DOJ Unveils Superseding Policy For Corporate Criminal Cases

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday released its first-ever, department-wide, corporate enforcement policy for criminal matters, outlining how it will decline to prosecute companies that voluntarily disclose misconduct, cooperate with investigators and remediate wrongdoing.

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ExxonMobil Plans Move To Texas, Citing Biz-Friendly Milieu

By Spencer Brewer

ExxonMobil Corp. is the latest company to eye Texas as its new legal home, telling shareholders Tuesday that the Lone Star State's newly created business court and pro-business policies are good reasons to end its longtime run in New Jersey.

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Alex Spiro Says Twitter Atty 'Misremembering' Offer To Settle

By Bonnie Eslinger

Elon Musk attorney Alex Spiro testified before a California federal jury Tuesday that a lead Twitter lawyer who said Spiro tried to renegotiate Musk's $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform was "misremembering," saying Twitter's counsel offered the discount and asked for legal waivers over the company's bot claims.

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OpenAI Must Produce Chat Logs, Exec Diary In Copyright MDL

By Theresa Schliep

A federal magistrate judge in New York ordered OpenAI to furnish an executive's personal journal along with tens of millions of ChatGPT logs in response to requests by news organizations and authors in their copyright litigation against the artificial intelligence company.

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Judge Fumes As Live Nation Antitrust Trial Remains In Limbo

By Stewart Bishop

The status of Live Nation Entertainment's antitrust trial and proposed settlement over federal and state government claims of anticompetitive conduct remained up in the air Tuesday amid pushback by several states, while the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the case upbraided the parties for keeping him out of the loop about negotiations.

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Social Media Jury Told Of Plaintiff's 'Embarrassing Sexual Act'

By Craig Clough

A psychiatrist who assessed a bellwether plaintiff alleging a harmful addiction to Instagram and YouTube told a California jury Tuesday that the plaintiff's turbulent home life, genetic factors and even an alleged "embarrassing sexual act" that got her suspended from school supports a conclusion the plaintiff does not have a social media addiction.

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Fla. Defends Social Media Teen Ban As Content-Neutral

By Carolina Bolado

Florida defended its restrictions on social media for children before the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday, arguing that the law is content-neutral and does not violate the First Amendment, and urged the appeals court to undo an injunction blocking its enforcement.

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Smartmatic Moves To Toss 'Vindictive' FCPA Prosecution

By Lauren Berg

Smartmatic urged a Florida federal judge Tuesday to toss charges against it in the U.S. Department of Justice's case accusing former company executives of bribing a Filipino official to secure contracts, slamming the superseding indictment as part of a "crusade to unconstitutionally target" President Donald Trump's perceived political enemies.

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Ill. Tax Preparer Gets 10 Years For $14M PPP Loan Fraud

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge's decision to impose a 10-year prison sentence on a man for his role in a $14 million fraud scheme where he took kickbacks for preparing false applications for pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program loans drew surprised outbursts in the courtroom Tuesday from both the defendant and his attorney.

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'Disrespectful' Defendant Chided As Amazon Fraud Trial Starts

By Kelcey Caulder

A woman accused of scheming to defraud Amazon out of $9.4 million through bogus invoices arrived four hours late to the first day of her trial Tuesday after a federal judge sent word warning her that the trial would proceed in her absence if she did not appear.

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Iowa Defends 5th Circ. Appeal Of Schwab Antitrust Settlement

By Sydney Price

Iowa's attorney general told the Fifth Circuit that its appeal of a Texas federal judge's final approval of a settlement ending an antitrust class action over The Charles Schwab Corp.'s merger with TD Ameritrade is proper, arguing the state's duty to protect consumers allows it to challenge the deal.

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Paramount President Owes $150M For Crisis PR Aid, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Paramount President Jeff Shell is being sued for $150 million in California state court over allegations he backed out of a deal to develop an English language adaptation of a Spanish television show and failed to pay for crisis communications services that the plaintiff said helped save Paramount $1.5 billion in a streaming rights dispute.

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DLA Piper Can't Rep Itself At Bias Trial, Fired Atty Says

By Pete Brush

DLA Piper should not be permitted to represent itself at trial in a pregnancy discrimination case brought by a senior associate who was fired in 2022, lawyers for the plaintiff told a Manhattan federal judge.

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Uber Says $8.5M Bellwether Sex Assault Verdict Can't Stand

By Y. Peter Kang

Uber has urged a California federal judge to wipe out an $8.5 million bellwether verdict putting it on the hook for a Phoenix driver's alleged sexual assault of a passenger, arguing that Arizona law bars a finding that the company can be liable for an ostensible employee's actions.

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Solar Battery Co. Seeks Dismissal Of Ford Trade Secret Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A solar battery maker has asked a Michigan federal court to dismiss Ford Motor Co.'s trade secret and contract claims over confidential technology disclosed in patent applications, claiming Ford lacks standing because it doesn't own the technology at the center of the dispute.

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Semiconductor Co. Says Key Witness Now Disputes Claims

By Katryna Perera

STMicroelectronics has asked a New York federal judge to reconsider his earlier decision allowing an investor securities fraud suit to move forward, saying the ruling relied on statements from a former executive who now says the allegations attributed to him in the suit are false.

