Verizon must face a proposed class action alleging it unlawfully chose to use forfeited retirement plan funds to cover its contribution obligations rather than plan expenses, a New York federal judge ruled, saying it would be premature to toss the case ahead of discovery.
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Verizon Can't Shut Down 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

By Patrick Hoff

Verizon must face a proposed class action alleging it unlawfully chose to use forfeited retirement plan funds to cover its contribution obligations rather than plan expenses, a New York federal judge ruled, saying it would be premature to toss the case ahead of discovery.

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Aerospace Co. Jettisons Suit Over 401(k) Management

By Patrick Hoff

An aerospace technology subsidiary of Honeywell escaped a lawsuit claiming it unlawfully concealed investment policy documents from former plan participants who claimed the company's retirement plan was mismanaged, with a California federal judge concluding the participants weren't harmed by the lack of disclosure.

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Airlines' Fight Over Colo. Sick Leave Law Heads To Trial

By MJ Koo

A Colorado federal court has sent an airline industry group's challenge to the state's paid sick leave law to trial, finding that competing expert testimony about whether the law increases employee absences and disrupts airline services creates factual disputes that a judge cannot resolve before trial.

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Justices To Review Ex-Spouse Military Pay Suit

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a woman's attempt to enforce a divorce settlement under which she said she was entitled to a share of her ex-husband's military retirement pay, even if he waived it to receive disability benefits.

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LITIGATION

Merrill, But Not BofA, Must Face Cash Sweep Rates Suit

By Lauren Berg

Bank of America escaped account holders' allegations that they were paid unreasonably low interest rates under automatic cash sweep programs, but its wealth management division, Merrill Lynch, must still face most of the proposed class claims, according to a New York federal judge's ruling.

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Judge Bars HHS Medicaid Cuts For Wash. Noncitizens On SSI

By Elaine Briseño

A federal judge has temporarily halted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' attempts to cancel Medicaid benefits to noncitizens in Washington state receiving supplemental security income, finding the loss of benefits could lead to permanent disability or death.

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NH Families Seek To Block Medicaid Ban On Youth Trans Care

By Gianna Ferrarin

Transgender adolescents and their parents urged a New Hampshire federal court Thursday to block the Trump administration's plan to cut off Medicaid funding for minors' gender-affirming care, arguing it's unconstitutional, motivated by discriminatory animus and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Analysis

4 Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In October

By Kellie Mejdrich

Former Intel workers' bid to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to revive their suit alleging shoddy retirement plan investments tops the list of oral arguments slated for October that benefits attorneys may want to keep an eye on. Here's a look at that case and three others teed up for argument this month.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Justice Alito Says He's Weighing The Best Time To Retire

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has confirmed that he considered retiring at the end of the high court's latest term, and that he will continue to weigh that decision "every term." 

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Munger Tolles Announces Clerkship Bonus Increases

By Matt Perez

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP announced Thursday that it is increasing its clerkship bonuses to $180,000 for one qualifying clerkship and $200,000 for two or more qualifying clerkships.

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Roberts Wants Less Talk. Supreme Court Attorneys Disagree.

By Katie Buehler

Near the end of last term, Chief Justice John Roberts voiced his frustration with the U.S. Supreme Court's lengthening oral argument sessions and suggested the justices might tweak their format over the summer. But as the new term begins Monday, the court has yet to announce any changes, and advocates see little need for improvement.

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5 Supreme Court Cases To Watch This Fall

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will convene Monday to begin its 2026 October term, which includes several cases that could determine the future of climate change tort litigation, expand religious freedoms and parental rights, and grant states authority to require proof of citizenship when individuals register for presidential elections using state forms. 

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Analysis

DOJ Envisions 'Full-Fledged Law Firm' To Combat Gov't Fraud

By Phillip Bantz

The National Fraud Enforcement Division was created less than six months ago, but it is rapidly reshaping the U.S. Department of Justice and spurring an uptick in internal corporate investigations, white collar experts say.

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Legal Sector Adds 2K Jobs, For 6th Straight Month Of Growth

By Tracey Read

While the overall U.S. economy's unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% last month, the legal industry was in the midst of a six-month hot streak.

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Judge Clevenger Retires After 36 Years On Fed. Circ.

By Dani Kass

U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond C. Clevenger III has retired from the Federal Circuit, 20 years after taking senior status, the court said Friday.

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Jackson Walker May Face New Sanctions Over Old Romance

By Rick Archer

A Texas bankruptcy judge Friday threatened Jackson Walker LLP with sanctions over yet another bankruptcy case where the firm's retention was approved by a judge in a relationship with a former attorney at the firm.

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Keesal Young Owes Duty To Safeguard 316K People's Data

By Matt Perez

A California federal judge has kept negligence and consumer privacy claims intact against law firm Keesal Young & Logan over a 2024 data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 316,000 people, finding the plaintiffs have standing because their data apparently landed on the dark web.

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Trump Asks 9th Circ. To Pause Seattle US Atty Reinstatement

By Rachel Riley

The Trump administration called on the Ninth Circuit Friday to suspend a federal judge's Thursday order reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, seeking to keep Charles Neil Floyd as acting head of the Seattle office pending the government's appeal.

