Feature

AI Software Contracts Need Careful Review, Attys Are Warned

By Aaron Keller

Attorneys considering adopting artificial intelligence tools must ensure software contracts comply with data privacy laws, and firms should not be afraid to quiz software sales representatives, including by asking how long the software retains data, representatives from two law firms told Connecticut lawyers Tuesday.

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Ex-McDermott, Venable Attys Sued Over Estate's $40M Tax Bill

By Dorothy Atkins

The estate of a successful dentist who died in 2017 sued McDermott Will & Schulte LLP, Venable LLP and two attorneys in California state court Monday, alleging they gave negligent legal advice in planning the dentist's estate causing it to owe the IRS $40 million in taxes and penalties.

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X Defends Antitrust Claims Against Music Publishers

By Matthew Perlman

X. Corp. is defending its antitrust case accusing music publishers and their trade group of banding together to demand an industrywide license, telling a Texas federal court the publishers agreed not to negotiate with the social media platform individually.

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Boeing Says Wash. Law Bars Punitives In Door-Plug Suit

By Linda Chiem

The Boeing Co. has told a federal judge that Washington state law bars punitive damages in a lawsuit from a mother and her teenage son who were seated next to the door plug that blew off the 737 Max 9 jet midflight in January 2024.

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Samsung, Micron Face Fresh Patent Threats From Netlist

By Hailey Konnath

Netlist Inc. has accused Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Micron Technology Inc. of infringing more of its patents covering memory and storage technology, the latest chapter in wide-ranging, long-running intellectual property disputes between the companies, according to a pair of complaints filed in Texas and Delaware.

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9th Circ. Revives Duty To Defend Claims In Wash. Crash Suit

By Ben Adlin

A Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday partially revived a Washington couple's claims accusing Integon Preferred Insurance Co. of flouting its duty to defend them from a lawsuit over a 2017 pedestrian collision, reversing a lower court's ruling that the policyholders failed to promptly notify the insurer of the suit.

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Mich. Firm Says Insurer Can't Avoid Bad Faith Counterclaim

By Hope Patti

A Michigan law firm urged a federal court not to toss a counterclaim alleging that its professional liability insurer handled the firm's bid for coverage of an underlying malpractice suit in bad faith, saying the claim properly seeks declaratory relief under the state's insurance code.

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Texas Crypto Group Ordered To Halt Unregistered Token Sales

By Sydney Price

The Texas State Securities Board announced it has entered an emergency order to halt a purported property group, its principals and an associated Texas resident from offering and selling unregistered and fraudulent tokenized real estate investments, saying the conduct "threatens immediate and irreparable public harm."

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Lack Of Indemnity Liability Doomed Vax IP Case, Judge Says

By Adam Lidgett

Drug developer Acuitas Therapeutics Inc. failed to show that it would have to indemnify BioNTech as a result of GlaxoSmithKline's patent infringement lawsuit against BioNTech and Pfizer over the COVID-19 vaccine, a Delaware federal judge has said.

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Colo. Panel Mulls Association's Fees Bid, Lease Interpretation

By Rachel Konieczny

The Colorado Court of Appeals on Tuesday focused on how it should interpret portions of a long-term fishing lease between a property owners association and a Colorado ranch in the association's appeal seeking attorney fees against the ranch.

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Tribe Waived Immunity In Casino Land Fight, NC Panel Told

By Hayley Fowler

The Catawba Indian Nation can't assert blanket immunity from a development company's suit claiming the tribe "ran wild" with the access it received to privately owned land surrounding the tribe's planned casino in North Carolina, the company told a state appellate panel Tuesday.

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Telecom Co. Defends Long-Distance Fees Levied On Lumen

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A telecommunications company has told a Colorado federal judge that federal law allows it to charge for certain long-distance phone calls in its bid to dismiss a lawsuit from Lumen Technologies over the practice.

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Brief

Nev. Law Firm Says Cox Gave Away Longtime Phone Number

By Nadia Dreid

A Nevada personal injury firm claims that Cox took its well-known, single-digit phone number away and gave it to Comcast without saying anything, which has cost it business and harmed its reputation.

