented both parties in a restaurant buyout and drafted an agreement that favored the seller, court records show.

  • June 30, 2025

    High Court Won't Weigh Class Standard In Junk Fax Row

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a dispute over whether online faxes are covered by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and whether plaintiffs pressing these claims are required to show an administratively feasible way to identify class members.

  • June 30, 2025

    Justices Rebuff American Airlines' Bid To Revive JetBlue Pact

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed American Airlines' bid to revive its codeshare agreement with JetBlue in Boston and New York.

  • June 30, 2025

    High Court To Hear Fight Over Investment Fund Suits

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case that could limit the ability of private parties to assert contract violations against investment funds, with one activist investor accusing several closed-end funds of shutting it out of its voting rights.

  • June 27, 2025

    Texas Justices OK Methodist Church's Suit Against SMU

    The Texas Supreme Court found the United Methodist Church has the right to sue Southern Methodist University over its attempted split, but in a Friday opinion drew short of saying the university filed false paperwork as part of the breakup.

  • June 27, 2025

    Biogen, Genentech May Stay Mum On Damages At Trial

    A California federal judge Friday discouraged Biogen and Genentech from discussing the "magnitude of the money at issue" during their upcoming breach of contract trial over alleged patent royalties due from sales of Biogen's multiple sclerosis medicine, noting that most of the jurors are "not of significant means."

  • June 27, 2025

    Borrower Loses Bid To Void $19M Loan Repayment Award

    A California federal judge has declined to grant a borrower's request to escape an arbitral award ordering him to repay a $19 million loan from a Chinese businesswoman, ruling he should have instead raised his argument before the arbitrators.

  • June 27, 2025

    Wells Fargo Beats Some Claims In Cash Sweep Litigation

    A federal judge on Friday nixed some claims in a proposed class action accusing Wells Fargo of harming customers through its cash sweep deposit program by giving them only minimal interest on their holdings, including a claim that the bank breached its fiduciary duties to its indirect clients.

  • June 27, 2025

    Puerto Rico Soccer League Slims Down FIFA Antitrust Lawsuit

    A now-defunct Puerto Rican soccer league on Thursday filed a fourth amended complaint in its suit against FIFA, eliminating previously dismissed claims under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, as well as claims that had been put forward by an attorney disqualified from the antitrust case.

  • June 27, 2025

    Insurer Seeks End Of Golf Co.'s $3.1M Hurricane Claim

    A property insurer for a golf course owner told a North Carolina federal court it should toss the owner's claims that the insurer failed to pay an additional $3.1 million in coverage for Hurricane Helene-related damage in bad faith, saying it failed to back up such claims with specific factual allegations.

  • June 27, 2025

    Jury Adds $30M More To Fleet Tech Co.'s Trade Theft Trial Win

    An Illinois federal jury on Friday more than doubled the $28.9 million in damages it awarded a day earlier to a fleet management technology firm after finding a garbage truck manufacturer poached its former executive and capitalized on stolen trade secrets, slapping a $30 million punitive award atop the initial verdict.

  • June 27, 2025

    Off The Bench: Tatis Says Loan 'Predatory,' Tennis Player Suit

    In this week's Off The Bench, a Major League Baseball star wants out of a "predatory" loan from a future earnings investment company, a group of migrant workers keep alive their suit accusing companies that helped develop World Cup facilities in Qatar of exploitation and abuse, and the tennis Grand Slam tournaments may be in the crosshairs of players suing the sport's hierarchy.

  • June 27, 2025

    Vertical Farm Co. Owner Cops To Tax Evasion, Fraud Scheme

    The owner of a business that helped people set up vertical farms admitted to skipping his income taxes and taking money from customers, including an autism charity, without holding up his end of the deal, according to filings in a Pennsylvania federal court.

  • June 27, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Weil, Freshfields, Sidley Austin

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Spectris backs a takeover offer from Advent, C&S Wholesale Grocers acquires SpartanNash, NBA team owners approve the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx to a consortium led by former limited partners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, and Illumina Inc. acquires SomaLogic from Standard BioTools.

  • June 27, 2025

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen the British Basketball Federation sued by members of the men's professional basketball league for alleged competition breaches, songwriter Coco Star file an intellectual property claim against Universal Music Publishing, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority file a claim against the Post Office amid ongoing investigations into law firms linked to the Horizon IT Scandal. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • June 27, 2025

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Last-Minute Settlements Head Off Trials

    Untouched by the summer slump, the North Carolina Business Court kicked off June with a sanctions order against a biogas company caught spurning court orders and a new complaint by a former NFL player accusing his longtime financial adviser of defrauding him for decades.

