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Massachusetts
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March 28, 2024
Red Roof Inns Must Face Ohio Sex Trafficking Suits
Red Roof Inns Inc. can't escape nine lawsuits over its purported role in sex trafficking, an Ohio federal judge ruled Thursday, saying the anonymous victims met pleading standards to allege the hotel chain knowingly made money through their victimization.
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March 28, 2024
Pfizer Wants Moderna Vax IP Case Paused For PTAB Review
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have asked a Massachusetts federal court to put on hold a COVID-19 vaccine patent case brought by rival biotechnology giant Moderna Inc. while they await a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on the validity of two of the three patents at issue.
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March 28, 2024
Meta Says Speech Immunity Dooms Instagram Addiction Case
Meta on Thursday asked a Massachusetts judge to toss a lawsuit alleging it has intentionally misled users about Instagram features purportedly designed to addict children and teens, saying it is shielded both by federal law and the First Amendment.
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March 28, 2024
MLS, Trade Group Say DOJ Deal Fix Itself Anti-Competitive
The U.S. Department of Justice drew fire Wednesday for pushing what a real estate trade group argued would itself be an anti-competitive rule, as the DOJ and other outside groups vie to influence a proposed $3 million settlement over house broker commissions in Massachusetts federal court.
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March 28, 2024
Implant Maker's Bribe Case Ripe For Trimming, Judge Says
A money laundering charge levied against implant manufacturer SpineFrontier Inc. and its executives may be dropped from the broader bribery and kickback prosecution as a Boston federal judge Thursday struggled to square up how the company could have allegedly concealed the unlawful transfers to surgeons while also disclosing them publicly.
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March 28, 2024
Mass. Justices Say 2019 Sunday-Wage Ruling Is Retroactive
Massachusetts' highest court on Thursday affirmed a finding that a furniture retailer violated the state's wage laws by paying salespeople overtime and a Sunday premium out of their own earned commissions, keeping intact a nearly $10 million damages award.
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March 28, 2024
The Home Depot Buying PE-Backed SRS For $18.25B
The Home Depot said Thursday it has agreed to acquire SRS Distribution Inc., a private equity-backed distributor of roofing and building supplies, for $18.25 billion, inclusive of debt.
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March 27, 2024
Fed. Circ. Says Faulty Jury Directions Warrant New IP Trial
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday granted Inline Plastics Corp. another chance to convince a Massachusetts federal jury that its tamper-resistant plastic containers were too successful for the underlying patents to be invalidated as obvious.
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March 27, 2024
Boston Strikes Novel Deal To Contract For Offshore Wind
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Wednesday announced a novel deal between the city and energy company Avangrid Inc. to purchase up to 15 megawatts of wind-generated electricity from the company, contingent on Avangrid winning a multistate bidding process for new offshore development.
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March 27, 2024
New England Patriots Defeat Stadium Wi-Fi Patent Case
A patent-holding entity behind nearly a dozen infringement suits focused on Wi-Fi solutions for sports stadiums suffered its latest defeat Wednesday as a Boston federal judge dismissed its case against the New England Patriots and found the purported invention unpatentable.
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March 27, 2024
COVID Prompted Equity Plan Edit, Raytheon Tells Chancery
Raytheon Technologies Corp. amended employee compensation plans in early 2020 to mitigate "head-spinning unprecedented volatility" from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a shareholder's allegations that directors acted in bad faith by failing to seek stockholder approval should be dismissed, the aerospace company told Delaware's Court of Chancery on Wednesday.
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March 27, 2024
Everbridge Investor Seeks To Block $1.8B Thoma Bravo Deal
A shareholder in Massachusetts-based emergency management platform Everbridge Inc. is asking a state court to intervene in a pending $1.8 billion acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LP, alleging in a Wednesday lawsuit that investors are being misled about the true value of shares and the motives of those promoting the deal.
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March 27, 2024
Cannabis Retailer Sues To Revive Union Decertification Bid
A western Massachusetts cannabis retailer has asked a state court to reinstate an employee's petition to decertify a budding local of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which was dismissed by a state labor board following a settlement of separate prohibited practices complaints.
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March 27, 2024
NCAA President Calls For Nationwide Ban On Prop Bets
NCAA President Charlie Baker on Wednesday called for all states to ban prop bets on college sports, pointing to reports of harassment of college and pro athletes over such bets, and saying he aims to "protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game."
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March 26, 2024
AI Weapons Detector Faces Investor Suit After Gov't Probes
Evolv Technologies, which makes metal detectors that purportedly use artificial intelligence to detect weapons, is facing a proposed shareholder class action in Massachusetts federal court alleging that false claims about its products' abilities to screen for types of tactical knives and guns led to federal investigations and share declines.
