Food & Beverage

  • July 02, 2025

    Canned Food Group Del Monte Hits Ch. 11 With $1.2B Debt

    Packaged foods giant Del Monte is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey with plans for a sale after a liability management transaction last year failed to sufficiently reduce borrowing costs from its $1.23 billion of secured debt.

  • July 01, 2025

    Turkey Cos. Must Face Price-Fix Suit From Litigation Funder

    An Illinois federal judge rejected a summary judgment bid from major turkey processors fighting a price-fixing antitrust suit, ruling that a litigation funding company can continue to pursue claims against the poultry processors as a stand-in for wholesale food distributor plaintiffs.

  • July 01, 2025

    The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term

    The term's sharpest dissents often looked beyond perceived flaws in majority reasoning to raise existential concerns about the role and future of the court, with the justices accusing one another of rewarding executive branch lawlessness, harming faith in the judiciary and threatening democracy, sometimes on an emergency basis with little briefing or explanation.

  • July 01, 2025

    Investors Sue Petco Over Premium Pet Food Business Model

    Petco and several current and former executives misled the public about the sustainability of its premium pet food business model and oversold the company's growth prospects while hiding the impact of shifting consumer behavior post-COVID-19, a new lawsuit has alleged.

  • July 01, 2025

    Justices Face Busy Summer After Nixing Universal Injunctions

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to limit nationwide injunctions was one of its biggest rulings of the term — a finding the court is likely going to be dealing with all summer. Here, Law360 takes a look at the decision, how it and other cases on the emergency docket overshadowed much of the court's other work, and what it all means for the months to come.

  • July 01, 2025

    Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

    The U.S. Department of Justice reached the agency's first three merger settlements of the second Trump administration, clearing deals in the technology and aerospace sectors after divestitures, while the Federal Trade Commission put conditions on an advertising merger. Here, Law360 looks at the major merger review developments from June.

  • July 01, 2025

    Top Personal Injury, Med Mal News: 2025 Midyear Report

    A U.S. Supreme Court ruling over whether personal injury claims can be brought under a RICO statute and a $7.4 billion settlement reached with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma are among Law360's top personal injury and medical malpractice cases from the first six months of 2025.

  • July 01, 2025

    7th Circ. Backs Walmart's 'Raw Honey' False Ad Dismissal Win

    A Walmart customer who accused the retail giant of falsely labeling processed honey as raw or organic "pled himself out of court" by acknowledging the product's higher chemical compound levels could have other obvious explanations beyond simply overheating, the Seventh Circuit said Tuesday.

  • June 30, 2025

    DOL Plans To Nix H-2A Farmworker Organizing Protections

    The Trump administration is planning to roll back a Biden-era rule that protected seasonal farmworkers on H-2A visas from facing retaliation for workplace organizing, with the U.S. Department of Labor announcing its intent to rescind the contentious 2024 rule Monday.

  • June 30, 2025

    Alaskan Tribe Found Immune In Residents' Casino Fight

    A federal judge has found that the Native Village of Eklutna is a required party in a lawsuit by Anchorage residents who oppose the construction of a 58,000-square-foot casino, but has simultaneously ruled the tribe can't be joined in the litigation due to its sovereign immunity.

  • June 30, 2025

    NutriBullet Dodges Suit Over Exploding Blender Injury

    A New Jersey federal judge on Monday threw out a woman's suit alleging her NutriBullet blender was defective, resulting in it exploding and cutting her, finding her expert's opinion unreliable and irrelevant to the facts in the case.

  • June 30, 2025

    Judge Mulls Mariano's OT Exemption With A Baseball Analogy

    An Illinois federal judge considering whether to declassify collectives of grocery store managers claiming a Kroger subsidiary misclassified them as being exempt from overtime pay compared them Monday to baseball player-managers like Pete Rose and pressed the parties to address "when a player-manager is more like a player than a manager."

  • 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

    Justices Seek SG's View In $1.2M Roundup Verdict

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on Monsanto's petition challenging a $1.2 million jury award given to a man who claimed that the company's Roundup weed killer caused his cancer.

  • June 27, 2025

    Hershey Says Wrapper PFAS Suit 'Built On A House Of Cards'

    The Hershey Co. on Friday urged a Pennsylvania federal court to dismiss a putative class action that alleges its packaging for its chocolate bars and candies contains dangerous levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, saying consumers' testing allegations failed to back a viable claim that its products contain the forever chemicals known as PFAS.

  • June 27, 2025

    Fla. Judge Walks Back Class Cert. In Chili's Data Breach Row

    A Florida federal judge who previously certified a class of Chili's customers suing over a 2018 data breach declined to keep that mechanism in place Friday, finding that the revised class definition that was established after the Eleventh Circuit ordered the topic to be reexamined no longer met class certification standards. 

  • June 27, 2025

    Hawaii Groups Look To Block Monument Fishing Permits

    Three conservation groups are looking to set aside an April decision by the Trump administration that gave the go-ahead for permit holders to commercially fish in the waters of a Pacific Coast national monument, telling a Hawaii federal court that destructive fishing has already started in the 400,000-square-mile site.

