5th Circ. Presses Ericsson Insurers On Terrorism Suit Defense

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel pushed insurers to explain why they should be allowed to avoid covering the defense of Ericsson Inc. against claims the company funded foreign terrorist organizations, asking Tuesday if Ericsson knew the money it gave out "was going to kill Americans."

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Exxon Seeks $324M Judgment In Dispute On Qatar Deal Tax

By Asha Glover

Exxon asked a Texas federal court to rule that it's owed a $273 million tax refund and $51 million in penalties in a dispute with the U.S. government over the tax treatment of a natural gas deal with Qatar.

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Kraken Seeks To Enforce $22M Award Over Scrapped Audit

By Katryna Perera

Cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken has asked the Delaware Chancery Court to enforce a $22 million arbitration award it won against Mazars US LLP after the auditor suddenly quit the 2022 audit it was conducting for Kraken as the digital assets company came under a federal regulatory investigation.

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McCarter Atty's Work 'Fell Short' In $20M Deals, Judge Told

By Brian Steele

McCarter & English LLP and one of its Connecticut attorneys failed to uphold the applicable standard of care when advising insurers on $20 million worth of loan transactions that ultimately fell apart because the borrower stopped paying, an expert witness told a Connecticut state court on Tuesday.

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'Terrifier' Filmmaker Can't Slash Actor's Royalties Claims

By Elliot Weld

The makers of the 2016 independent horror film "Terrifier" were able to shake an actress' claim that nude images of her were illegally circulated but couldn't persuade a judge to throw out her claims for breach of contract and acting in bad faith.

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5th Circ. Backs Saltgrass In Texas Restaurant Land Row

By Isaac Monterose

The Fifth Circuit backed steakhouse chain Saltgrass Inc.'s quick win in a property contract dispute that involved the planned demolition of a former Joe's Crab Shack restaurant in Humble, Texas, ruling that the demolition contractually requires Saltgrass' permission.

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Baltimore County Defends Bid For Bridge Economic Losses

By Linda Chiem

Baltimore County has told a Maryland federal judge that it's entitled to recover "concrete and calculable" economic damages and search-and-rescue expenses over the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster, rejecting efforts to slash damages owed by the owner and manager of the cargo ship that rammed into the bridge.

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Webuild Wants Justices' Input In Row Over In-State Property

By Joyce Hanson

Webuild has pressed the Third Circuit to delay sending a case over a $140 million arbitral award against the Italian construction giant back to lower court as it seeks U.S. Supreme Court review of a circuit decision reviving a Chilean company's bid to enforce the award.

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Del. Chancery Dismisses World Energy's Air Products Suit

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court dismissed a lawsuit by World Energy LLC seeking to force Air Products and Chemicals Inc. to resume work on a stalled $2 billion sustainable aviation fuel project, ruling that World Energy repeatedly failed to meet its own payment obligations and therefore could not compel Air Products to continue performing under the parties' agreements.

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Uber App Terms Bind Driver's Estate To Arbitration, Court Told

By Abigail Harrison

An estate trying to hold Uber accountable for the death of a driver should be forced to resolve its grievances in arbitration because Emmanuel Kwame Gbedee Sr. accepted a company agreement with an arbitration clause, Uber told a North Carolina federal court.

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6th Circ. Says MillerKnoll Owns Rights To Iconic Lamp Design

By Hailey Konnath

The Sixth Circuit Tuesday refused to disturb a lower court's decision awarding intellectual property rights for late designer George Nelson's iconic bubble lamp to furniture company MillerKnoll, ruling that a 2006 royalty agreement authorized the company to use and own those rights.

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Mitsubishi Gets Ex-Franchisee Blocked From Using Its Marks

By Lauren Berg

Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. on Tuesday secured an order blocking a New Jersey car dealership from continuing to operate as an authorized Mitsubishi dealer after a federal judge determined the automaker likely lawfully terminated the franchise over alleged staffing, training and inventory issues.

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Jermaine Dupri Alleges Sony Withheld Over $18M In Royalties

By Kelcey Caulder

American record producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri and his Georgia-based record label sued Sony Music Entertainment in New York federal court on Monday, alleging it breached its contract by underreporting and withholding $18 million in producer royalties.

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Town Says Patriots Owner Must Cover Stadium Safety Costs

By Ganesh Setty

Foxborough, Massachusetts, disputed claims from the owner of the New England Patriots that it's unlawfully sought $1 million as part of an annual entertainment license renewal, telling a state court the sum is necessary to reimburse public safety expenses.

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PTPA Power Struggle Spurs Suit Accusing Ex-GC Of 'Coup'

By Celeste Bott

An internal leadership battle within a professional tennis player advocacy group escalated Monday, when the Professional Tennis Players Association claimed in Illinois federal court that its ex-general counsel staged a "coup" by recruiting a rogue executive committee to seize control of the organization and its antitrust suit against tennis's governing bodies.

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NBA Star Questions Ex-Agent's Money Woes In Fees Fight

By Alex Lawson

Two-time NBA All-Star Zion Williamson is opposing his former agent's efforts to avoid paying nearly $686,000 in legal fees stemming from a lengthy contract dispute in North Carolina federal court, questioning the agent's claims of "extreme financial hardship."

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Ex-Sadot Group Exec Says Company Withholding Severance

By George Woolston

The former chief marketing officer for agricultural commodities trader Sadot Group Inc. has alleged in New Jersey federal court that the company is refusing to pay her almost $150,000 allegedly owed in severance and other compensation.

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DC Circ. Nixes Part Of IAM Fund's $13M Liability Win

By Kellie Mejdrich

The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday partially unraveled an early win for a multiemployer pension fund in a dispute over $13 million in withdrawal liability against several Illinois truck dealership companies, holding the lower court needed to recalculate some of the interest and damages assessed.

