Wells Fargo Beats Ex-CEO's $34M Back-Pay Lawsuit

By Jon Hill

Wells Fargo prevailed in a California state court battle with its former CEO Timothy Sloan over roughly $34 million in compensation he has accused it of wrongfully withholding after his 2019 departure from the bank amid intense public scrutiny of its compliance record.

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Analysis

11th Circ. ERISA Exhaustion Shift Furthers Textualist Trend

By Kellie Mejdrich

An Eleventh Circuit decision overruling decades-old precedent that took a strict view of when federal benefits law claims could be brought in court continues a trend of courts excising judicially imposed rules not contained in statutory text, attorneys say.

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Del. High Court Backs Gard In Litigation Funding Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a Chancery Court ruling rejecting claims that hedge fund manager Casey Gard and affiliates improperly shifted a litigation-finance business away from a company he co-owned with attorney Brett K. Findler, ending Findler's challenge to liability findings from a closely watched business breakup.

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Hospital Operator Challenges NC AG's Power Over Merger

By Hayley Fowler

HCA Healthcare is taking another crack at throwing out the North Carolina attorney general's suit alleging HCA broke its promise to maintain a certain level of care at an Asheville hospital it purchased, saying his office lacks the power to enforce a merger between two private parties.

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11th Circ. Backs Florida Firm In Lender Note Verdict Appeal

By Andrea Keckley

The Eleventh Circuit in an unpublished opinion backed a law firm accused of botching several financial transactions for a Puerto Rican microcap lender, affirming the findings of a jury and a lower court that it didn't commit malpractice by failing to secure the company's assets during bankruptcy proceedings.

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Texas Court Revives REIT's Claims Over Short Seller Article

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appellate court has partially revived a suit by a farmland-centered real estate investment trust against a Texas hedge fund that allegedly helped pen a defamatory article while short selling the REIT, saying the REIT pled valid business disparagement claims.

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Texas Justices OK Arbitration In Trampoline Park Injury Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that an Urban Air trampoline park and related entities can compel arbitration of a minor's injury claims, saying the language in the arbitration agreement signed by the child's mother expressly covers "protected parties" such as the entities.

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Sig Sauer's Trade Secret Claims Shot Down In Contract Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A Washington federal judge has thrown out Sig Sauer's trade secret counterclaims in a lawsuit accusing the firearms company of reneging on a contract to buy products a contractor agreed to make.

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CFPB Looks To Collect $144M In CashCall Bank Row

By Katryna Perera

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked a California federal judge to order Merchants Bank of Indiana to hand over $144 million in collateral it has held for lender CashCall, arguing the bank acted in bad faith by delaying enforcement of the judgment against CashCall by retaining the funds.

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Whataburger Can't Arbitrate Ex-Worker's Sex Assault Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has declined to send a former Whataburger employee's lawsuit to arbitration, finding that the allegations of unwanted sexual touching trigger a federal law that bars arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment claims.

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Ex-Legal Tech Co. Exec Says Pregnancy Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

A legal technology company abruptly fired its director of partnerships after it learned she was pregnant, and has since withheld a nearly $40,000 bonus, according to a lawsuit lodged in New Jersey state court.

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Device Co. Accused Of Shorting Co-Founder's Payments

By Zach Dupont

The co-founder of a company that sells medical devices told a Colorado state court Thursday that the company lowered the percentage he is owed of $7.7 million in outstanding receivables from a client without approval.

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Temu Inks $3M Settlement To End Data To China Claims

By Spencer Brewer

Online bargain retailer Temu on Friday agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims brought by the Texas Office of the Attorney General accusing the company of secretly stealing customer data and exposing it to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Analysis

Could A Criminal Sentencing Case Upend Loper Bright?

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is concerned that a ruling instructing trial courts to defer to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines could blow a "pretty big hole" in the court's recent rejection of deference doctrines. His colleagues, however, don't appear as perturbed.

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Nasdaq Sued Over Delisting Of Social Media Co.

By Jessica Corso

A social media company that has pitched itself as an alternative to TikTok has sued Nasdaq in Delaware Chancery Court, asking the court to relist its shares while it fights what it says was an "arbitrary and capricious" decision to boot the company off the exchange.

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TI, Intel Say Ukrainians Still Show No Link To Russian Strikes

By Mike Curley

Technology companies including Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp. are again urging a Texas federal court to throw out a set of consolidated suits alleging they allowed their components to get into Russian weapons used to target civilians, saying a second amended complaint still fails to link their conduct to injuries.

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NY Ski Mountain Sold To End State Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

The New York attorney general's office said Friday that Intermountain Management Inc. has sold a Syracuse-area ski mountain to a buyer who plans to reopen the facility, four years after state enforcers sued Intermountain for allegedly buying and shuttering the mountain, which was its nearest competitor.

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NORML Urges 6th Circ. To Reconsider Pot Illegality Ruling

By Jonathan Capriel

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a leading cannabis consumer advocate, is urging the Sixth Circuit to rehear its decision throwing out a $31.8 million jury verdict for a Michigan marijuana grower, arguing federal illegality should not categorically bar contract damages against a cannabis purchaser that breached a supply deal.

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Contradictory Contract Dooms Pot Co.'s Injunction Bid

By Mike Curley

A California state judge has rejected a cannabis genetics company's bid for an injunction against a former business partner in a contract dispute, saying the contract's self-contradictory provisions make it unclear that the company is entitled to retrieve its cannabis strains.

