NFL Found To Fumble Arbitration Over Bias, Must Go To Court

By Emily Sawicki

A class of National Football League coaches will have their day in court after a New York federal judge on Friday denied the NFL its bid to force the coaches' discrimination claims into arbitration because it did not provide a fair and neutral arbitration forum.

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Analysis

FTC's Agent Probe Reveals Latest NCAA Growing Pains

By Alex Lawson

The NCAA's decision to allow college athletes to earn marketing and advertising dollars has the organization preparing for yet another sea change: a potential heavier hand from the government in its effort to police predatory sports agents.

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Judge Unsure OnlyFans Model Can Pin X With Revenge Porn

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge seemed hesitant to buy an argument by an anonymous OnlyFans model that circulation of his images on X constitutes a violation of revenge porn laws, saying Friday the model's claims seem "difficult to reconcile" with the actual text of the law.

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Del. Justices Reject Conflict Claims In Gaming Co. Deal

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's Supreme Court affirmed on Friday the Court of Chancery's rejection of claims that Canadian video gaming company Kixeye Inc. was unfairly denied a $30 million "earnout" bonus in its $90 million sale in 2019 to an acquisition entity of global gaming company Stillfront Group.

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Insurer Off The Hook For $2M Nursing Home Judgment

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge has rejected a family's attempts to force an insurer to pay for a $2 million personal injury judgment they secured against a nursing home, ruling the family unambiguously gave up their claims when accepting a settlement amid the nursing home's bankruptcy.

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DTE, Consumers Energy Defend $394M Verdict In Plant Spat

By Melanie Dorsey

DTE Electric and Consumers Energy Co. are asking a Michigan federal judge to uphold their $394.4 million jury verdict against a Toshiba Corp. subsidiary, reiterating that evidence supported the jury's findings and rejecting claims that trial arguments improperly swayed jurors.

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Food Distributor To Take Arb. Pacts Ruling To Supreme Court

By Irene Spezzamonte

A food service business told a Connecticut district court it plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up two distributors' misclassification case, asking the lower court to pause litigation after the Second Circuit ruled that the workers could dodge arbitration.

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Texas Well Operator Responsible For Worker Injury Costs

By Elaine Briseño

An appellate court in Texas ordered an oil well operator to compensate contractor Total Energy for a worker injured on-site, finding that an agreement with a separate midstream company required the operator to cover the cost of litigation.

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Brief

Indiana AG Declines To Intervene In Posner Wage Suit

By Emily Sawicki

Indiana's attorney general has declined to intervene in a pro se plaintiff's suit seeking to revive $170,000 in wage claims against retired Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, finding the case did not pose a "substantial" constitutional challenge to a state statute mandating that delayed contracts must be written and signed to be enforced.

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5 Cattle Trading Co. Workers Charged In $220M Fraud Scheme

By Gina Kim

Five employees of a defunct cattle trading company were charged in Texas federal court with defrauding over 2,000 victims in a $220 million Ponzi-like scheme where they falsely promised to spend investor money on raising cattle but used it to pay off prior investors, loans and personal expenses.

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Chewy Settles Antitrust Claims Over Elanco Flea & Tick Meds

By Matthew Perlman

Chewy has reached a settlement with consumers in a case accusing Elanco Animal Health Inc. of paying several pet supply retailers not to stock generic versions of its Advantix topical flea and tick prevention drugs.

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DC Circ. Refuses To Revive $53M Iraq Debt Suit

By Elaine Briseño

Iraq did not waive its sovereign immunity when its government officials told a Jordanian company to sue for enforcement of a $53 million debt Iraq owed, the D.C. Circuit said in an opinion published Friday.

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9th Circ. Nixes Chase Atty Fees In Wrongful Garnishment Suit

By Sydney Price

The Ninth Circuit has partly revived a suit accusing Chase Bank NA and a debt-collector law firm of illegally garnishing Social Security funds from an Arizona man's retirement accounts, ruling they should have known that the funds were immune from garnishment.

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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 a former U.S. defense contractor convicted of tax evasion face legal action, French football club Olympique Lyonnais sued following a $97 million ruling against its owner John Textor, consulting giant Kroll targeted by a South African airline, and H&M hit with a claim alleging it copied protected sunglasses designs. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Duane Morris Adds Cross-Border Real Estate Pro In Dallas

By Grace Dixon

Duane Morris LLP announced that the firm has added a cross-border real estate pro from Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP to the firm's Dallas office, noting that the newest partner is licensed to practice in both Texas and Mexico.

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Notable Q4 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

Last quarter featured a novel class action theory about car rental reimbursement coverage, another win for insurers in total loss valuations, a potentially broad-reaching Idaho Supreme Court ruling about illusory underinsured motorist coverage, and homeowners blaming rising premiums on the fossil fuel industry, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

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Series

Judges On AI: Practical Use Cases In Chambers

U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Goddard in the Southern District of California discusses how she uses generative artificial intelligence tools in chambers to make work more efficient and effective — from editing jury instructions for clarity to summarizing key documents.

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Talc MDL Law Firm Accuses Litigation Funders Of Case Piracy

By Ryan Boysen

A leading plaintiffs law firm in the multibillion-dollar litigation over Johnson & Johnson's tainted talcum powder has alleged in Mississippi federal court three investment firms loaned it "tens of millions" of dollars under false pretenses in a "loan-to-own" scheme.

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Bogus Citations Show 'Lack Of Respect' For Legal Profession

By Lynn LaRowe

In recommending $10,000 in sanctions for a lawyer who submitted multiple briefs with nonexistent or misrepresented citations, a federal judge in Indiana lamented that the blunders show a "lack of respect for the profession."

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Analysis

How Attorneys Are Handling A Patent Review 'Sea Change'

By Ryan Davis

Major changes to the America Invents Act patent review system over the past year have put limits on challenges, requiring patent challengers and owners to rethink their strategies. Here's how attorneys on both sides are calibrating their arguments to have the best chance of success in the new landscape.

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6th Circ. Says Ch. 13 Motion Came 84 Minutes Too Late

By Vince Sullivan

A 2-1 split panel of the Sixth Circuit affirmed two lower court rulings from Michigan federal judges denying a Chapter 13 debtor's motion to dismiss his bankruptcy case because the request came 84 minutes after a bankruptcy court converted the case to a Chapter 7.

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RFK Jr. Taps Ex-Jones Day Atty For FDA Senior Counselor

By Hailey Konnath

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has named a former Jones Day partner as one of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's senior counselors, according to an announcement.

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Louisiana Atty Takes Responsibility For AI Usage Snafu

By Christine DeRosa

After facing the threat of sanctions alongside three of his co-counsel, a Louisiana attorney told a federal judge that he was solely responsible for an error-riddled brief written with the assistance of artificial intelligence. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Taking heat from Republican senators over not notifying members of Congress about subpoenas for their phone records, Verizon's general counsel has pledged that in the future, the company will fight gag orders requiring it to keep silent. And taking heat from shareholders and colleagues over her ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Goldman Sachs' chief legal officer has agreed to leave the firm in June.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

WilmerHale and Gillam & Smith LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Texas federal jury cleared Apple of infringement claims over patents covering 4G wireless technology, in a case that previously led to jury verdicts of $506 million and $300 million.

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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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