Live Nation Trial Resumes, Exec Says Competition Is Up

By Stewart Bishop

The antitrust trial of Live Nation picked back up Monday after a weeklong hiatus with a coalition of states in the driver's seat, after the U.S. Department of Justice settled its case against the live entertainment giant, with one of its executives testifying that competition in the concert promotion business has grown in recent years.

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Paramount Head Countersues Over $150M 'Shakedown' Suit

By Craig Clough

Paramount President Jeff Shell fired back Monday at a $150 million lawsuit filed against him in California state court alleging he failed to pay for crisis communications services and revealed insider company information, filing counterclaims against the plaintiff he says is a professional gambler who "overplayed his hand" perpetrating a "shakedown."

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Edible Arrangements Wins Sanctions, Beats Ex-COO's Claims

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge struck the answer filed by Edible Arrangements' former chief operating officer and his company as a sanction for bad faith discovery conduct, finding they hid key evidence about millions in vendor checks deposited into a personal account.

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Fox Wants Mexican Media Exec Detained Amid IP Fracas

By Alex Lawson

Fox Corp. has asked a New York federal judge to detain a Mexican media executive for misusing the company's sports broadcast trademarks, arguing that the millions in monetary sanctions already ordered by the court are not an effective deterrent.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court's docket last week featured disputes including an $83.75 million settlement tied to a renewable energy merger, fraud claims in a fertilizer company acquisition and a developer's fight for control of a major Philadelphia redevelopment project.

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Winston & Strawn Sanctioned For Trying To 'Make Up Facts'

By Dani Kass

A California federal judge sanctioned Winston & Strawn LLP on Monday for making up facts and otherwise misrepresenting the record in contract litigation over its client's app being removed from Apple's platform, then separately dismissed the case on the merits.

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Q&A

PBGC Keen On Dishing Out Opinion Letters, Director Says

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has revamped its website to encourage attorneys to seek opinion letters about how the Employee Retirement Income Security Act applies to specific scenarios. PBGC Director Janet Dhillon spoke to Law360 about that effort, the PBGC's latest financial report to Congress and her goals for the agency.

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Sen. Warren Probes Auto Lenders On Military Borrower Rates

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee's top Democrat pressed major auto lenders for underwriting information on military service members, noting they pay higher rates on average while statutory lending protections for service members exempt many auto loans.

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NC Seller Can't Duck $200M Apartment Complex Sale Suit

By Grace Dixon

A North Carolina federal judge ruled that an apartment complex owner and affiliated entities can't avoid claims that they improperly held on to a potential buyer's deposit after environmental contamination thwarted a nearly $200 million deal to buy 10 properties.

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Del. Chancery Restores CEO In Survival Game Dispute

By Jarek Rutz

A Delaware Chancery Court judge has ordered the reinstatement of the chief executive of a video game studio acquired by South Korean gaming company Krafton Inc., finding Monday that the company breached a merger agreement when it fired the studio's leadership amid a dispute over a potential $250 million earnout tied to the release of Subnautica 2.

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NC Judge Fast-Tracks Job Info Order For Joe Gibbs Racing

By Hayley Fowler

Joe Gibbs Racing LLC's former competition director has one week to turn over communications and documents about his hiring and onboarding at a rival NASCAR team after a North Carolina federal judge on Monday granted the super team's bid for expedited discovery in their ongoing trade secrets battle.

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6th Circ. Revives FedEx, Kellogg Mortality Table Suits

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Sixth Circuit on Monday revived suits against Kellogg and FedEx from retirees who alleged their former employers' outdated actuarial assumptions shortchanged their joint-and-survivor pension benefits, holding federal benefits law required employers to use reasonably up-to-date mortality tables when converting from a single-life annuity form.

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Teamsters Push For Arbitration In Kraft Heinz Benefits Suit

By Katherine Smith

A Teamsters local contended that a dispute with Kraft Heinz Co. over a healthcare benefits grievance must be arbitrated because it falls within the scope of the parties' collective bargaining agreement, the union told a Delaware federal judge.

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Stellantis Escapes Vehicle Inventory 'Channel Stuffing' Suit

By Katryna Perera

Automaker Stellantis and former executives beat a proposed securities class action accusing them of so-called channel-stuffing, after a New York federal judge found none of the suit's alleged misstatements were material, and the investors failed to plead the executives had a motive to defraud or knowingly committed the alleged wrongdoings.

