Rocket Lab said Monday it has agreed to acquire satellite operator Iridium Communications in an $8 billion cash-and-stock deal, combining rocket launches, satellite manufacturing and global satellite communications under one company.
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TOP NEWS

5 Firms Advise On Rocket Lab's $8B Iridium Deal

By Al Barbarino

Rocket Lab said Monday it has agreed to acquire satellite operator Iridium Communications in an $8 billion cash-and-stock deal, combining rocket launches, satellite manufacturing and global satellite communications under one company.

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3rd Circ. Won't Hear Appeal In Fatal Osprey Crash Suit

By Mike Curley

The Third Circuit on Monday denied a petition from the families of eight U.S. service members killed in a V-22 Osprey crash in November 2023 who sought to appeal the dismissal of their state court claims against The Boeing Co., Bell Textron Inc. and Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. over the crash.

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US Needs To Emphasize Orbit Power Limits, Report Says

By Christopher Cole

A group of satellite policy experts pressed for updated power limits for low Earth orbit satellites during the run-up to the World Radiocommunication Conference.

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Petrofac Fined By HMRC For Russian Sanctions Breach

By Christopher Crosby

HM Revenue and Customs said Monday that a U.K. energy firm has paid a £569,000 ($753,000) penalty for breaching sanctions regulations which prohibited the export of industrial goods to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Rural Network Providers Seek FCC Waiver To Alter Routers

By Nadia Dreid

Now that the Federal Communications Commission has given some telecommunications trade groups permission to make changes to foreign-made routers that the agency has banned from being imported, those groups are asking the agency to let suppliers make the changes themselves.

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LITIGATION

Fed. Circ. Says Vet's Atty Can't Get Fees Over New Hip Claim

By Ganesh Setty

The Federal Circuit has rejected an attorney's bid to secure attorney fees following her client's long-running quest for disability benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, finding that a separate case commenced following his February 2021 hip surgery.

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Contractor Says Navy Owes $8M Over USS Vicksburg Repairs

By Elaine Briseño

A U.S. Navy contractor alleged that it was shortchanged more than $8 million after the agency drastically underestimated how much repair work was needed to rehabilitate the USS Vicksburg, resulting in 298 extra days in dry dock.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

2 Prediction Market Cases Will Test Insider Trading Theory

Prosecutors in two recent Southern District of New York cases have filed separate charges against two defendants who used confidential information gathered from each employer to place prediction market bets, but each prosecution must overcome different legal hurdles established by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Second Circuit, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert.

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

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.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Justice Jackson Tops High Court Book Earnings In 2025

By Ryan Boysen

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made nearly $1.2 million in book royalties last year, bringing her total to $4.14 million and making her the most highly compensated author on the high court, according to financial disclosure forms released Monday.

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Judge Limits Vegas Trip For BigLaw Insider Trading Defendant

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal magistrate judge said Monday a defendant described by prosecutors as a "lynchpin" in the BigLaw insider trading case must limit a planned visit to Las Vegas next month to just two nights, saying she also has "concerns about the validity" of a financial statement he provided to obtain a federal defender.

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Harris Beach Murtha To Combine With Peabody & Arnold

By Christine DeRosa

Harris Beach Murtha Cullina PLLC is set to expand its footprint in the Northeast through a combination with Boston firm Peabody & Arnold LLP.

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Texas Supreme Court Weighs New Rules To Tackle AI Misuse

By Lynn LaRowe

The Texas Supreme Court has proposed rule changes intended to address the misuse of artificial intelligence, including outlining possible sanctions and requiring signatories to attest to a filing's accuracy, just as a recent state bar survey showed AI use among Lone Star State lawyers more than doubling since 2024.

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Analysis

Volatility May Follow As Justices Make Agency Firings Easier​​​​​​​

By Sarah Jarvis

The policies and enforcement priorities of federal agencies may fluctuate more rapidly based on who is president, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's Monday decision finding that presidents have unlimited authority to fire members of independent agencies, experts told Law360.

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Analysis

The End Of An 'Independent' FTC

By Bryan Koenig

Federal Trade Commission members, responsible for merger review, antitrust enforcement, consumer protection safeguards and rulemaking, and industry analysis, no longer serve at a remove from presidential authority, thanks to Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could dramatically remake the FTC and other independent agencies.

