DOJ Deal Bars OhioHealth From Blocking Patient Steering

By Bryan Koenig

OhioHealth swore off contract language inhibiting the ability of insurers to steer patients to cheaper healthcare providers, in a settlement resolving one of two U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuits targeting alleged hospital network efforts to force insurers to cover their hospitals in all plans.

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Visa, Mastercard Say 'Old' Deal Bars 'New' Merchant Suit

By Bryan Koenig

Visa and Mastercard asked a New York federal court to shut down a new proposed class action from merchants seeking to get around the future claims release in the credit card companies' $5.6 billion transaction fees antitrust settlement, arguing the new merchants are clearly bound by the old deal.

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Google, Apple Call CEO Depo Bids 'Harassment' At 9th Circ.

By Dorothy Atkins

Apple and Google urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reject consumers' request to depose their respective CEOs, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, and other executives in antitrust litigation accusing Google of shutting out rival search engines, arguing that the appeal is unwarranted and the repeated deposition demands are unjustified "harassment."

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CoStar, Brokers Accused Of Sharing Data To Fix Rents

By Isaac Monterose

A proposed class of commercial tenants has alleged CoStar Group Inc., Colliers International Group Inc., Colliers International USA LLC, Cushman & Wakefield and others ran a rent-fixing scheme that involved real estate companies using CoStar's platform to share confidential lease transaction information in order to avoid undercutting each other.

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Sen. Committee Clears Drug Disclosure, Biosimilar Bills

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday cleared two bills for full Senate review, tackling the gap between health and patent oversight agencies, and the need for more interchangeable biosimilars.

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Visa Sued By H&M, Eurostar In Latest Swipe Fees Case

By William Janes

More than 30 major businesses and institutions including H&M, Heineken and a university have sued Visa at a London court, alleging that the payment card company's fees and rules restricted competition and drove up prices.

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Nasdaq Private Market Says Rival Poached Staff And Secrets

By Katryna Perera

A Nasdaq marketplace for pre-IPO stock has filed suit against a competitor, alleging that it has poached employees and clients, stolen trade secrets and other confidential information, and infringed its patented technology in an effort to acquire what Nasdaq has built without fairly competing.

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Sanctioned IP Atty Tells Fed. Circ. 'Integrity' On The Line

By Elliot Weld

An attorney who was sanctioned in a trade dress infringement case due to what a judge said were his repeated misrepresentations has asked the Federal Circuit to lift the penalties against him and his client, saying his "professional and personal integrity, and my family, depends on it."

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Brief

No Deal Reached In Cheer Competition Antitrust Mediation

By Ganesh Setty

A mediator told a Texas federal court on Wednesday that cheerleading competition organizers and national cheer governing body U.S. All Star Federation Inc. were unable to reach a settlement this month of the organizers' antitrust lawsuit.

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FTC Claims Trans Health Org. Lied About Medical Consensus

By Spencer Brewer

The Federal Trade Commission and several Republican-led states sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health on Wednesday, telling a Texas federal court that the organization falsely touted a "medical consensus" while advocating for transgender healthcare for children.

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Opinion

Rule Of Law Requires Gov't Engagement With Bar, Not Retreat

A federal agency's absence from national and local bar conferences, most recently illustrated by the U.S. Department of Justice's withdrawal from a New York City Bar Association white collar conference, disserves the bar, the government lawyers themselves and, ultimately, the administration of justice, says Muhammad Faridi at Linklaters.

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Judiciary Cites AI Deepfakes In Opposing Courtroom Cameras

By Courtney Bublé

Two bipartisan bills to bring cameras into federal courtrooms advanced Thursday, but the policymaking body for the federal judiciary continues to oppose them and raised the issue of deepfakes in the age of artificial intelligence.

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NJ Tax Court Protects Taxpayer Methodology Ahead Of Trial

By Jaqueline McCool

A New Jersey tenant appealing the property tax assessment of a legacy data center is not required to provide the township with a detailed methodology of its assessment challenge prior to the case's trial, the state Tax Court ruled.

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Trump Lawyer Advances In Senate Judiciary Noms Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Matthew Schwartz to be a judge on the Second Circuit advanced out of committee Thursday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel may cringe at the news, but their chief financial officers will rejoice over a new study that shows the average spending by legal departments dropped to a six-year low in 2026. And two in-house Cigna lawyers are at the center of a finding of "improperly asserted privilege" over key company documents related to a payment lawsuit brought by three labs.

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Gibson Dunn Hires Ropes & Gray Health Regulatory Atty In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has hired a former Ropes & Gray LLP partner who works on a myriad of health regulatory and drug pricing matters, advising pharmaceutical manufacturers, investors and other entities on those issues, the firm announced Thursday.

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Calif. Moves On Proposal To Allow Legal Aid By Nonlawyers

By Lynn LaRowe

The California Supreme Court has directed the state bar to solicit public comments on a proposed community justice worker program that would allow nonlawyers to provide limited legal assistance under the supervision of qualified legal aid organizations, according to a Thursday announcement.

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Analysis

Law Students Undeterred Under Trump's Immigration Climate

By Britain Eakin

In a climate where immigration lawyers are coming under the Trump administration’s scrutiny to tamp down on asylum fraud, law students are being ignited to enter the workforce early and rectify the injustices they see.

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'Mortified' Atty Takes Blame For Fake Quotes In Taco TM Fight

By Ivan Moreno

A Connecticut attorney facing possible sanctions over fake case quotations in a taco restaurant trademark fight told a federal judge Thursday that he takes "full and unqualified responsibility" for the flawed filings, saying he is "mortified" and acknowledging that his verification process for AI-assisted legal work fell far short.

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Ford Says 'Lemon Law' Firm Faked Bills Using Overseas Staff

By Linda Chiem

Ford Motor Co. on Thursday accused California personal injury firm Quill & Arrow LLP of defrauding it out of more than $25 million in high-priced legal bills for work actually handled by virtual assistants overseas and non-lawyers in scores of product liability cases against the automaker.

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Israeli Atty Gets 15 Months For Role In Ponzi Scheme

By George Woolston

An Israeli attorney whose participation in a fraud scheme led by convicted Ponzi schemer Eliyahu "Eli" Weinstein gave the plan an "air of legitimacy" was sentenced on Thursday to one year and three months in federal prison.

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