Federal Workers Seek To Halt Gender-Affirming Benefits Ban

By Patrick Hoff

Two federal employees urged a D.C. federal court to block President Donald Trump's administration from eliminating coverage for gender-affirming care from their 2027 health benefits, arguing thousands of people will be harmed unless the court steps in before open enrollment ends.

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Brief

$12.9M Deal Ends Anthem Mental Health Coverage Suit

By Grace Elletson

A New York federal judge gave his blessing Thursday to a $12.9 million deal Anthem struck to resolve a suit claiming the insurance company violated federal benefits law by denying coverage for residential behavioral health treatment it deemed medically unnecessary.

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Ill. Firm Accused Of Pushing Workers' Comp Deal On Client

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois woman who says she suffered permanent spinal injuries while working in healthcare has sued Chicago law firm Gordon Gordon & Centracchio, alleging it pressured her into accepting an inadequate workers' compensation settlement rather than pursuing permanent total disability benefits and failed to investigate potential medical malpractice claims.

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Ga. Atty Fights Sanctions Bid For Sharing Severance Talks

By Andrea Keckley

An attorney for a woman suing the investment firm that laid her off told a Georgia federal judge Wednesday that a defense lawyer's bid to sanction him for causing "reputational harm and professional embarrassment" by publicizing comments made during confidential severance negotiations suggests the firm knew those comments amounted to illegal retaliation.

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11th Circ. Backs Order Requiring Clearer Fla. Medicaid Notices

By Carolina Bolado

The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's ruling that Florida's notices to residents cutting their Medicaid coverage were so confusing that they violated the enrollees' due process rights by depriving them of a chance to challenge the decision.

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State Farm Gets Vehicle Valuation Dispute Trimmed

By Hope Patti

A North Carolina federal court trimmed a proposed class action accusing State Farm of systematically undervaluing drivers' claims for totaled vehicles, saying the suit plausibly alleged unfair and deceptive trade practices, but not real and imminent future harm to maintain a claim for prospective declaratory relief.

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Justices' Intel Ruling Could Aid 401(k) Alternative Asset Push

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent oral arguments in Anderson v. Intel, a decision favoring Intel over a prudence claim against fiduciaries based on underperformance by comparing two funds that aren't meaningfully similar would undercut the most common litigation theory against including alternative investments in 401(k) plans, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

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Health Plan Sponsors Must Inspect 3rd-Party Admin Payments

A newly filed class action against Cigna spotlights issues surrounding how self-funded group health plan fiduciaries pay their third-party administrators, and the outcome could shape what plan sponsors are expected to know about such compensation structures, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

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Series

Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.

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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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Squire Patton, Baker McKenzie Hit With Data Breach Suits

By Rae Ann Varona

Squire Patton Boggs LLP and Baker McKenzie failed to protect private personal information stored in the law firms' systems from separate cyberattacks and delayed notifying affected individuals for roughly two months, two proposed class actions filed in Ohio and Illinois federal courts have alleged.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Susman Godfrey LLP, Langer Grogan & Diver PC, Hausfeld LLP and MoloLamken LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit ruled that a former federal judge erred by scrapping a $4.7 billion jury verdict against the National Football League in a class action over the price of its Sunday Ticket broadcast package.

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Judge Kewalramani Warns Against Taking Sanctions Lightly

By Dani Kass

Retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Shashi Kewalramani on Friday cautioned patent attorneys to be extremely discerning when filing sanctions motions, comparing it to crying "fire" in a crowded room.

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Brief

US Legal Sector Jobs Reached Record High In October

By Tracey Read

The legal industry's hot streak continued last month, adding 2,400 more jobs in October to reach a record high, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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US Charges 3 Over $129M AI Scam Using Fake UK Lawyers

By Laura Stewart Liberty

U.S. prosecutors said Thursday they have charged three men, including one facing extradition from London, for allegedly defrauding companies of $129 million through a scheme that used AI to impersonate executives and U.K. lawyers.

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Defeated Texas Justice Being Considered For Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

With the clock ticking on Republicans' control of the Senate, President Donald Trump is considering putting a Texas Supreme Court justice who just lost reelection on the federal bench.

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Attys Can Curb AI Error Fallout With Candor, Accountability

By Andrea Keckley

Nearly four years since ChatGPT launched and the legal industry began experimenting at scale with generative artificial intelligence, not a month goes by without another attorney finding a hallucination error in a court filing.

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Top Blanche Adviser Among Latest To Exit DOJ

By Jared Foretek

A top legal adviser to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced his departure from the U.S. Department of Justice Friday, becoming the latest in a slew of high-profile resignations from the department since Republicans' midterm election defeat Tuesday night.

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Ice Miller Sued Over $729K Award After Losing Federal Forum

By Andrea Keckley

A couple who hired Ice Miller LLP to defend their organization against a breach of contract suit have accused the firm in Indiana federal court of exposing them to additional litigation with a settlement that failed to preserve federal jurisdiction over future disputes.

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Law Firm Sues Sierra Leone Over $361K Legal Bill

By Jared Foretek

Law firm Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC claims in a complaint filed in D.C. federal court that Sierra Leone's government stiffed it on more than $300,000 in legal fees and costs after the firm defended it against earlier claims of unpaid fees by Jenner & Block.

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Mich. Supreme Court Chief Next To Lead Chief Justice Group

By Melanie Dorsey

The Michigan Supreme Court's chief justice has been named president-elect of the Conference of Chief Justices, a national organization representing the highest-ranking state judicial officers, and she plans to focus on expanding access to legal services, reforming attorney licensing and strengthening courthouse security.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The U.S. Department of Justice's new cash rewards program for tips on criminal fraud could backfire in some cases, experts say. Elsewhere, attorneys are weighing new strategies in the wake of Texas' historic blue shift during the midterm elections. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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