Eli Lilly Hit With $90M Verdict In Nektar's Rezpeg Breach Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal jury on Thursday found Eli Lilly breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in an agreement to co-develop Nektar Therapeutics' autoimmune-disease drug Rezpeg, awarding Nektar $90 million — a considerable sum that fell short of the $1 billion the clinical-stage biotech company had sought.

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Full 5th Circ. Tough On Aetna's Bid To Arbitrate Aramark Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Fifth Circuit seemed skeptical Thursday of Aetna's bid to force a health plan benefits dispute from food services giant Aramark into arbitration, with judges picking the insurer's arguments apart during an en banc rehearing.

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Tata Ordered To Pay $15M In Fees In Trade Secret Case

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge has ordered Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. to pay $15.3 million in attorney fees to Computer Sciences Corp., saying that amount accounts for a reasonable rate and that Tata should be "thankful" the court wasn't ordering it to pay for fees incurred from document review.

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Ex-Google CEO's Rape Accuser Can't Undo $12M Arb. Loss

By Craig Clough

A California judge on Thursday told a woman who accused former Google CEO Eric Schmidt of sexual assault that he will not vacate a $12 million arbitration award in Schmidt's favor, saying she appeared to have ignored the arbitrator's orders just like she disregarded his own, and asking, "Why did you do that?"

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NOLA Law Firm Withheld Fees From Settlements, Atty Says

By Andrea Keckley

A New Orleans-based law firm refused to honor a fee agreement with another attorney who was promised a 10% cut of attorney fees for his role in two multidistrict class action settlements totaling nearly $500 million, according to a new complaint in Pennsylvania federal court.

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Bitcoin Miner Loses Bid To Revive Detroit Lease Claim

By Isaac Monterose

A Michigan federal judge refused to revive a bitcoin miner's breach of contract claim against a Detroit landlord who was accused of wrongfully turning off electrical power for the cryptocurrency company while it was in the process of terminating its lease.

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Homebuilder Says Town Improperly Hiked Impact Fees By 70%

By Rachel Konieczny

A town in northern Colorado increased development impact fees by approximately 70% without conducting an analysis to support the change and repeatedly refused to meet with a Colorado homebuilder that paid the increased fees, the homebuilder alleged in state court.

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Capital One, Influencers Get Final OK In Alleged Fee Theft Suit

By Sydney Price

A Virginia federal judge has granted final approval to a settlement under which Capital One will pay influencers commissions and nearly $4 million in attorney fees and costs to settle claims that it siphoned commissions away from participants in its affiliate marketing program.

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Borrowers Sue Ed. Dept. Over 'Plain Wrong' Credit Reporting

By Jon Hill

Student loan borrowers Thursday sued the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging it has tarnished hundreds of thousands of consumer credit histories by falsely reporting billions of dollars in discharged loans as still outstanding.

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Ill. Justices Say Uber Can't Arbitrate Wrongful Death Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Uber can't compel arbitration of wrongful death claims arising from a fatal crash, finding that a widow's separate user agreement with the company did not apply to the estate's wrongful death claims.

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Brief

Default Sought After Racing Team Didn't Reply To Counterclaims

By Ganesh Setty

A former Joe Gibbs Racing LLC competition director and a rival NASCAR racing team where he currently works asked a North Carolina federal court on Thursday to enter default judgment against Joe Gibbs Racing after it accused them of trade secrets theft.

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$16M Note Leads To Fraud Charges For Booted Housing Boss

By Aaron Keller

The former executive director of two Connecticut housing authorities pled not guilty Thursday to five counts of wire fraud and four counts alleging illegal money transactions after prosecutors accused him of pocketing about $824,000 from a loan tied to a $16.2 million promissory note.

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Thriving Rivals Disprove Hillrom Antitrust Suit, 3rd Circ. Told

By Matthew Santoni

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. told the Third Circuit on Thursday a Pennsylvania hospital had no evidence the equipment supplier illegally sidelined competitors from the hospital bed market, noting its deals tying discounts to exclusivity hadn't put multiple rivals out of business.

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Game Publishers Eye Doc Request In Valve Antitrust Case

By Joyce Hanson

Video-game publishers accusing Valve Corp. in a federal antitrust lawsuit of manipulating arbitration pacts with gaming customers have questioned the gamers' bid for access to the publishers' purportedly protected materials as the gamers fight a separate case against the digital content company.

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RICO Suit Claims CH Robinson, TQL Are Using Illegal Carriers

By Linda Chiem

Family-owned trucking companies have accused two of North America's largest freight brokers, C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. and Total Quality Logistics LLC, of steering long-haul shipments to illegal "fly-by-night" or "chameleon" carriers, muscling out legitimate trucking firms, according to a suit filed in Texas federal court.

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Full 9th Circ. Asked To Revisit $2B Devas Arbitral Award

By Lauren Berg

An Indian state-owned aerospace company has urged the full Ninth Circuit to review a three-judge panel's unanimous decision to enforce a $2 billion arbitral award issued to a Bangalore-based satellite communications company, saying the decision raises important questions about the constitutional limits on jurisdiction of foreign disputes with no connection to the U.S.

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Times Square Pot Shop Says Lender Broke NY Law

By Jonathan Capriel

The owner of marijuana dispensary The Daily Green in New York's Times Square is asking a state court to free him from a predatory and illegal loan that required his cannabis license as collateral, saying the lender is demanding $45 million, almost 10 times what he borrowed, and plans to auction off control of the shop to get it.

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Fla. Surgeon Found Guilty Of Killing Atty Who Went Missing

By David Minsky

A Florida state court judge convicted a plastic surgeon for the murder of an attorney who disappeared after walking into the restroom at his law offices and was then killed, although a body was never recovered. 

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Alston & Bird Adds 2 Ex-Loeb & Loeb Commercial Litigators

By Kevin Penton

Alston & Bird LLP has added two commercial litigators in California previously with Loeb & Loeb LLP who specialize in business disputes, the firm announced Thursday.

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FCC Robotics Restrictions Raise AI Compliance Risks

A recent "covered list" update from the Federal Communications Commission places restrictions on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices’ ability to obtain new authorizations, creating a framework that is poorly suited to continuous artificial intelligence updates, and raising several transactional and contractual challenges, says Kim Larsen at Stinson.

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Tracking Texas: When A Promissory Note Is Not A Security

The Texas Business Court's recent application of the so-called family-resemblance test in Thompson v. Anchor Capital offers a useful road map for Texas business owners and lenders navigating the intersection of commercial lending and securities law and determining when promissory notes can be classified as securities, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

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4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

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Wireless Patent Suits Offer Lessons For Data Center Industry

As the data center patent litigation wave begins to crest, the industry can gain insight into what's to come by looking to the wireless and telecommunications industries, giving operators and suppliers concrete reasons to revisit their agreements and establish clear allocations of patent risk, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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