Telecom Tower Owners Found In Contempt Over Sale Defiance

By Nadia Dreid

A New York federal judge said he is tired of his orders being ignored after years of overseeing a fight over a corporate coup, and has ruled to hold the majority shareholders of a telecommunications infrastructure firm "and the person who controls them" in contempt of court.

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Texas Justices Order Appraisal In $40M Flood Damage Dispute

By Gianna Ferrarin

Texas' highest court on Friday conditionally granted a mandamus petition by insurers seeking to compel appraisal in litigation over roughly $40 million in water damage to a Dallas property owned by a real estate development group.

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Accounting Firm Accused Of Helping Director Usurp Dad's Co.

By Rae Ann Varona

SingerLewak LLP grossly mismanaged the assets of the late Ivan Reitman's production company at the direction of his filmmaker son, according to a derivative lawsuit filed in California state court.

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Roundup

Transpo Tracker: Boeing 737 Max, John Deere Deal

By Linda Chiem

In our latest Law360 Transportation Tracker, Boeing is still contending with litigation associated with the 737 Max 8 jets, while a proposed $99 million class settlement could end farmers' right-to-repair claims against agricultural equipment maker John Deere and an appeals court decertified a class of 90,000 State Farm policyholders accusing the insurer of systematically undervaluing totaled vehicles.

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Dispensary Owners Want Blank Rome DQed From Loan Suit

By Mike Curley

The owners of a New Jersey dispensary are asking a California federal court to disqualify Blank Rome LLP and its attorneys from representing a lender in a $1.6 million loan dispute, because the firm represented them as well and used confidential information in the lender's suit.

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Texas Atty Cleared Of Claims She Misled Client

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday sided with an attorney in a dispute with an ex-client who claimed the attorney misled him, saying the client accepted the attorney's condition to settle their dispute when he cashed a check.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Morrisons sued by a former logistics partner, EDF and Cripps LLP face a claim brought by a family estate near Hinkley Point C and a former BBC broadcaster file a defamation claim against a Welsh news site over articles linking her to Russian state media and conspiracy theories. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Venezuela Oil Co. Seeks Redo On Rig Seizure Claims

By Caroline Simson

Venezuela's state-owned oil company is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit a D.C. Circuit opinion ordering the company to face long-pending allegations of unlawfully seizing an Oklahoma-based oil drilling company's rigs, arguing the ruling upends decades of precedent on the act of state doctrine.

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Hydroturbine Buyer Said Seller Hid $10M In Liabilities

By Jarek Rutz

A hydroturbine business and its parent company have sued Wärtsilä in Delaware Chancery Court, saying the company hid or failed to properly account for liabilities before selling American Hydro and then refused to send a postclosing purchase price dispute to an agreed-upon accounting arbiter.

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Progressive Ducks $1M Crash Liability After Policy Reversal

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Progressive unit had no duty to cover a $1 million default judgment stemming from a 2019 tractor-trailer crash because the truck involved had been retroactively removed from the insurer's commercial auto policy before the accident occurred, a South Carolina federal court ruled.

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Vitro Glass Wants Out Of Suit Over Texas Contractor's Death

By Matthew Santoni

Vitro Flat Glass LLC, formerly the glassmaking division of PPG Industries, wants a pair of industrial staffing agencies to indemnify it and cover its defense in a wrongful death suit stemming from a 2022 forklift accident at a Texas glass plant.

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Amtrak Wins Arbitration Bid In Passenger Injury Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Pennsylvania federal judge has sent to arbitration a personal injury suit accusing Amtrak of causing a passenger's injuries, saying the passenger agreed to arbitrate her claims by accepting Amtrak's online ticket terms.

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Cardiac Device Co. Says Ex-Manager Took Secrets To Rival

By Abigail Harrison

Vital Connect Inc., a company that sells wearable cardiac monitoring devices, told a North Carolina federal court that a former senior key accounts manager pilfered its confidential information only to decamp to a competitor and begin soliciting its clients.

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'Good Day' To Toss Song Credit Suit, Nappy Roots Says

By Chart Riggall

Rap group Nappy Roots asked a Georgia federal judge Friday to toss a copyright infringement lawsuit from the musicians behind the sample for their track "Good Day," arguing the claim is in fact a bid for co-authorship filed over a decade and a half too late.

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Amazon Studios Exec Led Kickback Scheme, Producer Says

By Lauren Berg

Amazon MGM Studios has done nothing to stop one of its senior staff from orchestrating a "pay-to-play" scheme in selecting post-production vendors, according to a new lawsuit filed by a producer who says his company was excluded from Amazon-affiliated productions when he refused to pay a kickback.

