BlackRock, State Street Get State AG Coal Suit Trimmed

By Sarah Jarvis

BlackRock and State Street have pared down a lawsuit by Republican state attorneys general accusing them of driving up coal prices, but a Texas federal judge let stand claims brought by Iowa and Nebraska on behalf of their resident electricity consumers.

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RealPage, Landlords Get DC Antitrust Trial Delayed

By Isaac Monterose

A District of Columbia superior court judge has vacated the March 29, 2027, jury trial date for the city's rent price-fixing lawsuit against property management software company RealPage Inc. and multiple landlords.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission caused a pair of playground equipment makers to abandon their planned merger, Canadian enforcers upended a deal for the Green Giant brand in the country and state attorneys general reached settlements for several regional deals.

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ATM Operators To Ask DC Circ To Revive Visa, Mastercard Suit

By Bryan Koenig

ATM operators gave notice that they'll ask the D.C. Circuit to revive their long-running certified class action accusing Visa and Mastercard of an anticompetitive agreement forcing them into higher network fees.

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College Athletes' Attys Seek $18M Cut Of NIL Settlement

By Alex Lawson

More than a year after the approval of a historic $2.78 billion settlement to share revenue derived from college athletes' name, image and likeness, attorneys for the athletes are seeking $18 million for their work administering the settlement's terms.

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4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In October

By Julie Manganis

A nonprofit municipal insurance group is responsible for a portion of a settlement with a man who spent 37 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, and a biotech startup can continue to pursue trade secrets and breach of contract claims against two former employees and a rival they joined last year, Massachusetts Superior Court judges said in rulings last month. 

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Vistra Closes $4B Cogentrix Deal, With DOJ Approval

By Bryan Koenig

Vistra Corp. closed its acquisition of Cogentrix Energy and its 10 natural gas-powered electricity plants on Friday, the same day the U.S. Department of Justice said it was mollified by the company's plan to divest one Cogentrix plant in Maine and another one in the state already owned by Vistra.

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Agentic AI Is Not Outside Existing Rules, Regulators Say

By Joel Poultney

Organizations that deploy autonomous agents powered by artificial intelligence are still responsible for their use and compliance with existing legal and regulatory frameworks, four of the country's leading regulators have said.

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Rightmove Alone Would Gain If £1B Claim Is Opt-In, CAT Told

By Eddie Beaver

Only Rightmove would benefit if thousands of estate agents were forced to opt in to a proposed £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) class action over allegedly excessive fees, the accountant seeking to bring the claim told a tribunal Monday.

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DirecTV Says Nexstar Hiding Behind Privilege In Antitrust Suit

By Nadia Dreid

DirecTV says it's time for a New York federal court to step in and force Nexstar Media Group to hand over documents it was ordered to produce in discovery, saying the massive multimedia conglomerate has been dragging its feet for months.

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Coors, Supplier Send Colo. Contract Exit Suit To Arbitration

By Rachel Konieczny

Coors Distributing Co. LLC and one of the beer wholesaler's suppliers reached an agreement Monday to allow an arbitrator to resolve the wholesaler's bid for a Colorado state judge to block the supplier from exiting the companies' decadeslong distribution contract.

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5th Circ. Skeptical Chinese Citizens Have Right To Texas Land

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel wants to know if Chinese citizens who wish to purchase property in Texas are arguing that everyone in the world has a constitutional right to do so, asking Monday if people globally "have the right to be treated as U.S. citizens for purposes of purchasing property in Texas."

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Analysis

IP To PI: Mass. Trade Secrets Attys Rethink Injunction Strategy

By Chris Villani

A recent decision by Massachusetts' top appellate court that makes it tougher to secure preliminary injunctions in trade secrets cases will likely force Bay State attorneys to turn to strategies from other areas of intellectual property law to clear the heightened bar.

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Shop Says Rival Must Arbitrate ENASCAR Trade Secrets Row

By Elaine Briseño

An eNASCAR digital race car shop accused of stealing trade secrets told a North Carolina federal judge the dispute should be arbitrated, arguing the accusations stem from supposed information obtained from its rival's website.

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Kirkland ITC Patent Litigator Leaves For Wolf Greenfield In DC

By Dani Kass

Wolf Greenfield & Sacks PC has expanded its litigation team in Washington, D.C., with a U.S. International Trade Commission-focused intellectual property specialist from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the firm announced Monday.

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FTC Highlights Path To Preserve Board Rights In A Rival Co.

The Federal Trade Commission's move to add key guardrails permitting firearms manufacturer Beretta to retain two directors as it takes a 25% stake in competitor Ruger illustrates how parties may maintain board rights in certain circumstances without running afoul of Section 8 of the Clayton Act, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

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BigLaw Attys Step Up To Help Voters In Midterm Elections

By Jack Karp and Lynn LaRowe

Attorneys from several BigLaw firms are volunteering across the country to make sure voters don't run into problems casting their ballots or having those ballots counted in Tuesday's midterm elections.

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Brief

Winston Taylor, DLA Piper Match Milbank Pay Scale

By Tracey Read

Two more BigLaw firms have opted to match the new associate salary scale set by Milbank LLP in June.

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Analysis

Judiciary Stuck In AI Rulemaking Rut As Attys, Judges Protest

By Jeff Overley

Judiciary efforts to enact rules for the artificial intelligence age are mired in concerns about burdens on litigators, the tensions between burgeoning technology and snail-paced policymaking, and how to even define AI. And despite vivid examples of AI's risks, officials are inching toward mothballing the prominent project.

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Judge Orders Chicago US Atty To Testify In Misconduct Probe

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge has ordered Chicago's top federal prosecutor and three assistant U.S. attorneys to testify under oath about potentially false statements made to her in a now-dismissed criminal conspiracy case against anti-ICE protesters, saying Monday that the government's shifting explanations about communications with DOJ leadership suggest prosecutors misled the court about outside involvement in the prosecution.

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NY State Bar Says Attys Can't Bill Time Saved By AI

By Andrea Keckley

The New York State Bar Association has told lawyers not to bill clients for the time they saved by using artificial intelligence, or for the time it took to learn a new AI tool.

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Interview

SEC's Top Cop On Building A 'Nimble' Enforcement Division

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has lost hundreds of enforcement employees and seen significant restructuring of its regional offices over the past two years, but the Division of Enforcement's director said that hasn't stopped him from building a "nimble" program that is focused on more than just the number of cases filed.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week allowed a stockholder claim over R1 RCM Inc.'s $8.9 billion buyout to proceed, while investors in Meta Platforms Inc. sued to block a stock restructuring they say would let CEO Mark Zuckerberg sell billions of dollars in shares without giving up control of the company.

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