1st Circ. Agrees Gibson Owns Liberace's Glitzy Piano

By Julie Manganis

The First Circuit affirmed a jury's finding that a nine-foot-long, rhinestone-encrusted piano used by entertainer Liberace belongs to musical instrument maker Gibson and not a Massachusetts man.

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Tata Must Pay $168M For Trade Secrets Theft, 5th Circ. Says

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel found Friday that Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. stole IT company Computer Sciences Corp.'s technology concerning source code and life insurance software documentation, keeping intact a $168 million verdict against Tata.

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Ex-Google CEO Accused Of Sex Assault, Cyberstalking

By Hailey Konnath

A woman who says she dated former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has accused him of sexually assaulting her, stealing her businesses and surveilling her devices via a "backdoor" he built with Google engineers to covertly spy on employees, according to a complaint she's trying to file in California state court.

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Telecom Giants Say Dish Can't Back Out Of Contracts

By Rachel Konieczny

Dozens of telecommunication companies have filed a lawsuit in Colorado federal court against Dish Wireless seeking a declaratory judgment that the Colorado-based carrier is not excused from its contracts with the companies to build a nationwide 5G network after Dish's parent company EchoStar announced sales of its spectrum licenses.

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Firm Wants Lender's Attys To Bear Blame In $16.2M Loan Suit

By Brian Steele

Willinger Willinger & Bucci PLLC is responsible for any damages suffered by a New York lender that relied on falsified documents to approve a $16.2 million loan to the development arm of a Connecticut housing authority, Pullman & Comley LLC said in seeking to shift the blame away from itself.

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Mich. Atty Fights Defamation Suit From Election Investigator

By Danielle Ferguson

A Michigan attorney has said any statements that a cybersecurity firm claims she made to scuttle its president's job prospects with the Pennsylvania Legislature are protected speech on a matter of public concern, urging a federal judge to dismiss a suit the firm brought after it told her it found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

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1st Circ. Clears IT Co. In Suit Over Zoll Patient Data Breach

By Chris Villani

An information technology company cannot be held liable for a data breach exposing the health information of patients of a unit of medical device maker Zoll Medical Corp, the First Circuit ruled, because the two companies did not have a business relationship permitting them to hold one responsible for another's conduct.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: REIT Reporting, Defining Water

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including reactions from real estate attorneys in two areas primed for deregulation.

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Escrow Agent Accused Of $4.6M 'Insider Payoff' In NC Sale

By Matthew Santoni

Stewart Title Guaranty Co. facilitated the unauthorized sale of a financially struggling luxury apartment complex and then handed a $4.6 million "insider" payout to one of the operating owners, according to a lawsuit by a real estate investment trust that claims it was cut out of the decision process.

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Hyperbaric Chamber Death Suit Not Covered, Insurers Say

By Hope Patti

Two Nationwide insurers said they have no duty to defend or indemnify a hyperbaric oxygen therapy center or its employees in a suit over the death of a 5-year-old boy, telling a Michigan federal court that there was no bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence, or accident.

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Chancery Keeps Fraud Suit Over Southern Trust Sale Alive

By Jarek Rutz

A Delaware vice chancellor on Friday allowed the bulk of a fraud and contract suit tied to the sale of Southern Trust Insurance Co. to move forward, ruling that the buyer had adequately alleged a yearslong scheme to falsify financials and loot the Georgia insurer ahead of its $33.2 million acquisition.

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DoorDash Hit With Suit Over Breach Of Customer, Dasher Data

By Allison Grande

Delivery service DoorDash failed to delete old data and take other necessary steps to protect the personal information of customers, dashers and merchants that was exposed in a recent security breach, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court. 

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Amazon Secures 1st Deal In Suit Targeting 'Refund Abuse'

By Ben Adlin

Amazon will be off-limits for five years to an accused fraudster who allegedly took advantage of a "refund abuse" scam that manipulated the company's return process to allow him to receive refunds for products without actually returning the goods, according to a settlement agreement approved Friday by a Seattle federal judge.

