Analysis

Meta's $17B Child Safety Deal Puts Heat On Congress To Act

By Allison Grande

Meta's landmark $17.1 billion settlement of states' claims that it purposely addicted kids to social media mandates many of the safeguards increasingly being required by a growing patchwork of largely contested state child safety laws, boosting not only the profile of these measures but also the push for Congress to enact a more comprehensive fix.

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'Exemplary Performance' Earns Google Users' Attys $146.8M

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge Friday awarded plaintiffs' attorneys $146.8 million in fees after they secured a $425 million jury verdict against Google LLC in a privacy class action covering about 98 million people, calling the one-third fee award "extraordinary" but justified given their "exemplary performance."

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NJ Says TikTok Is Withholding Key Child Usage Data

By Carla Baranauckas

New Jersey urged a state judge to force TikTok to hand over detailed user engagement data the state said was essential in proving that the platform's design harmed children, accusing the company of months of evasive answers, shifting explanations and contradictory statements about whether the information even exists.

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NJ Law Requires Data Centers To Report Utility Usage

By Isaac Monterose

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a bill into law Thursday that requires data centers in the state to provide the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities with semiannual water and energy usage reports.

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FCC Wants To Fine Covered Chinese Cos. $188K

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission wants to fine ZTE and Hytera Communications more than $180,000 for failing to provide the agency with all its various corporate identities after the agency placed both Chinese companies on the covered list.

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Schwab Vendor Exempt From Ill. Biometric Law, 7th Circ. Says

By Lauraann Wood

The Seventh Circuit agreed Friday that a vendor Charles Schwab uses to authenticate customers' voiceprints is exempt from Illinois' biometric privacy law as it refused to revive claims that the vendor illegally collected callers' data.

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Mich. Judge Backs 'Mass Casualty' Privacy Waiver In Schools

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan state education budget package requiring schools to give up certain privacy protections in exchange for specific funding is not unconstitutional or vague, a federal judge said Thursday in a ruling mirroring a state appeals court's decision issued earlier this month.

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Concora Credit Flouted FCRA When Hiring, Applicant Says

By Sydney Price

Oregon-based financial services company Concora Credit violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not providing its prospective and current employees with consumer reports it obtained for background checks, according to a proposed class action filed in Washington federal court.

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10 Ways To Avoid Privacy Risks Revealed In AI Notetaker Suits

Litigation claiming Otter.ai trained its AI-powered transcription tool on user conversations and a recent complaint alleging Granola’s notetaking bot joined video calls unbeknownst to participants show companies should assess these technologies as communications-capture tools with privacy and wiretap risks, says Jennifer Ruehr at Hintze Law.

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McDermott Closing Health Policy Shop In DC

By Alison Knezevich

McDermott Will & Schulte is closing its healthcare lobbying and consulting shop after a dozen years in business.

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Feature

Rachael Rollins Pitches Scandal As Asset In Comeback Bid

By Taylor Bowie

Rachael Rollins rode a progressive wave to become Suffolk County's district attorney in 2019. After a scandal derailed her stint as Massachusetts U.S. attorney, she's trying to win her old DA post back, and leaning into her alleged ethical missteps as a resume boost.

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Calif. County Judges Recuse From Bias Suit Against DA's Office

By Patrick Hoff

The entire bench of a county court recused itself from a lawsuit alleging the San Francisco District Attorney's Office didn't take appropriate action when a Black employee reported a colleague's use of a racial slur, pushing the trial in the decade-old case to early October.

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House Eyes Vote To Lock Supreme Court At 9 Justices

By Courtney Bublé

The House returns from recess on Monday, and its agenda could include a vote to keep the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine.

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Trump Denied New Bid To Federalize Hush Money Prosecution

By Pete Brush

A New York federal judge on Friday again denied President Donald Trump's bid to move his criminal hush money conviction out of state court, finding as he did earlier that a federal law defense that Trump was operating in his official capacity would be meritless.

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Roundup

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

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen shoe brand Crocs bring an appeal against the chief executive of the U.K.'s Intellectual Property Office, singer Alanis Morissette sued by the former head of operations at Live Nation Israel and the son of convicted fraudster Guo Wengui file an appeal against the Chapter 11 trustee controlling his father's bankruptcy estate. 

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

KKR will pay a $250 million civil penalty to end allegations that it hid key documentation and entire transactions for merger notification. In the meantime, Apple told an Illinois federal judge that a recent Seventh Circuit decision affirming Samsung's win in a biometric privacy suit means the tech giant should prevail over similar claims. These are among 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

WilmerHale leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal judge held that the U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Trump administration.

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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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