  • 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

    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

    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

    Bayer Investors' $38M Settlement Over Monsanto Deal OK'd

    A California federal judge on Thursday preliminarily approved Bayer AG's $38 million settlement with investors who accused the German multinational of downplaying litigation risks related to the weedkiller Roundup when it acquired Monsanto in 2018, saying the deal appeared to be "fair, reasonable and adequate."

  • 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

    Grocer Drops Insurer From NC Opioid Coverage Suit

    A grocery chain and a Chubb unit told a North Carolina state court they've agreed to drop their insurance coverage claims against each other with prejudice over a raft of underlying opioid lawsuits.

  • June 26, 2025

    Kroger, Growers Sued Over Frozen Mango Contamination

    The Kroger Co., family-owned grower Townsend Farms Inc., SunOpta Grains and Foods Inc. and two unnamed corporations have been sued in Georgia federal court over allegations that a man developed a listeria infection after buying a frozen mango product from a Kroger in Douglasville, Georgia.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Open Questions About FDA's AI-Assisted Review Plans

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently touted the completion of a generative artificial intelligence program for scientific reviewers and plans for agencywide deployment to speed up reviews of premarket applications, but there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the tools' ability to protect trade secrets, avoid bias and more, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Attacks On Judicial Independence Tend To Manifest In 3 Ways

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    Attacks on judicial independence now run the gamut from gross (bald-faced interference) to systemic (structural changes) to insidious (efforts to undermine public trust), so lawyers, judges and the public must recognize the fateful moment in which we live and defend the rule of law every day, says Jim Moliterno at Washington and Lee University.

  • Dissecting House And Senate's Differing No-Tax-On-Tips Bills

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    Employers should understand how the House and Senate versions of no-tax-on-tips bills differ — including in the scope of related deductions and reporting requirements — to meet any new compliance obligations and communicate with their employees, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Compliance Refresher For 'Made In USA' Labeling Claims

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    As tariffs reshape the trade landscape, companies hoping to invoke the powerful consumer appeal of “Made in USA” labels must understand the strict rules for making acceptable claims so they avoid the costly legal ramifications and brand damage possible from misrepresenting products as 100% American, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Appreciating Civil Procedure

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    If you’re like me, law school’s often complex and theoretical approach to teaching civil procedure may have contributed to an early struggle with the topic, but when seen from a practical perspective, new lawyers may find they enjoy mastering these rules, says Chloe Villagomez at Foster Garvey.

  • Appellate Guidance Needed On California Chatbot Litigation

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    There is wide variation in how courts are applying the California Invasion of Privacy Act against website owners that allegedly help third parties spy on visitors via chatbots — and the lack of appellate rulings creates uncertainty, especially as these cases move toward the summary judgment stage, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Calif. Bar Exam Fiasco Shows Why Attys Must Disclose AI Use

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    The recent revelation that a handful of questions from the controversial California bar exam administered in February were drafted using generative artificial intelligence demonstrates the continued importance of disclosure for attorneys who use AI tools, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • In 2nd Place, Va. 'Rocket Docket' Remains Old Reliable

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    The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia was again one of the fastest civil trial courts in the nation last year, and an interview with the court’s newest judge provides insights into why it continues to soar, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

  • How Attorneys Can Become Change Agents For Racial Equity

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    As the administration targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and law firms consider pulling back from their programs, lawyers who care about racial equity and justice can employ four strategies to create microspaces of justice, which can then be parlayed into drivers of transformational change, says Susan Sturm at Columbia Law School.

  • Robinson-Patman Enforcement May Fizzle Out After PepsiCo

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    After securing an early Robinson-Patman Act victory against the largest wine and spirits distributor in the U.S., the Federal Trade commission's voluntary dismissal of its own enforcement action against PepsiCo throws into doubt the future of the federal statute that prohibits price discrimination and other anticompetitive practices, say attorneys at V&E.

  • Series

    Running Marathons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    After almost five years of running marathons, I’ve learned that both the race itself and the training process sharpen skills that directly translate to the practice of law, including discipline, dedication, endurance, problem-solving and mental toughness, says Lauren Meadows at Swift Currie.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Supporting A Trial Team

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    While students often practice as lead trial attorneys in law school, such an opportunity likely won’t arise until a few years into practice, so junior associates should focus on honing skills that are essential to supporting a trial team, including organization, adaptability and humility, says Lucy Zelina at Tucker Ellis.

  • Lessons From FTC Action On Dark Patterns In User Interfaces

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent complaint against Uber for its billing and cancellation practices comes amid other actions addressing consumer confusion and deception, so it is paramount to deploy tools that assess customers' cognitive states of mind to separate lawful marketing from misconduct, says Ceren Canal Aruoba at Berkeley Research Group.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Attorney To BigLaw

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    When I transitioned to private practice after government service — most recently as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — I learned there are more similarities between the two jobs than many realize, with both disciplines requiring resourcefulness, zealous advocacy and foresight, says Zach Terwilliger at V&E.

  • The Ins And Outs Of Consensual Judicial References

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    As parties consider the possibility of judicial reference to resolve complex disputes, it is critical to understand how the process works, why it's gaining traction, and why carefully crafted agreements make all the difference, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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