Families of 737 Max 8 crash victims have asked the full Fifth Circuit to review a panel's recent decision accepting the U.S. Department of Justice's refusal to criminally prosecute Boeing for allegedly conspiring to defraud safety regulators, saying it allows corporate defendants to game the courts through a "mootness" loophole.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

737 Max Families Ask Full 5th Circ. To Weigh DOJ-Boeing Deal

By Linda Chiem

Families of 737 Max 8 crash victims have asked the full Fifth Circuit to review a panel's recent decision accepting the U.S. Department of Justice's refusal to criminally prosecute Boeing for allegedly conspiring to defraud safety regulators, saying it allows corporate defendants to game the courts through a "mootness" loophole.

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Hold Dish To Buildout Plans, Mich. Local Gov'ts Urge FCC

By Christopher Cole

A coalition of local government leaders in Michigan has asked the Federal Communications Commission to insist that Dish fulfill its wireless buildout obligations before its parent company EchoStar completes spectrum sales to AT&T and SpaceX.

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Ex-Defense Contractor Execs Call Arbitration Pact 'One-Sided'

By Rachel Konieczny

Two former executives for a defense contractor asked a Colorado federal judge Wednesday for an early win in their lawsuit alleging the contractor fired them for reporting a $1.9 million fraud scheme on a classified government contract.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Union Slams Hegseth Bid To Scrap DOD Union Contracts

By Elaine Briseño

The American Federation of Government Employees issued a statement on Wednesday expressing outrage and saying that U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had issued a memo directing DOD agencies to terminate all collective bargaining agreements with the union.

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Squires Passes On 10 Patent Challenges, Takes On 2 Others

By Theresa Schliep

The newest bulk order from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has rejected 10 petitions for America Invents Act patent reviews while granting a couple others, including a Google challenge to a patent owned by Headwater Research LLC.

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Brief

FCC Names New Carveouts From Router And Drone Bans

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission is admitting that it once again may have been too hasty in putting all foreign-made routers and drones on the so-called covered list of technology deemed to be a risk to national security, and it will be carving out some exceptions.

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ENFORCEMENT

Nadine Menendez Seeks Bail Pending 2nd Circ. Appeal

By Carla Baranauckas

Nadine Menendez urged a Manhattan federal judge to keep her free while she challenges her conviction, arguing that prosecutors deprived her of her constitutional right to the counsel of her choice.

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LITIGATION

Mortgage Co. Says Vets' Fraud Scheme Claims Distort Truth

By Sydney Price

Veterans United Home Loans told a Missouri federal judge that a proposed class action alleging the company directs veterans toward expensive mortgages fails to show the homebuyers were prevented from considering other lending options and uses altered images to exaggerate claims the company's website is misleading.

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Brigit To Take Fight Over 'Instant' Wage Advances To 2nd Circ.

By Katryna Perera

Short-term cash advance company Brigit has said it will appeal a New York federal judge's refusal to dismiss a proposed class action alleging it overcharged military borrowers with its "Instant Cash" earned-wage advances, which the judge ruled qualified as consumer loans under federal law.

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Terrorism Victim's Atty Asks Court To Toss Malpractice Award

By Emily Sawicki

A Baltimore attorney hit with a $721,000 damages judgment by an arbitrator over alleged malpractice amid his representation of a victim of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in a successful lawsuit against the Republic of Iran has asked a D.C. federal judge to toss the arbitral award.

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Leo Says Missteps Sank $50M SpaceX Investment In Appeal

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with whether a fund manager's handling of a failed $50 million SpaceX investment crossed the line into fiduciary misconduct, as attorneys for both sides clashed over causation, fairness and a controversial $16 million fee award stemming from the dispute.

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SURVEYS

The 2026 Lawyer Satisfaction Survey: Where Do You Stand?

How is your work-life balance? Are you content with your compensation and opportunities for advancement at work? Take the 2026 Law360 Lawyer Satisfaction Survey and share your thoughts.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Opinion

CBP's $166B Tariff Refund Portal Needs 4 Safeguards

Before launching its automated web portal to process tariff-refund disbursements on April 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection should apply the expensive lessons learned from the pandemic-era employee retention credit, says Peter Gariepy at RubinBrown.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Sotomayor Apologizes For 'Hurtful' Comments About Kavanaugh

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor publicly apologized Wednesday for comments she made at a University of Kansas appearance earlier this month criticizing Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

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Justice Jackson Slams Court's 'Oblivious' Emergency Orders

By Lauren Berg

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson this week slammed her conservative colleagues' use of the court's emergency docket, which has repeatedly benefited the Trump administration, saying that such "scratch-paper" orders don't acknowledge the harms that can follow such decisions, making the orders "seem oblivious and thus ring hollow."

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Consumer Cases Drive Class Action Spike, Report Says

By Y. Peter Kang

Federal class action filings spiked in 2025 after nearly a decade of relative stability, fueled by a surge in consumer protection lawsuits tied to data breaches, digital commerce and online accessibility claims, according to a new report from Lex Machina.

