How They Won It

How Sullivan & Cromwell Won An $18B 'Bet The Country' Case

By Chris Villani

It is not often that a Second Circuit ruling is hailed as "the greatest legal achievement in national history" by a country's president, but that's what happened after a team from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP persuaded the appellate panel to nix an $18 billion judgment against Argentina.

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OpenAI Judge Pauses Trial To Probe Musk Attys On $97B Bid

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion paused on a precarious note Thursday after Musk's legal team failed to object to a document during Musk's cross-examination, and inadvertently opened the door to wide-ranging and potentially damaging evidence into Musk's $97.4 billion acquisition proposal.

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Google $700M Deal Nears Approval As Judge Questions Fees

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge said Thursday he would likely give final approval to Google's $700 million antitrust deal with states and consumers, but criticized the accompanying request for $85 million in attorney fees, calling the 100,000 hours the consumers' counsel said they spent on the case "grotesquely bloated."

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J&J Says Ill. Ruling Backs Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Suits

By George Woolston

Johnson & Johnson told a New Jersey federal court that a recent ruling in Illinois backs the Beasley Allen Law Firm's disqualification from multidistrict litigation over its talcum powder.

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LIV Golf Seeks New Funding, Restructures As Saudis Exit

By Alex Lawson

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund announced on Thursday it would be discontinuing its backing of LIV Golf at the end of this season, prompting the upstart league to alter its leadership structure in the hopes of securing new investors.

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Jones Day Beats Sanctions Bid In $2M Fee Dispute

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois state judge has ruled that Jones Day can pursue punitive damages on several of its claims in a lawsuit alleging a former client made a series of unlawful transactions to avoid paying over $2 million in legal fees, and also denied sanctions sought by the ex-client against the firm.

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Pa. Atty Says Ex-Partner Ran Firm Into Ground, Won't Pay Up

By Adam Lidgett

A Pennsylvania patent attorney is accusing his former partner in a state court lawsuit of mismanaging the firm they started, improperly winding down operations and refusing to pay him all the money he says he is owed.

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Texas Court Rules Atty Can't Dodge Billionaire's Fraud Claims

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appeals court kept intact a suit brought by the billionaire co-founder of Rackspace Technology Inc. alleging his former attorney aided his wife in a "contentious" divorce, saying Thursday that the attorney can't use the state's anti-SLAPP law to evade the suit.

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Fla. High Court Allows Email Service To Foreign Debtor

By David Minsky

The Florida Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a Maltese citizen's challenge of email service in a law firm's lawsuit to collect fees, validating a recent state law that allows parties to bypass the Hague Convention to serve legal documents to foreign entities electronically.

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Colo. Panel OKs Impact Fees On Reconstruction Projects

By Rachel Konieczny

Local governments can charge impact fees on new development projects as a condition of issuing a development permit, including on projects other than the development of a raw parcel of land, the Colorado Court of Appeals held Thursday.

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GM Keyless-Theft Suit Trimmed, Core Claims Survive

By Jonathan Capriel

A proposed class of drivers who claim General Motors hid a design flaw that allows thieves to easily access their vehicles saw their claims trimmed by a Texas federal judge, but he allowed most drivers to proceed with their core unjust enrichment claims.

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Borrowers Seek NJ Mass Tort Status For Debt Buyer Suits

By George Woolston

Consumers challenging LVNV Funding LLC's attempts to collect their debts that they say are void under state law have applied to the New Jersey Supreme Court to centralize their suits as multicounty litigation.

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Debt Collectors Owe Charity Care Notice, Wash. Justices Say

By Lauren Berg

Just as hospitals must inform low-income patients they might qualify for financial assistance, so too must agencies collecting on medical debt, the Washington Supreme Court clarified Thursday.

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Crypto Co. Fights Shkreli's Counterclaims In Album Case

By Elliot Weld

A cryptocurrency company suing "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli over ownership of a coveted Wu-Tang Clan album has asked a Brooklyn federal judge to dismiss his counterclaims, calling his claim seeking a declaration that he didn't steal trade secrets related to the album a "mirror image" of the company's claim saying he did.

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Fishing Gear Founder Beats Immediate TRO Bid

By Jarek Rutz

A Delaware vice chancellor on Thursday declined to immediately block former fishing gear executive Ralph Duda III from operating a women-focused fishing products business but put the dispute on a fast track toward a preliminary injunction hearing in about 45 days.