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OpenAI Copied Media Metadata To Train ChatGPT, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Media metadata company Gracenote alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court that OpenAI has stolen a slew of its proprietary television and movie metadata to train ChatGPT and other large language models, "eroding" Gracenote's ability to license its data to competing artificial intelligence companies.

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Developer Sues In Del. Over Alleged Philly Bourse Ouster

By Jarek Rutz

A developer behind the planned redevelopment of Philadelphia's historic Bourse building has sued its joint venture partner and several affiliated entities in the Delaware Chancery Court, accusing them of unlawfully attempting to oust it from management of the multimillion-dollar project and install a new development firm in its place.

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Mayer Brown Adds 6 McGuireWoods Attys In Houston, DC

By Tracey Read

Mayer Brown announced Tuesday that it has hired six attorneys from McGuireWoods LLP for its litigation and dispute resolution and corporate and securities practices, including the former office managing partner of that firm's Houston office.

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Baker Botts Adds King & Spalding M&A Whiz In Silicon Valley

By James Mills

Baker Botts LLP continues its California expansion, announcing Tuesday it is adding a King & Spalding LLP corporate attorney as a partner in its Silicon Valley office and as its West Coast mergers and acquisitions chair.

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Share Repurchases Leave Cos. Susceptible To Litigation

Because share repurchases bring greater ownership, which typically brings greater voting power, they can have serious implications for corporate control, which can raise questions about the unpaid benefits to some shareholders and lead to securities class actions, says Amit Bubna at Bates White.

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Drug Wholesaler's DPA Shows Imperfect Efforts Still Count

Atlantic Biologicals’ recent deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors for allegedly distributing controlled substances to pill mill pharmacies demonstrates that even subpar cooperation, when combined with genuine remediation and strategic advocacy, can yield outcomes that protect a company's long-term interests, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

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Lessons From Justices' Split On Major Questions Doctrine

The justices' varied opinions in Learning Resources v. Trump, which held the International Emergency Economy Powers Act did not confer the power to impose tariffs, offer a meaningful window into the U.S. Supreme Court's perspective on the major questions doctrine that will likely shape lower courts' approach to executive action challenges, say attorneys at Venable.

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Military Attys In DOJ 'Erodes Democratic Norms,' Ex-JAGs Say

By Lauren Berg

Nearly a dozen former military lawyers raised the alarm about the Trump administration appointing judge advocate officers to U.S. attorneys' offices, urging a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to bar an Army lawyer from prosecuting a case that accuses a civilian of assaulting federal immigration enforcement agents.

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DOJ Official Faces Ethics Case Over Georgetown DEI Letters

By Alison Knezevich

U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin has been hit with disciplinary charges in the nation's capital over threatening letters he sent to Georgetown University Law Center last year while he was interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.

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Dems Confront Roberts At Wide-Ranging Judiciary Gathering

By Jeff Overley

The federal judiciary's top administrator voiced "serious and urgent concerns" Tuesday regarding threats of retribution against judges, a warning that coincided with a judicial gathering where Democrats discussed security fears and controversial U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

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Prosecutor Resigns, Judge Shows Slide Deck On AI Errors

By Abigail Harrison

A federal prosecutor told a North Carolina federal court Tuesday that he was separating from the office after admitting in open court to using artificial intelligence to help draft a response brief, what he called "the worst decision I've ever made in my 30-year career."

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Calif. Atty Gets Over 11 Years For Solar $1B Ponzi Scheme

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has sentenced a corporate attorney to 11 years and five months behind bars after he pled guilty to nearly two dozen charges for his role in DC Solar's $912 million Ponzi scheme, which duped major investors including Berkshire Hathaway, Progressive and SunTrust Equipment Finance & Leasing.

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Ex-Moses & Singer Partner Admits Tax Crimes, Will Pay $2.8M

By Aaron Keller

A former Moses & Singer LLP partner admitted to practice in New York and North Carolina courts has pled guilty to three counts of failing to file personal income tax returns and will pay $2.8 million in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced Monday.

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Judiciary Approves Supreme Court Public Defender Office

By Katie Buehler

The federal judiciary approved a new office Tuesday aimed at improving the quality of representation for indigent defendants with cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

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Judge Nixed Over MAGA Op-Ed Seeks Reinstatement

By Emily Sawicki

A retired Illinois state trial court judge pursuing First Amendment claims against the state Supreme Court after his right-wing opinion column resulted in his removal from a temporary judgeship has moved for immediate reinstatement to the Cook County Circuit Court.

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Wisconsin Judges Decline To Extend Interim US Atty's Term

By Courtney Bublé

A majority of judges in the Eastern District of Wisconsin have declined to extend the tenure of interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel, according to an announcement Tuesday.

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J&J Opposes Beasley Allen Reinstatement Bid In NJ Talc Fight

By Emily Sawicki

Johnson & Johnson is urging the New Jersey Supreme Court to not take the "extraordinary step" of intervening in an appellate panel ruling that disqualified Beasley Allen from representing hundreds of women in product liability litigation against the pharmaceutical giant after the Georgia-based firm "knowingly collaborated" with a former Johnson & Johnson outside counsel.

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