Justices Seem Poised To Greenlight Transgender Athlete Bans

By Alex Lawson

The conservative wing of the U.S. Supreme Court voiced skepticism of allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's and girls' sports Tuesday, while also signaling a willingness to keep its ruling narrowly tailored.

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Ill. Justices Mull COVID Screening Pay Under State Law

By Lauraann Wood

The Illinois Supreme Court should leave decades of understanding surrounding the statutory term "workweek" intact and rule that the state's minimum wage law incorporates federal limitations on compensable preliminary activities, as finding otherwise would revive a short-lived overtime regime Congress considered "disastrous," Amazon argued Tuesday.

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Beasley Allen Talc Work Sends 'Bad Signal,' J&J Says

By George Woolston

Johnson & Johnson's talc unit told a New Jersey appeals panel on Tuesday that a lower court's ruling permitting Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys to represent plaintiffs in multicounty litigation over its talc-based baby powder "sends a very bad signal" to the state bar.

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Google's $30M Kids' Data Deal OK'd As Class Attys Get $9M

By Dorothy Atkins

The California federal judge overseeing a long-running class action accusing Google and YouTube of illegally collecting children's data for targeted advertising granted final approval Tuesday to the tech giant's $30 million settlement, including $9 million in fees for class counsel, despite her concerns that millions of apparently fraudulent settlement claims have been submitted.

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Teva Can't Visit 11th Circ. Ahead Of 1st Paragard Bellwether

By Cara Salvatore

A Georgia federal judge refused to delay the first bellwether trial in the Paragard IUD MDL, rejecting Teva's request for an immediate Eleventh Circuit appeal regarding a ruling allowing plaintiffs to use injury data that the drugmaker located only after implantation.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Bough On Ethics

Years of experience as a plaintiff's attorney influenced U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough's disclosure rules for litigators appearing in his court.

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2nd Circ. Hints Ex-Luxottica Worker Has ERISA Standing

By Brian Steele

Second Circuit judges sounded sympathetic Tuesday to the idea that a former Luxottica employee has standing to pursue changes to its defined benefit pension plan, expressing skepticism at the company's notion that her case is barred because she is seeking unavailable remedies.

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Celebrity-Owned NY Entertainment Venue Hit With Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A New York City sports and entertainment venue owned by Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake improperly relied on a tip credit, kept a portion of employees' gratuities and paid overtime at the wrong rate, according to a proposed class and collective action filed in New York federal court.

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Flight Attendants Slam United's Arbitration Bid in Wage Suit

By Katherine Smith

Two current and former United Airlines flight attendants urged a New Jersey federal court not to toss their proposed class action claiming that the airline only pays them for the time they spend flying, arguing that their claims can be resolved without interpreting the terms of the airline's collective bargaining agreement.

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NC Judge Leery Of Early Exit Bid In Produce Co. ESOP Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina federal judge seemed disinclined Tuesday to toss a lawsuit alleging a "cabal" of lawyers, private equity firms and their founders conspired to drain a produce company's employee stock ownership plan of its value, noting it's a fact-intensive case that will likely require discovery.

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Moore & Van Allen Gets Fla. Malpractice Suit Moved To NC

By Emily Johnson

A Florida federal judge transferred to North Carolina a proposed class action of Floridians accusing Moore & Van Allen PLLC of mishandling their employee stock ownership trust, but rejected the law firm's request to have the case dismissed.

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Workers Seek $126M In Seattle Hospital System Wage Row

By Irene Spezzamonte

Seattle-area hospital system Swedish Health Services should shell out about $126 million to settle wage violations, after a state court found that the system failed to provide a second meal break on longer shifts and that its rounding practices led to unpaid wages, the workers said.

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CrowdStrike Beats Investor Fraud Suit Over 2024 Outage

By Katryna Perera

A Texas federal judge has tossed a shareholder suit against CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. over its massive 2024 outage that downed computers worldwide, finding the plaintiffs failed to adequately plead any misleading statements about steps the cybersecurity company was taking to prevent such a system crash.

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Chancery OKs $4.85M Deal To End Ed-Tech Acquisition Suit

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court signed off Tuesday on a $4.85 million class settlement resolving stockholder claims over Sterling Partners' 2024 take-private acquisition of Australian education-technology company Keypath Education International Inc., finding that the deal fell within a reasonable range given the risks the investors faced in continuing to litigate their fiduciary-duty claims.

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Medical Device Co. Faces New Derivative Suit In Delaware

By Jeff Montgomery

A stockholder of digital health equipment business Butterfly Network Inc. launched a derivative suit in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Tuesday, seeking recovery for the company of "many millions" tied to allegedly misleading disclosures ahead of a special purpose acquisition company take-public merger in 2021.