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Thomson Reuters Hit With Antitrust Case Over 'Killer' AI Deal

By Matthew Perlman

A California law firm has accused Thomson Reuters of violating antitrust law when it purchased artificial intelligence research tool Casetext for $650 million and then shuttered the platform to extinguish a rising competitor to its Westlaw service.

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Amazon Seeks Records Around Lawyer's USPTO Suspension

By Ben Adlin

An attorney Amazon has accused of furthering a scheme to fraudulently register thousands of trademarks and use them to report infringement by rival Amazon merchants must hand over documents related to her discipline in California and Washington, the retail giant argued in a Washington federal court filing Thursday.

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Tenn. High Court Keeps ABA As Law School Accreditor

By Emma Cueto

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Friday declined to follow other conservative states in dropping the American Bar Association as the state's law school accreditor, though it indicated it is open to approving other accreditors in addition to or instead of the ABA in the future.

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Analysis

3rd Circ. AI Ruling May Reach Beyond Westlaw Content Fight

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit went out of its way to say its ruling against a defunct legal research startup was not a generative artificial intelligence case, but copyright lawyers expect the reach of its reasoning to be tested almost immediately in pending AI litigation.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The Department of Justice has unveiled new corporate fraud enforcement priorities, and a report found that more than four out of five legal departments have adopted artificial intelligence. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions after a California federal jury said Apple owes $5.7 billion to headphone-maker Taction for infringing two vibration technology patents, issuing the largest patent verdict in U.S. history.

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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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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Advisors LLC

Alston & Bird

Armstrong & Bradylyons

Arnold & Porter

Baker & Hostetler

Barnard Iglitzin

Benesch

Capozzi Adler PC

Clement & Murphy

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Crowell & Moring

Davis Graham

Davis Polk

Davis Wright Tremaine

DiCello Levitt

Edelson Lechtzin

Emery Reddy

FBT Gibbons

Faegre Drinker

Foley & Lardner

Gibson Dunn

Greenberg Traurig

Gupta Wessler

HKM Employment Attorneys

Hogan Lovells

Holland & Knight

Jackson Walker LLP

Jenner & Block

Keesal Young

Kellogg Hansen

Kessler Topaz

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Kopelowitz Ostrow

Latham & Watkins

Law Offices of Michael B. Wolk

McCarter & English

McDermott Will & Schulte

McGinn Montoya

Meritz Reddy

Milbank LLP

Milberg PLLC

Morgan Lewis

Morrison & Foerster

Mullen Coughlin

Munger Tolles

O'Melveny & Myers

Paul Weiss

Phelps Dunbar

Polsinelli PC

Pryor Cashman

Quinn Emanuel

Redgrave LLP

Reed Smith

Robbins Geller

Robinson & Cole

Rosman & Germain

Schlam Stone

Shook Hardy

Sidley Austin

Skadden Arps

Srourian Law Firm

Stradley Ronon

Strauss Borrelli

Vogel Law Firm

Walcheske & Luzi

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Wilson Sonsini

Wolf Popper

Womble Bond

Yetter Coleman

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

APC

Air Transport Association of America

Amazon.com Inc.

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Airlines Group Inc.

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire

American Public Health Association

Anthropic PBC

Apple Inc.

Association of Corporate Counsel

AstraZeneca PLC

BARBRI

Bank of America Corp.

Burke Inc.

CBS Interactive Inc.

Casetext Inc.

Chegg Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions

Eli Lilly & Co.

Endeavor Operating Company LLC

Exxon Mobil Corp.

FMR LLC

Federalist Society

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders

Genworth Financial Inc.

George Washington University

Google LLC

Health Law Advocates Inc.

Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Intel Corp.

Inter Tribal Council of Arizona Inc.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

Major Lindsey & Africa LLC

MasterCard Inc.

Medtronic PLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

MultiPlan Corp.

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

New Jersey Transit Corp.

New York City Bar Association

New York Law School

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Penske Media Corp.

Pfizer Inc.

Pratt & Whitney

RELX PLC

RTX Corp.

Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc.

Robinhood Markets Inc.

Stanford University

State Bar of California

Suncor Energy Inc.

Tesla Inc.

The Cigna Group

The Endocrine Society

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

The Neiman Marcus Group LLC

The New York Times Co.

Thomson Reuters Corp.

TikTok Inc.

TransUnion LLC

United Airlines Holdings Inc.

Verizon Communications Inc.

Yale University

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arizona Legislature

Bureau of Labor Statistics

California Supreme Court

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

City and County of San Francisco, California

Colorado Attorney General's Office

Colorado Supreme Court

Delaware Court of Chancery

Election Assistance Commission

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Maine Attorney General's Office

New Jersey Court

New Jersey Supreme Court

New Mexico Attorney General's Office

North Dakota Supreme Court

Social Security Administration

Texas Attorney General's Office

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Army

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

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 Northern District of California

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

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

U.S. District Court of the District of New Hampshire

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado