2nd Circ. Gives Ex-LVMH Atty A New Shot At Retaliation Case

By Anne Cullen

The Second Circuit on Monday reinstated retaliation claims brought by a former LVMH attorney who alleged that the French luxury brand fired her for reporting sexual misconduct, concluding that her refusal to engage in settlement discussions could constitute legally protected activity.

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Anthropic Can't Shake Reddit's AI Content-Scraping Suit

By Lauren Berg

A San Francisco judge largely rejected Anthropic's bid to toss Reddit Inc.'s suit accusing it of improperly gathering user content to train its artificial intelligence products, finding that most of Reddit's allegations have extra elements exempting them from federal preemption.

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STB Denies Bid To Halt UP-Norfolk Southern Merger Review

By Linda Chiem

The Surface Transportation Board will press ahead with its review of Union Pacific's proposed $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern, denying requests from rival railroads and major freight rail shipping customers seeking to have the board stop the deal in its tracks.

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$1.35M Class Deal Reached Over Botched Calif. Bar Exam

By Emily Johnson

Takers of the February 2025 California bar exam that was marred by technical failures have agreed to settle their proposed class action against the proctor for $1.35 million, while the company also agreed to complete quality checks before proctoring future bar examinations, according to a motion seeking preliminary approval in federal court.

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NJ Firm Says Communications Off-Limits In Defamation Case

By George Woolston

Investigative firm Black Cube has pushed back against a gambling technology company's bid to vacate a special adjudicator's denial of discovery into certain communications between Black Cube and law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP, arguing the bid doesn't satisfy the discovery standard under New Jersey's anti-SLAPP law.

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Lenders Say Baltimore Property Flips Fueled $10M Fraud

By Jared Foretek

Two wholesale asset-based mortgage lenders have accused a cadre of appraisers, title companies and real estate investors of passing off inflated appraisals on nearly 60 Baltimore homes and causing more than $10 million in loan losses.

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QXO Unit Says Denver Developer Owes Unpaid Invoices

By Isaac Monterose

A Colorado-based subsidiary of building materials company QXO accused a Denver residential developer and construction company in state court of owing money for materials that were provided under a credit application and sales agreement.

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Kraft Heinz Says Insurers Won't Cover Processed Food Suits

By Danielle Ferguson

Chubb units and Liberty Mutual are wrongfully refusing to cover Kraft Heinz's defense costs for several lawsuits blaming the food company's "ultra-processed foods" for consumers' diabetes or fatty liver disease diagnoses, costing the company millions of dollars, Kraft Heinz said in a Pennsylvania state court complaint.

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Insurer Beats Auto Parts Co.'s $50M COVID-19 Coverage Bid

By Hope Patti

A North Carolina federal court permanently tossed an auto parts manufacturer's suit seeking $50 million in coverage for COVID-19 losses, saying the manufacturer failed to show that access to any of its insured facilities was limited due to the actual presence of a communicable disease.

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Colo. Justices Uphold Ski Waiver Ruling Against Snowboarder

By MJ Koo

A snowboarder released his claims against a ski resort and employee when he signed an online liability waiver to buy a season pass while his injury suit was still active, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday, handing down a decision in a closely watched case for the state's ski industry.

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Brief

Deal Resolves Oil Pump Case After Final Albright Patent Trial

By Adam Lidgett

Texas-based manufacturer UTEX Industries and GD Energy Products have told a Texas federal judge they've agreed to the dismissal of a suit where a jury found last month that GD Energy didn't infringe a patent covering a packing assembly for pumps used in the oil and gas industry.

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Nielsen Faced Potential Fine Of $50K Per Day In Tying Case

By Nadia Dreid

If the Second Circuit hadn't stepped in and paused a New York federal court order commanding Nielsen Co. to provide its national ratings data separate from its local offerings, the company would have racked up $50,000 a day in sanctions if it did not comply.

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Clippers Tap BigLaw Vet To Fill In For Suspended Owner

By Alex Lawson

The Los Angeles Clippers on Monday named veteran corporate litigator John S. Gibson as the team's interim CEO and governor while team owner Steve Ballmer serves a one-year suspension for violating the NBA's salary cap rules.