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DiDi, Investors Can Notify Class Of Proposed $740M Deal

By Emilie Ruscoe

A proposed $740 million settlement between Chinese ride-hailing app DiDi and its investors has moved forward after a New York federal judge approved a notice to class members and scheduled a settlement hearing over the plan to resolve shareholder claims the company hid enterprise-threatening regulatory risks during its 2021 initial public offering.

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Eventbrite Stockholders Sue To Block $500M Take-Private Deal

By Jarek Rutz

A class of Eventbrite stockholders has sued in the Delaware Chancery Court seeking to upend a pending $500 million take-private deal, arguing that a voting agreement signed alongside the transaction automatically stripped the company's founder of her super-voting control under the company's own charter and rendered the merger proxy materially misleading.

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Bath & Body Works Investor Sues Over Co.'s Growth Claims

By Sydney Price

Retail chain Bath & Body Works Inc. was hit with a proposed shareholder class action accusing it of misleading investors about the success of its product expansion strategy and leaning heavily on frequent promotions to drive unsustainable growth.

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Google Gets 6 Ad Tech Rivals' Complaints Consolidated To 2

By Bryan Koenig

The six antitrust lawsuits from Google's advertising placement technology rivals will soon be consolidated into two, under a New York federal judge's ruling Tuesday combining the four suits originally filed in Virginia and pairing up the two filed in New York.

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Financial Aid-Fixing Antitrust Claims Heading To Trial

By Matthew Perlman

An Illinois federal judge refused a bid from the remaining elite private universities accused of fixing financial aid offerings to end the case ahead of trial after accepting the students' view of the market, along with evidence suggesting they paid inflated costs.

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'America's Coffee' Doesn't Mean Made In US, Black Rifle Says

By Gina Kim

Black Rifle Coffee has urged a California federal judge to toss claims it deceives consumers into believing its beans are harvested in the U.S., arguing the American flag and slogan "America's Coffee" on its packaging don't indicate geographic origin, but rather invoke the company's patriotic mission and support for U.S. military vets. 

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Starbucks Misled Patrons On Coffee Supplier Ethics, Suit Says

By Rachel Riley

Two consumers are targeting Starbucks for touting "100% Ethical Coffee Sourcing" on product labels despite reports of forced labor and other human rights violations on supplying farms around the world, according to a proposed class action launched in Washington state federal court Tuesday.

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KuCoin, Chainalysis Beat RICO Suit Over Hack Proceeds

By Emilie Ruscoe

The cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and its blockchain analysis contractor no longer face proposed class action claims they turned a blind eye to money laundering on the platform, though a Manhattan federal judge found one of the alleged hack victims could revise certain claims against KuCoin.

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Meta Shakes App Users' Location Data Privacy Suit, For Now

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge has shut down a proposed class action accusing Meta Platforms Inc. of illegally collecting location data from users of third-party apps that installed the company's tracking software, finding that the plaintiffs hadn't plausibly alleged that Meta knew it didn't have permission to access this data.

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Hand & Stone Sent Info To Google, Meta And TikTok, Suit Says

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Spa franchise Hand & Stone has been hit with a potential class action filed by a customer claiming the chain violated her privacy rights by sending confidential health information taken from the company's website to Google, Meta and TikTok.

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PharMerica's Deal To Pay Ransomware Victims Over $5M OK'd

By Gina Kim

A Kentucky federal judge on Monday granted preliminary approval of a nearly $5.3 million settlement between PharMerica Inc. and a proposed class of patients and employees who alleged the company failed to implement industry standard data security practices to protect their personal information from being leaked after a cyberattack.

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5th Circ. Urged To Revive Southwest 737 Max Overcharge Suit

By Linda Chiem

Consumers have urged the Fifth Circuit to revive their claims alleging Southwest Airlines overcharged them for riskier flights on Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, saying they've asserted a classic benefit-of-the-bargain injury that gives them standing to sue.

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Meta Fights Authors', Entrepreneur Mag's Copyright Claims

By Ivan Moreno

Meta Platforms has filed responses in two California cases where it is accused of unlawfully using copyrighted material to train its artificial intelligence models, asking a court to reject an attempt from authors to update their pleadings and urging the same court to dismiss most of a separate complaint from Entrepreneur magazine.

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Insurer Didn't Owe Defense To Telecom Co. In Merger Row

By Hope Patti

An insurer had no duty to defend a telecommunications company sued by a former board member in connection with a 2014 merger, a Wyoming federal court ruled, saying the suit is a single claim under its directors and officers policy and therefore falls under an "insured versus insured" exclusion.

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Minn. Protesters Seek Bar On 'Widespread' Excessive Force

By Dorothy Atkins

Six Minnesota protesters and observers allegedly harassed by federal immigration officers urged a federal judge at a hearing Tuesday to bar officers deployed in the state from "widespread" constitutional violations, seeking prohibitions on a laundry list of offenses from pepper spraying peaceful protesters to ramming observers with vehicles.

