American Express forfeited its right to insist on arbitration in a proposed class action by merchants challenging the company's swipe-fee rules when it failed to pay its share of the arbitrator's fees, estimated to be $17 million, the First Circuit has ruled.
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MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

AmEx Waived Arbitration By Refusing Fees, 1st Circ. Says

By Julie Manganis

American Express forfeited its right to insist on arbitration in a proposed class action by merchants challenging the company's swipe-fee rules when it failed to pay its share of the arbitrator's fees, estimated to be $17 million, the First Circuit has ruled.

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11th Circ. Saves Delta-Aeromexico Joint Venture

By Linda Chiem

The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday handed Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico a decisive win by vacating a U.S. Department of Transportation order directing them to dismantle their nearly decadelong joint venture, saying the DOT applied a skewed standard and made unsupported findings about the partnership's purported anticompetitive effects.

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9th Circ. Revives Can-Am Fuel Claims Against Sinclair, Glovis

By Ben Adlin

A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday revived Can-Am Fuel Distribution LLC's federal franchise claims against Sinclair Oil LLC and Glovis America Inc., holding the companies' licensing agreements are covered by the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act despite an "unusual variation" in the parties' relationship.

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9th Circ. Sides With NLRB In Wash. Terminal Union Work Fight

By Rachel Riley

The full Ninth Circuit Thursday backed the National Labor Relations Board's decision in a union battle for work on a Seattle marine cargo terminal, ruling the International Longshore and Warehouse Union can't use the "work-preservation defense" to defeat accusations that it illegally pressured an employer for disputed work.

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LEGAL ETHICS & MALPRACTICE

CREXi Drops 9th Circ. Challenge To Quinn Emanuel DQ

By Isaac Monterose

Property listing company Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. has moved to dismiss its own Ninth Circuit mandamus petition, which challenged a lower court's disqualification of CREXi's counsel, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, from a legal battle against rival CoStar.

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Fidelity Says Deal Doesn't Bar $920K Atty Malpractice Claim

By Christine DeRosa

Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. is fighting a Connecticut attorney's bid for summary judgment in a malpractice case over a $2.5 million mortgage refinancing loan, saying neither the statute of limitations nor a prior settlement to which the insurer is not a party bar the suit.

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Colo. Lawyer Says Arbitration Bars Homebuilder's Theft Suit

By Zach Dupont

A lawyer told a Colorado federal judge Tuesday that the lawsuit from a homebuilding company accusing him of stealing tens of thousands of the company's files when he went to work for an adversarial law firm must be dismissed because the company already lost on identical claims in arbitration proceedings.

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Mich. Panel Rejects $2.5M Malpractice Suit Over Bank Debt

By Melanie Dorsey

An attorney failed to show a law firm and two lawyers derailed his efforts to settle a PNC Bank debt and caused him to ultimately pay more than $2.5 million, a Michigan appellate court has ruled, upholding the dismissal of his malpractice suit. 

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INSURANCE

Costco Drops Chicken Drippings Slip-And-Fall Coverage Row

By Danielle Ferguson

Costco has agreed to dismiss claims seeking coverage for an underlying suit from a man who was injured when he slipped on rotisserie chicken drippings in a California store, according to a joint motion to dismiss Wednesday.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Brief

Aerospace Co. Ends 'Copycat' Trade Secrets Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Colorado state judge has dismissed a suit by an aerospace and defense manufacturer accusing its former business consultants of using confidential information to create a "copycat" rival.

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EMPLOYMENT

Costco Asks Judge To Rethink Ruling, Toss Moonlighting Suit

By Ben Adlin

Costco is urging a Washington state judge to reconsider her order denying its bid for a pretrial win over claims that it illegally bars workers from taking on additional employment, arguing that its employee agreements are sufficiently narrow and that plaintiffs' claims are "simply speculation and attorney argument."

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COMPETITION

Under Armour Fights Ex-Supplier's Bid For Antitrust Appeal

By Matthew Santoni

Under Armour wants to keep moving toward a November trial for an ex-supplier's tortious interference claims, arguing that a request to pause the case for an immediate appeal of trimmed antitrust allegations rested on the slim chance the Third Circuit would reverse dismissal of those claims.

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BANKRUPTCY

Wood-Pellet Execs' $650M Bet Blamed For Bankruptcy

By Jarek Rutz

The litigation trustee for wood-pellet producer Enviva Inc.'s Chapter 11 litigation trust has sued five former executives in the Delaware Chancery Court, accusing them of secretly committing the company to more than $650 million in high-priced pellet purchases to boost short-term earnings and their chances of receiving bonuses, ultimately helping drive Enviva into bankruptcy.