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Embezzler's $250M Suit Against FanDuel Sent To Arbitration

By David Steele

A New York federal judge has ruled that an arbitrator will decide a dispute between FanDuel and a former NFL team administrator convicted of embezzlement who accuses the online sports betting platform of taking advantage of his gambling addiction.

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Former Exec Says Herb Chambers Reneged On $10M Bonus

By Julie Manganis

A former vice president of a New England auto dealership group that sold for $1.34 billion last year says former owner Herb Chambers broke a promise to pay him a $10 million "closing bonus" upon the sale of the company, according to a complaint filed Friday in Massachusetts state court.

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Former H-2A Workers, Turf Farm Ink $850K Overtime Deal

By Gina Kim

Former H-2A workers alleging a turf farm avoided paying them overtime by misidentifying their roles while having them do substantial, non-agriculture-related landscaping work told a Missouri federal judge Friday they've reached an $850,000 settlement to resolve the yearslong Fair Labor Standards Act litigation. 

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Franchisees Say Jack In The Box Trying To 'Avoid' Calif. Law

By Ben Adlin

Two Jack in the Box Inc. franchisees have answered the fast-food giant's bid to avoid contributing to a legal settlement over allegedly noncompliant job postings by saying Jack in the Box is attempting to "avoid" a California law that could work against it.

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Goliath Investors Add Companies To Alston & Bird Scam Suit

By Adrian Cruz

Months after suing Alston & Bird LLP for its alleged role in a $328 million cryptocurrency scam at Goliath Ventures Inc., a proposed class of investors added a number of financial institution defendants and claims to their original complaint.

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Ohio Health System Looks To Toss DOJ Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

OhioHealth told a federal court Friday the antitrust case from the U.S. Department of Justice and state enforcers over the hospital system's contracts with insurers would limit competition, not restore it.

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V2X Cites Lack Of Conn. Ties In Contract Suit Dismissal Bid

By Ganesh Setty

Defense company V2X Inc. told a Connecticut state court it shouldn't face a consulting firm's third-party lawsuit alleging that V2X conspired with RTX Corp. and the firm's subcontractor to remove it from an information technology contract, saying there is no connection to Connecticut.

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Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

Notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year included reminders about the statute of limitations as a key defense for claims relating to allegedly deficient forms, the importance of focus on the specific contract at issue and further guidance on the contours of Rule 23, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

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The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

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Ex-Wachtell Lipton Atty Tied To Stolen BigLaw Info Trades

By Chris Villani

A former Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz attorney who later worked for investment bank LionTree LLC is an unindicted co-conspirator in a sweeping alleged insider trading scheme that involved stolen information from several prominent law firms, according to a review of publicly available information.

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Legal Industry Bounces Back, Gaining 2,400 Jobs In April

By Tracey Read

The legal sector is once again on a positive trajectory, gaining 2,400 jobs last month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Top Atty In DOJ Appeal Over Law Firm Exec Orders To Depart

By Jake Maher

The lead federal prosecutor on the Trump administration's appeal to reinstate executive orders targeting four law firms is stepping down from his government role at the end of May, he publicly announced this week.

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DLA Piper Accused Of 'Frivolous' Suit To Please Chipotle GC

By Gina Kim

DLA Piper aggressively litigated a "frivolous" computer fraud lawsuit against a nonprofit volunteer in order to appease the then-general counsel of Chipotle, a client, who referred the case to the firm, according to a malicious-prosecution complaint filed Thursday in California state court. 

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Prosecutor Faces Probe Into Withheld Immigration Case Info

By Bonnie Eslinger

The lead assistant federal prosecutor for Rhode Island's civil division is under investigation for allegedly withholding information in an immigration case, according to an order from the Ocean State's top federal judge.

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Prosecutors Oppose Move To Put Off Goldstein Sentencing

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors are claiming that SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein may have violated his pretrial release conditions when he racked up over $1.7 million in gambling income last year, telling a federal judge not to delay sentencing for the famed U.S. Supreme Court lawyer.

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Tort Report: Tesla's Legal Exposure Seen As High As $14.5B

By Y. Peter Kang

A new report stating that Tesla faces billions in legal liabilities and a $140 million football brain injury verdict against the NCAA lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits section said agency investigations will focus on benefit plan managers' loyalty conflicts, including pursuit of socially conscious goals. Meanwhile, Dell became the latest company to consider Texas as its new legal home. These are among 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

The National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a split Seventh Circuit panel rejected the Trump administration's argument that immigrants unlawfully in the United States have no due process rights.

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

By Adam LoBelia

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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