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March 26, 2024
Terraform Backer Tells Jury His Firm Lost Big On $36M Stake
A Boston venture capitalist told the Manhattan federal jury hearing fraud claims against Terraform Labs and its creator Do Kwon on Tuesday that his former company confidently invested $35.9 million in the crypto startup based on representations that regulators say were false.
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March 26, 2024
Boston To Pay $4.7M To Settle Suit Over Fatal Police Shooting
The city of Boston said Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $4.7 million to settle a suit brought by the mother of a Black man fatally shot by police in 2016, ending a yearslong case that saw the city repeatedly draw the ire of the presiding judge due to discovery missteps.
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March 26, 2024
Biden Admin Greenlights 2nd Orsted NY Offshore Wind Farm
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Tuesday approved the construction of Orsted-Eversource's Sunrise Wind project off the New York coast, the seventh offshore wind project given the go-ahead by the Biden administration.
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March 26, 2024
Locke Lord Gains Real Estate Attorney From Boston Boutique
Locke Lord LLP announced the addition of a partner from the Boston-based real estate and commercial litigation boutique Nathanson & Goldberg PC, touting his combined litigation and transactional experience.
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March 26, 2024
Ailing Health Co. Steward Owes Attys $600K, Firm Says
A small Boston law firm that represented Steward Health Care System in a variety of cases says the beleaguered healthcare provider has strung it along with promises to pay fees that now total more than $600,000.
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March 26, 2024
Ex-Veterans Home Leaders Resolve Landmark COVID-19 Case
The former leaders of a Massachusetts veterans facility charged in the first pandemic-related criminal neglect case against a nursing home operator resolved the charges Tuesday with separate statements of admission, acknowledging they could be found guilty if they stood trial.
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March 25, 2024
Ex-Fugitive In Offshore Gambling Ring Asks For Time Served
A 74-year-old former office manager and agent for an illegal offshore gambling operation who spent 13 years as a fugitive before being taken into custody in August asked a Massachusetts federal judge on Monday not to extend his prison term so he can return to his family in Antigua.
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March 25, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week in Delaware's Court of Chancery, litigants battled as Truth Social went public, Carl Icahn and Tripadvisor hit a roadblock, and more shareholders wailed about "invasive" bylaws. Oil drilling and pharmaceutical mergers sparked new lawsuits, and a sewing machine trademark owner sued to end a contract.
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March 25, 2024
Boston Settles Police Shooting Suit After Drawing Judge's Ire
The city of Boston has settled a six-year-old lawsuit filed by the mother of a Black man who was shot and killed by a police officer, after the city's discovery missteps and violation of court orders nearly lost it the case, according to a Monday filing.
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March 25, 2024
'Bridgegate' Atty Among Pair Of New Arnold & Porter Partners
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP has expanded its partner ranks with a former prosecutor in the "Bridgegate" case and a onetime environmental law practice leader at another firm moving to its New Jersey, New York and Boston offices, the firm announced Monday.
Expert Analysis
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Contract Disputes Recap: Facts Differ But Same Rules Apply
Zachary Jacobson and Sarah Barney at Seyfarth examine two decisions illustrating that reliance on a technicality may not save an otherwise untimely appeal, and that enforcement of commercial terms and conditions under a federal supply schedule contract may be possible.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis
In Canna Provisions v. Merrick Garland, cannabis companies argue that the Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to intrastate commercial cannabis activity; the Massachusetts federal court's eventual decision will be important to the cannabis industry for several reasons, including that the threat of federal enforcement would disappear overnight, says Hilary Bricken at Husch Blackwell.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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Business Litigators Have A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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What FTC's 'Killer Acquisition' Theory Means For Pharma Cos.
The Federal Trade Commission's recent lawsuit to block Sanofi's acquisition of a pharmaceutical treatment developed by Maze Therapeutics builds on previous enforcement actions and could indicate the agency's growing willingness to use its so-called killer acquisition theory against perceived attempts to eliminate nascent competition, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Employer Pointers As Wage And Hour AI Risks Emerge
Following the Biden administration's executive order on artificial intelligence, employers using or considering artificial intelligence tools should carefully assess whether such use could increase their exposure to liability under federal and state wage and hour laws, and be wary of algorithmic discrimination, bias and inaccurate or incomplete reporting, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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The Pros And Cons Of Protecting AI As Trade Secrets
Despite regulatory trends toward greater transparency of artificial intelligence models, federal policy acknowledges, and perhaps endorses, trade secret protection for AI information, but there are still hurdles in keeping AI information a secret, say Jennifer Maisel and Andrew Stewart at Rothwell Figg.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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Regulatory Trends Offer 4 Lessons For Debt Relief Providers
A string of enforcement actions, including a New York lawsuit filed last month by seven states and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, underscore the regulatory scrutiny that debt relief and credit repair companies face and offer important lessons on telemarketing and deceptive practices compliance, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.