Starbucks Can't Dump Investors' 'Triple Shot' Strategy Suit

By Emilie Ruscoe

Starbucks and its former CEO can't shed investor class action claims that the company harmed shareholders by concealing its struggles to implement a "reinvention plan," which came to light when the company disclosed that its sales were being harmed by longer waits for customized drinks in its U.S. stores and by fierce competition in China.

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Keurig Buyers Denied Class Cert. In K-Cup Antitrust Row

By Rae Ann Varona

A New York federal judge on Thursday denied class certification to direct purchasers of Keurig K-Cups who accuse the coffee machine company of stifling competition, saying the coffee pod buyers failed to show that common questions predominate those affecting only individual class members, particularly when it comes to antitrust injury.

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DOJ Antitrust Chief Says Agriculture A 'Top Priority'

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice's top antitrust official said enforcers have already opened several investigations in the agriculture sector, including into meatpackers at the direction of President Donald Trump, and called the industry a "top priority" for the agency.

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USPTO Decries Instacart's 'Road Mapping' Claim At Fed. Circ.

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is urging the Federal Circuit to turn away Instacart's challenge to the agency's relatively new procedures for discretionarily denying Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions, noting the court recently rejected three similar bids.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Big Beer, Bots And Billion-Dollar Bids Top Week's Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Private equity dealmaking and artificial intelligence investment continued to generate a steady flow of market chatter this past week, as reports pointed to fresh fundraising efforts, potential take-private bids, and early-stage talks across the technology, energy and consumer sectors.

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1st Circ. Tosses Challenge To Maine Lobster Boat Tracking

By Elliot Weld

The First Circuit has declined to revive a case brought by several Maine lobstermen who said their privacy rights were violated by the state's tracking of their vessels, ruling that the tracking devices were part of administrative searches of a closely regulated industry and do not violate the Fourth Amendment.

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Chancery Nixes Toss Of West Coast Diner Failure Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

Three fiduciaries of a now-shuttered Pacific states restaurant chain and its affiliates must face a claim in Delaware that they breached or aided breaches of fiduciary duties to the venture's Oregon-based affiliate, brought by an investor that pumped $18 million into the business, a vice chancellor ruled on Wednesday.

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PTAB Upholds Corteva's Patent For Insect-Repellent Corn

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has upheld the entirety of a Corteva Agriscience LLC unit's patent directed to an insect-repellent corn plant, following a challenge from Inari Agriculture Inc.

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How Store Brand Evolution May Influence IP Cases

A consumer shift toward private-label grocery products has spurred a recent crop of lawsuits, like Smuckers v. Trader Joe's, and parties must be prepared to carefully analyze consumer confusion in the grocery retailing context, as well as expectations and behavior, say Justin LaTorraca, Elizabeth Milsark and Laura O’Laughlin at Analysis Group.

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Rule Amendments Pave Path For A Privilege Claim 'Offensive'

Litigators should consider leveraging forthcoming amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which will require early negotiations of privilege-related discovery claims, by taking an offensive posture toward privilege logs at the outset of discovery, says David Ben-Meir at Ben-Meir Law.

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How Cos. Should Prepare For Prop 65 Listing Of Bisphenols

California regulators are moving toward classifying all p,p'-bisphenol chemicals as causing reproductive toxicity under Proposition 65, which could require warning notices for a vast range of consumer and industrial products, and open the floodgates to private litigation — so companies should proactively review their suppy chains, says Gregory Berlin at Alston & Bird.

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Series

My Miniature Livestock Farm Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Raising miniature livestock on my farm, where I am fully present with the animals, is an almost meditative time that allows me to return to work invigorated, ready to juggle numerous responsibilities and motivated to tackle hard issues in new ways, says Ted Kobus at BakerHostetler.

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Bonus Spotlight

Texas Boutique Giving Associates Bonuses Of Up To $135K

By Tracey Read

Texas complex commercial litigation boutique Vartabedian Hester & Haynes LLP announced Friday that it will reward associates with additional year-end bonuses of up to $135,000 by Dec. 31, while more firms said they'd match or exceed the prevailing BigLaw scale.

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Atty Had 6 AI Tools Check Each Other, Yet Fakes Still Cited

By Andrea Keckley

A California federal judge has sanctioned a solo practitioner representing the plaintiffs in a proposed wage and hour class action against clothing brand Vuori Inc. after he admitted to using about a half-dozen artificial intelligence tools to prepare a motion.

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Fenwick & West Must Face New Claims In FTX Crypto MDL

By Madison Arnold

A Florida federal judge signed off on a bid to file new claims against Fenwick & West LLP by victims of the infamous FTX Trading Ltd. cryptocurrency scam after they argued that new information had emerged about the firm's alleged role in the trading platform's collapse.

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Google Calls Rumble's Judge Recusal Bid 'Cynical Maneuver'

By Rae Ann Varona

Google argued Friday that a California federal judge need not recuse himself from YouTube rival Rumble's antitrust suit despite his friendship with Google's top in-house litigation chief, saying Rumble's push for the recusal was a "cynical maneuver" for its Ninth Circuit appeal of a summary judgment loss.

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Ex-Gordon Rees Atty Reprimanded For Mistakes Blamed On AI

By Rose Krebs

An Alabama bankruptcy judge won't sanction Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLC for a filing submitted by one of its former lawyers that contained mistakes blamed on artificial intelligence, but has reprimanded the attorney and ordered her to notify her clients about the reprimand.

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Worker Says Morgan & Morgan Fired Her Over Fraud Concern

By Irene Spezzamonte

Injury law firm Morgan & Morgan PA fired a case manager after she voiced a concern about fraudulent client hospital records she said the firm gave to opposing counsel to snag more favorable settlements and failed to pay overtime, according to a suit in California state court.

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Tort Report: Ga. Injury Suits Surge Ahead Of Tort Reform

By Y. Peter Kang

Word of a big surge in Georgia injury lawsuits ahead of tort reform legislation and a $66 million Atlanta nightclub shooting judgment lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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Ex-US Trustee Director's Firing Appeal Tossed, For Now

By Clara Geoghegan

The former head of the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog program had her appeal challenging her abrupt firing dismissed, at least for now, while a federal agency mulls questions around executive power in separate cases.

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DOJ Will Speed Some Classified Discovery In Bolton Case

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors agreed Friday to accelerate their classified discovery timeline in the prosecution of John Bolton, as a Maryland federal judge pressed them to move faster.

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Ga. Justices Spell Out How Atty Ads Can Be Misleading

By Emily Johnson

The Georgia Supreme Court has updated the State Bar of Georgia's rule that prohibits attorneys from misleading the public in advertising their services, defining how lawyers' messaging in ads could run afoul of the state's rule and possibly lead to disbarment.

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DC Judge Backs Local Grand Jury's Federal Indictment Power

By Jared Foretek

Following a D.C. federal judge's Thursday ruling that the city's unique legal structure allows prosecutors to bring indictments from local grand juries to federal court, a District of Columbia man on Friday asked the court to stay the ruling for five business days.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Clyde & Co. face a claim from Yorkshire firm GWB Harthills, a property developer previously investigated over suspected bribery and corruption sue the general counsel and solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs, and sportswear giant Gymshark bring an intellectual property claim against its co-founder's rival company, AYBL. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

This week's edition of GC Cheat Sheet explores which top legal officers take home the most money and why. And the general counsel of SolarWinds Corp. can finally leave its data breach regulatory problems behind after the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its unprecedented case against the company and its chief information security officer.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a D.C. federal judge rejected a Federal Trade Commission suit accusing Meta Platforms of illegally monopolizing social media through its purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram.

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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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