10th Circ. Sides With Early Retirees In Union Pension Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday backed a group of union retirees who alleged they were wrongly denied early retirement benefits from a multiemployer pension plan after they withdrew from work that was covered by a collective bargaining agreement, reviving one of their claims while rejecting an appeal from the plan's trustees.

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Aviation Co. Gets Pretrial Win In Remote Workers' Layoff Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge said Tuesday that a proposed class of remote employees did not have to be noticed under the WARN Act, handing an aviation company an early win in a suit by terminated employees who claimed they were abruptly fired in violation of the federal law.

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Ga. Hospital Escapes LGBTQ+ Bias Suit Over Fertility Benefits

By Patrick Hoff

An Atlanta-area hospital and health system defeated a lesbian nurse's lawsuit alleging she wasn't given the same access to fertility benefits as heterosexual employees, with a Georgia federal judge concluding that a magistrate misapplied the U.S. Supreme Court's blockbuster Bostock ruling when he recommended keeping the case in court.

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Cancer Patients Can't Get Class Status In Proton Beam Suit

By Grace Elletson

A Tennessee federal judge shot down a BlueCross BlueShield health plan member's bid for class certification in his suit claiming the insurer wrongfully denied coverage for a proton beam cancer treatment it deemed investigatory, stating the case would require too much individual math to assess each patient's potential damages.

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Texas Biz Court Pares Southwest Union's Boeing Suit

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas Business Court judge pared back the scope of claims brought by the pilots union for Southwest Airlines against The Boeing Co. after regulators grounded the 737 Max aircraft, saying Monday that the pilots can recover only direct damages, not damages from secondary injuries.

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Worker Says Pilgrim's Pride Should Face 401(k) Fund Suit

By Zach Dupont

A Pilgrim's Pride Corp. employee has told a Colorado federal judge that the comparators used to allege the company kept a riskier and worse performing contract within its retirement savings plan are sufficient to survive the company's dismissal bid, according to a response brief.

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What Comes Next For Digital Asset Regs After Clarity Act Flop

After the U.S. Senate recently blocked the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, agency rulemaking could still offer a near-term remedy, and companies meanwhile should monitor the existing framework assembled from enforcement precedent and case law in the absence of a purpose-built statute, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

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The Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders: A Look At The Top Firms

Today's most prestigious firms attract top talent and marquee clients while posting record profits. Here's a look at the top 10 firms in this year's Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders, a ranking of the firms that stand out for their prominence, power and distinction.

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DOJ Accuses Judges Of Ethics Violations With Press Remarks

By Jack Karp

Several Minnesota federal judges ran afoul of their ethical obligations when they commented on President Donald Trump's immigration policies in a recent news article, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a judicial misconduct complaint filed Wednesday.

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DOJ Atty Picked For Judgeship Probed On Fulton County Raid

By Courtney Bublé

A top U.S. Department of Justice official tapped for a federal judgeship faced questions from Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday about the department's investigation's in Fulton County, Georgia, over Trump's allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

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Texas AG Says ABA Stifling Law School Competition

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Attorney General announced an investigation into the American Bar Association relating to alleged anticompetitive conduct in the association's accreditation of law schools, claiming Wednesday that the ABA "weaponized its accreditation authority" to push "unconstitutional racial and gender preference requirements."

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Sen. Blackburn Sues Smith For Seizing Phone Records

By James Boyle

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn alleges in a federal complaint filed Wednesday that Jack Smith illegally subpoenaed her phone records as part of an investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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3rd Circ. Calls Westlaw AI Fight 'Ordinary Copyright Case'

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit said the first appellate fight over artificial intelligence training and fair use ultimately came down to an "ordinary copyright case," affirming that Ross Intelligence infringed Thomson Reuters' Westlaw headnotes when it used them to train a competing legal research platform.

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Blank Rome Seeks Time To Exit LIV Golf's Fla. Office

By Ben Zigterman

Blank Rome LLP on Wednesday filed a limited objection to LIV Golf's motion to reject its sublease at an office building in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying it didn't receive any advance notice and would like until the end of October to transition to a new office.

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Roundup

Defamation Litigation Roundup: Candace Owens, Firm DQ

By Theresa Schliep

In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 highlights a new suit over right-wing media personality Candace Owens and her conspiracy theories about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as Quinn Emanuel's disqualification from a suit against a former client.

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Tort Report: Uber Owes $40M In Abandoned Rider Death Case

By Y. Peter Kang

A $40 million arbitration award in a case over an Uber incident and looming litigation against the federal government over a highly publicized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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Roundup

Hub Hires: Mintz, Foley Hoag, Barclay Damon

By Chris Villani

Boston saw several significant moves across its legal landscape as the summer wound down, with Foley Hoag adding an experienced debt finance attorney from Goodwin Procter, a boutique white collar firm snagging a longtime federal prosecutor, and Mintz getting new leadership for the first time in nearly two decades.

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