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Analysis

High Court Gives Fed Independence A 'Fragile' Reprieve

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Supreme Court has thrown its weight behind Federal Reserve independence by rejecting President Donald Trump's bid to immediately oust Fed Gov. Lisa Cook, but experts say the fight over central bank control may not be finished — just moving to a new phase.

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DC Ethics Counsel Conflicted In Ethics Case, DOJ Atty Says

By Emily Sawicki

A former interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., is urging the D.C. federal court to disqualify the District of Columbia ethics counsel from pursuing an ethics case against him, arguing that the attorney and another lawyer from his office are conflicted and that their impartiality is in question.

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McCarter & English Missed Key Docs In $20M Loans, Court Told

By Brian Steele

A McCarter & English LLP attorney botched two multimillion-dollar loan deals by failing to secure an ironclad repayment obligation from a New York town or include mandatory documents in the closing packages, a Connecticut state court heard Monday as a long-awaited malpractice trial got underway.

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Sotomayor Says 7th Circ. 'Clearly Wrong' In Immunity Ruling

By Parker Quinlan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up a case over whether qualified immunity was correctly granted to two Wisconsin prison guards who left a naked man in an often freezing cold cell for 23 hours, drawing a dissent from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

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Analysis

Justices Look To Shed Light On Jury Role In Pepsi TM Battle

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a trademark fight over PepsiCo's "Mtn Dew Rise Energy" drink gives the justices a chance to clarify when juries, rather than judges, should decide whether a mark is inherently strong — a narrow question that attorneys say could affect how often infringement cases survive summary judgment.

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Ex-Pa. AG, Trump Defense Firm Want Malpractice Claims Axed

By James Boyle

An elections nonprofit is seeking to keep alive its malpractice claim against the former acting attorney general of Pennsylvania and his firm, van der Veen Hartshorn & Levin, filing a quick response over the weekend to a motion to dismiss its amended complaint in Pennsylvania federal court.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled disputes involving controlling stockholders, executive compensation, take-private transactions, books and records demands and board governance, while the Delaware Supreme Court issued decisions in two corporate records cases previously decided in the Chancery.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

ACA Connects - America's Communications Association

Amazon.com Inc.

BAE Systems PLC

BC Partners

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.

Burke Inc.

Chewy Inc.

Deutsche Bank AG

First Capital, Inc.

George Washington University

Gleason Corp.

Google LLC

HarperCollins Publishers LLC

Ingram Micro Holding Corp.

Iridium Communications Inc.

Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd.

MGM Grand Hotel LLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

National Telephone Cooperative Association

New Civil Liberties Alliance

PepsiCo Inc.

Petrofac Ltd.

Platinum Equity LLC

Public Citizen Inc.

Quikrete Holdings Inc.

Summit Materials Inc.

TerraForm Power Inc.

Textron Inc.

The Associated Press

The Boeing Co.

The District of Columbia Bar

The State University of New York

The Trade Desk Inc.

The Venetian Las Vegas

UCLA School of Law

United States Telecom Association

Universal Stainless & Alloy Products, Inc.

Washington Legal Foundation

Wells Fargo & Co.

Willis Towers Watson PLC

ZipRecruiter Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Caldwell Carlson

Chisholm & Chisholm

Chisholm Chisholm

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

DLA Piper

Davis Polk

Davis Wright Tremaine

Dowd & Dowd Ltd

Friedland Cianfrani

Gagliano Law Offices

Goodwin Procter

Harris Beach Murtha

Hinshaw & Culbertson

Lankler Siffert

Latham & Watkins

Lex Lumina

Mayer Brown

McCarter & English

Morgan Lewis

Peabody & Arnold

Perkins Coie

Pietragallo Gordon

Sidley Austin

Silver Golub

Smith Gambrell

Sullivan & Cromwell

Wiggin & Dana

Wiley Rein

Wilkinson Barker

Wilson Sonsini

Wisner Baum

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Delaware Court of Chancery

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

HMRC

Illinois General Assembly

Illinois Supreme Court

International Telecommunication Union

National Labor Relations Board

New York Attorney General's Office

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office

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

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

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

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

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

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

U.S. Navy

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Tax Court

Wisconsin Department of Justice