DC Circ. Backs CFTC Denial Of $147M Whistleblower Award

By Lauren Berg

The D.C. Circuit Friday affirmed the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's decision denying a former trader's bid for a $147 million whistleblower incentive award after he tipped off the agency about foreign exchange market manipulation, saying there's no evidence he was the original source on which the commission relied.

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Gibson Dunn Wants Ex-Worker's Bias Suit Sent To Arbitration

By Grace Elletson

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP told a Texas federal judge that a Hispanic former employee's race bias suit claiming she was denied promotions and mocked for her accent belongs in arbitration, arguing she is bound by a pact stating she would resolve all employment disputes outside of court.

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Seton Hall Prof Can't Get 2nd Chance At Indian Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

An associate professor at Seton Hall University can't reopen his lawsuit claiming he was denied a promotion because he's Asian and Indian, with a New Jersey state appeals court concluding Friday he hadn't shown he was qualified and waited too long to amend his complaint.

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Leon Black Seeks $1.6M In Fees After Wigdor Sanction

By Ryan Boysen

Scandal-plagued financier Leon Black wants Wigdor LLP to pay $1.6 million as a sanction for lying to a New York federal judge while representing a woman who claims she was raped by Black at notorious accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's home.

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Musicians Say UMG, Warner Stiffed Them On AI Licensing

By Lauren Berg

The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada claims Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group violated its members' collective bargaining agreement by licensing sound recordings to two artificial intelligence companies without compensating the musicians involved, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in New York federal court.

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Coalition Urges Court To Halt Gov't Contractor DEI Order

By Katherine Smith

A coalition of nonprofits, university professors, federal contractors and subcontractors has asked a Maryland federal court to halt an executive order requiring government contractors to agree not to engage in "racially discriminatory DEI activities," arguing that they will continue to suffer irreparable harm if the order is not enjoined and stayed.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: AI Could Impact Worker Classification

By Patrick Hoff

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on how artificial intelligence tools could support findings that an independent contractor is an employee under federal law, how U.S. Department of Labor's recently finalized rule changing financial disclosure requirements for unions will increase their reporting burden, and the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year to lift an evidentiary barrier that discrimination plaintiffs in majority groups had faced. 

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Marilyn Manson Fails To Nix Ex-Assistant's Sex Assault Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

Goth rocker Marilyn Manson failed to convince a Los Angeles judge on Friday to permanently toss his former personal assistant's latest amended complaint that accuses him of having sexually assaulted her in 2010, with the judge saying it wouldn't be right to resolve the case at the pleading stage.

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Ex-F5 Director Claims Gender Bias By 'Biggest Tech Bro' Boss

By Ben Adlin

A former product management director at technology firm F5 Inc. accused the company of "deliberate sex discrimination," claiming in a Washington state lawsuit that she was wrongfully fired after raising concerns about demeaning treatment from a supervisor described as the "biggest tech bro."

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Spirit Unions Blast Executive Bonus Proposal In Ch. 11

By Hailey Konnath

A pair of unions representing former Spirit Airlines employees Friday tore into the bankrupt airline's request to pay executives incentives to keep them on while the carrier winds down its operations, saying there is "no conscionable basis" to prioritize the highest-paid executives at the expense of the thousands of workers who lost their jobs.

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Builders Seek Redo On Biden-Era Labor Mandate Ruling

By Madeline Lyskawa

An association of builders has urged the en banc Eleventh Circuit to rethink a panel's decision rejecting its attempt to secure an injunction blocking a Biden-era executive order requiring labor agreements for all federal contracts exceeding $35 million.

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Analysis

4 Argument Sessions For Benefits Attys To Watch In June

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Ninth Circuit will hear from a benefits administrator that claims federal law preempts state-law data breach claims, and Amazon will defend its win in a military leave bias suit at the Second Circuit. Here, Law360 looks at cases being argued in June that benefits attorneys should have on their radar.

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Microchip Co. Can't Dismantle Severance Suit Class Action

By Patrick Hoff

A microchip manufacturer can't decertify a class action alleging it unlawfully revoked its severance program after a merger, with a California federal judge rejecting the company's assertion that a Ninth Circuit decision meant the court had to individually assess workers' decisions.

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Nortek Accuses Rival Of Stealing Data Center Cooling Secrets

By Elliot Weld

Ventilation company Nortek has hit a rival with allegations that, in response to the rising demand for cooling technology in data centers as a result of the artificial intelligence boom, it "raided" Nortek's employees and misappropriated trade secrets related to such technology.

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Site Redeveloper Fined $500K For Illegal Asbestos Demolition

By Carla Baranauckas

A redevelopment firm that admitted it commenced demolition work at a former automotive plant in Saginaw, Michigan, without first remediating asbestos was sentenced Friday to pay a $500,000 criminal fine and serve two years of probation, federal prosecutors said.

