Lessons From The Past For Weil's Final Curtain Call

By Rick Archer

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP leaders may have every reason to agree to an out-of-court wind-down, but dissolving such a storied law firm, which announced Wednesday it intends to shut down following an exodus of attorneys, is not as simple as a handshake among partners, experts said in interviews with Law360 on Wednesday.

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Google Cut Worker's Duties After Military Leave, Feds Say

By Vin Gurrieri

Google failed to reinstate a former employee to a similar role after he returned from a yearlong stint in the U.S. Army's Cyber Command unit and eventually laid him off, according to a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed Thursday in Manhattan.

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Wash. Jury Asked To Pin Blame For Fatal 2022 Seaplane Crash

By Rachel Riley

The owner of a seaplane involved in a deadly 2022 crash told a Washington state jury on Thursday that a design flaw caused the aircraft to plunge into the bay below, contending an affiliate of the plane's Canadian manufacturer owes $1.14 million for equipment destroyed in the crash.

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Judge Sinks Feds' Bid To Duck Prototype Competition Protest

By Tom Lotshaw

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge has denied the government's attempt to escape consolidated protests challenging the Navy's decision to eliminate two companies from an Other Transaction Authority competition involving unmanned surface vessel prototypes.

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Groups Drop Suit Over Trump's DEI Mandate For Contractors

By Grace Elletson

A coalition of organizations ended their challenge of an executive order from President Donald Trump that requires government contractors to disavow "racially discriminatory DEI activities," stating that while they lost their bid to freeze the order, they gained crucial clarity from the court about the directive's scope.

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FCC Seeks To Rev Up Satellite Device Coverage

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission advanced new rules Thursday that could open 25 megahertz of midband spectrum for new uses, including not only terrestrial wireless but potentially also direct-to-device coverage from satellites.

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FCC Agrees To Rules Targeting Some Foreign Test Labs

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to block recognition of equipment testing labs in countries that do not similarly recognize U.S.-based labs.

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Canada, UAE Sign Economic Partnership Agreement

By Jack McLoone

Canada and the United Arab Emirates have reached an agreement on a trade deal that is expected to double bilateral trade between the countries, up to CA$7 billion ($5 billion) annually, the Canadian government said, lauding the agreement as being reached in "record time."

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Brief

US Signs Key Sector Memorandums With Hungary, Finland

By Dylan Moroses

Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed memorandums with Finnish and Hungarian officials Thursday indicating that the U.S. will work together with those trading partners on key minerals, technology and energy policy matters.

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EU Head Affirms Ties With Canada As Member Talks Open

By Jack McLoone

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday reaffirmed the European Union's commitment to strengthening its ties with Canada at the opening of a summit to consider whether to adopt Canada as the EU's first-ever associate member.

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Brief

EU Pushes China For More Fair Trade Commitments

By Jack McLoone

The European Parliament's Committee on International Trade spent a three-day trip to China pushing for an expansion of a trade framework beyond a recently reached mutual understanding on hybrid vehicles, among other concerns, the committee said Thursday.

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Judge Rejects 'Kitchen Sink' Protest Of Optum DHA Deal

By Elaine Briseño

A Court of Federal Claims judge dismissed a protest challenging the Defense Health Agency's award of a $1.6 billion health services contract, finding the protestors spent too much time making various points instead of homing in on a winning argument.

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NJ Panel Says State Shields Military Leave Past Federal Cap

By MJ Koo

A New Jersey state appeals court on Thursday upheld a decision giving an Atlantic City police officer his job back after the city fired him for staying on military leave for more than five years, saying a federal five-year limit is a minimum, not a maximum.

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Navy Beats Clean Water Act Suit Over Fuel Discharges

By Madeline Lyskawa

A Hawaii federal judge ruled in favor of the U.S. Navy over an environmental group's claims it violated the Clean Water Act by discharging fuel into Pearl Harbor, saying there's no reasonable likelihood that the Navy will continue to do so.

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Gov't Urges Court To Dismiss $50B Ligado Takings Case

By Madeline Lyskawa

The federal government has urged the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to dismiss Ligado's attempt to secure $50 billion over claims the Pentagon prevented the company from using valuable spectrum rights it bought for exclusive use to build a terrestrial wireless network.