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11th Circ. Can't Hear $3M Worker-Poaching Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

The incomplete resolution of an abandoned civil conspiracy claim sank twin appeals Friday in a worker-poaching suit that saw a Florida federal jury award more than $3 million in damages to a New York insurance brokerage after finding a competitor interfered with its business.

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Sysnet Ends Noncompete Suit Against Ex-Manager

By Kelcey Caulder

Cybersecurity company Sysnet North America Inc. told a Georgia federal court it will dismiss a lawsuit alleging one of its former business relationship managers violated the restrictive covenants in his employment contract by taking a job with a direct competitor.

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Tech Co. Seller Says Buyer Sabotaged Deal Costing It $250M

By Jarek Rutz

A French wireless-tech company has accused a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer of engineering an escape from a cross-border acquisition deal, telling the Delaware Chancery Court that the buyer's deliberate lack of transparency and sudden strategic shift doomed the transaction and left the seller facing $250 million in losses.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Clyde & Co. face a claim from Yorkshire firm GWB Harthills, a property developer previously investigated over suspected bribery and corruption sue the general counsel and solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs, and sportswear giant Gymshark bring an intellectual property claim against its co-founder's rival company, AYBL. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Opinion

Despite Deputy AG Remarks, DOJ Can't Sideline DC Bar

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent suggestion that the D.C. Bar would be prevented from reviewing misconduct complaints about U.S. Department of Justice attorneys runs contrary to federal statutes, local rules and decades of case law, and sends the troubling message that federal prosecutors are subject to different rules, say attorneys at HWG.

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Bonus Spotlight

5 BigLaw Firms Match Prevailing Year-End, Special Bonuses

By Anna Sanders

BigLaw continues to dole out extra cash for attorneys just in time for the holidays, with five more firms matching the year-end and special bonuses previously announced by their peers.

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Feds' Claim Against Judge Weighing Trans Troops Ban Tossed

By Lauren Berg

The D.C. Circuit's chief judge tossed the U.S. Department of Justice's misconduct complaint against the federal judge overseeing litigation challenging the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops serving in the military, saying judicial misconduct proceedings are not the appropriate avenue to address concerns about a judge's impartiality.

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Comey, James Defeat Charges Over Halligan's Appointment

By Ryan Boysen

A federal judge on Monday dismissed the headline-grabbing indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, finding the controversial prosecutor handling both cases was not properly appointed.

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Calif. Personal Injury Law Firm Sued Over Ransomware Attack

By Gina Kim

A former Adamson Ahdoot LLP client lodged a proposed class action in California state court on Friday over a Nov. 3 ransomware attack, alleging the law firm failed to protect his personal information despite touting on its website that it follows industry standards to do so.

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Feature

Prep, Panic & Poise: Inside An Associate's First Oral Argument

By Jeff Overley

Fraser M. Holmes followed a long professional path to a Texas court's lectern. He'd been a baseball blogger, travel writer and social studies teacher before appellate law beckoned. After years of toil, a milestone moment — his first oral argument — finally arrived, but as justices took the bench, his heart sank: "Oh, my God. I think I've just forgotten my entire argument."

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Google Calls Rumble's Recusal Bid Irrelevant To Its Appeal

By Andrea Keckley

Google is urging the Ninth Circuit to disregard concerns Rumble has raised about the trial judge's relationship with the tech giant's litigation vice president, saying Friday that the information is irrelevant to the YouTube rival's appeal of the court's ruling that its antitrust lawsuit was filed too late.

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Oversight Chair Seeks USPTO Briefing On Litigation Funding

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is seeking a briefing by the end of the month from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on third-party litigation funding and reforms the agency is working on.

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8th Circ. Won't Force Judge's Recusal In Pork Price-Fixing Case

By Matthew Perlman

The Eighth Circuit has denied a mandamus petition from Agri Stats Inc. and major pork producers who are seeking a Minnesota federal judge's recusal in price-fixing litigation based on a law clerk's previous work on a related case.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week delivered a packed mix of fraud allegations, merger fallout, corporate-governance reforms and jurisdictional fights, while a new academic report ignited debate over attorney fee awards in Delaware's influential corporate forum.

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