Wells Fargo Beats Ex-CEO's $34M Back-Pay Lawsuit

By Jon Hill

Wells Fargo prevailed in a California state court battle with its former CEO Timothy Sloan over roughly $34 million in compensation he has accused it of wrongfully withholding after his 2019 departure from the bank amid intense public scrutiny of its compliance record.

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Analysis

11th Circ. ERISA Exhaustion Shift Furthers Textualist Trend

By Kellie Mejdrich

An Eleventh Circuit decision overruling decades-old precedent that took a strict view of when federal benefits law claims could be brought in court continues a trend of courts excising judicially imposed rules not contained in statutory text, attorneys say.

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Del. High Court Backs Gard In Litigation Funding Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a Chancery Court ruling rejecting claims that hedge fund manager Casey Gard and affiliates improperly shifted a litigation-finance business away from a company he co-owned with attorney Brett K. Findler, ending Findler's challenge to liability findings from a closely watched business breakup.

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Hospital Operator Challenges NC AG's Power Over Merger

By Hayley Fowler

HCA Healthcare is taking another crack at throwing out the North Carolina attorney general's suit alleging HCA broke its promise to maintain a certain level of care at an Asheville hospital it purchased, saying his office lacks the power to enforce a merger between two private parties.

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11th Circ. Backs Florida Firm In Lender Note Verdict Appeal

By Andrea Keckley

The Eleventh Circuit in an unpublished opinion backed a law firm accused of botching several financial transactions for a Puerto Rican microcap lender, affirming the findings of a jury and a lower court that it didn't commit malpractice by failing to secure the company's assets during bankruptcy proceedings.

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Texas Court Revives REIT's Claims Over Short Seller Article

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appellate court has partially revived a suit by a farmland-centered real estate investment trust against a Texas hedge fund that allegedly helped pen a defamatory article while short selling the REIT, saying the REIT pled valid business disparagement claims.

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Texas Justices OK Arbitration In Trampoline Park Injury Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that an Urban Air trampoline park and related entities can compel arbitration of a minor's injury claims, saying the language in the arbitration agreement signed by the child's mother expressly covers "protected parties" such as the entities.

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Sig Sauer's Trade Secret Claims Shot Down In Contract Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A Washington federal judge has thrown out Sig Sauer's trade secret counterclaims in a lawsuit accusing the firearms company of reneging on a contract to buy products a contractor agreed to make.

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CFPB Looks To Collect $144M In CashCall Bank Row

By Katryna Perera

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked a California federal judge to order Merchants Bank of Indiana to hand over $144 million in collateral it has held for lender CashCall, arguing the bank acted in bad faith by delaying enforcement of the judgment against CashCall by retaining the funds.

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Whataburger Can't Arbitrate Ex-Worker's Sex Assault Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has declined to send a former Whataburger employee's lawsuit to arbitration, finding that the allegations of unwanted sexual touching trigger a federal law that bars arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment claims.

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Ex-Legal Tech Co. Exec Says Pregnancy Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

A legal technology company abruptly fired its director of partnerships after it learned she was pregnant, and has since withheld a nearly $40,000 bonus, according to a lawsuit lodged in New Jersey state court.

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Device Co. Accused Of Shorting Co-Founder's Payments

By Zach Dupont

The co-founder of a company that sells medical devices told a Colorado state court Thursday that the company lowered the percentage he is owed of $7.7 million in outstanding receivables from a client without approval.

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Temu Inks $3M Settlement To End Data To China Claims

By Spencer Brewer

Online bargain retailer Temu on Friday agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims brought by the Texas Office of the Attorney General accusing the company of secretly stealing customer data and exposing it to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Analysis

Could A Criminal Sentencing Case Upend Loper Bright?

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is concerned that a ruling instructing trial courts to defer to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines could blow a "pretty big hole" in the court's recent rejection of deference doctrines. His colleagues, however, don't appear as perturbed.

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Nasdaq Sued Over Delisting Of Social Media Co.

By Jessica Corso

A social media company that has pitched itself as an alternative to TikTok has sued Nasdaq in Delaware Chancery Court, asking the court to relist its shares while it fights what it says was an "arbitrary and capricious" decision to boot the company off the exchange.

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TI, Intel Say Ukrainians Still Show No Link To Russian Strikes

By Mike Curley

Technology companies including Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp. are again urging a Texas federal court to throw out a set of consolidated suits alleging they allowed their components to get into Russian weapons used to target civilians, saying a second amended complaint still fails to link their conduct to injuries.

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NY Ski Mountain Sold To End State Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

The New York attorney general's office said Friday that Intermountain Management Inc. has sold a Syracuse-area ski mountain to a buyer who plans to reopen the facility, four years after state enforcers sued Intermountain for allegedly buying and shuttering the mountain, which was its nearest competitor.

