SEC Nabs Ruling Against Man Behind Hotel Investment Fraud

By Rae Ann Varona

A California federal judge granted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a summary judgment win Wednesday in the commission's suit accusing a Los Angeles businessman of running two securities fraud schemes involving investments in U.S.-based hotels, saying it was clear the co-founder made material false statements to investors.

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Keurig Judge Aims Trimmed K-Cup Antitrust MDL Toward Trial

By Lauren Berg

A New York federal judge trimmed claims in multidistrict litigation accusing Keurig Green Mountain of anticompetitively cutting out rivals with exclusive dealings and exclusionary product design, but sent to trial a number of monopolization, tying and false advertising allegations, according to an order unsealed Tuesday.

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Ex-Holtec CFO Wins $2.1M Verdict On Whistleblower Claim

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state jury on Wednesday found that nuclear services company Holtec International violated the state's whistleblower law when it fired its chief financial officer days after he objected to what he believed were false and misleading statements in a document meant for a potential investor, awarding him $2.1 million in economic damages.

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Anthropic's Lyric 'Mash Up' May Be Fair Use, Judge Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge Wednesday appeared open to Anthropic's defense that using copyrighted song lyrics to train Claude AI is fair use, saying during a daylong hearing that "mash-up" lyrics produced by AI might constitute fair use while also questioning how to "slice and dice" the case's scope.

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Iran Money Trail Takes Center Stage At Huawei's RICO Trial

By Stewart Bishop

The federal jury in Brooklyn weighing Huawei's fate for days heard testimony about the money trail, or lack thereof, from the company's purported Iranian unit and the Chinese telecommunications giant's U.S. payroll, as one of its defenses in the sanctions and trade secret theft trial began to take shape.

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Data Center Co. Looks To Toss Investors' Gas Wells Suit

By Isaac Monterose

A data center infrastructure company told a Texas federal court to toss a proposed securities fraud class action that accused the company of damaging its stock value because of a hidden gas well transfer deal and a fraud lawsuit filed by New Mexico.

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Vendor Says Nonprofit Pulled Millions In Mass. Energy Funds

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts heating and cooling contractor says in a state court lawsuit that it committed millions of dollars toward boosting participation from low-income homeowners in a ratepayer-funded energy efficiency program, only to have the nonprofit agency administering the program unilaterally change the terms of its agreement to reallocate funds and contracts to other companies.

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US Steel Says Insurers Must Cover Utah Mill Cleanup Costs

By Hope Patti

U.S. Steel said its excess insurers must cover millions of dollars in mounting costs to investigate and clean up contamination at a long-closed steel mill in Utah, telling a Pennsylvania state court that several carriers have refused to pay out under their policies.

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NC Panel Affirms $10 Nominal Damages In Insurance Fight

By Danielle Ferguson

A split North Carolina appellate panel Wednesday affirmed $10 in nominal damages to a receiver in an insurance dispute, agreeing with a lower court that the receiver for a driver named in an injury suit did not show the driver suffered additional actual damages from the insurer's failure to defend.

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Target Is 'Healthwashing' Electrolyte Drink Powder, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Target is accused of "healthwashing" its Up & Up brand electrolyte drink powder supplement mix by labeling it as though it's sugar-free, despite the presence of allulose, an ingredient the Seventh Circuit recently confirmed is a sugar, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in Illinois federal court.

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Snap Financial Reaches $664M Settlement With Red States

By Spencer Brewer

Consumer financial services company Snap Financial on Wednesday agreed to pay $664 million to 17 Republican-led states to end claims that it used misleading disclosures about its leasing arrangements.

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Fund Manager Challenges Chancery's Congo Palm Oil Ruling

By Jarek Rutz

An investment fund manager and three affiliated entities urged the Delaware Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn a ruling that stripped them of interests in a Congolese palm oil business, arguing it handed fellow investor Kuramo Capital Management LLC an enormous windfall, while Kuramo defended the unusual remedy as necessary to protect its investment from the manager's misconduct.

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2022 College Athletes Say NCAA Rehashes Failed Arguments

By Zach Dupont

A group of Division II and Division III athletes asked a Colorado federal judge Tuesday to not toss their proposed class action against the NCAA seeking a fifth season of competition eligibility, arguing the college sports governing body rehashed arguments that were already rejected in a different case in its motion to dismiss.

