Card Buyers Drop Suit Against Fanatics, NFL, NBA, MLB

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A New York federal judge has granted a request from a group of trading card consumers suing the NFL, the NBA, MLB and sports gear retailer Fanatics over trading card prices to dismiss the case.

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Live Nation Remedies Discovery To Wait On New Trial Motions

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge said that state attorneys general will have to wait on discovery to bolster their bid for a Live Nation Entertainment Inc. breakup, preferring to first tackle the live music giant's bid to upend jury findings faulting the company for monopolizing the industry.

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Compass Under Antitrust Probe After $1.6B Anywhere Deal

By Nate Beck

New York state has launched an antitrust investigation into Compass Inc. after the country's biggest real estate brokerage announced last year that it would acquire Anywhere Real Estate, the second-largest brokerage, in a $1.6 billion deal.

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Swipe-Fee Class Opposes Rethink For Sanctioned Injury Firm

By Bryan Koenig

Personal injury firm Betz & Baril PLC and its referral partner ClickFunds have no grounds to seek reconsideration or clarification on a New York federal judge's sanctions for misleading would-be class members in long-running antitrust litigation against Visa and Mastercard, the merchant class said Thursday.

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Ex-Football Stars Sue NCAA, Conferences For Lost NIL Pay

By Elaine Briseño

Two college football stars, who went on to play in the NFL, have filed antitrust suits claiming the NCAA, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences exploited them for their abilities while denying them compensation for their names, images and likenesses.

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Zillow Says Compass Won't Detail Talks With MLS

By Matthew Perlman

Zillow told an Illinois federal court that real estate brokerage Compass and a Chicago-area multiple listing service are refusing to document their communications with each other, even though they're accused of conspiring to block listings on Zillow's platform.

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Atkore Inks Additional $50M Deal In PVC Pipe Antitrust Row

By Hailey Konnath

Atkore Inc. has reached another settlement in litigation claiming it conspired with other polyvinyl chloride pipe producers to fix prices, this time agreeing to pay $50 million to a class of end-user plaintiffs, according to a motion for preliminary approval of the deal filed Thursday in Illinois federal court.

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Ex-FirstEnergy Execs Face New Bribery Charges After Mistrial

By Dorothy Atkins

An Ohio grand jury hit two former FirstEnergy executives Wednesday with a fresh round of corruption charges alleging they bribed a utility regulator to secure a controversial $1.3 billion bailout for two FirstEnergy nuclear plants, beefing up accusations against the executives after a jury deadlocked on the initial charges.

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'Kentucky Hammer' Tries To Control Attys, PI Market, Suit Says

By James Boyle

The principal attorney of personal injury firm Isaacs & Isaacs PCS, who advertises as the "Kentucky Hammer," has been accused by a former attorney at the firm of bullying his employees into signing unfavorable contracts and attempting to monopolize the local personal injury market.

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6th Circ. Rejects Scotts Bid To Block P&G Weed Killer

By Ivan Moreno

The Sixth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's refusal to block Procter & Gamble from selling its Spruce weed killer, holding that Scotts failed to show its Miracle-Gro packaging is distinctive enough to support trade dress claims or that the products are likely to confuse consumers.

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JD Power Claims Chime's Bogus '#1' Banking Ads Rip Off TMs

By Dorothy Atkins

J.D. Power has hit Chime Financial Inc. with a lawsuit in New York federal court, accusing the fintech company of willfully infringing J.D. Power's trademarks to support a "widespread, multi-channel" deceptive advertising campaign falsely suggesting that the data analytics firm rated Chime "America's #1 Choice for Banking."

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Ex-Worker Pleads Guilty In Air Force Bid-Rigging Scheme

By Elaine Briseño

A former employee of a business that provided shelving and storage to the U.S. Air Force has pled guilty in Georgia federal court to two felony charges that accused him of conspiring to rig bids and defraud the U.S. Department of Defense.

