Wendy's Rejects $1.4B Trian-Led Take-Private Offer

By Al Barbarino

Wendy's said Thursday that an independent committee of its board unanimously rejected a $1.4 billion Trian Fund Management-led buyout offer that was made public last week, adopting a shareholder rights plan to deter the group from acquiring additional shares without board approval.

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Albertsons, Safeway Owe Wash. $900M Over Opioid Diversion

By Ben Adlin

Albertsons and its Safeway subsidiary must pay $900 million for helping fuel Washington state's overdose crisis by failing for years to prevent the diversion of opioid drugs, a Seattle judge ruled Thursday, finding that the pharmacy chains regularly failed to follow their own policies aimed at ensuring prescriptions were legitimate.

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DOJ Can't Appear Over Meat Plant Wage-Fixing Deal Concerns

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice will not be allowed to participate in an upcoming approval hearing for $200 million in wage-fixing settlements that beef and pork plant workers reached with major meat processors, a Colorado federal judge ruled Thursday, but the court will consider enforcers' concerns.

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Diminished 'Kings' Chain Looks To Liquidate Over Atty Fees

By Matthew Santoni

A Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy judge had qualms Thursday about plans to wind down the last two restaurants in the formerly regional Kings Family Restaurant chain, worrying the involuntary bankruptcy was driven by lawyers seeking to collect fees from an unpaid wages suit rather than current and former employees.

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Canada, China OK 2-Year Preferential Trade Extension

By Dylan Moroses

Canadian exports of peas, canola, lobsters and crabs will continue to benefit from an extended preferential market access deal with China, Canada's international trade minister has announced.

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Mission Foods Affiliate Seeks Arbitration Of Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Texas-based affiliate of Mission Foods urged a California federal judge to send a former employee's proposed wage class action to individual arbitration, arguing that he repeatedly signed arbitration agreements with the food manufacturer and waived his right to pursue class claims over alleged violations of state law.

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Buyers Sue Bodum Over French Press Breaking Risk, Recall

By Mike Curley

A consumer is suing Bodum USA Inc. in New York federal court, alleging in a proposed class action that it sold French press coffee makers with defective glass carafes that are prone to breaking and that the recently announced recall is inadequate to remedy the problem.

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IRS Asks 10th Circ. To Uphold Taxes, Penalties On Ranchers

By Zak Kostro

The U.S. Tax Court properly ruled that an Oklahoma couple owe roughly $260,000 in taxes and penalties because their ranch wasn't operated for profit as they had asserted, the IRS told the Tenth Circuit, saying they lacked a profit motive to claim deductions for their expenses.

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Mo. Judge Tosses Hemp Co. Challenge To New State Law

By Sam Reisman

A Missouri federal judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by hemp companies challenging the state's new law regarding intoxicating hemp products, finding that the policy is neither unconstitutional nor preempted by federal law governing hemp.

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Opinion

Justices Must Protect Enforcement In DOL Fine Power Case

In deciding whether the U.S. Department of Labor’s in-house court has the power to decide monetary penalties arising from H-2A violations, the U.S. Supreme Court must preserve a practical route to relief for workers and a constitutional forum for employers to contest liability, say Michelle Dromgold-Sermen, Jessica Vasquez-Luna and Julissa Barrera at George Mason University.

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6 Ways RE Projects Can Balance Campus, Commercial Needs

Recent mixed-use campus developments show that housing, research, hospitality, retail and recreation can share infrastructure and institutional identity while operating under diverse requirements, as long as the underlying agreement structures are carefully thought out and drafted, says Bob Burton at Winstead.

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Series

Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.

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Controversial DOJ Civil Rights Division Leader Steps Down

By Alison Knezevich

Harmeet K. Dhillon, a U.S. Department of Justice official who instituted dramatic changes as leader of the Civil Rights Division, has stepped down from her role.

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Sullivan & Cromwell Brings On Weil Capital Markets Leader

By Isaac Monterose

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP has hired the co-leader of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's capital markets team for a capital markets partner role in its New York City office, the firm announced Thursday.

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Analysis

Racing Against Whistleblowers Could Cost Companies

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice's new cash rewards program for tips on criminal fraud threatens to ramp up the pressure on companies to hurry internal investigations and quickly report suspected misconduct to the government before whistleblowers do, which could backfire in some cases, according to experts.

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Judge Albright's Do's And Don'ts For Patent Trials

By Dani Kass

Two months after former ​U.S. District Judge Alan Albright returned to private practice, he regaled a room of attorneys at the University of Texas School of Law on Thursday with lessons from his time on the bench.

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Trump's Hush Money Conviction Examined By Wary NY Panel

By Frank G. Runyeon

A New York State appellate court Thursday quizzed attorneys for President Donald Trump and state prosecutors over his hush-money conviction, exploring defense counsel's claims that the district attorney trespassed into federal jurisdiction by charging election violations and trampled on presidential immunity in a case "infected with multiple fatal errors."

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