J&J Hit With $66M Verdict In Minnesota Mom's Asbestos Case

By Rae Ann Varona

A Minnesota jury Friday awarded a mother of three $65.5 million following a 13-day trial in her lawsuit that claimed Johnson & Johnson's talc products exposed her to asbestos and contributed to cancer in her abdominal lining, the mother's attorneys announced.

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Del. Justices Reinstate Elon Musk's $56B-Plus Pay Package

By Jeff Montgomery

Elon Musk saw his once-$56 billion, now larger, Tesla Inc. compensation package rescued Friday, as the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling from January 2024 that voided a board and stockholder-approved pay deal.

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9th Circ. Takes Up IPhone Buyers' Class Decertification

By Bryan Koenig

The Ninth Circuit has summarily agreed to let consumers appeal what they had described as the "death knell" district court ruling that decertified their class of iPhone users that was expected to reach 200 million members in an antitrust case over Apple's App Store policies.

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The Data Privacy And AI Developments That Shaped 2025

By Allison Grande

The past year delivered a pair of major jury verdicts against Meta and Google in two of the first data privacy cases to head to trial, while a controversial effort quickly materialized and gained steam at the federal level to block states from regulating emerging artificial intelligence technologies. 

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Live Nation 401(k) Suit Arbitration In Calif. Gets Redo

By Kellie Mejdrich

A California federal judge agreed to reconsider his order from 2023 requiring arbitration of some claims in a federal benefits suit from Live Nation workers alleging excessive fees in their employee 401(k) plan after the Ninth Circuit had remanded the case in August.

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Geico Agents Secure Some Discovery In Misclassification Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Geico must produce more information related to a retaliation claim and the authenticity and completeness of its retirement and welfare plans in a suit lodged by former agents alleging the insurer denied them benefits by misclassifying them as independent contractors, an Ohio federal judge ruled.

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Aluminum Biz's ESOP Managers Settle Workers' ERISA Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

The son of an Indiana-based aluminum manufacturing company's founder and his attorney have decided to settle a dispute from workers alleging the individuals mismanaged their employee stock ownership plan, parties told a federal court Friday. 

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Feature

The 6 Biggest Rulings By Massachusetts' Top Court In 2025

By Chris Villani

Massachusetts' top court rejected a novel double jeopardy claim in a headline-grabbing murder case, revived claims against Harvard over a "ghoulish" scheme, and said a Snapchat Bitmoji could show police bias, among other significant rulings this year.

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Chancery Keeps Alive Electric Vehicle Co. SPAC Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

Most counts have gone forward in a Delaware Court of Chancery suit alleging an unfair "blank check" company take-public merger with a since-reorganized electric vehicle company that faced allegedly undisclosed supply chain problems.

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F5 Faces Securities Class Action Over 'False' Security Claims

By Ben Adlin

Seattle tech company F5 Inc. boasted to investors about its cybersecurity offerings while at the same time hiding a long-term data breach that targeted the company's highest-revenue product, an investor claimed Friday in a proposed class action filed in Washington federal court.

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App Makers Tell 9th Circ. It Got Google Maps Facts Wrong

By Bryan Koenig

App makers asked the Ninth Circuit to rethink their proposed antitrust class action accusing Google of locking out rival maps products, arguing a panel refused to revive the case only because it did "not address and ignored" their allegations.

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Brief

Iowa Appeals Schwab Antitrust Deal After Objections

By Sarah Jarvis

Iowa's attorney general has appealed to the Fifth Circuit a Texas federal judge's final approval of a settlement ending an antitrust class action suit over The Charles Schwab Corp.'s merger with TD Ameritrade, following the Hawkeye State's previous objection claiming the deal offered class members insufficient relief.

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GM Says Brake Defect Suit Fails Because Cars Were Repaired

By P.J. D'Annunzio

General Motors asked a Pennsylvania federal judge to dismiss a putative class action accusing the automaker of selling vehicles with defective brake systems, arguing because the plaintiffs had their vehicles repaired by the carmaker's dealers, no harm was done.

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Cadence Bank Seeks 1st Nod For $5.25M Data Breach Deal

By Emilie Ruscoe

Cadence Bank has reached a $5.25 million deal to end negligence claims it faced in multidistrict litigation over the May 2023 breach of file transfer application MOVEit, a consumer affected by the breach has informed a Boston federal judge.

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AI Note-Taking Software Stores Voice Data, Ill. Suit Says

By Lauraann Wood

Artificial intelligence software that provides transcription and other meeting assistance on platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams illegally collects, stores and uses individuals' biometric voice data without their informed consent, according to a lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court.

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PHH's $29.5M Kickback Deal Gets Final OK After 17 Years

By Rae Ann Varona

After 17 years of litigation, a certified class of homeowners got the final stamp of approval in California federal court for a $29.5 million settlement with PHH Mortgage and its captive reinsurer, both of which homeowners alleged received unlawful kickbacks from premiums paid for mortgage insurance.

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Borrowers Win Cert. In NC Mortgage Phone Payment Fees Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina federal judge has certified a class of North Carolina borrowers who claim their loan servicer charged them exorbitant processing fees for paying their monthly mortgage by phone, finding there are common questions that are best resolved in a class action.

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Meta Mostly Defeats 'Bricked' Devices False Ad Suit, For Now

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge has explained his decision to toss the bulk of a proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. deceptively sold video-calling devices it later "bricked" by dropping software support, although he refused to toss an unfair competition claim and gave the consumers the opportunity to take another stab at the complaint.