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Hogan, Cadwalader Partners Vote To Forge Ahead With Merger

By Marialuisa Taddia

Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader said Wednesday that their partners have voted in favor of their merger ahead of the scheduled launch of the combined law firm on July 1.

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Winston & Strawn Must Face $1.7B GloriFi Malpractice Suit

By Vince Sullivan

A Chapter 7 malpractice suit brought by the trustee of fintech company GloriFi asserting $1.7 billion in damages from a failed initial public offering mostly survived a motion to dismiss late Tuesday, with a Texas bankruptcy judge saying the trustee sufficiently pled breach claims against law firm Winston & Strawn.

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Trump's 8th Circ. Pick Pressed On Leonard Leo Ties

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's nominee for the Eighth Circuit, who represented Trump in the two cases brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, came under scrutiny Wednesday for his affiliation with groups linked to longtime Federalist Society executive and Republican fundraiser Leonard Leo.

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Jones Day DQ'd From Vanderbilt Case Over Pre-Ch. 11 Work

By Vince Sullivan

A New York bankruptcy judge disqualified law firm Jones Day from representing talc producer Vanderbilt Minerals in its Chapter 11 case Wednesday, saying the firm's prior work for the larger Vanderbilt corporate family raises questions about its disinterestedness.

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John Eastman Disbarred Over Bid To Overturn 2020 Election

By Rae Ann Varona

California's highest court on Wednesday ordered the disbarment of California attorney John Charles Eastman, who a state bar court found had helped plan and promote President Donald Trump's strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

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ICE Arrest Memo Switch Looks 'Specious,' Judge Says

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday revived an effort by civil rights groups to block immigration courthouse arrests, citing what he called an apparently deceptive Trump administration move to disclaim its earlier litigation position.

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Historical Groups Fight To Save White House Records

By Jared Foretek

Historians are asking a D.C. federal judge for an injunction that would force the Trump White House to preserve official records after administration attorneys declared the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional.

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Trump Defends DOJ Investigation Of 'Incompetent' Fed Chair

By Jon Hill

President Donald Trump expressed support Wednesday for the U.S. Department of Justice continuing to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the Fed's headquarters renovation, saying the government must "find out what happened" with the project's $2.5 billion price tag.

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DOJ Atty Slapped With $250 Sanction For Missed Deadlines

By Tom Lotshaw

A California federal judge hit a U.S. Department of Justice attorney with a $250 sanction for repeatedly missing deadlines in a noncitizen's habeas corpus case, rejecting his assertions that his need to juggle tasks under a 300-plus caseload should excuse him.

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Former Judge To Head New NJ Attorney Readmission Board

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Supreme Court announced this week the lineup of a new committee that will consider disbarred attorneys' applications for readmission, with a former state court judge of over 20 years at the head of the board.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

African Communities Together

Agiloft Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Arbitration Association

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

American Federation of Government Employees

Apple Inc.

Bridge It Inc.

Costco Wholesale Corp.

EchoStar Corp.

Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise

FedEx Corp.

Federalist Society

Google LLC

Inspire Medical Systems Inc.

JUUL Labs Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Learning Resources Inc.

Lex Machina Inc.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

Make the Road New York

Meta Platforms Inc.

Monolithic Power Systems Inc.

NETGEAR, Inc.

New Jersey State Bar Association

New York Civil Liberties Union

R.T. Vanderbilt Holding Co. Inc.

RELX PLC

RubinBrown LLP

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

State Bar of California

Stockton University

The UPS Store

The University of Alabama System

Vanderbilt Minerals LLC

Walmart Inc.

Zillow Group Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abrams & Bayliss

Baker & Hostetler

Bond Schoeneck

Boulware Law

Brown Rudnick

Burns Charest

Caplin & Drysdale

Carney Bates

Clement & Murphy

Clifford Law Offices

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Cozen O'Connor

Emery Celli

Gibbs & Bruns

Gordon Rees

Gottlieb & Associates PLLC

Hagens Berman

Hogan Lovells

Jackson Lewis PC

Jacobson Phillips PLLC

Jones Day

Kirkland & Ellis

Kreindler & Kreindler

Lathrop GPM

Law Office of Thomas M. Mullaney

Law Offices of Ruth I. Major

McGuireWoods

Milberg PLLC

Miller Waxler

Morgan & Morgan PA

Morgan Lewis

O'Melveny & Myers

Podhurst Orseck

Ross Aronstam

Schertler Onorato

Sidley Austin

Stein Saks

Waters Kraus

Watkins Calcara

Wilentz Goldman

Winston & Strawn

X Law Group

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Reclamation

California Supreme Court

Delaware Court of Chancery

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Executive Office of the President

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Reserve System

Internal Revenue Service

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Reconnaissance Office

National Science Foundation

New Jersey Supreme Court

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of State

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York

United States District Court for the District of Colorado