Squire Patton, Baker McKenzie Hit With Data Breach Suits

By Rae Ann Varona

Squire Patton Boggs LLP and Baker McKenzie failed to protect private personal information stored in the law firms' systems from separate cyberattacks and delayed notifying affected individuals for roughly two months, two proposed class actions filed in Ohio and Illinois federal courts have alleged.

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Pornhub Gets Initial Nod For $120M Child Content Class Deal

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge granted preliminary approval Friday to a $120 million settlement reached by the companies behind Pornhub to end certified class claims in California and Alabama by child sex trafficking and sexual abuse material survivors who allege the video-sharing website profited from crimes committed against them.

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Analysis

PHP Flaw Shows How AI 'Changing The Game' In Cyber Realm

By Allison Grande

Artificial intelligence's role in uncovering a critical flaw in the PHP programming language that underpins a majority of the world's websites underscores its growing power to identify and help address cybersecurity vulnerabilities — and signals that such AI-driven discoveries may only just be beginning.

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Fla. Judge Rejects Guilty Plea Over TikTok Threats To Trump

By David Minsky

A Florida federal magistrate judge recommended that the court reject a woman's guilty plea for allegedly threatening President Trump in a profanity-laced TikTok livestream, saying the facts in the case don't show that the video contained a true threat of violence. 

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Google Sued Over Claims Its School AI Fueled Suicide Plot

By Dorothy Atkins

A North Carolina couple have hit Google with a product liability lawsuit that was removed to California federal court Wednesday, alleging that the tech giant negligently rolled out a dangerous version of Gemini AI on school-issued Chromebooks that led their once-healthy 13-year-old daughter into a "life-threatening obsession" that "coached" her suicide plot.

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FinCEN Scraps Unpopular Cross-Border Recordkeeping Plan

By Aislinn Keely

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said Friday it has withdrawn a controversial six-year-old proposal that planned to significantly lower the threshold for collecting and transmitting identifying information for financial transactions across U.S. borders and apply the requirements to cryptocurrency.

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FCC To Allow Cable Biz's Router Hardware Upgrades

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission's staff has granted a one-year waiver to a major cable industry group, so its members can make certain hardware changes to previously approved routers that now fall under a national security restriction.

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US Charges 3 Over $129M AI Scam Using Fake UK Lawyers

By Laura Stewart Liberty

U.S. prosecutors said Thursday they have charged three men, including one facing extradition from London, for allegedly defrauding companies of $129 million through a scheme that used AI to impersonate executives and U.K. lawyers.

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Medical IT Co. Makes Data Breach Deal With Conn., Mich., NJ

By George Woolston

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Michigan and New Jersey on Friday announced a settlement of up to $10 million with companies that they say failed to protect medical data ahead of a March 2023 data breach that affected 13.3 million people.

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OKCoin Beats $2M Hacker Crypto Theft Suit

By Sydney Price

A California federal judge has permanently tossed a proposed class action accusing digital asset exchange OKCoin and its affiliates of enabling cryptocurrency thieves, ruling the plaintiffs' allegations that the company lacked certain safeguards do not show it is liable for the losses.

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Software Co. Says Lack Of US Tie Dooms Revenge Porn Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

Georgia-based software firm Ebix asked a federal court to toss its ex-CEO's suit alleging the company's owner obtained intimate images of him and his wife without consent and threatened to release them to pressure him into dropping a separate case, arguing the law doesn't cover acts allegedly committed in India.

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Consumers Want State-Law Amazon Pricing Case Unpaused

By Matthew Perlman

Consumers accusing Amazon of violating various state antitrust and consumer protection laws with its seller pricing rules are asking a New York federal court to unpause their case, following a class certification ruling in a similar action.

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How Cos. Can Reassess Ad Tech After Wash. Pixel Use Ruling

The Washington Supreme Court's decision in Baker v. Seattle Children's Hospital, holding that the hospital website's use of Meta Pixel didn't violate the state’s privacy act, may provide a powerful defense against privacy claims, but shouldn’t be read as a blanket approval of advertising technologies, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

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How Feds' Shifting Guidance Hits Bank-Fintech Partnerships

A slew of recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reforms will ultimately give banks and fintechs more flexibility in third-party oversight and supervisory information sharing, but institutions still must document risk-based decisions and engage proactively with regulators, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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What To Watch As Florida Stablecoin Framework Takes Shape

As Florida's new payment stablecoin licensing framework enters its second month, requiring issuers to map applicable state and federal obligations and account for certification and rulemaking uncertainty, businesses should build core controls while keeping launch plans and contracts flexible, says Rob Brighton at Becker.

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Opinion

Judges Must Turn To Merits Earlier To Fix Civil Justice System

The U.S. justice system is long overdue for a cultural shift that encourages judges to engage with the merits of a case from the outset, which would help to cut through procedural complexities and deliver high-quality justice efficiently and at lower cost, says Steven Kayman at Rottenberg Lipman.

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High Court Disbars Judicial Watch Founder Larry Klayman

By David Minsky

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday disbarred Judicial Watch founder and Florida conservative activist attorney Larry Klayman following his 18-month suspension issued last year by the D.C. Court of Appeals. 

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Firms Must Face RICO Claims In Asbestos Fraud Suit

By Emily Field

An Illinois federal judge on Friday held that Simmons Hanly Conroy LLP and Sokolove Law must face racketeering claims brought by a Los Angeles industrial pipe manufacturer alleging that the firms brought baseless asbestos claims, finding that an antitrust doctrine shielding those who petition the courts does not apply.

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DOJ's Civil Division Head Joins Agency Exits After Midterms

By Jack Karp

The leader of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division, Brett A. Shumate, on Monday became at least the fifth top DOJ official to step down following Republicans' defeat in last week's midterm elections.

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Trump Eyes OLC Chief For Texas Judgeship After Midterms

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump is considering the head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel for a federal judgeship in Texas, a process that started right after the Democrats won big in last week's midterm elections.

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Goldstein Says Gov't Conceded Key Trial Errors

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog co-founder Thomas Goldstein told the Fourth Circuit that the federal prosecutors who netted 12 tax and mortgage fraud convictions effectively conceded they hid evidence by steering a key witness to new testimony mid-trial and had reversed their stance on jury instructions, two key issues in Goldstein's appeal.

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AAA Says Consumers' Monopoly Claims Lack Factual Support

By Caroline Simson

The American Arbitration Association is lashing out against consumers who accuse the institution of monopolizing the consumer arbitration services market, telling a federal judge on Monday that they should be sanctioned for including "false, misleading, and unsupported allegations" in an amended complaint.

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Wash. Panel Nixes $10K Sanctions On Monsanto PCB Attys

By Rachel Riley

A Washington Court of Appeals panel has overturned a combined $10,000 in sanctions against four attorneys who defended Monsanto from chemical poisoning claims, concluding Monday that the trial court overstepped its authority by personally punishing the lawyers for late disclosure of expert witnesses.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week cleared the way for Cloudflare Inc. to seek immediate review of an injunction blocking a stock restructuring designed to preserve its founders' control, while setting a January hearing in a similar dispute over Meta Platforms Inc.'s plan to create nonvoting shares.

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