Vanguard Will Pay $29.5M To Settle Red States' ESG Suit

By Spencer Brewer

The Vanguard Group Inc. will pay $29.5 million to settle claims brought by several conservative states accusing it and other large asset managers of driving up coal prices by pressuring publicly traded energy companies to lower their output to meet carbon emission reduction goals.

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DOL Unveils Independent Contractor Rule Replacement

By Max Kutner

The U.S. Department of Labor announced the details Thursday of a long-awaited proposed rule to rescind and replace a previous administration's regulation that outlined how to decide if a worker is an employee or independent contractor.

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Starbucks, Army Veteran Resolve Paternity Leave Firing Suit

By Patrick Hoff

An Army veteran and former Starbucks employee has agreed to end his lawsuit accusing the coffee giant of failing to address his supervisor's insulting comments about veterans and firing him for taking parental leave, according to a Thursday filing in Washington federal court.

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9th Circ. Backs L3Harris In Fired Worker's PTSD Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Ninth Circuit backed defense contractor L3Harris' win in a suit claiming it unlawfully fired a painter because of his post-traumatic stress disorder, finding he admitted in an application for disability benefits that he wasn't able to work by the time he was terminated.

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VA Rescinds Veteran Disability Rating Rule After Pushback

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday moved to rescind a controversial rule that would have required evaluators to account for the effects of medication in assigning veterans' disability ratings, after facing strong opposition from veterans and lawmakers.

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Atty Owns 'Sloppy' Incorrect Citations Before Texas Justices

By José Luis Martínez

A Houston attorney told a Texas appellate panel Thursday that incorrect case citations in his brief were "sloppy" and "embarrassing," taking responsibility for errors that included nonexistent cases and inaccurate quotations.

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Ex-Exec. In $2B Denmark Tax Scheme Hid Assets, Court Told

By Kat Lucero

A Florida man involved in a $2 billion Danish tax refund scheme fraudulently transferred millions of dollars to a U.S. company to prevent the Danish government from seizing those assets, Denmark's tax agency told a New Jersey federal court.

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NLRB Orders Region To Recalculate Union Payouts

By Katherine Smith

A National Labor Relations Board official must recalculate payments owed to employees who were excluded from a concrete company's profit-sharing plan and to a pension fund on behalf of the workers, the board has ruled, finding that the calculations must account for the payments the workers received in the past.

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Rehab Participants Not Employees, Court Told In Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Participants in several Texas-based recovery programs for addiction cannot plausibly allege they were employees entitled to compensation, the faith-based nonprofit that operates the programs told a federal court, seeking to dismiss a proposed class and collective wage action.

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Brief

Hegseth Appeals Block On Sen. Kelly's Rank Reduction

By Madeline Lyskawa

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has appealed a district court order blocking him from reducing the U.S. Navy rank of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., after the lawmaker told members of the military they don't have to follow unlawful orders. 

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IRhythm Investors Say 2021 Goldman Ruling Doesn't Bar Cert.

By Bonnie Eslinger

IRhythm Technologies investors urged a California federal judge Thursday to certify a class that bought 30 million shares while the digital healthcare company allegedly jacked its stock price with false and misleading statements about a heart-event monitoring device, saying the U.S. Supreme Court's 2021 Goldman price impact ruling doesn't apply.

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How Del. High Court's Moelis Reversal Fits Into DExit Debate

By declining to decide the facial validity of the provisions at issue in Moelis & Co. v. West Palm Beach Firefighters Pension Fund, the Delaware Supreme Court's recent reversal of the Court of Chancery's 2024 ruling highlights broader implications for the ongoing debate over whether companies should incorporate elsewhere, say attorneys at Akin.

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Series

Playing Piano Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Playing piano and practicing law share many parallels relating to managing complexity: Just as hearing an entire musical passage in my head allows me to reliably deliver the message, thinking about the audience's impression helps me create a legal narrative that keeps the reader engaged, says Michael Shepherd at Fish & Richardson.

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Hub Hires: Seyfarth, Greenberg Traurig, Outside GC

By Chris Villani

Massachusetts may be buried under a blanket of snow, but the Boston legal market was anything but frozen in February. Seyfarth bolstered its depth in mergers and acquisitions, Greenberg Traurig snagged a benefits attorney, and Outside General Counsel hired a new managing partner.

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Elevate Expands Legal Reach With Mestel & Co. Acquisition

By Tracey Read

Legal software and services company Elevate has acquired legal recruitment firm Mestel & Co. to bolster its abilities to deliver top legal talent, Elevate said Thursday.

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Up Next At High Court: Drug User Gun Possession

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will close out its February oral argument session by hearing its newest Second Amendment case over a federal law that prohibits drug users from possessing firearms, as well as a dispute over whether motor carrier brokers can be held liable for truck crashes under state law.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Linklaters sue a shipping company, high-street clothing giant Urban Outfitters hit with an intellectual property claim, Ithaca Energy sue rival Chrysaor, and cabaret club magnate Alex Proud face legal action with his nightclubs in financial turmoil.

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Del. Supreme Court OKs Disputed Corporate Law Rework

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's Supreme Court upheld Friday hotly contested legislation approved by state lawmakers in 2025 that expanded liability shields for some corporate acts involving controlling stockholders or potentially conflicted officers or directors, and narrowed public access to some corporate books and records.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Milbank LLP, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

A proxy season preview report showed that nearly three-quarters of shareholder proposals for annual corporate meetings among Russell 3000 companies this year have gone to a vote. The U.S. Department of Labor unveiled the details of a long-awaited proposed rule to replace a previous administration's regulation outlining how to decide if a worker is an employee or independent contractor. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Calif. Mass Tort Firm Drops Suit Against ABS Fee-Sharing Ban

By James Mills

A California mass torts firm seeking to overturn the state's law banning alternative business structure fee sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonattorneys dropped its suit Thursday, three months after filing it.

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Pro Bono Spotlight

NY Prisoner Gets Rare $600K Deal With Gibson Dunn's Help

By Parker Quinlan

A man incarcerated in a New York state prison who was placed in solitary confinement for over six years has obtained a $600,000 settlement after filing a pro se lawsuit that drew the aid of pro bono counsel from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

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Optimum Says Apollo, BlackRock Bullied Kirkland Withdrawal

By Bryan Koenig

Optimum Communications is escalating its fight accusing Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other financial giants of an illegal joint campaign constricting its ability to refinance debt, amending its New York federal court complaint to also accuse the companies of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as its transaction counsel.

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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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