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DEALS

Brief

Sports Card Seller, Dealer Settle Collapsed Buyout Suit

By Alex Lawson

A California trading card distributor and Michigan-based House of Hits Sports Cards on Thursday settled their dispute over a proposed six-figure buyout that fell through after House of Hits allegedly failed to render payment under the agreement.

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CANNABIS

Lenders Sue Over $1M Loan Tied To Cannabis Farm

By Jonathan Capriel

A group of California lenders is trying to claw back a $1 million loan that was supposed to launch a cannabis farm in Miranda, claiming they learned too late that the property had already lost its permits to grow and that the borrowers had misused most of the loan proceeds.

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Vape Shop Says NC University Wants It Out Of Nextdoor Plaza

By Rae Ann Varona

A North Carolina-based vape shop sued High Point University in state court, accusing the private university of illegally trying to force it out of an adjacent shopping center by, among other things, having guards turn prospective customers identified as students away from the center's parking lot based on "campus rules."

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Expect More Probes After 3rd Circ. Algorithmic Pricing Ruling

The Third Circuit's recent decision in Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment, allowing algorithmic price-fixing claims to proceed past motions to dismiss, may serve as a road map for how to contend with increased litigation risk in this developing area of antitrust law, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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Managing OSHA Mental Illness Logs After 5th Circ. Vacatur

Employers with facilities in multiple states need to carefully weigh their recordkeeping procedures following the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cannot require employers to log work-related mental illness, as inconsistent logs across facilities may raise other issues, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

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Series

Being In A Band Made Me A Better Lawyer

Playing shows in storied New York City venues and rehearsing with my bandmates in poorly ventilated rooms helped develop the professional qualities I rely on as a litigator, including an ability to collaborate with strong-minded equals and the determination to treat each client with singular focus, says Eliad Shapiro at Herrick Feinstein.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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Analysis

The Race Is On To Confirm Trump's Judges By Year-End

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump nominated 11 judges this past week, meaning 19 nominees are now in the pipeline. But how many can the Senate confirm before the end of the year, given that it will mostly be absent and consumed by the midterm election? 

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Trump Admin Moves Toward Nixing ABA's Accreditor Status

By Emma Cueto

The Department of Education has made a preliminary finding that the American Bar Association is not in compliance with the department's regulations and standards as an accreditor of law schools, a move that comes as the ABA seeks to modify or repeal standards related to diversity, equity and inclusion in an attempt to preserve its accreditor status.

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Law Schools Flooded With Applicants For 3rd Straight Year

By Tracey Read

This year's U.S. law school applicant pool is up nearly 8% over 2025, with significant growth in Asian and Black prospective attorneys, according to new data from the Law School Admission Council.

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Divided 2nd Circ. Backs DQ Of Acting NDNY US Attorney

By Stewart Bishop

The Second Circuit on Friday upheld a lower court's decision that found the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, John Sarcone III, was unlawfully serving in his position when he obtained grand jury subpoenas of the New York attorney general's office.

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Fla. Attorney Fined, Referred To Bar For Unapologetic AI Use

By Madison Arnold

A Florida attorney is the latest to be sanctioned for his use of artificial intelligence, after a Florida state appeals court found Friday that his filings contained at least 46 hallucinations.

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Wiley Data Breach Class Action Dropped As 2 Sides Confer

By Emily Sawicki

A Florida resident pursuing negligence and unjust-enrichment claims against Wiley Rein LLP over a data breach voluntarily dismissed his proposed class action on Friday while leaving the door open to refile, one day after the firm told the D.C. federal court that the two sides were "conferring" on next steps.

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Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

By Madison Arnold

The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Trump Says Pardon Atty Ed Martin Leaving For Midterms

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin will be leaving the administration to work on the midterm elections, President Donald Trump announced on Friday.

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Judge's Job Bid Sinks Conn. Atty's Homicide Conviction

By Brian Steele

Former Cramer & Anderson LLP partner Robert L. Fisher Jr. is entitled to a new manslaughter trial because the presiding judge at his original trial "created an appearance of a lack of impartiality" when he did not disclose to the parties that he had applied for an oversight job with the state prosecutor's office, an appeals court ruled Friday.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: Diminished Capacity, Sentencing Rules

By Orlando Lorenzo

The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned 25 years of state precedent by reviving the diminished capacity defense, and the justices in Pennsylvania said the Legislature is out of time to craft new sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

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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 former Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten sue a fur auction house, private equity and pensions magnate Edmund Truell hit by a commercial fraud claim and Charles Russell Speechlys file a contract claim against two of its previous clients in the Middle East.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A California federal judge told Meta that its in-house attorney was absolutely wrong about what constitutes attorney-client privilege and should take an ethics course. And a bipartisan group of 128 ex-judges have asked the Florida Bar to investigate Homeland Security's general counsel for his attacks on sitting judges. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Eversheds Sutherland, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and McDermott Will & Schulte lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after Maryland's tax court held that the state's first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.

