Musk's SpaceX, Tesla Emails Fair Game For Apple, OpenAI

By Bryan Koenig

A Texas federal judge said X Corp. must produce Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla emails as part of its lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. and OpenAI of anticompetitively edging out rival artificial intelligence chatbots through a deal integrating ChatGPT into iPhones.

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Google Can't Ditch Most Chrome Privacy Claims

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge Tuesday largely denied Google's bid to dismiss several claims in long-running litigation that accuses the tech giant of surreptitiously collecting Chrome users' personal data, after the plaintiffs elected to move forward with individual claims following their failed class certification bid.

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Lin Wood Pushes To Erase $11M Trial Win For Ex-Partners

By Emily Sawicki

Former prominent conservative litigator L. Lin Wood is urging the Georgia Court of Appeals to overturn a roughly $11 million award that an Atlanta jury determined he owes his ex-law partners relating to the 2020 breakup of their firm.

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Iconic Lamp Design Isn't MillerKnoll's, 6th Circ. Told

By Susan Smiley

Counsel for the family of the late designer George Nelson told a Sixth Circuit panel Wednesday that a lower court decision awarding intellectual property rights for his iconic bubble lamp to furniture company MillerKnoll was based on a faulty interpretation of a 2015 contract amendment and should be overturned.

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Brief

GE Vernova Unit Appeals Vineyard Wind Work Order

By Carolyn Muyskens

The principal contractor for the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm is appealing a Massachusetts state court decision denying its renewed bid to quit the project and move the dispute to arbitration.

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Blank Rome Beats DQ Bid In Cannabis Dispensary Loan Fight

By Jonathan Capriel

A married couple who operate a New Jersey cannabis dispensary cannot escape claims that they misused roughly half of a $1.6 million business loan, a California federal court ruled on Wednesday while also rejecting the entrepreneurs' attempt to disqualify the lender's law firm.

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5th Circ. Says ChampionX Lacks Rights Under Spill Policy

By Danielle Ferguson

A Fifth Circuit panel on Tuesday affirmed a decision finding that ChampionX Corp. lacked the contractual standing to sue insurers for coverage of a $40 million oil spill lawsuit involving one of its subsidiaries, but gave the company a chance to add parties to its complaint in the lower court. 

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Bank Tries Again To Decertify Inmate Class In Debit Fee Suit

By Elaine Briseño

Central Bank of Kansas City has renewed its attempt to decertify a class of inmates who alleged they received prepaid debit cards with excessive fees upon their release, arguing the court must first determine whether the prisoners received the cards without permission.

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Texas Judge Remands Broker Liability Suit After Montgomery

By Linda Chiem

A Texas federal judge said Tuesday that, following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Montgomery ruling, a lawsuit alleging freight broker and logistics giant C.H. Robinson is vicariously liable for a fatal 2022 accident involving an "unlawfully double-brokered" truck load belongs back in state court.

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NC Corrections Dept. Loses Bid For Immediate Pay Appeal

By MJ Koo

North Carolina's corrections department cannot skip ahead to an appellate court to challenge a ruling that found correctional officers must be paid for all time spent inside prison facilities, a federal judge found, saying the yearslong case is nearly ready for a final resolution.

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Supplier Can't Force Arbitration Of Worker's Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

A proposed wage class action against a medical and industrial gas supplier can proceed in court, a Washington federal judge ruled, finding that a former worker's arbitration agreement with a staffing agency did not apply.

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Trump-Backed Firm Says Exec Can't Sue For Crypto Freeze

By Sydney Price

Trump family-tied crypto firm World Liberty Financial asked a California federal court to release it from crypto billionaire Justin Sun's suit accusing it of using backdoor mechanisms to hold Sun's tokens hostage after he invested $45 million in the project, arguing Sun wrongly attempts to assert claims over his businesses.

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KeyBank, Investment Advisers Settle Suit Alleging Client Theft

By Adam Lidgett

KeyBank affiliate Key Investment Services LLC has agreed to settle its suit accusing two former investment advisers of stealing trade secrets and violating their employment agreements by soliciting customers.

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Texas Court Blocks Stetson Maker From Some Mexico Sales

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas Business Court judge granted a hat seller part of a temporary restraining order blocking Hatco Inc. from selling its well-known cowboy hats to other retailers in Mexico, but said Wednesday that she would not order Hatco to sell its products at the same discount as before.

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Brembo Beats NASCAR Supplier's NC Extortion Claims

By Tom Lotshaw

A North Carolina federal judge has tossed a NASCAR parts distributor's lawsuit alleging Brembo NV improperly interfered with its contractual negotiations with a longstanding business partner, ruling Tuesday that the company failed to plausibly allege the Italian parts manufacturer acted with malice.

