Food & Beverage

  • July 28, 2026

    Counsel's Conduct Can't Decertify Server Class In Tips Suit

    A Connecticut state judge refused to decertify a class of steakhouse servers alleging they were shorted on wages for untipped work, ruling their attorney's emotional and unprofessional conduct did not cast serious doubt on the court's ability to reach a just outcome.

  • July 28, 2026

    Cava Board, Execs Sued In Del. Over $2.2B Stock Sales

    A Cava Group Inc. stockholder has filed a derivative lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court accusing the Mediterranean restaurant chain's top executives and directors of using confidential internal forecasts to sell more than $2.2 billion worth of company stock before the company's growth outlook weakened and its share price fell.

  • July 28, 2026

    Texas Panel Says Sysco Can't Arbitrate Driver Injury Claim

    A Texas appeals court on Tuesday found that Sysco USA I Inc. cannot compel arbitration in a delivery driver's injury suit, as the driver is exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act as a transportation worker.

  • July 28, 2026

    Brazil Files Complaint At WTO Against US Tariffs

    The Brazilian government filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against U.S. tariffs placed on Brazilian goods, arguing that the measures run afoul of global trade rules, it said Monday evening. 

  • July 27, 2026

    7th Circ. Revives Suit Over Chobani's 'Sugar Free' Labeling

    The Seventh Circuit Monday resurrected a proposed class action claiming Chobani misled customers by labeling its yogurt as "sugar free," ruling that the naturally occurring sweetener in the yogurt constitutes a sugar under federal regulation and thus the customers have plausibly alleged consumer deception.

  • July 27, 2026

    Albertsons Opioid Trial Told Of Needles, ODs In Library

    A witness in Washington's case accusing Albertsons Cos. Inc. of fueling the state's opioid crisis testified at a bench trial Monday that problem drug use was evident in a city library system she's led for nearly a decade, pointing to syringes scattered across the facility and multiple instances of overdoses.

  • July 27, 2026

    Taco Bell, Taylor Farms Hit With Another Cyclospora Suit

    Consumers have filed another suit in Michigan federal court against Taco Bell and produce supplier Taylor Farms, alleging that the companies' negligence caused them to suffer cyclospora infections after eating contaminated iceberg lettuce sold at Taco Bell restaurants.

  • July 27, 2026

    GoodPop, JonnyPops Trade Blows In Fruit Pop False Ad Fight

    GoodPop and JonnyPops have both filed summary judgment bids in a false advertising battle in Texas federal court that was filed two years ago by GoodPop, each arguing that their rival's claims over their respective frozen pops' fruit and sugar content can be tossed without going to trial.

  • July 27, 2026

    Speech Concerns Could Sink Maine Lobster Fishers' Suit

    A panel of First Circuit judges Monday closely scrutinized the Maine lobster industry's lawsuit over a sustainable seafood report that told consumers to avoid lobster, raising doubts that the lobster fishers can overcome a bar on group defamation claims. 

  • July 27, 2026

    7th Circ. Asked To Clarify Copyright Prevailing Party Status

    A man who successfully defended himself from being held liable for damages when he was sued by a food photography company that claimed his photo of raw meat on Facebook counted as copyright infringement has asked the Seventh Circuit to find that he's the "prevailing party" for purposes of seeking attorney fees.

  • July 27, 2026

    Insurers Don't Owe Grocer Coverage For Opioid Settlement

    A group of insurers owes no coverage to grocery chain Harris Teeter for amounts that its parent company, Kroger, paid as part of a $1.37 billion global settlement of opioid suits brought by government entities, North Carolina's business court ruled.

  • July 27, 2026

    Chobani Can't Escape Danone's Coffee TM Suit

    A New York federal judge on Monday refused to toss Danone's unregistered trademark infringement suit against Chobani over use of the phrase "Bright & Mellow," saying Danone plausibly backed up its argument that the mark was not simply generic.

  • July 27, 2026

    FTC Reaches Deal With Corteva In Pesticides Rebate Case

    Corteva told a North Carolina federal court Monday that it reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in a case accusing the pesticide maker of blocking competition from generic rivals through the use of loyalty rebates.

  • July 27, 2026

    Pepsi, Frito-Lay Accuse Sugar Companies Of Price Fixing

    Prominent food and beverage companies including Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Bimbo Bakeries and Frito-Lay filed an antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota federal court Friday alleging that major sugar refineries and producers have been involved in a price-fixing scheme since 2019.

  • July 27, 2026

    Nicotine Pouch Maker, FDA Strike Deal To End Suit

    The maker of Zone nicotine pouches reached a deal to end its lawsuit accusing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of unfairly holding up its market application, which the company said could force it to stop selling its products for years.

  • July 27, 2026

    Texas Ranchers Ask For Judgment In Cattle Fraud Scheme

    Two ranching companies asked a Texas federal court for partial summary judgment in a suit alleging Hall Cattle Feeders LLC lost their cattle and refused to pay for it, saying the undisputed evidence shows that Hall breached federal agriculture law.

  • July 27, 2026

    Seafood Wholesaler To Pay $265K In EEOC Sex Bias Suit

    A Georgia federal judge on Monday signed off on a $265,000 deal reached between a seafood wholesaler and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to end the agency's sex bias suit claiming the business refused to hire women for warehouse positions.