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NORML Urges 6th Circ. To Reconsider Pot Illegality Ruling

By Jonathan Capriel

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a leading cannabis consumer advocate, is urging the Sixth Circuit to rehear its decision throwing out a $31.8 million jury verdict for a Michigan marijuana grower, arguing federal illegality should not categorically bar contract damages against a cannabis purchaser that breached a supply deal.

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Contradictory Contract Dooms Pot Co.'s Injunction Bid

By Mike Curley

A California state judge has rejected a cannabis genetics company's bid for an injunction against a former business partner in a contract dispute, saying the contract's self-contradictory provisions make it unclear that the company is entitled to retrieve its cannabis strains.

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Brief

9th Circ. Won't Rethink $2B Devas Arbitral Award Confirmation

By Gina Kim

The Ninth Circuit said Friday it will not disturb a unanimous three-judge panel's decision to enforce a $2 billion arbitral award issued to a satellite communications company, rejecting the award debtor's petition for a rehearing by the full court.

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NCAA Sues Ohio Gov. Over Athlete Eligibility Expansion

By Alex Lawson

The NCAA sued Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday, asking a federal judge to set aside the governor's executive order authorizing the state's universities to ignore the association's recently revised athlete eligibility rules.

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Investment Co. Can't Exit Laos $5M Casino Award Fight

By Joyce Hanson

A federal judge has refused to dismiss an investment company from the government of Laos' latest bid to enforce about $5 million in arbitral awards stemming from an ill-fated casino venture, ruling that the firm must face the suit in Saipan even though it is incorporated in Macau.

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Transfer Pricing Analyses May Apply To Tariff Refunds Claims

Both plaintiffs and defendants in consumer class actions over tariff refunds should examine transfer pricing analyses, which can offer contemporaneous evidence as to how much of a tariff was borne in the U.S. by the importer or consumers rather than absorbed earlier in the supply chain, say economists at The Brattle Group.

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Reckoning With The IP Risks Of Building Vibe-Coded Products

While artificial intelligence can now be prompted into generating potentially valuable software, developers who sell vibe-coded products must account for questions about authorship, copyrightability and their ability to control the resulting code, say attorneys at Lawgorithm Advisors.

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DOJ Or Trump: Judge Asks Who Is Deciding Golf Course Plan

By Jared Foretek

Trump administration lawyers continued to insist at a hearing Monday there is no final plan to remake East Potomac Golf Course, and they changed their tune about whether one would require environmental review, despite new social media posts from the president announcing that work on the overhaul would begin "immediately."

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Wood Smith, Charlesbank Capital Ink Pioneering MSO Deal

By Emma Cueto

Insurance defense firm Wood Smith Henning & Berman has inked a deal to take investment from middle market investment firm Charlesbank Capital Partners via a managed services organization, according to an announcement Monday, the largest U.S. firm to announce such a move.

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Brief

Arizona Court Approves State's First Non-ABA Law School

By Emma Cueto

The Arizona Supreme Court has approved the state's first law school not accredited by the American Bar Association, citing the need to increase the number of lawyers per capita in the state and provide more affordable options for legal education.

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Court Denies Gov't Bid To DQ Susman Godfrey In ABA's Suit

By Andrea Keckley

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has denied the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to disqualify Susman Godfrey LLP from representing the American Bar Association in its lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's executive orders against multiple major law firms. 

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Trump Taps DOJ Official, Federal Prosecutor For Judgeships

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated a senior U.S. Department of Justice attorney for a Nebraska federal judgeship and an assistant U.S. attorney for a seat on the Northern District of Indiana bench.

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Rogoff Tells 9th Circ. His Firing Furthers Trump's 'Evil' Plan

By Ben Adlin

Roger Rogoff urged the Ninth Circuit to affirm a lower judge's order reinstating him as Seattle's top federal prosecutor, asserting in a filing Friday that he's entitled to keep the court-appointed U.S. attorney position until President Donald Trump fills the role with a Senate-confirmed nominee.

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Proskauer Says It Didn't Drop Reddit To Defend Perplexity

By Lauren Berg

Proskauer Rose LLP and Perplexity AI are urging a New York federal judge to allow the law firm to represent the artificial intelligence company in Reddit's suit over alleged data scraping, balking at the social media platform's argument that its one-time law firm can't represent its current opponent.

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What The Justices Won't Hear: A Roundup Of Cert Denials

By Taylor Bowie

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up cases from Google, a U.S. Navy contractor, and other appellate hopefuls on Monday, according to an order list.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week blocked Cloudflare Inc. from completing a restructuring meant to preserve its founders' voting control, while Tower Semiconductor Ltd. accused Intel Corp. of backing out of a semiconductor manufacturing agreement and social media company Triller Group Inc. challenged its removal from Nasdaq.

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