Texas Court Backs Mom's Consent To Search Son's Room

By Parker Quinlan

The highest criminal court in Texas ruled Thursday that law enforcement were justified in believing they could search a man's bedroom without violating his Fourth Amendment rights because he lived at home with his mother, and she granted police access to search her entire home. 

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Pa. Justices Undo Contempt Over Vulgar Insult To Judge

By Matthew Santoni

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a courtroom observer who called a Philadelphia judge a vulgar name as he left his friend's evidence-suppression hearing should not have been held in contempt and sentenced to 30 days in jail, since his insult had not significantly disrupted the proceedings.

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Utah Officials Say 10th Circ. Rightly Revived Psilocybin Case

By Jonathan Capriel

County and local officials in Provo City, Utah, urged the Tenth Circuit not to give a religious group a second chance at arguing that it shouldn't be prosecuted for using psilocybin in its practices, slamming the church's arguments as "overblown."

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Ex-Philly Prosecutors Open Firm After Clash With DA Krasner

By Christine DeRosa

Two former prosecutors in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office have launched their own firm after resigning from the office following a clash with District Attorney Larry Krasner in a habeas corpus case.

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Gov't Urges 11th Circ. To Lift Sanctions Over Trump-IRS Deal

By Asha Glover

A federal judge's order barring President Donald Trump, the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department from citing the agreement made to settle his $10 billion suit against the tax agency is unsupportable and should be reversed, the government told the Eleventh Circuit.

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Fla. Court Dismisses Ex-School GC Grand Jury Secrecy Case

By David Minsky

A Florida state court Thursday tossed an indictment alleging a former school general counsel unlawfully violated the secrecy of a grand jury convened after the 2018 Parkland school shooting after the state's highest court declined to hear prosecutors' appeal to reinstate criminal charges earlier this week. 

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Mass. Panel Won't Undo OUI Plea Over Now-Void Breath Test

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts man cannot take back his 2015 admission to operating under the influence based on later revelations of state crime lab misconduct concerning the calibration of breath-test devices, given the other "overwhelming" evidence of drunken driving, an intermediate state appellate court said Thursday.

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Wash. Panel Says Man Didn't Possess Cached Abuse Image

By Parker Quinlan

A Washington appeals court has reversed a man's conviction on one of four counts related to images of child sexual abuse, ruling he was incorrectly found to be in knowing possession of an image that was automatically saved to his computer's hard drive without his knowledge.

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Brief

Michigan Men Sentenced For Credit Card Fraud Scheme

By Susan Smiley

Two Detroit men were sentenced to years of incarceration by a Michigan federal judge Wednesday after pleading guilty to wire fraud and admitting to running an elaborate credit card scheme that affected 15 victims.

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Tax Prep Biz Owner, Workers Charged In $177M Fraud Scheme

By Zak Kostro

An Alabama tax preparation business owner and several of her employees participated in a scheme to submit false tax returns to the IRS seeking more than $177 million in fraudulent federal tax refunds, federal prosecutors said.

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Ex-ComEd CEO, Lobbyist Signal Plea Deal Over Retrial

By Celeste Bott

Attorneys for Commonwealth Edison's former CEO and a longtime lobbyist told an Illinois federal judge on Thursday that they are in talks with the government about plea deals rather than an anticipated retrial next year on charges that they conspired to win former Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan's legislative favor in exchange for do-nothing jobs for his allies.

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How To ID And Respond To 5 Types Of Misleading Witnesses

Witnesses can mislead fact-finders using a variety of tactics — from strategic amnesia to manufactured ignorance — but lawyers can learn how to identify and expose this testimony to come out on top, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

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Weil's Demise Sparks Shock, Reflection In The Legal World

By Alison Knezevich and Andrea Keckley

The stunning collapse of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP is the talk of BigLaw this week, as those in the industry grapple with how the powerhouse Wall Street firm could implode so quickly.

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'Leadership Vacuum' Preceded Weil's Collapse

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson and Aebra Coe

A series of leadership failures and strategic missteps preceded the precipitous downfall of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, sources told Law360 Pulse.

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Lessons From The Past For Weil's Final Curtain Call

By Rick Archer

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP leaders may have every reason to agree to an out-of-court wind-down, but dissolving such a storied law firm, which announced Wednesday it intends to shut down following an exodus of attorneys, is not as simple as a handshake among partners, experts said in interviews with Law360 on Wednesday.

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Weil's Collapse Ends Firm's Long Run As Bankruptcy Leader

By Alex Wittenberg

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP helped pioneer modern bankruptcy practice and earned hundreds of millions of dollars leading many of the biggest Chapter 11 cases in U.S. history. Its collapse this week marks a stunning end to that legacy and reflects major changes in how law firms function today, attorneys told Law360.

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Troutman, Baker McKenzie Report Data Breaches

By Lynn LaRowe

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP and Baker McKenzie experienced data breaches last month as a result of social engineering attacks, according to notices submitted this week to the attorneys general offices in California and Texas.

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Morgan & Morgan Seeks To Block Celebrity Ad Ban In Florida

By Ryan Boysen

Personal injury giant Morgan & Morgan PA has asked a Florida federal court for a preliminary injunction to block a Sunshine State bar rule that forbids celebrity endorsements in attorney advertisements.

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