Anthropic Blocks Pentagon's 'Orwellian' Security Risk Label

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge Thursday issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from labeling Anthropic as a supply chain risk to national security, calling the move a "classic illegal First Amendment retaliation" and "Orwellian."

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Ketamine, WilmerHale Probe Off Limits In Musk-OpenAI Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has placed evidentiary guardrails on an April jury trial over Elon Musk's claims OpenAI duped him, excluding evidence on Musk's ketamine use and WilmerHale's investigation into Sam Altman's dismissal, but allowing evidence on Musk's rival startup, his romance with an ex-OpenAI boardmember and his Burning Man trip.

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Acxiom Beats Consumers' Suit Over Data Sales, For Good

By Gina Kim

A Virginia federal judge tossed a complaint alleging data analytics company Acxiom gathers and sells individuals' personal information like their addresses, birth dates and other identifiers to its clients, ruling Wednesday the laws alleged to have been violated only protect a person's name, portrait, or picture, "not any of this other data."

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3rd Circ. Sends Harriet Carter Wiretapping Case To Pa. Court

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit on Thursday said the federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear a case alleging that Harriet Carter Gifts and a third-party company violated consumers' privacy rights under Pennsylvania wiretapping law by collecting their website browsing data, ordering the lower court to remand the case to state court.

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Artist Says Tech Cos. Cut Attribution From Work Used For AI

By Zak Kostro

A Los Angeles 3D artist and visual effects creator accused four tech giants of failing to protect rights on millions of works by artists and designers that were used to train large-scale generative artificial intelligence systems, according to proposed class actions filed in California and Washington federal courts Thursday.

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FCC Floats Caps For Offshore Telecom Call Center Work

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission Thursday floated new rules to encourage the onshoring of customer call centers in the telecom industry.

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Imaging Practice Data Breach Class Actions Hit NC Biz Court

By Abigail Harrison

A series of putative class actions resulting from a data breach at imaging practice Triad Radiology Associates PLLC hit North Carolina Business Court this week, with a couple of the cases naming hospitals that partnered with the practice.

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NC Suit Says Real Estate Co. Cyberattack Notice Took Months

By Nate Beck

A real estate company faces a purported class action in North Carolina's Business Court accusing the firm of waiting months to notify its customers of a data breach in September and failing to disclose what kind of information was stolen.

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PNC Beats Customer's $200K Forged Check Dispute

By Emilie Ruscoe

PNC no longer faces allegations it failed to prevent a customer's losses after his employees drained nearly $205,000 from his accounts, a Philadelphia federal judge found, noting the plaintiff's estate administrator didn't properly dispute relevant facts asserted by the bank.

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Co. Accused Of Sharing Mental Health Data With Google

By Zach Dupont

A California resident alleged in Colorado federal court that a Denver-based telehealth mental health provider is providing sensitive customer data to Google without their consent in violation of federal and state privacy laws, according to a proposed class action filed Thursday.

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Reel Justice: 'Mercy' And Private Surveillance As Evidence

The near-future depicted in the film “Mercy” reminds attorneys that private surveillance networks are becoming central to the evidentiary ecosystem, shaping what prosecutors can obtain, what defendants must explain and what jurors may interpret as objective truth, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

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BigLaw Races To Capture Expanding Fund Finance Market

By Kevin Penton

Debt financing work at the fund level has long been dominated on the lender side by attorneys from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Haynes Boone and Mayer Brown LLP, but other firms are increasingly crafting formal practices and poaching fund finance stars from the more established players.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Lanier Law Firm, Kiesel Law LLP, Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP and Beasley Allen Law Firm lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California state jury in a bellwether trial found Meta and Google liable for harming the mental health of a woman who says she became addicted to their social media platforms as a child.

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NJ Federal Judge DQs Beasley Allen In J&J Talc MDL

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has disqualified the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing hundreds of plaintiffs in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, holding that the firm violated ethics rules by collaborating with former outside counsel for J&J, a ruling the law firm has vowed to appeal.

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Atty Sanctioned For AI Hallucinations In Workers' Comp Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 in sanctions for failing to rectify AI-hallucinated case citations pointed out to him in an appeal concerning reimbursement sought by a workers' compensation carrier.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Apple hit back at a tech company's wireless charging patent claim, a flurry of businesses bring COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims as a key deadline draws closer and Ipulse Partners LLP file a claim against a luxury yacht company it represented in a trademark dispute. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Polsinelli Hires Practice Head From McDermott In NY

By Andrea Keckley

Polsinelli PC said Thursday that it has hired a longtime McDermott Will & Schulte LLP attorney to co-lead its special situations and alternative investment practice, saying the move "further advanc[es] the firm's strategic focus on private credit, distressed investing, and complex restructuring matters."

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Apollo, BlackRock Deny Asking Kirkland To Abandon Optimum

By Tracey Read

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other major financial companies have denied Optimum Communications' claims accusing them of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as the telecommunications company's transaction counsel to get revenge for a collusion lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from dropping AI giant Anthropic from the government's supply chain, and Latham & Watkins ranked first in a survey of in-house legal leaders on which law firms are most helpful in developing business, followed by King & Spalding, Jones Day and Ropes & Gray.

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Firms Targeted By Trump Urge DC Circ. To Uphold EO Rulings

By Alison Knezevich

Four law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to affirm lower court rulings that struck down executive orders restricting their ability to practice law, saying the directives blatantly violate the Constitution.

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Brief

Amazon Swaps MoFo In, Perkins Coie Out In Cooker Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon.com LLP switched counsel Friday in a customer's product defect suit accusing the retail giant of selling a faulty pressure cooker that allegedly malfunctioned and caused her severe burns, substituting two Morrison Foerster LLP attorneys in place of an outgoing Perkins Coie LLP lawyer.

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Mich. Judge Signals No Stay If Attys Exit Retaliation Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge said Friday she is not inclined to pause a long-running sexual harassment suit again if counsel for an attorney who is suing her ex-mentor and former firm are allowed to withdraw, telling the parties, "We've been here. We've done this," as she heard arguments over a motion to exit the case.

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Judiciary Nixes Amicus Disclosure Reform Over Potential Chill

By Emily Sawicki

The federal judiciary has been asked not to move forward with a plan to add to amicus brief disclosure requirements designed to curb "dark money" groups from bankrolling amicus briefs, after rules committee chairs pulled the recommendation over concerns of a possible chilling effect.

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Ex-Williams & Connolly Clerk Accused Of Posting Client Info

By Hailey Konnath

A former Williams & Connolly LLP clerk has been posting confidential firm information — including client information and work email exchanges — and he's threatening to "keep leaking" the materials, which he called "a fun read," according to a suit filed in District of Columbia Superior Court.

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Mayer Brown's $21M Fee Bid In RI Truck Tolls Suit Rebuffed

By Linda Chiem

A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday rebuffed Mayer Brown LLP's bid for $21 million in attorney fees for representing the commercial trucking industry's lead trade group in long-running litigation over the state's truck tolling program, saying the American Trucking Associations ultimately was not the "prevailing party."

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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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FCC Told It Can't Make Foreign Call Centers Speak English

By Nadia Dreid

The National Creditors Bar Association is not pleased with the Federal Communications Commission's plans to pass new rules that would require companies to make sure their foreign call center operators speak "American Standard English," saying the agency has no power over foreign employees.

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