Ethical Wall Can't Cure Quinn Emanuel's Conflict, Judge Told

By Craig Clough

An attorney for CoStar on Wednesday urged a California federal judge to disqualify Quinn Emanuel from representing a rival commercial real estate platform in their intellectual property dispute, saying the firm's ethical wall cannot fix the conflict of interest problem over its representation of a CoStar subsidiary in separate litigation.

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Medicaid Contractor To Pay $162M In Caregivers' Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A contractor that helps administer a New York state Medicaid program has agreed to pay at least $162 million to resolve a sweeping suit alleging it failed to timely and accurately pay about 200,000 personal assistants, according to a motion filed in New York federal court.

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4th Circ. Says Cyber Co. Owes Nothing In Licensing Row

By Nadia Dreid

The Fourth Circuit has said a Virginia federal court got it right the second time when dispensing with a long-running dispute between cybersecurity company Vir2us and a cloud-enabled cybersecurity firm that Vir2us says owes it royalties under a patent licensing deal.

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Wells Fargo Forfeiture Suit Falls Short Again

By Kellie Mejdrich

A Minnesota federal judge tossed a proposed class action against Wells Fargo alleging the bank misspent 401(k) forfeitures, holding on Wednesday for a second time that the ex-worker who sued lacked standing to bring his claims.

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Atty Says Keches Reneged On Fee With 'Bad Faith' Excuse

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts solo practitioner says Keches Law Group has failed to pay him his full referral fee for a case that settled for $750,000, according to a complaint filed in state court.

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Mich. Wineries Say Peninsula Ally Joining Suit Too Late

By Susan Smiley

A group of northern Michigan wineries is calling "suspect" a citizen advocacy group's motion to intervene in the wineries' suit against Peninsula Township, saying it was filed too late and urged a federal judge to deny the group's request or severely limit the scope of its intervention.

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Fla. Panel Reverses Multiplied Atty Fee In Irma Coverage Row

By Hope Patti

A Florida state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed the award of $389,362 in attorney fees for a firm that represented a homeowner in a Hurricane Irma coverage dispute, but found that a lower court unjustifiably multiplied the award to bring it up to roughly $1 million.

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Insurer Says No Coverage For Home Care Co. In Abuse Suits

By Hope Patti

A Liberty Mutual unit told a Pennsylvania federal court that it owes no coverage to a home care service provider in litigation over the abuse and death of a patient by a caregiver who was convicted of neglect and financial exploitation.

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Texas Court Tosses Gateway Church Tithing Fraud Allegations

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge has done away with a class action against an embattled Texas megachurch accusing the church's leadership of misappropriating tithe money, saying the doctrine of ecclesiastical abstention bars the court from deciding the issue. 

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Judge Keeps NRA's 'Unusual' Trademark Claims Alive

By Elliot Weld

A District of Columbia federal judge on Wednesday trimmed a case brought by the National Rifle Association against its own charitable arm, saying the record allows for trademark claims to proceed but that discovery may help her resolve such an "unusual" case.

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NC Molding Co. Says Fired VP Gave Up His Ownership Stake

By Hayley Fowler

The former minority owner and vice president of sales for a custom molding manufacturer in North Carolina forfeited his stake in the business after he was fired and must repay his distributions, the company has alleged in a Business Court complaint.

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Wholesalers Say Novo Can't Duck GLP-1 Antitrust Suits

By Bryan Koenig

Drug buyers want a New York federal judge to preserve proposed class claims accusing Novo Nordisk of paying Teva to delay generic competition with its Victoza GLP-1 drug, arguing that whatever the underlying deal was, no generic version materialized when it could have.  

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Venue Operator Can't Avoid Fair Dealings Claims In Chancery

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday largely refused to dismiss a contract dispute between concessions provider Facilities Holdings LLC and venue operator ASM Global Parent LLC, finding it reasonably conceivable ASM Global secretly worked to derail contract extensions after being acquired.

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Delta Dental Says Wash. Antitrust Suit Echoes Faulty Claims

By Rachel Riley

Delta Dental of Washington said Tuesday an Evergreen State dentist targeting the dental insurer in a proposed antitrust class action has excluded its national affiliates from the case to "escape from a federal court's rejection of identical arguments" that the companies conspired to stifle insurer competition and suppress reimbursement rates.

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Tracking The Rare 'Quick Look' Win In FTC's Zillow-Redfin Suit

The Federal Trade Commission’s suit claiming that Zillow illegally paid Redfin to exit the apartment rental market is one to watch because its early success under the less rigorous “quick look” standard of antitrust review could turn into a rare case won under the doctrine, say attorneys at Axinn.

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Why Highly Specialized Experts May Risk Exclusion At Trial

Expert witnesses with highly specific areas of focus may be vulnerable to exclusion in court, making it important for attorneys to check how potential witnesses' qualifications can be bolstered by their publications and other professional activities, say Evan Weisberg and Christopher Cunio at Hunton, and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

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Groombridge Wu Tops Milbank Pay Scale For Associates

By Kevin Penton

Groombridge Wu Baughman & Stone LLP is the latest firm to top the pay scale for associates announced earlier this month by Milbank LLP, with attorneys set to earn as much as $470,000.

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Senate Confirming Judges Faster Than In Trump's 1st Term

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate has confirmed 45 judges in the second Trump term, outpacing the rate of his first administration, Senate Republicans announced on Thursday.

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Attys Urged To Challenge Clients Who Demand AI Research

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge urged attorneys during a Thursday sanctions hearing to push back against clients who demand lawyers use generative artificial intelligence tools to conduct legal research, saying the technology is no substitute for professional judgment and discretion because it "aims to please" and can misstate the law.

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Lack Of Evidence Sinks Insurance Fraud Case, Atty Says

By Emily Sawicki

A Louisiana law firm and lawyer found guilty of criminal conspiracy and wire fraud for staging vehicle crashes as part of a scheme to defraud insurance carriers and trucking companies are seeking acquittal or a new trial, arguing that federal prosecutors failed to support their claims with evidence.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein Blasts 'Inflated' DOJ Tax Math

By Jared Foretek

Convicted SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein and federal prosecutors are clashing again over their dramatically divergent sentencing recommendations, with the defense accusing the government of presenting a "one-dimensional caricature" of the famed lawyer in seeking an eight-year sentence, and prosecutors accusing him of potentially deleting "secret chats" with his gambling backers.

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Feds Say Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin Was Let Off Easy

By Nadia Dreid

Both federal prosecutors and a Stephen Miller-founded public interest group believe that a Maryland federal judge let a woman accused of trying to kill U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh off too easy because of her gender identity and want the Fourth Circuit to order resentencing.

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Quinn Emanuel Says 3M Fee Proposal Undervalues Its Work

By Carolina Bolado

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has objected to a special master's recommendation on the allocation of common benefit fees in the $6 billion settlement that ended multidistrict litigation against 3M over allegedly faulty combat earplugs, saying the amount doesn't value the "length, extent and impact" of the firm's work.

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