'I Don't Know': 9th Circ. Presses Verrilli On Boeing Venue Issue

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit judge rehearing an appeal involving a $72 million trade secret verdict against Boeing on Thursday pressed the company's counsel Donald B. Verrilli Jr. of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to explain why the aerospace giant never previously argued the case belongs in the Federal Circuit, and Verrilli conceded he didn't know the reason.

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Ketamine, WilmerHale Probe Off Limits In Musk-OpenAI Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has placed evidentiary guardrails on an April jury trial over Elon Musk's claims OpenAI duped him, excluding evidence on Musk's ketamine use and WilmerHale's investigation into Sam Altman's dismissal, but allowing evidence on Musk's rival startup, his romance with an ex-OpenAI boardmember and his Burning Man trip.

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Live Nation Kicks Off Defense Case In Antitrust Trial

By Stewart Bishop

A coalition of state attorneys general on Thursday mostly concluded their antitrust case against Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, following weeks of a trial that was nearly derailed after the U.S. Department of Justice dropped out, and Live Nation kicked off its defense case with a company executive who pushed back against claims of anticompetitive conduct.

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Venezuelan Leader Says Ex-Fla. Rep Couldn't Get US Meetings

By Carolina Bolado

A Venezuelan political opposition leader told jurors Thursday that he connected with former Florida congressman David Rivera to try to secure meetings with high-level U.S. officials in the first Trump administration, but Rivera — who is on trial for allegedly failing to register as a foreign agent — failed to deliver.

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L'Oreal Wants Color Wow Co.'s Purchase Price Kept Secret

By Brian Steele

An executive for L'Oréal USA Inc. has asked a Connecticut state court judge not to force the public disclosure of the price the company paid to acquire Federici Brands LLC, the company behind Color Wow hair care products, as part of a former Federici president's lawsuit alleging she is owed $40 million from the transaction.

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Akin Must Explain Client's 'Self-Indulgent' 9th Circ. Appeal

By Lauren Berg

Upholding a foreign arbitration award against a wine importer, the Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered its attorneys at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP to explain why they and their client shouldn't pay their opponent's attorney fees for bringing a "frivolous" and "self-indulgent" appeal.

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Shutts & Bowen Must Face DQ Bid In Fla. Real Estate Dispute

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court on Wednesday revived a bid to disqualify Shutts & Bowen LLP from representing a member of a real estate business in a dispute with his fellow owners, saying a trial court improperly barred certain testimony before rejecting the disqualification motion.

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McDonald Hopkins Must Produce Fraud Warning Docs

By Gianna Ferrarin

Midwestern law firm McDonald Hopkins LLC must produce email communications in connection with litigation accusing Blue Cross units of a smear campaign against a clinical lab owner, an Ohio federal judge ruled, finding the documents were not protected by work product or attorney-client privilege.

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Ex-InterOil Exec Faces $210M Ruling, Seeks Appeal Bond Cut

By José Luis Martínez

A former executive of long-acquired oil company InterOil must pay a Swiss investor $210 million in damages and interest under a final judgment entered Thursday in Texas federal court, affirming a jury's findings last year that the executive breached agreements between the two.

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9th Circ. Upholds Medtronic Win In Spinal Cord Device Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

A Washington man cannot sue medical device maker Medtronic USA Inc. on allegations it sold him a spinal cord implant that malfunctioned causing greater pain, the Ninth Circuit ruled, saying he lacked expert witnesses to support his negligence claims.

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Hyundai Loses 9th Circ. Bid To Arbitrate Palisade Liability Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

Hyundai Motor America Inc. can't push into arbitration a proposed class action over allegedly faulty tow wiring that can catch fire, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a split decision, rejecting as "absurd" the automaker's argument that the terms of the vehicles' subscription-based wireless service waived a driver's right to sue over defects in the rest of the SUV.

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Sony, USC Settle Fight Over Music Used In Social Media Ads

By Gina Kim

Sony Music has settled its copyright infringement suit accusing the University of Southern California of infringing more than 170 of its songs to advertise the school's sports program on social media, according to an order signed off by a New York federal judge Thursday.

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Joe Gibbs Racing Wants Rival Blocked From Using Stolen Info

By Hayley Fowler

Joe Gibbs Racing LLC on Thursday pushed to enjoin rival NASCAR team Spire Motorsports from using confidential race data allegedly stolen by its former competition director, even as Spire denied having the information and decried the accusations as unfounded.