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EB-5 Investors Land Class Cert. In TD Bank Escrow Suit

By Emilie Ruscoe

A Manhattan federal judge has certified a class of EB-5 immigrant investors who claim TD Bank improperly released nearly $50 million of their funds from escrow, which allegedly caused the money to go missing and scuttled their efforts to seek visas. 

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Texas Justices Say Settlement Doesn't Block Indemnity

By Mike Curley

The Texas Supreme Court will allow an engineering company to seek indemnity from one of its subcontractors for an injury suit settlement, saying nothing in the law blocks it from pursuing a comparative indemnity clause in the contract.

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A Reliable Liability Shield For Government-Sponsored R&D

The Federal Circuit's decision in Arlton v. AeroVironment last month confirms that the Section 1498 liability-shifting framework applies well beyond production contracts, providing powerful assurance that contractors performing government-directed work are shielded from patent infringement liability, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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The Benefits Of Choosing A Niche Practice In The AI Age

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly accessible, lawyers with a niche practice may stand out as clients seek specialized judgment that automation cannot replicate, but it is important to choose a niche that is durable, engaging and a good personal fit, says Daniel Borneman at Lowenstein Sandler.

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Conservative Groups Back DOJ As Amici In Law Firm EO Suits

By Emily Sawicki

Conservative groups are backing the Trump administration's attempts to revive executive orders targeting BigLaw firms, arguing in an amicus brief to the D.C. Circuit that Perkins Coie LLP had "unclean hands" for its part in what they called the "Russiagate hoax."

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Don't 'Grimace, Nod, Laugh': Judge Breyer Slams Musk's Attys

By Bonnie Eslinger

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer scolded Elon Musk's Quinn Emanuel counsel during a hearing Monday ahead of closing arguments in California litigation alleging that Musk tanked Twitter's stock to get out of his $44 billion acquisition deal, saying he wouldn't "sit here and watch lawyers grimace, nod, laugh in court."

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Pro Se Litigant Lawyered So Well He Owes $1.8M, Judge Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A Michigan federal judge ruled Monday that a pro se defendant must pay software-maker Dassault Systemes $1.8 million in fees for willfully infringing its software copyrights to train design students, while commending the pro se litigant's professionalism during 15 years of litigation for rivaling and exceeding many licensed attorneys.

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SEC Enforcement Head Resigns After 7 Months

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that its enforcement director, Margaret "Meg" Ryan, has resigned from the agency after nearly seven months on the job.

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Analysis

Excitement, Tinged With Skepticism, Over AAA's AI Arbitrator

By Caroline Simson

The American Arbitration Association caused a stir last fall when it introduced its AI Arbitrator for documents-only construction cases, and even though lawyers say they're excited about the tool's possibilities — and that of artificial intelligence in arbitration in general — so far, many have been reluctant to be the first to take that plunge.

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Boris Epshteyn Targeted Over Trump Bid To 'Coerce' BigLaw

By Lauren Berg

Lawyers, law professors and retired judges led by two nonprofits urged the New York state courts' ethics committee on Monday to investigate Boris Epshteyn's involvement in President Donald Trump's efforts to "intimidate and coerce" BigLaw firms into pro bono agreements with the administration.

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Trump To Get 5th North Carolina Federal Court Vacancy

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump will get another judicial vacancy to fill in North Carolina with U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen Jr. of the Middle District of North Carolina recently announcing he will take senior status.

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Paralegal Calls Full Lewis Brisbois Arbitration Unenforceable

By Adrian Cruz

A former Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP paralegal has told a Florida state judge that the firm shouldn't be able to force her into arbitrating her claims against it because a number of the alleged actions took place after she was terminated from her job.

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Democrats Push DOJ To Investigate Noem For Perjury

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats have referred the departing U.S. secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation following her recent congressional testimony.

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Mass. Justices Won't Boost Pay For Court-Appointed Attys

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts' highest court on Monday declined a request to let state judges offer higher hourly rates to induce attorneys to accept court-appointed cases, a proposal meant to alleviate a shortage of appointed counsel in two of the state's busiest counties.

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Ga. Panel Says Minister Can't Rep His Church In Tax Case

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia Court of Appeals said Monday that nonattorneys can't be allowed to represent unincorporated associations in court, backing a trial court's dismissal of a minister's bid to represent his church in a property tax dispute with his home county.

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