Finalized Trump Order Seeks Early Cyber Tests Of AI Models

By Allison Grande

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to push the developers of advanced artificial intelligence models to voluntarily share their systems with the federal government for pre-release cybersecurity testing, following changes to a previous draft that the president abruptly shelved last month due to concerns about its effect on innovation. 

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Iran's Biggest Crypto Exchange Hit With US Sanctions

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Iran's largest crypto exchange and three other crypto platforms Tuesday for allegedly aiding the Iranian government and evading sanctions amid the Trump administration's efforts to put economic pressure on Iran.

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Voyager's $300M Astrobotic Deal Fuels Lunar Build-Out Plans

By Al Barbarino

Denver-based defense and space solutions company Voyager Technologies said Tuesday that it has agreed to purchase Astrobotic Technology Inc. for about $300 million as it ramps up plans to create the infrastructure needed to sustain moon-based space exploration.

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Trump Taps Housing Finance Head For Intelligence Role

By Elaine Briseño

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday on Truth Social that he was naming Federal Housing Finance Agency head and political ally William Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.

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FCC Overstepping Authority In Device Denials, Hikvision Says

By Nadia Dreid

Congress didn't give the Federal Communications Commission the power to pull already authorized equipment off the market by placing it on the so-called covered list of equipment deemed to be a national security risk, Hikvision has told the D.C. Circuit.

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Brazil Facing 25% US Tariff Over IP, Other 'Unfair Practices'

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. Trade Representative proposed hitting Brazil with a broad 25% tariff following a trade investigation that it says uncovered a slew of "unfair practices that imposed burdens on American businesses," including poorly enforced intellectual property rights and preferential tariffs.

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Northrop To Pay $75M In Midtrial LA Contamination Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

Residents of a Los Angeles suburb who sued Northrop Grumman over alleged environmental contamination have asked a California federal judge to preliminarily approve a $75 million class deal struck midtrial with the aerospace company that also proposes their attorneys receive up to 40% of the fund — and possibly more.

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Feds Blocked From Divesting Wyo. Facility Stewardship

By Rae Ann Varona

A Colorado federal judge ruled that a Wyoming supercomputing facility used for atmospheric research must stay under a consortium of 129 universities' care pending litigation over the National Science Foundation's decision to divest the consortium of stewardship, saying the NSF failed to explain its decision and effectively ignored public comments.

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Texas Biz Court Sinks Vessel Tracking Co.'s Discovery Bid

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas Business Court judge quoted ancient Greek philosophers when he denied a request for an order submitted by a geospatial data analytics company seeking discovery relating to a government bid from its erstwhile business partner, saying that granting the request may create unintended harm.

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Feds Argue NASA Union Local Can't Halt Library Shutdown

By Emily Brill

The union local representing workers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland shouldn't be allowed to join its parent union's lawsuit against the Trump administration, the administration is arguing, asking a D.C. federal judge to deny the local's attempt to intervene to save a NASA library.

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Feds Say Lejeune Plaintiffs Seek Billion-Dollar 'Windfall'

By Emily Field

The federal government has told a North Carolina federal court that Camp Lejeune litigants are trying to rewrite the 2022 federal law that allowed them to recover damages from their exposure to toxic water on the base to give them a "windfall" of billions of dollars.

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PE-Backed Arxis Buys Omnetics, MagCanica For $890M

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Aerospace and defense company Arxis on Tuesday announced that it has agreed to acquire aerospace and defense manufacturer Omnetics Connector Corp. and torque sensor-maker MagCanica Inc. for a combined purchase price of $890 million.

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30-Year Foreign Service Leader Joins Squire Patton In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Squire Patton Boggs LLP has hired the State Department's former acting assistant secretary for Near East Affairs, who was also the first U.S. special envoy for Yemen and throughout his more-than-30-year career with the agency held posts in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and other countries.