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Crypto Co. Investor's 'Puzzle Pleading' Dooms Revenue Suit

By Katryna Perera

A Georgia federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a proposed class action alleging cryptocurrency technology company Bakkt Holdings Inc. and its executives misrepresented the stability of the company's crypto services revenue after it acquired a crypto platform, finding the complaint contains "puzzle pleading."

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Crypto Firm, Ga. Investor Reach Deal To End Fraud Suit

By David Aaro

An investor has agreed to end her lawsuit accusing a Texas-based crypto investment company of letting her funds get caught up in a fraudulent scheme to funnel money to foreign countries, according to a filing in Georgia federal court.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week dismissed a challenge to Alteryx Inc.'s $4.4 billion take-private sale, resolved a fight over the removal of a security technology company's director and declined to let Empery Digital Inc. immediately appeal a proxy contest ruling.

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Telecom Giants Seek Fees For 'Unprincipled' Asus Patent Suit

By Theresa Schliep

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile asked a Texas federal judge on Monday for attorney fees after they defeated an infringement suit over wireless communications patents, accusing Asus Technology Licensing Inc. and the other plaintiffs of "an aggressive and unprincipled litigation campaign."

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Conn. Officials Fight Blame After Kids Eat THC Candy On Bus

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut school district's leaders and its bus service denied liability for harm allegedly caused to two children who ate THC-laced candy from a backpack that was left on their school bus, telling a state court judge in a remote hearing Monday that they should win the parents' negligence suit.

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Vape Co. Gets $304K Judgment Over Unpaid Order

By Jonathan Capriel

The Illinois-based owner of the Urb vape brand has secured a $300,000 judgment in Illinois federal court against a California company that ordered tens of thousands of empty vape devices but never paid for them, but it won't be getting attorney fees.

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Willkie Hires Ex-Gibson Dunn Energy Pro In Paris

By Isaac Monterose

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has picked ex-Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP attorney Pauline Portos for an energy and infrastructure-focused partner role in its Paris office, the firm announced.

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A Look At Litigation Risks From Financing The AI Buildout

Artificial intelligence infrastructure financing can create gaps between accounting presentation and project-level economic exposure, and those gaps may affect management communications and how accounting experts can reconstruct the financial record when those communications become the subject of a securities dispute, says Erik Johannesson at Brattle Group.

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Legal Deserts: Millions Across America Struggle To Access Lawyers

Tens of millions of Americans live in towns and counties across the nation with limited or no access to legal services. By one estimate, at least a third of the nation's counties qualify as a "legal desert," having only one or no attorney per 1,000 residents. Roughly 24 million Americans reside in these counties.

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Greenberg Traurig Hit With Action Over Client Data Breach

By Matt Perez

A proposed class of Greenberg Traurig LLP clients said the New York law firm failed to secure their personal data prior to a preventable data breach and delayed notifying clients of the breach for two weeks, in an action filed over the weekend in New York federal court seeking injunctive and other equitable relief to protect client data.

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Tesla Atty Misled Witness Days Before Bias Trial, Judge Hears

By Dorothy Atkins

The California Civil Rights Department asked a California judge for a protective order Monday on the first day of a bench trial over claims Tesla Inc. fostered racism at its Fremont factory, after a witness testified that an in-house Tesla attorney recently called him and misled him into believing he represented the agency.

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New Calif. Law Bars Legal Funders From Influencing Litigation

By Jack Karp

Corporate investors and litigation funders will be barred from influencing litigation strategy in California under a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fenwick's Jessica Kaempf

By Theresa Schliep

Jessica Kaempf of Fenwick & West LLP is a pragmatic yet tenacious attorney whose representation of her clients has earned her plaudits from Kathi Vidal of Winston Taylor, who praised Kaempf as part of a Law360 series celebrating women litigators.

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Ex-Prosecutor Escapes Jan. 6 Atty's Defamation Suit

By Jared Foretek

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on Monday won judgment on the pleadings in a defamation case brought by attorney Stefan Passantino, who had represented Cassidy Hutchinson, after Passantino alleged Weissmann had defamed him when saying he'd "coached" Hutchinson "to lie" to the January 6th Select Committee.

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