FTC Joined By 21 States In Accusing Uber Of Deception

By Rae Ann Varona

Twenty-one states joined the Federal Trade Commission on Monday in a California federal lawsuit accusing Uber of enrolling consumers into its paid subscription service without consent and keeping them in a "loop" of obstacles that deter or prevent cancellations.

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Del. Justices Put ITG On Hook For $250M Reynolds Settlement

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's Supreme Court stubbed out an eight-year ITG Brands LLC legal battle to avoid paying R.J. Reynolds more than $250 million to cover health-related settlement payments to Florida after ITG's acquisition of four of the cigarette company's brands, according to a ruling issued Monday.

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Walmart Adds To Visa, Mastercard Swipe-Fee Deal Objections

By Katryna Perera

Walmart has become the latest retailer to object to a proposed new settlement between Visa, Mastercard and a class of potentially millions of merchants to resolve two decades of antitrust litigation, claiming the class plaintiffs and counsel have "sold out their fellow class members."

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Colo. Agriculture Co. Says Firms' Malpractice Cost It $12M

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado agricultural manufacturer has filed a malpractice lawsuit in state court against a pair of Denver law firms and an attorney, alleging they mishandled their representation of the manufacturer in a derivative action that cost the company more than $12 million.

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Inventor's Bid To Dodge $214K Sanction Fails At High Court

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take on an inventor's request to escape an order from an Ohio federal court that sanctioned him $214,000 for bad faith litigation, which was approved by the Federal Circuit.

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Property Investor Says Florida Real Estate Broker Stole $121M

By David Minsky

A Florida rental properly investor accused a real estate broker in state court of misappropriating more than $121 million intended as investment distributions, saying she used her position as manager of several companies to divert the funds to her own accounts. 

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11th Circ. Rejects ESOP Managers' Individual Arbitration Push

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Eleventh Circuit on Monday backed a court's decision to keep a lawsuit in Georgia federal court alleging a legal technology company's employee stock ownership plan shares were undervalued in a plan termination, holding that an arbitration provision was unenforceable because it blocked rights under federal benefits law.

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DOJ Raises Accreditation Concerns In Vet School Case

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice waded into a Tennessee veterinary school's antitrust case challenging the American Veterinary Medical Association's accreditation requirements, raising concerns about the risk posed by professional groups that play gatekeeping functions.

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Microsoft Seeks To Exit ChatGPT Users' OpenAI Antitrust Suit

By Rachel Riley

Microsoft has slammed a proposed class action accusing the company of bullying OpenAI into a cloud computing deal as devoid of fact and economic sense in two motions filed in California federal court, saying the plaintiffs, ChatGPT subscribers, are trying to dodge an arbitration clause in the chatbot developer's user terms.

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Pa. Nursing Home Can't Arbitrate Sex Assault Suit, Panel Says

By Y. Peter Kang

The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday rejected a bid to arbitrate a suit accusing a nursing home of causing a patient's sexual assault, rejecting the home's "unsubstantiated assertion" that she signed an arbitration agreement upon admittance.

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Nutrien Ag Says Wash. Farm Owes $5M For Breaking Contract

By Ben Adlin

Agricultural products supplier Nutrien Ag Solutions Inc. is accusing an Eastern Washington farm of reneging on a $5.4 million debt, claiming the producer has failed to make even partial payments on its credit line since mid-September.

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Telecom Says It Was Upcharged 864 Times For Fiber Install

By Nadia Dreid

An Iowa-based telecom has accused a Lumen unit of trying to balloon a nearly $300,000 job to $257 million by forcing it to pay per foot for each of the 864 "hair-width glass fiber strands" in a single cable that will be pulled through 50-plus miles of tunnel under Phoenix.

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Series

The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Integrating Practice Groups

Enacting unified leadership and consistent client service standards ensures law firm practice groups connect and collaborate around shared goals, turning a law firm merger into a platform for growth rather than a period of disruption, says Brian Catlett at Fennemore Craig.

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Bonus Spotlight

Susman Godfrey Bests Market With Bonuses Of Up To $280K

By Andrea Keckley

Susman Godfrey LLP announced on Tuesday that it is topping New York's bonus scale with payouts that range from a median of $120,000 for first-year associates to a median of $280,000 for the most senior associates.

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Kasowitz Hid Plummeting Profits From Ex-Partner, Suit Says

By Andrea Keckley

A former Kasowitz LLP partner has accused the firm and its founder, renowned litigator Marc Kasowitz, of misrepresenting its finances and failing to pay him the millions he is owed in a lawsuit in New York state court, alleging the firm's profits have plummeted due to poor management.

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Hagens Berman Sanctioned For Bot Errors In OnlyFans Case

By Emily Sawicki

A California federal judge sanctioned Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for submitting four briefs that contained errors blamed on ChatGPT while representing OnlyFans users pursuing proposed class fraud claims against the online platform, tossing the suit but allowing the users a chance to refile.

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DOJ Says NY Court Can't Handle Maurene Comey Firing Suit

By Adrian Cruz

The U.S. Department of Justice has said former prosecutor Maurene Comey's suit challenging the circumstances of her firing should be dismissed, arguing that it is an attempt to sidestep the Civil Service Reform Act.

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Fired Top Antitrust Official Warns Of 'Politicization'

By Courtney Bublé

The former No. 2 at the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division until he was terminated this year testified Tuesday about the "politicization" of antitrust enforcement.

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Levona Says New Docs Show Reed Smith Lied In $102M Feud

By Emily Sawicki

Levona Holdings Ltd. is pressing a Manhattan federal court to vacate what it calls a fraudulent $102 million arbitral award issued to international shipping company Eletson, arguing that new documents released under the crime-fraud exception show that the company and its prior attorneys at Reed Smith LLP lied during the arbitration.

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Ex-State High Court Chiefs Start Group To Defend Rule Of Law

By Jake Maher

A group of over 40 former chief judges of state supreme courts across the country this week launched a new project to speak out against attacks on the judiciary's independence and educate about the rule of law. 

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Quinn Emanuel Fee Fight Bound For Texas Or Mass. Court

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge is weighing whether to kick Quinn Emanuel's bid for $30 million in legal fees from a former client's parent company, Nano Dimension Ltd., to state court or to the Texas bankruptcy court where the client is undergoing Chapter 11 proceedings.

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Bullivant Houser Files For Ch. 11 After November Closure

By Rose Krebs

The now-shuttered Bullivant Houser Bailey PC has filed for Chapter 11 protection in California, with its chief dissolution officer saying the bankruptcy was filed so the firm can liquidate its assets as it continues "an orderly wind-down" of its operations.

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Corporate Transparency Act Is Constitutional, 11th Circ. Says

By Kevin Pinner

The Corporate Transparency Act is constitutional because it regulates economic activities with a substantial impact on interstate commerce and doesn't violate protections against unreasonable searches, the Eleventh Circuit said Tuesday, reversing a lower court's decision.

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