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Rubio Casts Doubt On Habeas For Deported Venezuelans

By Britain Eakin

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a D.C. federal judge there is no realistic way to provide habeas hearings to 137 Venezuelans deported in March after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.

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REITs Say $787M Merger's Proxy Info Not Misleading

By Isaac Monterose

Real estate investment trusts Ready Capital Corp. and Broadmark Realty Capital Inc. urged a Washington federal court on Tuesday to toss a proposed shareholder class action accusing the companies of misleading shareholders to get votes for their $787 million merger, arguing the relevant proxy materials fully informed shareholders about the deal before they voted.

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BofA Again Moves To Ax Epstein-Related Trafficking Claims

By Gina Kim

Bank of America urged a New York federal judge to dismiss an amended proposed class action alleging it enabled Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking operation, arguing Monday that the plaintiff's "second bite at the apple" still fails to state a claim under the Trafficking Victim Protection Act and "adds nothing of substance."

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Streamlining Product Liability MDLs With AI And Rule 16.1

With newly effective Rule 16.1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure providing enhanced guidance on multidistrict litigation and the sophistication of artificial intelligence continuing to advance, parties have the opportunity to better confront the significant data challenges presented by product liability MDLs, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

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Wis. Sanctions Order May Shake Up Securities Class Actions

A Wisconsin federal court’s recent decision to impose sanctions on a plaintiffs law firm for filing a frivolous Private Securities Litigation Reform Act complaint in Toft v. Harbor Diversified may cause both plaintiffs and defendants law firms to reconsider certain customary practices in securities class actions, says Jonathan Richman at Brown Rudnick.

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Del. Dispatch: What Tesla Decision Means For Exec Comp

The recent Delaware Supreme Court decision granting Tesla CEO Elon Musk his full pay, now valued at $139 billion, following a yearslong battle appears to reject the view that supersized compensation may be inherently unfair to a corporation and its shareholders, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

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5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2026 And Beyond

2026 will likely be shaped by issues ranging from artificial intelligence regulatory turbulence to potential evidence rule changes, and e-discovery professionals will need to understand how to effectively guide the responsible and defensible adoption of emerging tools, while also ensuring effective safeguards, say attorneys at Littler.

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Analysis

'The Work Has Changed': How White-Collar Attys Are Coping

By Phillip Bantz

The Trump administration's dramatic policy enforcement changes over the past year, along with turmoil and turnover at the U.S. Department of Justice, has tilted the white-collar world on its axis, forcing lawyers and firms to abruptly shift focus and expand their practices, sometimes beyond traditional white-collar criminal defense matters.

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Tort Report: Los Angeles Tops Annual 'Judicial Hellhole' List

By Y. Peter Kang

Los Angeles' designation by a tort reform group as a top "judicial hellhole," and the latest in a suit over a Kentucky judge shot to death in his own chambers 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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Jury Seated In Goldstein Trial, Arguments To Start Thursday

By Jared Foretek

A federal jury was seated in Thomas Goldstein's felony tax and mortgage fraud case Wednesday, but the government will wait until Thursday to begin making its case.

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Calif. Bill Would Ban AI From Replacing Arbitrators' Analysis

By Emily Sawicki

A bill introduced in the California state Senate seeks to regulate attorneys' use of generative artificial intelligence statewide, including banning lawyers from entering private client information into public AI systems and prohibiting arbitrators from utilizing AI in decision-making.

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Sinema Sued Under Rare Law By Her Former Guard's Ex-Wife

By Abigail Harrison

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, now a Hogan Lovells attorney in Washington, D.C., destroyed a 14-year marriage by sustaining an affair with a former member of her security detail and U.S. Senate staff, according to a lawsuit that hit North Carolina federal court Wednesday.

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DOJ Calls On 3rd Circ. To Rethink Habba DQ Ruling

By Ryan Boysen

In a request for rehearing en banc filed Wednesday, the federal government asked the Third Circuit to reconsider its decision blocking Alina Habba from serving as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, saying the issue is "of exceptional importance."

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Trump Renominates NY, Virginia US Attorneys

By Emily Sawicki

President Donald Trump is taking a second crack at securing his picks for federal prosecutors in districts where he previously failed to obtain U.S. Senate approval, including renominating Lindsey Halligan to the role of U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, weeks after a federal judge ruled she was not lawfully serving.

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Graham Blocks Bill To Repeal DOJ Lawsuit Provision

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., tried and failed Wednesday to expedite the passage of a bill that would repeal a provision of the government funding package enacted in November that allows senators investigated by former special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages.

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House Blocks GOP Bid To Cut Funds For DC Judges, Courts

By Courtney Bublé

The House on Wednesday failed to approve a Republican-led amendment to a government funding bill that would decrease the funding for D.C. courts and take aim at two federal judges Republicans are looking to impeach.

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