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Roundup

NC Biz Court Bulletin: Corporate Raid, MV Realty Settlement

By Hayley Fowler

A major case settled in the North Carolina Business Court in April as new lawsuits emerged, including a complaint by health information technology company IQVIA Holdings Inc. accusing its former top brass of orchestrating a corporate raid and defecting to a competitor. In case you missed this story and others, here are the highlights.

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Bank's Racketeering Claims Over €4M Award Will Proceed

By Caroline Simson

An Arizona federal judge Wednesday greenlit racketeering and fraud claims asserted by an Austrian bank as it looks to enforce a nearly €4 million ($4.7 million) arbitral award against a Mexican company that is accused of misrepresenting facts to secure an underlying loan and then scattering its assets.

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UP, Norfolk Southern Refile $85B Merger Bid With Regulators

By Linda Chiem

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern on Thursday submitted a revised application to federal rail regulators for their proposed $85 billion mega-merger, touting the efficiencies and cost-savings of their combined coast-to-coast rail network, while also seeking to quell competition concerns.

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Google Says Ad Tech Rivals Can't 'Circumvent' Time Limits

By Bryan Koenig

Google has formally asked a New York federal judge to dramatically reduce antitrust claims from rival advertising placement technology providers, arguing they're clearly targeting policies they've known about for years and thus cannot get around a four-year statute of limitations pegged to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit.

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Brief

Northrop Grumman Drops Satellite Damage Suit In Va.

By Rae Ann Varona

A Virginia federal judge has approved Northrop Grumman's voluntary dismissal of its breach of contract lawsuit against Maryland-based subcontractor Element U.S. Space & Defense, which Northrop had accused of wrecking a $5 million solar satellite array and refusing to reimburse resulting damages.

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Verizon Slaps Landowner With Counterclaims Over Tower Lease

By Nadia Dreid

Verizon is fighting back after a North Carolina federal judge declared that the lease for land a cell tower was constructed on is invalid, laying down a set of counterclaims accusing the landowner of using it to build up the site before canceling the lease.

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Cannabis Dispute Ends With Plaintiff Co. Facing $1.34M Default

By Jonathan Capriel

A California state court snuffed out a Los Angeles cannabis company's fraud lawsuit against its investors and landlords, which were accused of stealing $40 million and wrecking its cannabis license, opening the door for the ex-business partners to score a $1.34 million default judgment.

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Series

Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me A Better Lawyer

The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

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'Christian Witch' Says Jenner & Block Must Face Vax Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

A former Jenner & Block LLP employee told an Illinois federal judge that she didn't need to disclose that she's a "Christian witch" in order to seek an exemption to the law firm's COVID-19 vaccine requirement, urging the court to reject her ex-employer's bid to toss the case.

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Senate Advances Mont. Judge Pick Rated Unqualified By ABA

By Courtney Bublé

A judicial nominee for the District of Montana who was the only nominee of the second Trump administration so far to receive a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association advanced out of committee on Thursday.

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Judge Denies Push To Stop Closed Immigration Hearings

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. federal judge denied a Minnesota human rights organization's request to block immigration judges from restricting public and press access to proceedings, ruling that it failed to show an immediate threat of future harm from unlawful hearing closures.

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LSC Decries House Subcommittee's Proposed Budget Cut

By Marco Poggio

The nation's largest funder of civil legal aid condemned a House appropriations proposal to slash its budget for fiscal year 2027 by more than half, warning Thursday the reduction could leave nearly 3 million Americans without help for critical civil legal problems.

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Ex-Husch Blackwell Partner Urges Discovery In ERISA Dispute

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

A former Husch Blackwell LLP partner has urged a Missouri federal court to ignore the firm's request for summary judgment in a dispute over employee retirement benefits, arguing discovery should proceed in the proposed class action.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

A pair of door manufacturers ended a landmark private merger challenge, state enforcers are gearing up for a potential Live Nation breakup bid following a crucial jury win, and a separate group of states and DirecTV are challenging Nexstar's $6.2 billion deal for rival broadcaster Tegna.

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Hub Hires: Weil Gotshal, Reed Smith, Morgan Lewis

By Chris Villani

April showers bring legal hires in Boston, with several attorneys on the move. Weil Gotshal snagged an international trade lawyer from Kirkland & Ellis, Morgan Lewis added an attorney from Hunton, and Reed Smith continued to expand its new Boston office.

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