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FinCEN World Cup Warning Raises Trafficking Risks For Cos.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent warning of human trafficking risks during the World Cup games signals heightened scrutiny ahead of the upcoming tournament, and suggests regulators increasingly expect businesses beyond financial institutions to maintain effective trafficking-risk controls, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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2 'Rocket Dockets' And The Rules That Propel Them

The fastest civil trial courts in the country are currently in the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Florida, and their chief judges provide insights into the court rules that keep them ahead, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

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BigLaw Insider Trading Defendants Have Big-Name Legal Help

By Chris Villani

An insider trading case involving nonpublic information prosecutors say was stolen from some of the largest law firms in the U.S. has ensnared more than two dozen defendants, many of whom have turned to lawyers with notable clients including Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Luigi Mangione.

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Hueston Hennigan Follows Milbank's Lead In Associate Pay

By Tracey Read

The race to match Milbank LLP's attorney pay hikes is officially on, with trial firm Hueston Hennigan the latest to announce it will increase associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually.

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Analysis

The Plaintiffs Atty Now 5-0 At Supreme Court With No Dissents

By Jeff Overley

It's true that Jennifer Bennett is undefeated at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's also an understatement. Bennett's five wins, including two recent ones, were all unanimous decisions. They showed that the plaintiffs bar can still persuade a conservative supermajority. And they turned the tide after a spree of decisions keeping workers and consumers out of court.

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Goldstein Cites Addiction To Avoid Time, DOJ Seeks 8 Years

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors recommended a 97-month prison sentence for convicted SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein, telling a Maryland federal court he has bilked the government out of more than $9.5 million in unpaid taxes. Goldstein, meanwhile, asked for a suspended sentence and supervised release, citing a "severe and longstanding gambling addiction."

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Rocade Capital Buys LFG To Create Combined $2B Lit Funder

By Ryan Boysen

Rocade Capital LLC has acquired fellow litigation funder Law Finance Group LLC, creating a combined platform that has deployed more than $2.3 billion and specializes in $10 to $50 million deals, including post-judgment financing, portfolio deals and lending to plaintiff's firms.

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Court Reporter Shortage A 'Crisis,' Calif. Supreme Court Told

By Bonnie Eslinger

Two legal nonprofits urged the California Supreme Court to issue an order entitling low-income civil litigants to electronic recording if a live court reporter is not available, saying at a hearing Wednesday that a court reporter shortage in the Golden State has created a "crisis."

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9th Circ. Suspends 2 Attys For 6 Months Over AI Hallucinations

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday temporarily suspended two California immigration attorneys from practicing before the appellate court for filing briefs in a deportation relief case containing artificial intelligence-generated hallucinations, finding no excuse for their "extraordinary confession" of not vetting citations used by unlicensed brief writers.

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Tenn. Firm Sanctioned For AI Misuse In Baker Donelson Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Tennessee federal judge has sanctioned a Memphis, Tennessee, law firm over its misuse of artificial intelligence amid a malpractice suit against Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, ordering the regional firm to reimburse costs associated with the matter and report the misconduct to the state's disciplinary counsel.

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Feature

'Read The Cases': Conn. Judge Offers AI Advice To Attys

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge told a gathering of attorneys Tuesday that his law clerks are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence for any purpose involving legal research, his interns are barred from using it at all, and lawyers must be careful when relying on the material that the tools produce.

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Atty Can't Shake $120M Verdict In RICO, Defamation Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

An Alabama federal judge refused to disturb a $120 million verdict against a former Conrad & Scherer LLP managing partner, ruling there was enough evidence at trial for a jury to find the attorney liable on Drummond Co.'s racketeering and defamation claims.

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Graham Pushes Federal Tort Path After DOJ Drops $1.8B Fund

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice seemed, at least briefly, to support a Republican senator's alternative solution to the "anti-weaponization" $1.8 billion fund that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the department is abandoning.

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DOJ Sets New Healthcare Fraud Convictions Record

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that its Health Care Fraud Unit secured six jury trial convictions across the country in less than three weeks, with the cases involving more than $1.1 billion in fraud losses.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Dardarian Ho's Linda Dardarian

By Lynn LaRowe

Despite being on the other side of a disability rights case that will cost his municipality at least $150 million, Kevin McLaughlin, city attorney for Oakland, California, believes that if more lawyers were like Linda Dardarian, there would be far less lamenting about civility in the legal profession.

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