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Brief

9th Circ. Won't Rethink $2B Devas Arbitral Award Confirmation

By Gina Kim

The Ninth Circuit said Friday it will not disturb a unanimous three-judge panel's decision to enforce a $2 billion arbitral award issued to a satellite communications company, rejecting the award debtor's petition for a rehearing by the full court.

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NCAA Sues Ohio Gov. Over Athlete Eligibility Expansion

By Alex Lawson

The NCAA sued Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday, asking a federal judge to set aside the governor's executive order authorizing the state's universities to ignore the association's recently revised athlete eligibility rules.

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Investment Co. Can't Exit Laos $5M Casino Award Fight

By Joyce Hanson

A federal judge has refused to dismiss an investment company from the government of Laos' latest bid to enforce about $5 million in arbitral awards stemming from an ill-fated casino venture, ruling that the firm must face the suit in Saipan even though it is incorporated in Macau.

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Transfer Pricing Analyses May Apply To Tariff Refunds Claims

Both plaintiffs and defendants in consumer class actions over tariff refunds should examine transfer pricing analyses, which can offer contemporaneous evidence as to how much of a tariff was borne in the U.S. by the importer or consumers rather than absorbed earlier in the supply chain, say economists at The Brattle Group.

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Reckoning With The IP Risks Of Building Vibe-Coded Products

While artificial intelligence can now be prompted into generating potentially valuable software, developers who sell vibe-coded products must account for questions about authorship, copyrightability and their ability to control the resulting code, say attorneys at Lawgorithm Advisors.

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Womble Bond Reports Data Breach Exposing Personal Info

By Jake Maher

Womble Bond Dickinson was hit with a data breach in August that revealed personal information to an unauthorized third party, the firm said in a notice with the Massachusetts state government this week.

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Suing The Trump Admin Can Have Massive Impact, Attys Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

Lawyers representing clients against the federal government spoke Friday about the challenges and rewards of such litigation in the Trump era, with plaintiff-side powerhouse Elizabeth Cabraser pointing to the potential for massive impact, including one case in which she successfully got more than a billion dollars in grant funding reinstated.

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Dems Press Kirkland Again For Details Of $125M Trump Deal

By Courtney Bublé

A trio of congressional Democrats once again accused Kirkland & Ellis LLP of subverting their oversight requests into the $125 million deal the firm cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Brief

Cooley Reportedly Matches Milbank Pay Scale Starting In '27

By Matt Perez

Cooley LLP will reportedly increase U.S. associate base compensation in line with the pay scale set by Milbank LLP in June beginning on Jan. 1.

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Google Class Attys Get $22.7M Despite Hourly Rate Rebuke

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has approved Google's $68 million class action settlement to resolve a long-running privacy suit, including class counsel's requested $22.67 million fee award, commending the parties' hard work while also criticizing a plaintiffs attorney's "patently unreasonable" proposed $3,000 hourly rate.

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Google Users' $85M Fee Ask Stalls Over 'Utterly Lacking' Bill

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge on Thursday rejected an $85 million attorney fee request following a $700 million settlement in a consumer-led case against Google, ruling that counsel's submitted billing records are "utterly lacking in information demonstrating what work was done and for what purpose," while granting leave to amend the request.

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Analysis

Expect These Post-Midterm Probes If The Hill Changes Hands

By Phillip Bantz

The top investigative priorities of a potentially Democratic-controlled Congress are coming into sharper focus with the midterms weeks away and could impact an array of companies and individuals in technology, finance and energy, experts say.

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Fla. High Court Says 'COVID Brain' Can't Excuse Atty Blunder

By David Minsky

The Florida Supreme Court found an attorney guilty of misconduct over his lack of candor when questioned about an interaction with his own witness in a paternity trial, saying there's no way "COVID brain" caused him to violate a sequestration rule and lie to a judge. 

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Attys Can Still Protect Voting Rights During The Midterms

By Cara Bayles

With the midterm elections approaching, a coalition of local and national nonprofits are seeking volunteers, especially lawyers, to safeguard the vote during an election with more states in play as battlegrounds and growing anxiety about federal interference in local elections.

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Survey Of Ill. Attys Reveals Mental Health Struggles, Stigma

By Celeste Bott

A survey of nearly 7,000 Illinois lawyers found roughly 20% rated their mental health as fair or poor, according to an Illinois Supreme Court commission report documenting the toll of workplace stress on the state's attorneys and judges, their alcohol and drug use, and barriers to getting them care.

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Balancing The Scales: Criminal Appeals, Sentencing Rules

By Orlando Lorenzo

The Second Circuit has been ordered to take another look at a murder-for-hire conviction in light of the high court's new miscarriage-of-justice exception for criminal appeal waivers, and the top courts in Pennsylvania and Michigan will look at the retroactivity of new sentencing rules. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the full Eleventh Circuit overturned decades-old precedent that took a strict view of when federal benefits law claims could be brought in court.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The top investigative priorities of a potentially Democratic-controlled Congress are coming into sharper focus with the midterms just weeks away and could impact companies in various sectors. In the meantime, one BigLaw firm formed a board to oversee the use of artificial intelligence and evaluate proposals from its practice groups and sectors. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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