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MoFo Adds AI-Focused Labor Atty From McDermott In LA

By Madison Arnold

Morrison Foerster LLP has expanded its employment and labor group in Los Angeles with the addition of a former McDermott Will & Schulte attorney.

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What's Next After Justices' Last-Mile Driver Arbitration Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Flowers Foods v. Brock, refusing to narrow the scope of a Federal Arbitration Act exemption for workers engaged in interstate commerce, gives previously unprotected workers access to litigation, but preserves two potentially powerful arguments for future proceedings, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Shoring Up Corporate Law In Maryland

Launched more than 20 years ago to improve complex corporate adjudication, Maryland's Business and Technology Case Management Program has been a solid success in some areas, but there always is room for improvement, says Bill Krulak at Miles & Stockbridge.

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Legal Job Market Surges With Special Litigation, Gov't Work

By Tracey Read

The legal sector saw 1,200 more jobs in May after gaining 1,900 positions the month before, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Winston Taylor leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a patent suit over Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.'s generic version of a heart drug that uses a so-called skinny label.

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​​​​​​​Judge Seeks Discipline For DOJ Trans Care Subpoena Tactics

By Mark Payne

A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday referred Justice Department attorneys seeking gender-affirming care records from Rhode Island Hospital via a HIPAA subpoena to a court disciplinary committee for potential punishment after they allegedly misled the court. 

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Katten Is Latest Firm To Match Milbank Associate Pay Raise

By Kevin Penton

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP has joined the growing list of firms that are largely matching a new pay scale for associates set earlier this week by Milbank LLP, with attorneys set to see annual pay increases of $10,000 to $20,000.

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Morgan & Morgan Explores Private Equity Investment Options

By Emma Cueto

The nation's largest personal injury firm, Morgan & Morgan, is exploring its options with regard to a potential private equity investment, with the firm saying Friday it is in the early stages of understanding what such an investment might mean and whether it is a good opportunity or "fool's gold."

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Bonus Spotlight

Dunn Isaacson Announces Bonuses Of Up To $25K

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee LLP is the latest firm to announce midyear associate bonuses and is distributing payouts of between $10,000 and $25,000, according to an internal memo viewed by Law360.

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Analysis

Will WDTX Remain A Patent Fixture Without Albright?

By Dani Kass

Whether the Western District of Texas will continue drawing in hordes of patent cases after U.S. District Judge Alan Albright leaves this summer has attorneys torn, given that he's no longer the top patent judge in his district, let alone the country.

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Berkeley Dean Views 1952 Opinion As Executive Power Test

By Aaron Keller

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, has urged the courts to examine a lesser-known concurring opinion in a 1952 U.S. Supreme Court decision on a steel mill case when judging the modern limits of presidential power.

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Analysis

Justices Signal Openness To Future SEC Disgorgement Cases

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's victory before the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday is likely to give the agency a leg up in settlement negotiations, but attorneys say that some defendants will continue to press judges to review the agency's disgorgement requests based on questions that the high court still hasn't answered.

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First Democrat Returns A Blue Slip For Judicial Nominee

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is the first Democratic senator in the second Trump administration to return a blue slip for a judicial nominee.

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DLA Piper Urges 2nd Circ. To End 'Vexatious' Malpractice Suit

By Emily Sawicki

The Second Circuit should uphold the dismissal of a Chinese software company's legal malpractice suit and $635,000 in sanctions against it and its lawyers, DLA Piper has argued, citing previous favorable rulings in the matter by a federal magistrate judge, district court judge, state justice and five-judge panel of the New York state appeals court.

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ICE Atty's Bid To Ax Contempt Order Is 'Absurd,' Amicus Says

By Emily Sawicki

A court-appointed amicus curae has told the Eighth Circuit that a Minnesota federal judge was right to hold a government attorney in contempt after finding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flouted a court order, leading to a detained man being released hundreds of miles from his home without legal identification.

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GrayRobinson Data Breach Suits Get Consolidated

By Adrian Cruz

A Florida magistrate judge has decided to consolidate three nearly identical suits accusing GrayRobinson PA of negligence following the revelation of a March 2025 data breach, simultaneously denying the plaintiffs' bid to have interim class counsel appointed.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week, investor advocates have questioned the legality of the SEC's plan to withdraw corporate climate disclosure regulations, and an insurance broker's report found claims made under policies for mergers and acquisitions have risen in frequency and severity.

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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 the U.K.'s oldest Indian restaurant launch an appeal against King Charles III's property company in an effort to stop its eviction, trustees of a bankrupt former EY tax partner file a claim against his wife, and 37 leading insurers bring a lawsuit against agrichemical company Syngenta over an insurance dispute. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Morgan & Morgan's John Yanchunis

By Matt Perez

John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan PA has been at the forefront of data privacy litigation for nearly three decades, but what stands out to his colleague Ryan McGee is not the litany of wins but the attorney's humility.

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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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