GAO Denies Protest Of $325M CDC Contract

By Elaine Briseño

The U.S. Government Accountability Office denied a protest over the awarding of a $325 million Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contract, finding the agency's extra round of discussions with the winning bidder did not result in an unequal process.

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Anthropic Deemed Supply Chain Risk By Pentagon, Vows Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

The Pentagon has officially informed Anthropic that it is a supply chain risk to the United States' national security, a designation that the artificial intelligence company plans to challenge in court as not "legally sound," according to a statement by Anthropic's CEO on Thursday.

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Progenity Investors' $1M Billing Fraud Suit Deal Gets Final OK

By Sydney Price

Genetic test distributor Progenity Inc., now known as Biora Therapeutics Inc., has received final approval of a $1 million settlement with investors, resolving claims that it made misleading statements ahead of its June 2020 initial public offering about its practice of overbilling the government.

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Minn. Man Gets 5 Years For Jury Rigging In Fraud Case

By Parker Quinlan

A Minneapolis man has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for his role in a scheme to bribe a juror during the trial of Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which was accused of stealing $250 million in COVID-19 relief funds earmarked to provide lunches to schoolchildren.

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DOD Official Says 30,000 Small Drone Order Coming Soon

By Madeline Lyskawa

A U.S. Department of Defense official told lawmakers Thursday that the Pentagon plans to order 30,000 small one-way attack drones for $150 million over the next few days, amid concerns that the U.S. is lagging behind with regard to its drone capabilities. 

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Ill. Store Owner Gets 4 Years For $19M WIC Program Fraud

By Joyce Hanson

An Illinois federal judge has sentenced the owner of several Chicagoland convenience stores to a four-year term in prison for his part in a scheme to defraud a low-income food program for women and children, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced.

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Feds Oppose Early End To Supervision For Ex-Mich. Lobbyist

By Melanie Dorsey

Federal prosecutors urged a Michigan federal judge to deny a request by a former marijuana industry lobbyist convicted in a bribery scheme to end his supervised release early, arguing that simply following the rules for a short period of time does not justify shortening his sentence.

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Brief

Fla. Lab Pays $980K To Settle Kickback Allegations

By Elaine Briseño

A laboratory in Florida agreed to pay $980,000 to resolve allegations that it provided kickbacks to marketers for referring Medicare beneficiaries to use its services, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Trump Can Shelve Refugee Admissions, 9th Circ. Rules

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ruled that President Donald Trump likely has the authority to suspend admissions of people seeking refugee status in the U.S., but said the government's defunding of services to refugees already admitted is likely unlawful.

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9th Circ. Judge 'Frustrated' At DOJ Position On Anti-Trans EOs

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit judge said Thursday he's "very frustrated" with the Trump administration's argument that a district court judge acted prematurely by partly blocking executive orders to end funding for gender-affirming care, saying it's "pretty clear" the government was poised to do exactly that.

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Intel, Lutnick Face Investor Suit Over Government's 10% Stake

By Jessica Corso

An Intel Corp. shareholder is suing the company's board of directors and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over a deal in which the government received a 10% stake in the company in exchange for releasing billions of dollars in previously agreed-upon funding.

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Series

Volunteering With Scouts Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Serving as an assistant scoutmaster for my son’s troop reaffirmed several skills and principles crucial to lawyering — from the importance of disconnecting to the value of morality, says Michael Warren at McManis Faulkner.

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DOJ Forges Ahead With Law Firm EO Appeals At DC Circ.

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday moved ahead with filing appeals at the D.C. Circuit to defend executive orders issued by President Donald Trump targeting four law firms, just three days after the agency backtracked on its decision to drop the fight.

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Legal Jobs Up 19th Straight Month In 'Goldilocks' Economy

By Tracey Read

The legal sector continued its lengthy upward streak in February, with 2,600 more people employed in lawyer, paralegal and other law-related professional roles last month than in January, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Ex-Girardi Keese Atty Pleads Guilty For Role In Client Scandal

By Dorothy Atkins

Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin pled guilty to criminal contempt in Illinois federal court on Thursday for his role in the firm's failure to pay millions ​in client settlement funds to relatives of victims killed in the crash of Lion Air Flight 610.

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Louisiana Atty Sanctioned Over AI Hallucinations In Filing

By Matt Perez

A Louisiana attorney was fined $1,000 Thursday for his use of artificial intelligence in drafting an error-riddled brief, while three co-counsel were spared penalty.

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Investors Accuse Alston & Bird Of Aiding $328M Crypto Fraud

By David Minsky

Several investors have brought a Florida federal proposed class action alleging legal malpractice against Alston & Bird LLP, accusing the law firm of drafting joint venture agreements that were used to aid a $328 million cryptocurrency scam. 

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Constantine Cannon Defends Handling Of Sutter $75M Fee

By Dorothy Atkins

Constantine Cannon LLP pushed back Thursday against Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's allegations it unfairly reduced Schneider Wallace's share of a $75.4 million fee award in Sutter Health's $228.5 million antitrust deal, arguing in California federal court that the firm "sat on the sidelines" for most of the decadelong fight and isn't entitled to a bigger cut.

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NJ Talc Suit Will Proceed Amid Beasley Allen DQ Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to stay multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder brought by hundreds of women who allege their ovarian cancer was linked to the product, while Beasley Allen appeals its removal as plaintiff's counsel over a firm partner's collaboration with the pharmaceutical giant's former outside counsel.

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Florida Bar Rescinds Claim Agency Is Investigating Halligan

By Jack Karp

The Florida Bar said Friday that it is not investigating controversial former interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan, walking back a previous assertion it had made in a letter to a nonprofit that it was probing Halligan's actions.

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Courts Aren't Ignoring Justices' TPS Orders, Ex-Judges Say

By Ganesh Setty

Over 175 former federal and state judges have slammed the Trump administration's claim that lower courts "flouted" interim orders from the U.S. Supreme Court in litigation involving the administration's revocation of foreign nationals' temporary protected status, saying they weren't binding.

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Dems Again Push For Independent Immigration Courts

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats have again introduced a bill that would shift the immigration courts from the executive branch to an independent judiciary, following concerns that the Trump administration has "weaponized" the system.

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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 British American Tobacco sued by more than 100 investors, the government bring a claim against a COVID-19 supplier of personal protective equipment, Annington Funding sue its new corporate trustees on the Financial List, and Piers Morgan hit with a defamation claim from a pro-Israel barrister he interviewed on his YouTube channel. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Anthropic, the developer of Claude AI, says it will take the Pentagon to court over being designated a national security risk because it wants to impose ethical guardrails on Claude's use. And the Mideast war is making in-house legal teams across the country work long hours to protect employees trapped by the violence and to keep businesses running despite broken supply chains. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Winston & Strawn LLP, Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC, Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and attorney Olivia Gabriel lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey cannot shield its public transit system from personal injury lawsuits by out-of-state plaintiffs under sovereign immunity.

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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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