Gate City Sues White Energy For $200M Over Carbon Project

By Gina Kim

Gate City Renewable Fuels sued White Energy Holdco for $200 million in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday, alleging it was induced into merging together based on a carbon capture and storage project that faced unfavorable geological conditions, regulatory hurdles, permitting risks and unresolved landowner holdouts that rendered the project nonviable.

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DC Circ. Revives $21M Claim Against Guinea

By Caroline Simson

The D.C. Circuit Friday ordered a lower court to reconsider a Seychellois telecommunications company's bid to enforce an arbitral award of more than $21 million against the Republic of Guinea, ruling that its sovereign immunity analysis was "too narrow."

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7th Circ. Backs Pension Fund's Power To Expel Penske Unit

By Patrick Hoff

The Seventh Circuit ruled Friday that a Teamsters pension fund didn't overstep when it tried to kick out a Penske bargaining unit in Dallas, finding it was reasonable for plan trustees to conclude the agreement with the company allowed it to expel the unit.

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Fla. Panel Revives Firm's Suit Over Tobacco Case Referrals

By David Minsky

A Florida state appellate court revived a law firm's complaint alleging tortious interference against a widow over a contingency fee agreement involving tobacco injury case referrals, finding that the lower court wrongly tossed the lawsuit based on extraneous information even though there was sufficient evidence to support a claim.

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Texas Justices To Weigh Attys' $126K Sanction In Horse Row

By José Luis Martínez

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear a petition from two law firms and a veterinary center in which they dispute a roughly $126,000 sanction imposed on counsel after alleged violations of a limine agreement, leading to a mistrial.

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Akin Gump Owes Fees For Winebow's 'Self-Indulgent' Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered an importer's Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to pay a European winemaker fees for having to defend against the importer's "spurious objections" to the winemaker's valid arbitral award, ruling that the importer's "self-indulgent" appeal warrants sanctions in the form of fees.

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Full 4th Circ. To Rethink W.Va., Md. 340B Drug Discount Laws

By Mark Payne

The full Fourth Circuit will revisit two panel decisions that created a circuit split when they temporarily blocked a pair of state laws that barred drugmakers from prohibiting federally funded hospitals from contracting with an unlimited number of pharmacies to dispense discounted drugs in the 340B Drug Pricing Program. 

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Petrobras Says Murphy Oil Billed Jet, Bonuses To Joint Biz

By Elaine Briseño

The U.S. arm of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras has accused a subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corp. of owing more than $5 million for items improperly charged to their joint oil and gas venture, including a private jet and executive bonuses.

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Ga. Panel OKs $1.9M Award In Holiday Inn License Fight

By Kelcey Caulder

A trial court rightly awarded $1.9 million in liquidated damages to the Atlanta-based company used by IHG Hotels & Resorts to franchise its Holiday Inn Express brand, the Georgia Court of Appeals said Friday, affirming the lower court's ruling in a licensing dispute over a would-be franchise location.

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Roundup

Defamation Litigation Roundup: 'The Rip,' Lively, Justin Sun

By Theresa Schliep

In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 details a suit by a pair of Miami-Dade police officers over a movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck that they said makes them seem like sleazy cops, as well as a case by a Trump family-backed cryptocurrency firm against Justin Sun.

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Consultant In Rivera FARA Trial Asks For Redo

By Carolina Bolado

A political consultant convicted alongside ex-Florida Rep. David Rivera asked for a new trial Friday, arguing that the government "did not come close to proving" that she was guilty of willfully failing to register as a foreign agent for her work on a $50 million contract with a unit of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

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X Corp. Calls Apple, OpenAI Deposition Bid 'Opportunism'

By Spencer Brewer

X Corp. on Friday called an attempt by Apple Inc. and OpenAI to conduct more than 10 depositions "simply opportunism at its most brazen," saying that the court should deny the defendants' bid to get more discovery in X's sweeping antitrust suit.

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Rail Co. Says Seller Broke Deal By Launching Rival Biz

By Carolina Bolado

A railroad track design and manufacturing firm told a Florida federal court that the owners of a railroad construction company it acquired set up a competing railroad track company days after closing the sale in violation of the asset purchase.

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Wrongful Death Claims Settled Before Baltimore Bridge Trial

By Linda Chiem

The families of the six construction workers who died in Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster have reached confidential settlements with the owner and manager of the cargo carrier that slammed into the bridge and triggered its collapse, according to court filings Friday.