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Fans Push For $14M Deal For Soccer Match Fiasco

By Tom Lotshaw

Soccer fans impacted when people without tickets stormed a Copa America championship match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens two years ago asked a Florida federal judge to sign off on a settlement agreement worth up to $14 million.

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NC Court Denies Collective Bid In Wage Row, For Now

By Benjamin Morse

Employees alleging a property management company stiffed them on overtime wages cannot proceed as a collective for now, a North Carolina federal judge has ruled, finding that the current record is insufficient to determine whether they are similarly situated.

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Investor Sues Music Catalog Firm Over Default Risks

By Jarek Rutz

A member of a music catalog investment group has sued in the Delaware Chancery Court to force the company to turn over financial records, alleging signs of mismanagement, missed payments and potential default risks tied to high-value music deals.

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Keys To Federal Carbon Compliance In Data Center Siting

Recent statements from the White House and state governors about making data centers pay for their own power infrastructure have underlined the importance of choosing locations, generation technologies and deal structures to optimize carbon, permitting and compliance costs, say attorneys at Davis Graham.

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BigLaw Races To Capture Expanding Fund Finance Market

By Kevin Penton

Debt financing work at the fund level has long been dominated on the lender side by attorneys from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Haynes Boone and Mayer Brown LLP, but other firms are increasingly crafting formal practices and poaching fund finance stars from the more established players.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Lanier Law Firm, Kiesel Law LLP, Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP and Beasley Allen Law Firm lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California state jury in a bellwether trial found Meta and Google liable for harming the mental health of a woman who says she became addicted to their social media platforms as a child.

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NJ Federal Judge DQs Beasley Allen In J&J Talc MDL

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has disqualified the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing hundreds of plaintiffs in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, holding that the firm violated ethics rules by collaborating with former outside counsel for J&J, a ruling the law firm has vowed to appeal.

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Atty Sanctioned For AI Hallucinations In Workers' Comp Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 in sanctions for failing to rectify AI-hallucinated case citations pointed out to him in an appeal concerning reimbursement sought by a workers' compensation carrier.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Apple hit back at a tech company's wireless charging patent claim, a flurry of businesses bring COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims as a key deadline draws closer and Ipulse Partners LLP file a claim against a luxury yacht company it represented in a trademark dispute. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Polsinelli Hires Practice Head From McDermott In NY

By Andrea Keckley

Polsinelli PC said Thursday that it has hired a longtime McDermott Will & Schulte LLP attorney to co-lead its special situations and alternative investment practice, saying the move "further advanc[es] the firm's strategic focus on private credit, distressed investing, and complex restructuring matters."

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Apollo, BlackRock Deny Asking Kirkland To Abandon Optimum

By Tracey Read

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other major financial companies have denied Optimum Communications' claims accusing them of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as the telecommunications company's transaction counsel to get revenge for a collusion lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from dropping AI giant Anthropic from the government's supply chain, and Latham & Watkins ranked first in a survey of in-house legal leaders on which law firms are most helpful in developing business, followed by King & Spalding, Jones Day and Ropes & Gray. .

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Firms Targeted By Trump Urge DC Circ. To Uphold EO Rulings

By Alison Knezevich

Three law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to affirm lower court rulings that struck down executive orders restricting their ability to practice law, saying the directives blatantly violate the Constitution.

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Brief

Amazon Swaps MoFo In, Perkins Coie Out In Cooker Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon.com LLP switched counsel Friday in a customer's product defect suit accusing the retail giant of selling a faulty pressure cooker that allegedly malfunctioned and caused her severe burns, substituting two Morrison Foerster LLP attorneys in place of an outgoing Perkins Coie LLP lawyer.

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Mich. Judge Signals No Stay If Attys Exit Retaliation Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge said Friday she is not inclined to pause a long-running sexual harassment suit again if counsel for an attorney who is suing her ex-mentor and former firm are allowed to withdraw, telling the parties, "We've been here. We've done this," as she heard arguments over a motion to exit the case.

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Judiciary Nixes Amicus Disclosure Reform Over Potential Chill

By Emily Sawicki

The federal judiciary has been asked not to move forward with a plan to add to amicus brief disclosure requirements designed to curb "dark money" groups from bankrolling amicus briefs, after rules committee chairs pulled the recommendation over concerns of a possible chilling effect.

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