  • June 26, 2025

    Student Loan Servicer Must Face Class Action Fraud Claims

    A Chicago federal judge has kept alive a proposed class action accusing student loan giant Great Lakes Educational Loan Services Inc. of misleading borrowers about how it would automatically apply payments above their monthly minimums owed, though he trimmed an unjust enrichment claim from the suit.

  • June 26, 2025

    Phillip Morris Moves To Arbitrate Rivals' Tobacco Deal Suit

    Philip Morris USA is urging a Washington state judge to force arbitration in a dispute with R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies over deals delineating billions of dollars in annual payments owed to states under Big Tobacco's 1998 master settlement agreement.

  • June 26, 2025

    Fleet Tech Co. Wins Nearly $29M In Trade Secret Theft Trial

    An Illinois jury awarded fleet management technology firm Sonrai Systems LLC more than $28.9 million Thursday, finding a garbage truck manufacturer the company had worked with had poached an executive and used confidential information he stole to develop a competing product.

  • June 26, 2025

    Buyer Sanctioned For Scrapping $16M Deal With Cattle Co.

    A Texas federal judge sanctioned a would-be buyer of assets for a defunct cattle trading company at the center of an alleged $161 million Ponzi scheme, saying during a Thursday hearing that the buyer should not have stalled before confessing it didn't have the funds.

  • June 26, 2025

    Peru Seeks Info For Criminal Cases Tied To Toll Road Row

    Peru asked a New York federal judge to allow discovery on a Brookfield unit and major North American banks to aid criminal proceedings involving an allegedly corrupt toll road contract at the heart of $200 million worth of arbitral awards the South American country's capital city has been unable to shake.

  • June 26, 2025

    Italian Winery Claims $53M Loss From Importer's Interference

    The Italian maker of Kris wine is suing its former importer in California federal court on claims that it asserted exclusive rights to the brand and sabotaged new deals after their agreement was terminated, saying the U.S. company breached an arbitration award and caused more than $53 million in damages.

  • June 26, 2025

    Ga. Appeals Court Reverses Sanctions In Sinkhole Fight

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court's decision to strike the complaint of a property owner over discovery violations in a fight over a sinkhole, ruling that Peachtree Renaissance Property LLC was not given a fair hearing before the sanctions were handed down.

Expert Analysis

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • NC Ruling Takes Practical Approach To Duty-To-Defend Costs

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    In Murphy-Brown v. Ace American Insurance, a case of first impression, the North Carolina Business Court adopted the commonsense rationale of many state courts in holding that policyholders' defense costs should be deemed presumtively reasonable when a insurer breaches its duty to defend, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Testing The Waters As New Texas Biz Court Ends 2nd Month

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    Despite an uptick in filings in the Texas Business Court's initial months of operation, the docket remains fairly light amid an apparent wait-and-see approach from some potential litigants, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • How DOJ's Visa Debit Monopolization Suit May Unfold

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently filed Section 2 monopolization suit against Visa offers several scenarios for a vigorous case and is likely to reveal some of the challenges faced by antitrust plaintiffs following the U.S. Supreme Court's split 2018 American Express decision, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • There's No Crying In Property Valuation Baseball Arbitration

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    The World Series is the perfect time to consider how the form of arbitration used for settling MLB salary disputes — in which each side offers competing valuations to an arbitrator, who must select one — is often ideal for resolving property valuation disputes, say Sean O’Donnell at Herrick Feinstein and Mark Dunec at FTI Consulting.

  • Navigating Fla.'s Shorter Construction Defect Claim Window

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    In light of recent legislation reducing the amount of time Florida homeowners have to bring construction defect claims, homeowners should be sure to understand their rights and responsibilities regarding maintenance, repairs and inspections set forth in developer-drafted documents, say Brian Tannenbaum and Nicholas Vargo at Ball Janik.

  • Why Diversity Jurisdiction Poses Investment Fund Hurdles

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    Federal courts' continued application of the exacting rules of diversity jurisdiction presents particular challenges for investment funds, and in the absence of any near-term reform, those who manage such funds should take action to avoid diversity jurisdiction pitfalls, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • Webuild Ruling Complicates Arb. Award Enforcement In US

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    A Delaware federal court's recent decision in Sociedad Concesionaria Metropolitana de Salud v. Webuild, if read literally, could undercut the United States' image as a proarbitration jurisdiction by complicating creditors' efforts to enforce awards against property in this country, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

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