  • July 27, 2026

    Cannabis In The Courts: A Midyear Litigation Review

    In the first half of 2026, lawsuits taking aim at recent federal shifts in cannabis policy, a federal ban on marijuana users owning firearms and purported residency criteria in state cannabis licensure programs were argued in multiple courts across the country.

  • July 27, 2026

    End Defamation Claim Against Baker Botts Atty, Court Advised

    A Florida federal magistrate judge has recommended that a defamation claim against a Baker Botts LLP patent attorney be tossed, saying an inventor hasn't shown that the lawyer's comments to a reporter at issue in the case were defamatory.

  • July 27, 2026

    Wine And Spirit Distributor Hits Ch. 11 With $540M Of Debt

    Republic National Distributing Co., a more than century-old alcohol distributor that struggled in recent years to handle an outsized debt load, has filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Texas bankruptcy court with about $540 million in funded debt and plans to sell its remaining assets.

  • July 24, 2026

    Abbott Beats 'Supersized' Investor Suit Over Formula Recall

    An Illinois federal judge tossed a proposed securities class action accusing Abbott Laboratories of misleading shareholders about its safety practices ahead of the 2022 recall at its Sturgis, Michigan, infant formula plant, saying Friday that "despite its girth," the "supersized" complaint says "too much and too little," and still needs more information to be viable.

  • July 24, 2026

    LA Cold Storage Warehouse Fire Sparks Negligence Suit

    Owners and lessees of the large cold-storage warehouse with a flammable, anhydrous ammonia refrigeration system that caught fire last month in Boyle Heights were hit with a proposed negligence class action Friday in California state court by a plaintiff who lives about a mile and a half from the facility.

  • July 24, 2026

    Abbott Wins 7th Circ. Fight Over Baby Formula Warning

    The Seventh Circuit on Friday refused to revive a woman's claims that Abbott Laboratories failed to warn about the dangers of a Similac-brand infant formula her baby drank before dying of a serious gastrointestinal disease, saying she failed to show that her suggested alternative warning would have saved her baby.

  • July 24, 2026

    'False Innuendo': Sanctioned Davis Wright Atty Rips Fee Bid

    A Davis Wright Tremaine LLP partner sanctioned for subpoena tactics is fiercely contesting a plaintiffs firm's six-figure fee bid, telling a California federal court that the request misleadingly cites alleged misconduct in separate litigation, reflecting a "naked attempt to prejudice the court's view of counsel."

  • July 24, 2026

    AI-Hallucinated Citations Result In $3K Sanction For Lawyer

    A Washington federal judge on Friday sanctioned a plaintiff's attorney $3,000 after finding that she submitted multiple court filings containing dozens of fake citations and quotations generated by artificial intelligence platforms  and didn't fix the mistakes, calling the conduct "tantamount to bad faith."

Expert Analysis

  • How Cos. Can Prep For Ultra-Processed Food Legal Risks

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    A wave of litigation and government scrutiny directed against ultra-processed foods is now gaining momentum, following patterns seen previously in other industries — and food companies that recognize those patterns early will be better positioned to manage the increasing risks, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • What Ex-CFPB Head's Calif. Role May Foretell For Oversight

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's selection of former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra to lead a new consumer agency signals tougher state financial services oversight, especially for fintechs, as well as heightened enforcement activity and larger penalties, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Immigration Ruling Maps Alternative To Universal Injunctions

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    A Rhode Island federal court's decision in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS vacating policies that froze key immigration adjudications for nationals of 39 countries, and paused asylum applications altogether, suggests how practitioners might press for the Administrative Procedure Act's bad faith exception to record review and seek vacatur as a viable alternative to universal injunctions, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • Lessons From EEOC Suit Over Coca-Cola Women-Only Event

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    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's recent lawsuit alleging that Coca-Cola Northeast violated federal law by having a professional development retreat for female employees demonstrates that the EEOC is scrutinizing DEI-related practices with unprecedented intensity, so even the most well-intentioned programs may be challenged, say attorneys at Venable.

  • High Court's FCC Fine Ruling Reframes Agency Enforcement

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T sweeps aside uncertainty about what kinds of regulatory enforcement trigger a Seventh Amendment right, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • After Durnell, Connecting Science And Causation Will Be Key

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's June 25 decision in Monsanto v. Durnell narrowed label-based failure-to-warn claims — meaning that going forward, viable theories will depend even more on whether experts can reliably connect scientific evidence to the causal proposition the law requires, says Alex Smolak at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.

  • Series

    Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

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    As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

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    Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

  • Fed. Circ. In May: Being Precise About 'About'

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in Enviro Tech v. Safe Foods last month illustrates the danger in attempting to expand claim scope with words of approximation, potentially causing claims to be invalid for lack of definiteness, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

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    An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

  • Opinion

    State Courts Must Be Gatekeepers Of Expert Testimony

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    Based on my experience in the state judiciary, emulating federal courts' role as gatekeepers of expert witness testimony would help state court judges maintain the appearance of impartiality and assist juries, thus enhancing the overall confidence people have in their justice system, says Lorie Gildea at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Series

    Moshing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Entering a mosh pit is much like entering the practice of law — it is difficult, you have to know both the written and unwritten rules, and conduct yourself according to the expectations of each community, says Christopher Deubert at Constangy Brooks.

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