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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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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Advisors LLC

Allman Spry

Aloia & Associates

Ashurst Perkins

Baker & Hostetler

Ballard Spahr

Barnard Iglitzin

Beale & Co. Solicitors

Boyle Shaughnessy

Bradley Bernstein Sands

Brown & Thompson

Buchalter LLP

Burges Salmon

Bush Gottlieb

CJ Jones Solicitors

Charles Russell Speechlys

Cleary Gottlieb

Clifford Chance

Clyde & Co

Conti Levy

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Cramer & Anderson

Cravath Swaine

Curd Galindo

DAC Beachcroft

DLA Piper

DWF LLP

Davis Wright Tremaine

Devonshires Solicitors

Duane Morris

Emery Reddy

Eversheds Sutherland

Farrell & Fuller

Fenwick & West

Fieldfisher

Fink Law PC

Finnegan

Foley & Lardner

Fox Rothschild

Freshfields

Gibson Dunn

Goodwin Procter

Gupta Wessler

Haddon Morgan

Haynes Boone

Hedin LLP

Herrick Feinstein

Hogan Lovells

Holland & Knight

Howard Kennedy LLP

Jon L. Schoenhorn & Associates

Jones Day

Kennedys Law LLP

Keoghs LLP

Keystone Law

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

Leonard Carder LLP

Leone Law

Lewis Silkin

McDermott Will & Schulte

McGuireWoods

Meritz Reddy

Meyer Darragh

Milberg PLLC

Miller Nash LLP

Mills & Reeve

Morgan Lewis

Motley Rice

Munger Tolles

Nicoll Black

Norton Rose

Orrick Herrington

Peters & Peters Solicitors

Pillsbury Winthrop

Plunkett Cooney

Polsinelli PC

Quinn Emanuel

Reed Smith

Reid Collins

Reynolds Porter

Ropes & Gray

Seyfarth Shaw

Spencer Fane

Spilman Thomas

Squire Patton

Stephensons Solicitors LLP

Stevens & Bolton

Susman Godfrey

Troutman

UB Greensfelder

Weightmans LLP

Weinberg Roger

Wheeler Trigg

White and Williams

Wiley Rein

Williams Kastner

Womble Bond

Zimmer Citron

gunnercooke LLP

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

Amadeus IT Group SA

Amazon.com Inc.

American Arbitration Association

American Bar Association

American Express Co.

Apple Inc.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.

Arthrex Inc.

Audi AG

Barclays PLC

Becton Dickinson & Co.

ByteDance Ltd.

Caesars Entertainment Inc.

Century Communities Inc.

CoStar Group Inc.

Corinthian Colleges, Inc.

Costco Wholesale Corp.

Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

Delta Air Lines Inc.

Dropbox Inc.

Dubai International Financial Centre

Enviva LP

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Faiveley Transport SA

Ferrari SpA

Fidelity National Financial Inc.

Food Lion LLC

George Washington University

Google LLC

Grupo Aeromexico SAB de CV

Hyundai Glovis Co. Ltd.

Instagram Inc.

International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers

International Longshore & Warehouse Union

Kinder Morgan Inc.

Law School Admission Council Inc.

Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

LinkedIn Corp.

Lockheed Martin Corp.

LoopNet Inc.

Los Angeles Lakers

Medtronic PLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

Network Rail Ltd.

Pacific Maritime Association

Peacock TV

Peel Ports Ltd.

Quince

RWE AG

RealPage Inc.

Sinclair Oil Corp.

Smith & Nephew plc

Solicitors Regulation Authority Ltd.

Stena Line Group

Tesla Inc.

The Florida Bar

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

The Walt Disney Co.

TikTok Inc.

TripAdvisor Inc.

Trump Organization Inc.

U.S. Bancorp

Uber Technologies Inc.

Under Armour Inc.

Venus Aerospace Corp.

Vodafone Group PLC

Volkswagen AG

Zumba Fitness LLC

easyJet plc

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Labor Statistics

California Civil Rights Department

Companies House

Delaware Court of Chancery

European Union

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

Florida Supreme Court

Food and Drug Administration

Government of Mexico

HMRC

Los Angeles Superior Court

Michigan Supreme Court

National Labor Relations Board

New Jersey Supreme Court

New York Attorney General's Office

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission

Port of Seattle

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of State

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the District of Nevada