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Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs Blast 'Absurd' Lone Pine Motion

By Mike Curley

Plaintiffs in massive multidistrict litigation over toxic water at the Camp Lejeune military base are urging a North Carolina federal court to reject the federal government's bid for a Lone Pine motion requiring claimants to submit proof of their claims, saying it would delay the litigation by years, if not decades, and cause the plaintiffs' costs to skyrocket.

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Bid Protest Spotlight: Bait-And-Switch, Scope, Performance

In this month's bid protest roundup, Michael Ols at MoFo offers takeaways from recent decisions examining bait-and-switch protest claims, the scope of a contractor teaming agreement and the use of an affiliate’s past performance.

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West Point Prof's Suit Tests Public Employee Speech Limits

A recent complaint in New York federal court alleging that West Point unlawfully terminated a professor who challenged a directive banning references to human causes of climate change could illuminate how academic freedom and public employee speech protections apply at a military academy, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

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Are You Happy With Your In-House Role? Take Our Survey

Is your company giving you everything you need to succeed? What are some misconceptions about working in-house? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Satisfaction Survey.

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DOJ Backs Ex-Wisconsin Judge's ICE Obstruction Conviction

By Andrea Keckley

The U.S. Department of Justice told the Seventh Circuit that the high-profile conviction of a former Wisconsin state court judge for interfering with an ICE arrest was not compromised by her position on the bench or by jury instructions.

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Roundup

Hub Hires: WilmerHale, Womble Bond, Kirkland

By Chris Villani

Falling temperatures didn't bring a cooldown in the Boston legal lateral market as WilmerHale and Robinson & Cole LLP both welcomed former assistant attorneys general, Honigman LLP established its first office in the market, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP snagged a partner from Ropes & Gray LLP.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Consovoy McCarthy PLLC and Smith Porsborg Schweigert Armstrong Moldenhauer & Smith lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eighth Circuit struck down the Federal Reserve's regulatory cap on the swipe fees that larger banks may collect on debit card transactions.

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Cyberattack Class Action Against Fox Rothschild Dropped

By Madison Arnold

Three data breach victims have dismissed their proposed class action against Fox Rothschild LLP after ransomware group Silent Ransom Group targeted the firm.

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Ramona Nee, Tapped To Lead Weil, Now In Talks With Kirkland

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Ramona Nee, the co-leader of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's U.S. private equity practice who had been poised to become its leader, is engaged in talks to join Kirkland & Ellis LLP, a source with knowledge of the situation told Law360 Pulse on Friday.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Meta reached a settlement during jury selection in the second Los Angeles bellwether trial over claims its Instagram platform harms the mental health of children, leaving Snap as the lone defendant facing trial. In the meantime, current and former in-house lawyers for Google and Meta said that the ability of AI to write patent applications is rapidly improving, and that in blind tests, experienced attorneys often deem AI-drafted patents to be superior to those from humans. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Jackson Walker Inks $500K Deal In EXCO's Ch. 11 Fee Fight

By Clara Geoghegan

Jackson Walker has agreed to pay EXCO Resources Inc. $500,000 to end litigation over fees paid to the firm while one of its partners was in an undisclosed relationship with the former bankruptcy judge who mediated in the reorganized oil and gas driller's Texas Chapter 11.

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Fed. Judge A No-Show Amid Inquiry Into Her Mental Health

By Craig Clough

U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas failed to appear Friday before a judicial investigative committee examining allegations that she abandoned her post and concerns that a mental condition may be interfering with her ability to perform her duties.

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K&L Gates DQ'd In Trust's Mortgage Loan Agreement Dispute

By Isaac Monterose

A Washington federal judge disqualified K&L Gates LLP from a trust's dispute over a residential mortgage loan sale agreement, ruling that the law firm must leave the suit because it drafted the form agreement used in the transaction.

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Cruz Counsel Returns To FCC As Space Bureau Chief

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission has named a former employee with experience in both the public and private sectors to head the agency's Space Bureau, after a stint as chief telecommunications counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Kalshi Taps Clement For High Court Sports Contracts Fight

By Elaine Briseño

Kalshi has hired appellate heavyweight Paul D. Clement of Clement & Murphy PLLC to represent the company in its potential U.S. Supreme Court battle over whether the prediction markets platform's sports wagering is subject to state or federal oversight.

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