Valve Order Allows 15K Antitrust Arbitrations To Be Closed

By Ben Adlin

A federal judge in Seattle refused Wednesday to issue a preliminary injunction to curb the closure of nearly 15,000 gamers' antitrust arbitrations against entertainment giant Valve Corp., finding that plaintiff Jeffrey Smith failed to show that closing the arbitrations would cause irreparable harm.

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T-Mobile Users' Rate Hike Class Claims Sent To Arbitration

By Rachel Riley

Consumers in a proposed class action against T-Mobile over alleged wireless plan rate hikes must arbitrate their claims individually, a Washington federal judge said Tuesday, agreeing with the company the customers consented to an arbitration pact by continuing to use and pay for service after receiving notice of updated terms.

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Analysis

College Sports Overhaul Still Uncertain Despite Senate Lift

By Alex Lawson

A yearslong effort to comprehensively regulate college sports surged ahead this week with the U.S. Senate's easy approval of bipartisan legislation, but lingering concerns about the bill's NCAA antitrust shield and other fraught policy fights are clouding its future.

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11th Circ. Skeptical Of PACE Lenders' CFPB Rule Challenge

By Jon Hill

An Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday appeared poised to reject an industry challenge to Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules for providers of property-assessed clean-energy loans, repeatedly questioning claims that the agency overstepped its authority.

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Delta Concealed Noncompetes, Wash. Class Action Claims

By Ben Adlin

Delta Air Lines Inc. broke Washington state law by failing to disclose the terms of its noncompetition restrictions to job applicants before they accepted employment, a worker has claimed in a proposed class action filed in King County Superior Court.

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Baker Donelson Gets 2nd Chance To Toss Malpractice Suit

By David Minsky

A Florida state appeals court reversed an order denying law firm Baker Donelson's bid to escape a construction company's malpractice lawsuit alleging it relied on bad legal advice, saying Wednesday the lower court must first determine if any misconduct occurred in the Sunshine State. 

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Rapper Rick Ross Sued For Being A No-Show At NC Concerts

By Hayley Fowler

A concert production company has accused rapper Rick Ross of bailing at the last minute on two concerts in North Carolina during his anniversary tour, allegedly causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses in the form of ticket refunds and cancellation fees.

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Joby Air Taxi Trade Secrets Suit Against Archer Trimmed

By Linda Chiem

A California federal judge has cleared Joby Aviation to advance a slimmed-down lawsuit alleging rival electric air-taxi developer Archer Aviation misappropriated its trade secrets, but again rejected Archer's counterclaims alleging Joby unfairly jockeyed for government contracts and concealed its pervasive China ties.

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Military Drone Makers' Trade Secrets Suit Survives Dismissal

By Ivan Moreno

A Utah federal judge has allowed two military drone companies to proceed with most of their lawsuit accusing a former executive and his new company of misappropriating trade secrets to compete in the military drone market.

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FTC Asks Texas Court To Keep Trans Health Suit Intact

By Spencer Brewer

The Federal Trade Commission asked a Texas federal court to keep intact its lawsuit against World Professional Association for Transgender Health, saying Tuesday that it adequately pled that the organization published medically dubious, self-serving trans guidelines that push "dangerous and experimental treatments."

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Victoria's Secret Violated Deal For Instagram Ad, Model Says

By Gina Kim

Victoria's Secret unlawfully used a professional model's entire face in a recent Instagram perfume advertisement, despite explicit restrictions in the parties' contract to use less than 30%, and refused to pay additional compensation for doing so, according to a right-of-publicity lawsuit filed in California federal court.

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Ex-BDO Partner Says Board Retaliated With Equity Cut

By Jarek Rutz

A former BDO USA partner urged the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive claims that the accounting firm improperly stripped him of equity after he announced plans to retire, arguing that even broad contractual discretion cannot be used in bad faith or retaliation.

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NC City Public Housing Chief Loses Race Bias Suit

By George Woolston

A North Carolina federal judge tossed a race discrimination and breach of contract suit lawsuit filed by the former chief executive officer of a city's public housing authority, holding that she failed to allege that her rights were violated by a municipal policy.

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Parler Ex-CEO Makes Final Trial Pitch For $100M Damages

By Cara Salvatore

The former CEO of social media site Parler made his final argument Wednesday that he was wrongly stripped of a stake worth up to $100 million, with his lawyer telling a Nevada jury a valuation finding the entire company worth $10.81 was "bunk."

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Goldman, JPMorgan Beat CDS Rigging Suit For Now

By Katryna Perera

A New Mexico federal court has tossed older claims from a proposed class action accusing JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and other large banks of conspiring to rig credit default swap auctions, after a New York court ruled on a claims release issue involving a settlement in a related decade-old antitrust case.

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Ex-HSBC Exec Tells Jury Huawei CFO Vouched For Iran Biz

By Stewart Bishop

A former HSBC executive on Wednesday testified in the racketeering trial of Huawei and three subsidiaries that he thought the Chinese telecommunications firm's business dealings in Iran were aboveboard, following assurances during a 2013 meeting from Huawei's chief financial officer.

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PR Rebar Cos. Can't Duck Price-Fixing Claims

By Bryan Koenig

A Puerto Rico federal judge refused Wednesday to let steel rebar companies and one of their executives duck price-fixing claims from construction companies and consumers, citing instant messages discussing the alleged scheme and rejecting arguments that the island hasn't expressly allowed antitrust allegations from indirect buyers.

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9th Circ. Judges Doubt X's Claims Against Anti-Hate Group

By Dorothy Atkins

Ninth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Wednesday of X Corp.'s bid to revive claims against two nonprofits for scraping tweets to study online hate speech, with one judge questioning X's contract damages claim and another doubting that the nonprofits could be held liable for publishing true information.

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Email Feud Tied To Brothers' Cannabis Venture Heads To Trial

By Susan Smiley

A contentious legal battle between a pair of siblings who once co-owned cannabis businesses is heading to trial, a Michigan federal judge said Wednesday, ruling that there are genuine questions about one brother's downloading of the other's emails that require a jury trial to resolve.

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Mallinckrodt Must Face Painkiller Contract Breach Claims

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge maintained a drugmaker's contract violation claims against a pharmaceutical ingredient company for allegedly failing to provide the materials needed to make two kinds of painkillers, but held that the drugmaker's claims of market monopolization fell short.

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Pharma Co. Says Mass. Plant Hid FDA Sterility Concerns

By Julie Manganis

A North Carolina pharmaceutical company says in a complaint filed Wednesday in Massachusetts state court that the company it hired to package a drug for clinical trials involving young children intentionally downplayed a U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection that flagged multiple contamination issues.

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AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

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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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Federal Bar Discussion Looks At Courts' Role In Regulating AI

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Federal Bar Association discussion Wednesday in California about AI and how it will be regulated in the United States prompted the Northern District's new chief judge to ask whether Congress' "inability to pass laws" will leave it to the courts "to figure out how we're going to do this."

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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 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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