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Hogan Lovells Adds McDermott Partner In 'Pivotal Moment'

By Tracey Read

A former McDermott Will & Schulte attorney has moved to Hogan Lovells as a partner in the antitrust, competition and economic regulation practice, the firm announced Thursday.

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7 Ways Va. Employers Can Prep For New Noncompete Limits

As of July 1, Virginia noncompete agreements with employees fired without "cause" must provide "severance benefits" — but with those key terms undefined, employers should implement several flexible but defensible compliance strategies to limit their exposure once the rule is rolled out, say attorneys at Cooley.

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Series

Competing At Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Playing poker in male-dominated rooms taught me to treat skepticism as background noise when my opponents seem to underestimate me, to apply pressure when it matters and to adapt without losing strategic discipline — skills that are all indispensable in restructuring and insolvency matters, says Alexis Gambale at Pashman Stein.

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Quinn Emanuel, Texas Boutique Match Milbank Associate Pay

By Kevin Penton

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and a Texas-based litigation boutique are the latest firms to match Milbank LLP's pay hikes for associates, with annual increases of $10,000 to $20,000 that top off at $455,000.

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Blanche's AG Bid Could Face Rocky Path In Senate

By Courtney Bublé

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will be tapped for the permanent role, but he might not have a smooth path to confirmation.

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Goldstein Seeks Sentencing Delay, Citing New Tax Claims

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein renewed his push Wednesday in Maryland federal court for a delayed sentencing, saying prosecutors blindsided his defense by including additional uncharged years of alleged tax avoidance in the government's sentencing memorandum.

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Georgia Fed. Judge Facing Impeachment Threat, New DQ Bid

By Emily Johnson

A Georgia federal judge reportedly disciplined for having sexual intercourse in her chambers and attending a political event is facing renewed pressure, as a former UPS employee seeks her disqualification from his dismissed racial discrimination lawsuit and a Georgia congressman drafts articles of impeachment to remove her from the bench.

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Deepfake Mocks Judge Spearheading Judiciary Deepfake Rule

By Jeff Overley

The New York federal judge developing policies for phony audiovisual materials revealed Thursday firsthand experience with the subject: an artificial intelligence video on social media that depicts him as a maniacal Nazi who recently sentenced a private equity executive to prison "for being a Republican."

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Analysis

'Parallel' DOJ, SEC Investigations Not So Parallel Anymore

By Phillip Bantz

The level of coordination between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decreased under the Trump administration, resulting in disjointed investigatory efforts and misaligned timing in parallel investigations, experts say.

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Baker Donelson Seeks 'No Recovery' Ruling In Ponzi Fallout

By Emily Sawicki

Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC on Thursday asked a Mississippi federal court to issue a single check-box form ruling that states the firm does not owe a monetary judgment stemming from a jury's verdict finding it committed negligent supervision amid a timber company's nine-figure Ponzi scheme, which was perpetrated in part by two of the firm's then-partners.

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Calif. Bar Accuses More Attys In Unlicensed Practice Scheme

By Lauren Berg

Three more attorneys at the Los Angeles personal injury firm facing investigation for its involvement in a record $4 billion sex abuse settlement against Los Angeles County are facing disciplinary charges by the State Bar of California, alleging the firm illegally practiced law outside the state.

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NY AG Must Preserve Cohen Docs In Trump's Civil Fraud Case

By Frank G. Runyeon

The New York state trial court judge overseeing President Donald Trump's civil fraud case granted his request to preserve notes from private meetings between state litigators and Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen after the key witness said he felt "pressured" to testify.

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SEC Disgorgement Powers Stay Intact After High Court Fight

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could collect ill-gotten gains from alleged fraudsters without having to identify victims who were financially harmed by the fraud, declining to place further limits on the agency's disgorgement powers six years after it last did so.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Robbins Geller's David Knotts

By Sydney Price

Right after graduating from Cornell University Law School, David Knotts, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, landed at one of the world's largest corporate defense firms.

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