BuzzBallz Rival Says 'Joke' Domain Grab Not Funny Or Legal

By Craig Clough

A claim by cocktail company BuzzBallz that its purchase of an upcoming rival's web domains was a "joke" is a shallow attempt to avoid responsibility for its anticompetitive cybersquatting actions, beverage company Patco Brands argued while urging a California federal court to deny BuzzBallz's motion for summary judgment.

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Abbott Hit With $53M Verdict Over Baby Formula Harms

By Celeste Bott

A Cook County jury on Thursday awarded a total of $53 million in damages to four mothers claiming Abbott Laboratories' preterm baby formula contributed to their babies' development of a serious and often fatal gut condition, in the first of such claims to go to trial in Illinois.

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Judge Says Poultry Enviro Deals In 20-Year Suits Fall Short

By Elaine Briseño

An Oklahoma federal judge has rejected a bid by the state and several poultry companies to enter consent decrees in their two-decade-old dispute, finding the agreements did not go far enough to address pollution of the Illinois River Watershed.

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Mich., Animal Rights Groups Take Aim At US's Egg Price Suit

By Gina Kim

Animal advocacy groups and Michigan officials moved to end the U.S. government's federal lawsuit seeking to void the state's ban on eggs produced by caged hens, arguing Thursday the federal government lacks standing because it isn't the subject of enforcement, as it doesn't commercially sell, produce or distribute eggs in Michigan.

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Dunkin' Stores Cut $250K Deal In EEOC Disability Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

Fifteen Dunkin' franchisees and their management company will pay $250,000 to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleging they forced employees with disabilities and medical restrictions onto unpaid leave, according to a Thursday filing in Massachusetts federal court.

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Fed Circ Probes Standing In Cocoa Import Child Labor Case

By Dylan Moroses

Federal Circuit judges challenged a labor rights organization's arguments for standing to force U.S. Customs and Border Protection's response to a petition to ban U.S. chocolate producers from importing cocoa from the Ivory Coast during oral arguments Thursday.

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Uber Fights Uphill To Ax FTC, States' Subscription Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to keeping alive the Federal Trade Commission and states' claims that Uber dupes consumers into its paid subscription service, doubting that Uber's disclosures clearly communicate its subscription practices "as a matter of law," and saying certain state claims are "on very firm ground."

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Restaurant Slams Sushi Chef's 'Soap Opera' Sanctions Bid

By Benjamin Morse

A Connecticut restaurant urged a federal judge to reject sanctions sought by a sushi chef alleging wage violations, arguing that the plaintiff's counsel has tried to turn a routine deposition dispute into a "soap opera."

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LA Cannabis Edibles Maker Settles Prop 65 Warning Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

A Los Angeles cannabis-infused edibles producer has agreed to pay $70,000 to end a Proposition 65 lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately hiding the state-required warning with a peel-back product label, with most of the money going to the plaintiff's lawyer.

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Welch's Maker Tells ITC Rival Infringing 2 Fruit Snack Patents

By Jack McLoone

The manufacturer of Welch's Fruit Snacks brought its fight against what it claims are patent-infringing yogurt-covered snacks produced by rival Cibo Vita to the U.S. International Trade Commission, the ITC said Thursday.

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Chancery Agrees To Fast-Track $58M Food Sale Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday agreed to fast-track a dispute over a $58 million food distribution deal, finding that the buyer's claims of ongoing competitive harm warrant expedited proceedings and a near-term hearing on a preliminary injunction.

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DOL Urges 11th Circ. To Scrap ERISA Exhaustion Rule

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor urged the full Eleventh Circuit to overturn precedent making it the only appellate court requiring workers to exhaust administrative remedies before bringing any statutory claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. arguing that the standard is unfair and in conflict with ERISA.

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Chicago Suits Highlight Struggle Over Piercing Corporate Veil

A union's latest lawsuit against the owners of a storied Chicago bar and restaurant that closed in 2023 illustrates how doing business via a limited liability company does not necessarily protect owners' personal assets — but also that obtaining a judgment does not mean that collection is automatic, says James Trail at Ginsberg Jacobs.

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'Made In America' Rules Raise Stakes For Gov't Contractors

The convergence of widely varying "buy American" requirements, increased enforcement efforts and continuing regulatory attempts to limit foreign sourcing suggests that government contractors should carefully review their supply chain and country-of-origin compliance to remain competitive, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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Series

Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

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DLA Piper Partner Rejects Pregnant Atty's Account Of Firing

By Pete Brush

The DLA Piper partner who fired a pregnant associate said she did so lawfully, telling a Manhattan federal jury her former employee was "in over her head" and disputing that the associate raised pregnancy bias concerns on a termination call.

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6th Circ. Won't Revisit EFAA Ruling Against Adams & Reese

By Patrick Hoff

The Sixth Circuit said it won't reconsider its ruling that a law barring mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment cases kept a former Adams & Reese LLP paralegal's sex harassment and disability bias suit in court, concluding that the firm's objections were already considered.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen the owner of an oil tanker stuck in the Strait of Hormuz sued by an energy company and an insurer, law firm Boodle Hatfield LLP and two Serle Court barristers sued by a group of Winston Churchill's great-grandchildren, and Welsh Water hit with a fresh class action suit over polluted rivers.

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Calif. Atty Avoids Sanctions For Filing Bogus Citations With AI

By Matt Perez

A California attorney has avoided sanctions over his use of artificial intelligence for a filing in a civil rights case, which resulted in false citations.

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Another Gov't Atty From Vt. Joins Stris & Maher's Team

By Jack Rodgers

A former civil chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont has joined Stris & Maher LLP's practice as a partner, the firm announced Friday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Other states might follow the lead of California and break with President Donald Trump's policies in implementing guardrails for state agencies to contract with AI companies. And after three individual indictments last month for selling banned tech to China, Supermicro has hired Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to conduct an independent investigation, assigned its general counsel to lead an internal compliance review, and shaken up its compliance leadership.

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NJ Justices Won't Review Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Cases

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court's order booting the Beasley Allen Law Firm from multicounty litigation in the Garden State over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder, according to an order made public Friday.

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Conn. Justices Block Agency's Bias Probe Into Atty Licensing

By Brian Steele

Because citizens blocked the legislature from reviewing court decisions when ratifying the state's 1818 constitution, a Connecticut human rights agency has no power to investigate alleged bias in attorney licensing decisions, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday in a unanimous opinion.

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Airline Worker Asks To Expand Sanctions Row In Bias Case

By Emily Brill

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who was fired after sending her union's president pictures of aborted fetuses is pushing for additional remedies in a sanctions dispute stemming from her long-running religious discrimination lawsuit against the airline, from which she received $800,000 after winning a jury trial in 2022.

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Trump Taps Personal Atty For 2nd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening he's tapping Matthew Schwartz, his attorney in the New York hush money case, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

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