Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2025, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and significant transaction work that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.

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Analysis

What To Expect From USPTO's Essential Patent Group

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's new working group aimed at promoting "robust and predictable" standard-essential patent remedies will face challenges in its goal of clarifying patent valuations, but could encourage more lawsuits and participation in standards, attorneys say.

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Judge Rejects Bid To Block NCAA's 4-Season Limit

By Ganesh Setty

A Tennessee federal court rejected a bid from five Division I college football players to preliminarily block the NCAA from denying them a full fifth season of play, finding they didn't sufficiently show the NCAA's four-season limit is anticompetitive.

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Google Appeals DOJ Search Win, Seeks Data-Sharing Stay

By Lauren Berg

Google on Friday filed its long-awaited notice of appeal of a D.C. federal judge's decision that the tech giant is an online search monopolist, while asking to pause some remedies won by the U.S. Department of Justice that require the company to share search data with competitors.

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OpenAI, Microsoft Must Face Musk Fraud Fight In April Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge denied OpenAI Inc.'s request for summary judgment on Elon Musk's claims OpenAI duped him into donating $38 million with false promises of remaining a nonprofit, while trimming some claims against Microsoft Corp. and sending the bifurcated dispute to an April jury trial.

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Rail Regulator Tells UP, Norfolk Southern To Redo Merger Bid

By Linda Chiem

A rail regulator said Friday that Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern still haven't shared crucial details or projected revenue and traffic numbers related to their proposed mega-merger, so their application must be rejected for now as "incomplete."

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House Dems Press STB On $85B Railway Mega-Merger

By Chart Riggall

Congressional Democrats have urged the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to pressure the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads for greater clarity about their proposed merger, joining a chorus of left-leaning organizations that have sought to throw cold water on the $85 billion deal.

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Aramark Ordered To Sell UK Caterer Over Competition Fears

By Tom Fish

The antitrust authority has ordered U.S. hospitality company Aramark Group to sell Scottish offshore caterer Entier Ltd., after it found that a merger will substantially lessen competition for services to North Sea oil and gas platforms.

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Brief

Legal Aid Charity To Distribute £3.9M After Stagecoach Case

By William Janes

A legal advice funding charity revealed Monday that it will issue £3.9 million ($5.2 million) in grants funded with an award from the U.K.'s competition court after the distribution of a rail operator's £25 million class action settlement.

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ChatGPT Users Say Microsoft Can't Duck Antitrust Suit

By Bryan Koenig

ChatGPT subscribers urged a California federal judge Friday not to dismiss their lawsuit accusing Microsoft of undermining OpenAI by forcing the artificial intelligence giant into using its cloud computing exclusively, a day after they said Microsoft has no claim to alternatively force the proposed class action into arbitration.

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Fla. Fishing Cos. Accuse Vendors Of Price-Fixing Conspiracy

By David Minsky

Florida fishermen have brought a proposed class action in federal court against several seafood wholesalers, accusing them of conspiring to eliminate competition and suppressing the prices they pay for stone crab claws and spiny lobster tails. 

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Stolen Google AI Info Valuable To Rivals And China, Jury Told

By Bonnie Eslinger

Federal prosecutors questioned a foreign policy expert and an MIT computer science professor Friday in the trial of an ex-Google engineer accused of stealing AI trade secrets to help China, seeking to show that artificial intelligence is a major priority for the Chinese government and that Google's technology was nonpublic and extremely valuable.

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Expect State Noncompete Reforms, FTC Scrutiny In 2026

Employer noncompete practices are facing intensified federal scrutiny and state reforms heading into 2026, with the Federal Trade Commission pivoting to case-by-case enforcement and states continuing to tighten the rules, especially in the healthcare sector, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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What Changed For Healthcare Transaction Law In 2025

Though much of the legislation introduced last year to expand state scrutiny of healthcare transactions did not pass, investors should pay close attention to the overarching trends, which are likely to continue in this year's legislative sessions, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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7 Ways In-House Counsel May Unearth Red Flags In AI M&A

In-house counsel and executives conducting M&A due diligence in the artificial intelligence arena can surface hidden liabilities and avoid problems or divestitures by adopting strategies in key areas, including intellectual property provenance and postclose risk management, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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Analysis

In First Year, Trump Lost Most Cases But Often Won Appeals

By Cara Bayles

In the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, his administration lost in court nearly twice as often as it won, but its success rate increased when it appealed, according to a Law360 review of more than 400 lawsuits.

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Kirkland, Ex-Judge Hit With Class Action Over Texas Romance

By Hilary Russ

An investment firm is suing Kirkland & Ellis LLP, an ex-judge, two other law firms and a lawyer for allegedly fomenting "mass corruption" in Houston's bankruptcy court and colluding to enrich themselves by controlling the outcome of large Chapter 11 cases.

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Womble Bond Expands With 36-Person McGlinchey Team

By Tracey Read

Womble Bond Dickinson announced Friday it has added a 36-member consumer financial services team from the shuttering McGlinchey Stafford PLLC and is opening two new offices in Albany, New York, and Cleveland.

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Roundup

Up Next At High Court: Fed Firing & Gun 'Vampire Rules'

By Katie Buehler

The Supreme Court will begin a short argument week Tuesday, during which the justices will consider President Donald Trump's authority to fire a Democratic Federal Reserve governor over allegations of mortgage fraud, as well as the ability for states to presumptively bar gun owners from carrying firearms onto private property open to the public unless the property owner explicitly allows it. 

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Supreme Court Hacker Pleads Guilty To Misdemeanor Charge

By Jared Foretek

A 24-year-old Tennessee man pled guilty Friday to a single misdemeanor charge for hacking into the U.S. Supreme Court's filing system and several other government networks, admitting that he "intentionally accessed a computer without authorization" on 25 different days in 2023.

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Watchdog Urges Blanche To Exit Trump Records Role

By Courtney Bublé

A watchdog organization is calling on Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to step aside as President Donald Trump's proxy for records from his first term as they become available next week, saying he has a conflict of interest.

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Maurene Comey Fights DOJ Bid To Toss Firing Suit

By Emily Sawicki

Former Manhattan federal prosecutor Maurene Comey has urged a New York federal court to reject the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to dismiss her firing suit, arguing her claims belong before the district court and not under the jurisdiction of a non-independent board now controlled by the president.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London saw the David Lloyd gym chain file an intellectual property claim against its founder, security company Primekings reignite a long-running dispute with the former owners of an acquired business, and a pair of Belizean developers sue a finance executive they say shut them out of a cruise port project.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week, U.S. House lawmakers approved a bill that would restrict how retirement plan managers can consider environmental, social and governance issues when picking investments.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Sher Tremonte LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Second Circuit upheld a ruling requiring Getty Images to pay out nearly $88 million to investors who said they were blocked from purchasing shares in the company once it became public.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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