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X Says OpenAI Can't Nix IPhone Placement Antitrust Case

By Bryan Koenig

X Corp. and SpaceXAI urged a Texas federal judge Wednesday not to let OpenAI scrap their lawsuit targeting a deal integrating ChatGPT into Apple devices, arguing any attempts to paint the deal as nonexclusive or show it hasn't completely foreclosed the market are factual disputes left to the jury.

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Verisk Denies Fault For Canceled $2.35B AccuLynx Deal

By Jarek Rutz

Verisk Analytics Inc. urged the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to let it abandon its $2.35 billion acquisition of roofing software company AccuLynx, arguing a lower court wrongly blamed it for federal antitrust delays, while AccuLynx insisted the company must keep working to close the deal.

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NY Hemp Seller's Seizure, Arrest Suit Sent Back To State Court

By Mike Curley

A New York federal judge has remanded to state court a hemp seller's suit against New York City and two of its officers alleging that they wrongfully seized a hemp shipment and then arrested one of the seller's owners, after dismissing the last remaining federal claim.

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Stiiizy Affiliate Sues Over Cannabis Shop Control

By Jonathan Capriel

A Stiiizy-affiliated investment company is asking a Los Angeles state court to declare it owes nothing to a minority owner of a San Francisco dispensary that finds itself in the red, according to a lawsuit that also accuses him of engaging in a power grab that could jeopardize the shop's cannabis license.

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Boeing, Supplier Get Punitive Damages Cut In Door Plug Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

A Washington federal judge ruled Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems do not have to face punitive damages claims from a mother and son who sued them over a midair door plug blowout on a flight departing from Oregon.

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Immunity May Not Protect Gov't-Backed Cyber Operators

Companies considering participation in a National Coordination Center program that authorizes private actors to conduct offensive cyber operations on the government’s behalf should understand the limits of sovereign immunity and the operational and legal risks lurking in the details and undefined parameters of the program, say attorneys at Steptoe.

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New Weil-Willkie Domains Add To Merger Speculation

By Marialuisa Taddia

Two domain names that combine the names of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP have been registered, fueling speculation about a potential merger between the two prominent Wall Street law firms.

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Bonus Spotlight

Hueston Hennigan Bumps Clerkship Bonus To $205K

By Lynn LaRowe

Trial boutique Hueston Hennigan is offering a $205,000 bonus to lawyers who have completed one or more federal clerkships, the firm confirmed Thursday.

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'Grave Errors': 5th Circ. Boots Judge After AI 'Botch Job'

By Jeff Overley

A Mississippi federal judge's careless use of artificial intelligence tools led to "sloppy edicts" riddled with "falsehoods and fabrications," the Fifth Circuit held in a Thursday night opinion removing the judge from litigation over an anti-DEI law in the Magnolia State because of his "extraordinarily grave errors."

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Texas Judge Probe Shows Lack Of Mental Impairment Process

By Jack Karp

Fifth Circuit officials have done a reasonable job of handling a rare situation involving a Texas federal judge who appears to be undergoing a mental health crisis, but the episode highlights that a more standardized way of dealing with federal judges experiencing mental impairment needs to be established, experts and scholars say.

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Jackson Walker Hits Back At Fee Clawback Sanction Move

By Vince Sullivan

Law firm Jackson Walker said Wednesday that it should not be sanctioned for failing to bring to a Texas federal judge's attention additional cases involving an undisclosed romantic relationship between a bankruptcy judge and one of its attorneys because the U.S. Trustee already investigated those cases and didn't take action.

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GOP Reps. Seek Probe Of Fla. Judge's Sanctions Order

By Courtney Bublé

Top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked the Judicial Conference Thursday to investigate a Florida federal judge for potential misconduct with an order she issued in the case involving the leak of President Donald Trump's tax returns.

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JPMorgan, Ex-Frank Execs Clash Over $2.1M In Legal Fees

By Jarek Rutz

JPMorgan Chase & Co. faced renewed demands in the Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday to pay about $2.1 million in withheld legal fees for convicted Frank founder Charlie Javice and former executive Olivier Amar, as their lawyers accused the bank of using repeated billing objections to delay funding for their criminal defenses.

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Roundup MDL Atty Fund 'Cries Out' For Review, 9th Circ. Told

By Dorothy Atkins

Plaintiffs' firms urged the Ninth Circuit to reverse a ruling Thursday requiring them to contribute 8% of their recovery fees to a common benefit fund in multidistrict litigation over Monsanto's Roundup weed killer, arguing the judge ignored a special master's recommendation and the issue "cries out for some appellate supervision."

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