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AstraZeneca Unit Ducks Patent Fraud, Not Sham Suit Claims

By Bryan Koenig

A Massachusetts federal judge spared AstraZeneca unit Alexion on Friday from half of a nonprofit insurer's proposed class action, finding the plaintiff too far removed from anticompetitive patent fraud that allegedly propped up blood disorder treatment Soliris, while preserving accusations that Alexion brought sham infringement allegations against would-be rivals.

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Medical, School Groups Seek Order Halting $100K Visa Fee

By Dan McKay

A medical practice in rural North Carolina and other employers asked a federal judge Friday to block enforcement of the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, arguing the "massive" fee hike will inflict irreparable harm on their communities.

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DraftKings Beats Suit Over Calif. Gambling Ban, For Now

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge said during a hearing Friday he plans to toss with leave to amend a proposed class action alleging DraftKings' Daily Fantasy Sports games and others violate California's ban on sports betting, while calling the case "significant" for "clearly" implicating public policy and the California penal code.

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Michigan's 5 Biggest Court Rulings Of 2025

By Carolyn Muyskens

Michigan courts had a memorable year in 2025, issuing rulings that extended protections against automatic life sentences to young adults, struck down abortion restrictions and pulled the plug on criminal cases related to President Donald Trump's so-called fake elector plot.

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Brief

Sbaiti Adds Longtime Plaintiffs' Atty From Seeger Weiss

By Andrea Keckley

Sbaiti & Co. PLLC has hired a former Seeger Weiss LLP partner to chair its consumer protection practice group and co-chair its mass tort practice group.

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A 6th Circ. Snapshot: 3 Cases That Defined 2025

With more than a thousand opinions issued this year, three rulings from the Sixth Circuit stood out for the impact they'll have on the practice of civil procedure, including a net neutrality decision, a class certification standards ruling and an opinion about vulgarity in school, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

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How Fractional GCs Can Manage Risks Of Engagement

As more organizations eliminate their in-house legal departments in favor of outsourcing legal work, fractional general counsel roles offer practitioners an engaging and flexible way to practice at a high level, but they can also present legal, ethical and operational risks that must be proactively managed, say attorneys at Boies Schiller.

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Bonus Spotlight

Haynes Boone, Seward & Kissel Announce Year-End Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

Haynes Boone is handing its associates year-end and special bonuses in line with those offered by a significant portion of BigLaw this year, largely adhering to a bonus scale first put forward by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP in November, a firm spokesperson confirmed Monday.

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Analysis

4 Legal Ethics Matters That Rocked 2025

By Emily Sawicki

This year, judges across the country grappled with attorneys' use and misuse of generative artificial intelligence, and prominent federal prosecutor battles dominated headlines in some of the top legal ethics matters of 2025.

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DOJ Challenges ABA's Standing In Law Firm Intimidation Suit

By Ryan Boysen

The Trump administration is not waging an intimidation campaign against U.S. law firms, the government said Friday, calling an American Bar Association lawsuit challenging its alleged "law firm intimidation policy" as total speculation that must be dismissed due to lack of standing.

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JPMorgan Rips Javice Attys' 'Absurd' Bills For Candy, Booze

By Dorothy Atkins

JPMorgan has unveiled new details in its ongoing legal fee fight with Charlie Javice, accusing the convicted financial aid startup founder's Quinn Emanuel defense counsel and other firms of billing for "absurd" and "outrageous" expenses, including specialty cocktails, cellulite butter, a Cookie Monster toy and $530 on gummy bears.

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Ex-CIA Director's Lawyers Accuse DOJ Of Judge Shopping

By Carolina Bolado

Former CIA Director John Brennan's attorneys asked the chief judge for the Southern District of Florida on Monday to block prosecutors from trying to steer any potential charges against him for investigating Russia's 2016 election interference to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's courtroom.

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Analysis

2025 Was A Policy Year Like No Other For Immigration Attys

By Britain Eakin

This year brought nonstop immigration policy whiplash as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement, triggering panic among employers about I-9 compliance in a landscape of constantly shifting adjudication and work authorization policies. Here, Law360 looks at how policy shifted attorney practice in 2025.

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Calif. Atty Slams 'Protectionist' ABS Fee-Sharing Ban

By Emily Sawicki

A California attorney has pushed back on opposition from California's attorney general and the state's bar association amid his efforts to block enforcement of a ban on fee sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonattorneys, arguing the new state law is a "protectionist act, in defiance of the constitution."

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LawFirms.com Beats LegalForce's TM Suit After Bench Trial

By Ivan Moreno

A California judge has concluded that a company that operates LawFirms.com did not infringe a law firm's trademarks for LegalForce, saying that during a four-day bench trial in October the court found "no one was actually confused or misled."

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Schumer Pushes Senate To Sue Over Epstein File Release

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution on Monday that would direct the Senate to take legal action to force the Trump administration to fully comply with the law to release the files of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Analysis

As US Executions Decline, Florida Surges

By Brandon Lowrey

During Florida's 1994 gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Jeb Bush accused Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles of being too soft on crime; Chiles' immediate predecessor, Bush pointed out, had signed almost 10 times as many death warrants as Chiles had.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's justices threw the Court of Chancery in reverse big time last week, rescinding a decision by the state's chancellor that last year effectively canceled tech tycoon Elon Musk's multi-year, then-$56 billion stock-based compensation package. It was a decision that lit up the court's relatively low-key, pre-holiday wind-up. It also highlighted the endless, 3D tug of war over Delaware-chartered companies and the interests of boards, officers, controllers, stockholders and the corporate bar.

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