3rd Circ. Revives Malpractice Claim Against Kirkland Atty

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey divorcee may once again pursue a legal malpractice claim against a Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney who she said lost her millions by mishandling estate documents, after the Third Circuit found it could be possible to link her alleged damages to the lawyer's work.

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Making Up For Lost Timepiece: FedEx Wins $250K Watch Row

By Jeff Overley

The disappearance of a $250,000 watch purchased for a major GOP donor will cost FedEx less than it charged to ship the wristwear, according to a new Eighth Circuit decision backing broad immunity for alleged negligence or theft by the delivery giant's workers.

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Humana Says $7.3B Roundup Deal Sidelines Health Insurers

By George Woolston

Humana Inc. alleged in New Jersey federal court that Monsanto Co. is attempting to skirt its obligation to reimburse health insurers for medical expenses stemming from exposure to its Roundup product.

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Analysis

4 Texas Supreme Court Oil & Gas Cases To Watch This Term

By Keith Goldberg

The new term of the Texas Supreme Court initially appears light on oil and gas litigation, but Lone Star State attorneys told Law360 there are still a handful of cases that could have broad implications for the industry.

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NC Judge Says Insurer Must Cover COVID Biz Losses

By Danielle Ferguson

A North Carolina federal judge has ruled that four Durham restaurants are entitled to coverage for losses they experienced during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, while calling out their insurer for its "superficial" and "perfunctory" attempts to argue it did not owe coverage.

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Brief

Electric Co. And Zurich Settle $5M Airport Dispute

By Zach Dupont

An electric company that sought damages in Colorado state court over a contractor's decision to withhold over $5 million in payments for work completed in an expansion project at the Denver International Airport reached a settlement this week with four defendant insurers.

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Roundup

3rd Circ. Preview: Penn State TM Row, NFL Agent Poaching Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit in September is set to decide whether a print-on-demand company's collegiate apparel counts as counterfeit Penn State merchandise and if two former Philadelphia detectives can escape a $16 million judgment for a wrongfully convicted murder suspect.

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Roundup

NC High Court Snapshot: TikTok, DuPont, NCAA Top Sept.

By Hayley Fowler

North Carolina's highest court is returning from its summer hiatus with a stacked September lineup of cases for oral argument, starting with a name, image and likeness suit brought by members of N.C. State University's 1983 championship basketball team against the NCAA.

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Analysis

ERISA Recap: 5 Appellate Rulings To Know From August

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Seventh Circuit kept an Arkansas pharmacy benefit manager rule in place as not preempted by federal benefits law, the Fourth Circuit revived an Altria ex-worker's dispute over benefit plan documents, and the Eleventh Circuit reversed a pretrial win for Royal Caribbean in cruise workers' suit challenging 401(k) funds. Here, Law360 looks at those and two other major appellate decisions from August involving ERISA that benefits attorneys may want to know.

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Brief

Judge Asks Atty To Explain Absences In Nurses' Wage Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado federal magistrate judge ordered Friday that an attorney for nearly 40 nurses in a wage lawsuit against Colorado-based U.S. Nursing Corp. explain why he has not appeared in the case for months and why the court should not therefore toss the suit.

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Court Slams 'Half-Hearted Compliance' In Crab Price-Fix Suit

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A California federal magistrate judge has given a seafood company until Sept. 11 to meet the discovery obligations it has repeatedly fallen short of in a proposed class action accusing it of fixing prices for Dungeness crabs.

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SVB Parent's Claim Loss To FDIC Bears Bond Wording Lesson

A North Carolina federal court’s recent ruling that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, solely owns a $73 million fraud claim illustrates why parent financial institutions should scrutinize joint assured provisions in fidelity bonds to prevent a failed subsidiary's covered losses going to a receiver, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Legal Sector Hiring Grows For 5th Month, But At Slower Pace

By Rachel Rippetoe

The legal sector saw 600 more jobs in August, growing for the fifth consecutive month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

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Quinn Emanuel DQ'd In Defamation Case Over Stock Reports

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas federal court on Friday booted Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP from representing a Hong Kong manufacturing company in its defamation lawsuit against investment research service Muddy Waters LLC after finding that the law firm had received relevant confidential information when it represented Muddy Waters in a related government probe.

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DC Panel's Rare Rebuke Over AI Errors Flags Rules Gap

By Andrea Keckley

A D.C. appellate court panel issued a rare sua sponte sanctions order on Thursday after finding nonexistent case citations in a brief filed by a McCabe Weisberg & Conway LLC attorney representing Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. in a foreclosure action, noting an apparent gap in the rules governing the court's sanctions authority.

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Motley Rice Founder Remembered As Titan Of Mass Tort Bar

By Adrian Cruz

Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joseph F. Rice, who died Thursday, was remembered by former colleagues and friends as a "transformational" attorney and "giant in the civil litigation bar" who spent decades working on some of the most high-profile mass torts and obtaining landmark asbestos, opioid and tobacco settlements.

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Sinema Can't Duck Suit Over Affair With Ex-Security Guard

By Y. Peter Kang

A North Carolina federal judge Friday denied former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's bid to escape the suit brought by the ex-wife of a former member of her security detail with whom she allegedly had an affair, saying the district court indeed has the authority to adjudicate the case.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Meta's Social Media Addiction Deal

By Y. Peter Kang

A $17.1 billion social media addiction settlement between Meta and 29 states and Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion ovarian cancer deal over its talc products lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Morgan Verkamp LLC and Sparacino PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eleventh Circuit held that the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions do not violate the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Attorneys and academics differ over whether the moves by Meta's in-house lawyers ahead of its $17 billion settlement over claims its content harmed children were legal missteps or defensible efforts to manage litigation risk. And the co-founders of a partner-only law firm told Law360 Pulse how their technology reduces intake, billing and other nonbillable tasks that attorneys would normally perform. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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