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2 'Rocket Dockets' And The Rules That Propel Them

The fastest civil trial courts in the country are currently in the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Florida, and their chief judges provide insights into the court rules that keep them ahead, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

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BigLaw Insider Trading Defendants Have Big-Name Legal Help

By Chris Villani

An insider trading case involving nonpublic information prosecutors say was stolen from some of the largest law firms in the U.S. has ensnared more than two dozen defendants, many of whom have turned to lawyers with notable clients including Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Luigi Mangione.

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Hueston Hennigan Follows Milbank's Lead In Associate Pay

By Tracey Read

The race to match Milbank LLP's attorney pay hikes is officially on, with trial firm Hueston Hennigan the latest to announce it will increase associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually.

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Analysis

The Plaintiffs Atty Now 5-0 At Supreme Court With No Dissents

By Jeff Overley

It's true that Jennifer Bennett is undefeated at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's also an understatement. Bennett's five wins, including two recent ones, were all unanimous decisions. They showed that the plaintiffs bar can still persuade a conservative supermajority. And they turned the tide after a spree of decisions keeping workers and consumers out of court.

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Goldstein Cites Addiction To Avoid Time, DOJ Seeks 8 Years

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors recommended a 97-month prison sentence for convicted SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein, telling a Maryland federal court he has bilked the government out of more than $9.5 million in unpaid taxes. Goldstein, meanwhile, asked for a suspended sentence and supervised release, citing a "severe and longstanding gambling addiction."

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Rocade Capital Buys LFG To Create Combined $2B Lit Funder

By Ryan Boysen

Rocade Capital LLC has acquired fellow litigation funder Law Finance Group LLC, creating a combined platform that has deployed more than $2.3 billion and specializes in $10 million to $50 million deals, including post-judgment financing, portfolio deals and lending to plaintiff's firms.

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Court Reporter Shortage A 'Crisis,' Calif. Supreme Court Told

By Bonnie Eslinger

Two legal nonprofits urged the California Supreme Court to issue an order entitling low-income civil litigants to electronic recording if a live court reporter is not available, saying at a hearing Wednesday that a court reporter shortage in the Golden State has created a "crisis."

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9th Circ. Suspends 2 Attys For 6 Months Over AI Hallucinations

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday temporarily suspended two California immigration attorneys from practicing before the appellate court for filing briefs in a deportation relief case containing artificial intelligence-generated hallucinations, finding no excuse for their "extraordinary confession" of not vetting citations used by unlicensed brief writers.

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Tenn. Firm Sanctioned For AI Misuse In Baker Donelson Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Tennessee federal judge has sanctioned a Memphis, Tennessee, law firm over its misuse of artificial intelligence amid a malpractice suit against Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, ordering the regional firm to reimburse costs associated with the matter and report the misconduct to the state's disciplinary counsel.

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Feature

'Read The Cases': Conn. Judge Offers AI Advice To Attys

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge told a gathering of attorneys Tuesday that his law clerks are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence for any purpose involving legal research, his interns are barred from using it at all, and lawyers must be careful when relying on the material that the tools produce.

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Atty Can't Shake $120M Verdict In RICO, Defamation Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

An Alabama federal judge refused to disturb a $120 million verdict against a former Conrad & Scherer LLP managing partner, ruling there was enough evidence at trial for a jury to find the attorney liable on Drummond Co.'s racketeering and defamation claims.

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Graham Pushes Federal Tort Path After DOJ Drops $1.8B Fund

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice seemed, at least briefly, to support a Republican senator's alternative solution to the "anti-weaponization" $1.8 billion fund that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the department is abandoning.

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DOJ Sets New Healthcare Fraud Convictions Record

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that its Health Care Fraud Unit secured six jury trial convictions across the country in less than three weeks, with the cases involving more than $1.1 billion in fraud losses.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Dardarian Ho's Linda Dardarian

By Lynn LaRowe

Despite being on the other side of a disability rights case that will cost his municipality at least $150 million, Kevin McLaughlin, city attorney for Oakland, California, believes that if more lawyers were like Linda Dardarian, there would be far less lamenting about civility in the legal profession.

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