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IVF Patients Say Natera Profited Off Ineffective Embryo Tests

By Mike Curley

A proposed class of in vitro fertilization patients are suing Natera Inc. in California federal court, alleging that it falsely advertised the efficacy and importance of its preimplantation genetic testing to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars from patients looking to conceive.

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Fla. Panel Finds Health Co. Owner Tricked Customers

By David Minsky

A Florida appellate court on Wednesday reversed an order clearing a health company owner of liability in a deceptive business practices case, saying the lower court wrongly found prosecutors hadn't met their burden of proof despite evidence at trial showing misconduct involving fraud. 

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5 Things Associates Must Ask About Their Firm's Merger Plan

The associates who navigate law firm mergers best ask the right questions early, such as inquiring about partners' plans, to assess how the merger could affect their workflow and career path, says Jackie Bokser-LeFebvre at Major Lindsey.

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BigLaw Insider Trading Defendants Have Big-Name Legal Help

By Chris Villani

An insider trading case involving nonpublic information prosecutors say was stolen from some of the largest law firms in the U.S. has ensnared more than two dozen defendants, many of whom have turned to lawyers with notable clients including Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Luigi Mangione.

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Hueston Hennigan Follows Milbank's Lead In Associate Pay

By Tracey Read

The race to match Milbank LLP's attorney pay hikes is officially on, with trial firm Hueston Hennigan the latest to announce it will increase associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually.

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Analysis

The Plaintiffs Atty Now 5-0 At High Court With No Dissents

By Jeff Overley

It's true that Jennifer Bennett is undefeated at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's also an understatement. Bennett's five wins, including two recent ones, were all unanimous decisions. They showed that the plaintiffs bar can still persuade a conservative supermajority. And they turned the tide after a spree of decisions keeping workers and consumers out of court.

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Goldstein Cites Addiction To Avoid Time, DOJ Seeks 8 Years

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors recommended a 97-month prison sentence for convicted SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein, telling a Maryland federal court he has bilked the government out of more than $9.5 million in unpaid taxes. Goldstein, meanwhile, asked for a suspended sentence and supervised release, citing a "severe and longstanding gambling addiction."

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Rocade Capital Buys LFG To Create Combined $2B Lit Funder

By Ryan Boysen

Rocade Capital LLC has acquired fellow litigation funder Law Finance Group LLC, creating a combined platform that has deployed more than $2.3 billion and specializes in $10 million to $50 million deals, including post-judgment financing, portfolio deals and lending to plaintiff's firms.

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Court Reporter Shortage A 'Crisis,' Calif. Supreme Court Told

By Bonnie Eslinger

Two legal nonprofits urged the California Supreme Court to issue an order entitling low-income civil litigants to electronic recording if a live court reporter is not available, saying at a hearing Wednesday that a court reporter shortage in the Golden State has created a "crisis."

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9th Circ. Suspends 2 Attys For 6 Months Over AI Hallucinations

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday temporarily suspended two California immigration attorneys from practicing before the appellate court for filing briefs in a deportation relief case containing artificial intelligence-generated hallucinations, finding no excuse for their "extraordinary confession" of not vetting citations used by unlicensed brief writers.

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Tenn. Firm Gets AI Sanctions In Suit Against Baker Donelson

By Emily Sawicki

A Tennessee federal judge has sanctioned a Memphis, Tennessee, law firm over its misuse of artificial intelligence amid a malpractice suit against Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, ordering the regional firm to reimburse costs associated with the matter and report the misconduct to the state's disciplinary counsel.

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Feature

'Read The Cases': Conn. Judge Offers AI Advice To Attys

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge told a gathering of attorneys Tuesday that his law clerks are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence for any purpose involving legal research, his interns are barred from using it at all, and lawyers must be careful when relying on the material that the tools produce.

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Atty Can't Shake $120M Verdict In RICO, Defamation Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

An Alabama federal judge refused to disturb a $120 million verdict against a former Conrad & Scherer LLP managing partner, ruling there was enough evidence at trial for a jury to find the attorney liable on Drummond Co.'s racketeering and defamation claims.

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Graham Pushes Federal Tort Path After DOJ Drops $1.8B Fund

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice seemed, at least briefly, to support a Republican senator's alternative solution to the "anti-weaponization" $1.8 billion fund that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the department is abandoning.

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DOJ Sets New Healthcare Fraud Convictions Record

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that its Health Care Fraud Unit secured six jury trial convictions across the country in less than three weeks, with the cases involving more than $1.1 billion in fraud losses.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Dardarian Ho's Linda Dardarian

By Lynn LaRowe

Despite being on the other side of a disability rights case that will cost his municipality at least $150 million, Kevin McLaughlin, city attorney for Oakland, California, believes that if more lawyers were like Linda Dardarian, there would be far less lamenting about civility in the legal profession.

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