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Comcast Says EchoStar Must Face Contract Meddling Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Comcast urged a Colorado federal judge to reject Dish Wireless parent EchoStar's bid to escape a suit alleging the company directed Dish Wireless to abandon a fiber connection contract through baseless force majeure claims after EchoStar had sold $42 billion in spectrum licenses.

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Telecom Shareholders Seek Fees Over 'Frivolous' Stay Bid

By Joyce Hanson

Minority shareholders of a telecommunications infrastructure company have pressed a New York federal judge to order the majority shareholders to pay attorney fees incurred while defending against what the judge called one of the most "frivolous" stay requests he has ever seen.

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AI Comms Co. Wants Calif. Phone Service Suit Moved To NY

By Matt Perez

Connex One, a customer communications software company that uses AI, asked a California federal judge to dismiss or transfer a lawsuit by personal injury firm DK Law alleging it oversold the capabilities of its call center platform, delivered defective services and improperly extended the parties' contract.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen the billionaire who donated £5 million ($6.7 million) to Nigel Farage sue Ben Habib, the leader of far-right party Advance UK, for defamation; Mashreqbank bring claims against three subsidiaries of dissolved private equity giant Abraaj Group for commercial fraud; and the property and investment vehicle of the State of Kuwait be targeted by four real estate figures who filed a miscellaneous claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Key Legal Considerations For Data Center Battery Storage

Battery energy storage systems have become essential infrastructure for data center development — but as trade, energy and tax policies continue to shift, companies operating in this space must understand the importance of supply chain requirements and industry-tailored contracts, says RJ Colwell at Davis Graham.

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Your Next Litigation Hold Should Cover AI Chat Logs

The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in Fortis Advisors v. Krafton to treat a CEO’s artificial intelligence chats as substantive evidence is being read as a discovery warning to litigators, but there is a second duty-to-preserve lesson that is especially pertinent to in-house counsel, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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Double Shooting Renews Courthouse Safety Fears In NC

By Hayley Fowler

The shooting of two Fox Rothschild LLP attorneys outside a courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of Memorial Day weekend has renewed calls to protect the safety of judges and lawyers in an increasingly volatile justice system.

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Baker McKenzie Asks Judge Not To Toss Suit Against Ex-Atty

By Alison Knezevich

A lawyer for Baker McKenzie on Friday urged a Washington, D.C., judge not to dismiss the BigLaw firm's defamation suit against a former tax associate who accused a firm office leader of sexual assault, telling the court the accusations were false and made with "malice."

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Bonus Spotlight

Selendy Gay Doles Out Spring Associate Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

New York litigation boutique Selendy Gay PLLC paid its associates spring bonuses of as much as $25,000 this week, according to the firm.

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Calif. Panel Reverses Order For Citing Atty's Bogus Case Law

By Dorothy Atkins

A California appellate panel on Thursday reversed a judgment in favor of a man accused of abusing his son, finding that "without doubt" the trial judge abused her discretion by incorporating the man's bogus legal citations into her ruling, despite being alerted to the mistakes in advance.

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NY Judge Doubts Nussbaum-Linked Firms Belong In Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

A New York bankruptcy judge on Friday questioned whether his court was the proper venue to wind down two commercial real estate law firms headed by Mark J. Nussbaum as the debtors sought to ditch an assignment for the benefit of creditors process in New York state court.

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Dems Say DOJ Blocked Bondi On Trump Questions

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats were incensed on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys who accompanied former Attorney General Pam Bondi to her committee interview stopped her from answering questions about President Donald Trump.

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Civil Rights Icon Clarence B. Jones Dies At 95

By Andrea Keckley

Civil rights icon Clarence B. Jones, a speechwriter and personal attorney to Martin Luther King Jr., died May 22 at an assisted living facility in the Santa Clara County city of Cupertino, California, his family confirmed earlier this week. He was 95.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Kirkland & Ellis says it's investing a half billion dollars into developing its own artificial intelligence platform to better serve clients. And Law360 looks at the general counsel who is guiding BP through its latest leadership crisis after the company abruptly dismissed its board chair.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Hogan Lovells and Watkins & Eager PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Black Mississippi death row prisoner who argued racial discrimination tainted his jury selection is entitled to habeas corpus relief.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Boies Schiller's Matthew Schwartz

By Sarah Jarvis

Matthew L. Schwartz oscillated among many career aspirations as a kid, from astronaut to mayor of New York. When it was time to head off to college, the man who would go on to handle the prosecution of employees tied to Bernie Madoff and become chair of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP set his sights on science, earning an undergraduate degree in physics.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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