In Deepfake Era, NY High Court Probes Evidence Standards

By Elizabeth Daley

A recent New York state high court decision hammering home the importance of video evidence authentication has been coined a "clarion call" for verification in the age of deepfakes by defense attorneys who say the ruling demands a change in tactics.

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Feds Urge Supreme Court To Overturn Native Assault Rulings

By Crystal Owens

The federal government is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn two Tenth Circuit decisions that determined a pair of Native American men can be convicted of simple assault under the Major Crimes Act in cases involving more serious charges, arguing that the "senseless result" can't be reconciled with the law's plain text.

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NYC Politician Seeks ICE Docs To Defend Obstruction Charge

By Britain Eakin

The ex-comptroller of New York City, Brad Lander, is urging a federal judge to require the federal government to disclose how it is using immigration holding rooms at 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan as he fights a ticket he received for allegedly obstructing federal immigration officials.

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Mass. Court Vacates Firearm Convictions In Murder Case

By Parker Quinlan

Massachusetts' highest court on Friday cut a burglary charge and ordered a new trial to determine whether a man convicted of murder in a botched robbery scheme should also be convicted on gun charges following changes in U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

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Mass. High Court Upholds Ex-Atty Pot Robbery Murder Charge

By Parker Quinlan

A disbarred Massachusetts attorney will not be given a third trial for a felony murder case after the state's highest court ruled Friday that evidence presented at trial was sufficient to convict him and that he should not be given a lesser involuntary manslaughter charge.

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Pa. High Court Snapshot: AG Powers, Gun Parts, CEO Bonus

By Matthew Santoni

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court this month will revisit a ruling on the state attorney general's power over civil suits brought by county-level district attorneys in a case stemming from the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh district attorneys' objections to a $26 billion opioid settlement.

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Ex-Software CFO Gets 2 Years For $35M Crypto Fraud Scheme

By Ben Adlin

The former chief financial officer of a Seattle software startup will spend two years behind bars after being found guilty of bilking $35 million from his ex-employer, according to the terms of a sentence handed down by a Washington federal judge.

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Mich. Justices Undo Atty Fees Imposed On Indigent Defendant

By Carolyn Muyskens

A formerly homeless man's $5,730 bill for his court-appointed lawyer's work will be canceled, ending his appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

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Sentencing Amendments Could Spell Paradigm Shift

Three of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recently proposed guideline amendments would have an immediate and dramatic impact on economic offenders, resulting in significantly fewer defendants receiving sentences of imprisonment and meaningfully addressing congressional directives, say Mark Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Doug Passon at Doug Passon Law.

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DOJ Forges Ahead With Law Firm EO Appeals At DC Circ.

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday moved ahead with filing appeals at the D.C. Circuit to defend executive orders issued by President Donald Trump targeting four law firms, just three days after the agency backtracked on its decision to drop the fight.

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Legal Jobs Up 19th Straight Month In 'Goldilocks' Economy

By Tracey Read

The legal sector continued its lengthy upward streak in February, with 2,600 more people employed in lawyer, paralegal and other law-related professional roles last month than in January, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Ex-Girardi Keese Atty Pleads Guilty For Role In Client Scandal

By Dorothy Atkins

Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin pled guilty to criminal contempt in Illinois federal court on Thursday for his role in the firm's failure to pay millions ​in client settlement funds to relatives of victims killed in the crash of Lion Air Flight 610.

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Louisiana Atty Sanctioned Over AI Hallucinations In Filing

By Matt Perez

A Louisiana attorney was fined $1,000 Thursday for his use of artificial intelligence in drafting an error-riddled brief, while three co-counsel were spared penalty.

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Investors Accuse Alston & Bird Of Aiding $328M Crypto Fraud

By David Minsky

Several investors have brought a Florida federal proposed class action alleging legal malpractice against Alston & Bird LLP, accusing the law firm of drafting joint venture agreements that were used to aid a $328 million cryptocurrency scam. 

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Constantine Cannon Defends Handling Of Sutter $75M Fee

By Dorothy Atkins

Constantine Cannon LLP pushed back against Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's allegations it unfairly reduced Schneider Wallace's share of a $75.4 million fee award in Sutter Health's $228.5 million antitrust deal, arguing in California federal court that the firm "sat on the sidelines" for most of the decadelong fight and isn't entitled to a bigger cut.

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NJ Talc Suit Will Proceed Amid Beasley Allen DQ Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to stay multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder brought by hundreds of women who allege their ovarian cancer was linked to the product, while Beasley Allen appeals its removal as plaintiff's counsel over a firm partner's collaboration with the pharmaceutical giant's former outside counsel.

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Florida Bar Rescinds Claim Agency Is Investigating Halligan

By Jack Karp

The Florida Bar said Friday that it is not investigating controversial former interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan, walking back a previous assertion it had made in a letter to a nonprofit that it was probing Halligan's actions.

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Courts Aren't Ignoring Justices' TPS Orders, Ex-Judges Say

By Ganesh Setty

Over 175 former federal and state judges have slammed the Trump administration's claim that lower courts "flouted" interim orders from the U.S. Supreme Court in litigation involving the administration's revocation of foreign nationals' temporary protected status, saying they weren't binding.

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Dems Again Push For Independent Immigration Courts

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats have again introduced a bill that would shift the immigration courts from the executive branch to an independent judiciary, following concerns that the Trump administration has "weaponized" the system.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen British American Tobacco sued by more than 100 investors, the government bring a claim against a COVID-19 supplier of personal protective equipment, Annington Funding sue its new corporate trustees on the Financial List, and Piers Morgan hit with a defamation claim from a pro-Israel barrister he interviewed on his YouTube channel. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Anthropic, the developer of Claude AI, says it will take the Pentagon to court over being designated a national security risk because it wants to impose ethical guardrails on Claude's use. And the Mideast war is making in-house legal teams across the country work long hours to protect employees trapped by the violence and to keep businesses running despite broken supply chains. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Winston & Strawn LLP, Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC, Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and attorney Olivia Gabriel lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey cannot shield its public transit system from personal injury lawsuits by out-of-state plaintiffs under sovereign immunity.

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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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