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Trucking Co. 'Predictive Model' Doesn't Moot OT, 9th Circ. Told

By Craig Clough

Truck drivers denied overtime under a Fair Labor Standards Act carveout for interstate commerce urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to find they're entitled to the pay, saying that they drove only within California and that their employers' "predictive model" order fulfillment system doesn't qualify their deliveries as interstate commerce.

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Cannabis Co. Says Worker's Suit Belongs Before NLRB

By Emily Brill

A former employee of a New Jersey cannabis company should have brought his wrongful firing claims to the National Labor Relations Board and the fact that he didn't dooms his lawsuit in New Jersey federal court, the company said in a motion to dismiss the litigation.

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Consultant Says FARA Verdict Should Be Erased

By Rose Krebs

A political consultant convicted of knowingly failing to register as a foreign agent as she helped draft a $50 million contract involving a former congressman and Venezuela's state-owned oil enterprise continues to argue she should be acquitted or given a new trial, saying the verdict was "against the great weight of the evidence."

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Food Deal Rivals Battle In Chancery Over Competition Claims

By Jarek Rutz

Lawyers for Global Market Foods LLC urged the Delaware Chancery Court on Tuesday to block the former owner of a food distribution business from competing after selling the company for $58 million, while the sellers argued the buyer is improperly trying to rewrite the parties' contracts and expand negotiated noncompete restrictions.

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Ill. Judge Approves $37M More In PVC Price-Fix Deals

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge gave her early approval Tuesday to more than $37 million in settlements two classes struck with a company defending against accusations that it participated in an illegal price-fixing scheme with other major polyvinyl chloride pipe producers.

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Groups Tell 4th Circ. Not To Let Sandoz 'Relitigate' Enbrel

By Bryan Koenig

Pharmaceutical groups and the Washington Legal Foundation backed Amgen in amicus briefs Monday urging the Fourth Circuit not to revive Sandoz's antitrust claims, arguing that if Sandoz wanted to litigate blocked biosimilar competition to Enbrel, it needed to do so when Amgen sued it for patent infringement.

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Judge Recommends Netting Sugar Arb. Awards To $3.9M

By Jack McLoone

A Florida federal magistrate judge recommended rolling an arbitration award and a related counterclaim award over broken sugar contracts into a single judgment, which would set the net amount awarded to an Illinois sugar company at $3.86 million.

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Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

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Quantum Readiness May Paradoxically Raise Contractor Risk

The organizations best positioned for the cryptographic system migration deadlines and other requirements under President Donald Trump’s recent quantum executive orders will be those able to inventory their cryptographic dependencies while protecting their vulnerability road map from adversaries, says Jesse Lemon at The Beckage Firm.

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Ohio Fuels Litigation Funding Debate As Foreign Ban Is Enacted

By Ryan Boysen

Ohio has enacted a sweeping law that bans all foreign litigation funders from doing business in the Buckeye State, drawing praise from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and outrage from the litigation finance industry.

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ABA Seeks Trump Docs In Suit Alleging Law Firm Intimidation

By Emily Sawicki

The Trump administration cannot rely on the presidential communications privilege to block disclosure of communications related to allegations that the president sought to intimidate BigLaw firms into conforming with his policy initiatives, the American Bar Association told a D.C. federal judge.

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Trump's SDNY Pick Steps In As Clayton Focuses On DC

By Pete Brush

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's pick to succeed him, James McDonald, will assume a leadership role as Clayton works on his own nomination for director of national intelligence in Washington.

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Judge Says Warning 'Sufficient Deterrent,' Nixing AI Sanctions

By Emily Sawicki

A Kentucky federal judge has declined to sanction two attorneys who filed a brief that included errors generated by artificial intelligence amid a fraud case against a notary public, finding the lawyers had no history of misconduct and had shown sufficient remorse.

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Wis. Judge Avoids Prison Time In ICE Obstruction Sentence

By Nate Beck

A former Wisconsin state judge on Wednesday was fined $5,000 but will not serve prison time for obstructing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of a defendant in her courtroom by directing him down a private hallway away from agents before he was later captured.

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Del. Judge Recuses Herself From Apollo $570M Payout Suit

By Katryna Perera

The Delaware vice chancellor presiding over litigation regarding a $570 million payout to Apollo Global Management Inc. insiders has disqualified herself from the case after a possible conflict of interest arose due to her former role as an attorney with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, which was involved in a merger with ties to the payout.

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Ga. Judge Rejects UPS Plaintiff's Bid To Force Recusal

By Madison Arnold

A Georgia federal judge reportedly disciplined for having sexual intercourse in her chambers and attending a political event has opted not to recuse herself in the case of a former UPS employee in his dismissed racial discrimination lawsuit.

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McCarter Trial Judge Has 'Serious Doubts' About NY Expert

By Brian Steele

The Hartford judge presiding over a $22.5 million lawsuit against McCarter & English LLP and a former partner said Wednesday he had "serious doubts" about allowing testimony from a defense expert, but let him proceed as long as he did not claim to interpret New York law.

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Morgan & Morgan Malpractice Fight Won't Get Another Review

By Kelcey Caulder

The Georgia Court of Appeals has rejected Morgan & Morgan PA's bid to challenge a trial court ruling denying the firm's summary judgment motion in a legal malpractice case brought against it by clients seeking representation in a personal injury action.

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Day Pitney Can't Be Cut Off From New Counsel, Client Says

By Aaron Keller

A former Connecticut chief justice's ethics gaffe cannot preclude fellow lawyers at Day Pitney LLP from communicating with new counsel for John B. Clinton, a private equity management firm owner locked in a 13-year-old, $1.3 million corporate windup lawsuit, Clinton has urged a Connecticut state court judge to conclude.

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