11th Circ. Scrutinizes Qui Tam History In FCA Challenge

By Dan McKay

The Eleventh Circuit Friday weighed both the history of whistleblower laws going back to the nation's founding and recent U.S. Supreme Court commentary on qui tam litigation in a closely watched challenge to the False Claims Act.

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Senate Passes Bill To Consolidate VA Procurement

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill on Thursday that would create a centralized office in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to oversee major acquisition programs and overhaul the agency's contracting processes.

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1st Circ. OKs Barring Medicaid Planned Parenthood Coverage

By Hailey Konnath

A First Circuit panel on Friday upheld the Trump administration's ban on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, vacating a lower court's order that would've kept in place Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood clinics in 22 states.

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Shipbuilders, Naval Engineer Spar Over Witness Statements

By Tom Lotshaw

Shipbuilders and design consultants accused of illegally conspiring to suppress industry wages are clashing with a former naval engineer over what various witnesses told her in support of her proposed class action against the companies.

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GAO Advises DOD On Improved Weapon Systems Testing

By Elaine Briseño

The U.S. Government Accountability Office urged the U.S. Department of Defense to include testers of proposed weapon systems early in the developmental process to speed the delivery of those products to combat personnel.

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National Trust Sues To Halt Trump's Ballroom Construction

By Tom Lotshaw

The National Trust for Historic Preservation asked a D.C. federal judge to stop construction on a White House ballroom until Trump administration officials complete mandatory review processes that they blew off before unilaterally razing the East Wing to make room for the structure.

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Texas Justices Broaden Protections For Road Contractors

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that contractors doing work superintended by the state Department of Transportation may be able to avoid personal injury liability, reasoning that an appellate panel erroneously found the department had to hire the contractors for the statute's protections to apply.

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Duke Energy Pushes Back On DOJ's View Of 'Monopoly Broth'

By Matthew Perlman

Duke Energy told the U.S. Supreme Court the government is backing a rival's antitrust claims accusing the power giant of squeezing it out of the North Carolina market simply to help enforcers' own cases accusing Big Tech companies of using a "monopoly broth" to thwart competition.

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Guatemala Must Pay $32M Awards, Court Rules

By Caroline Simson

A D.C. federal judge on Friday enforced some $32 million in arbitral awards owed by Guatemala to a highway contractor, rejecting the country's arguments that the dispute belongs in its domestic courts or that it should be put on hold while related proceedings in the country play out.

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Molina Investor Sues Board Over Insurer's Guidance Cuts

By Sydney Price

Executives and directors of health insurance provider Molina Healthcare were hit with a shareholder's derivative suit Friday accusing them of misleading investors about medical cost trends and internal controls before repeatedly slashing the company's 2025 earnings guidance.

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Brief

HVAC Co. To Pay $596K For Kickback Scheme, DOL Says

By Irene Spezzamonte

A Maryland-based HVAC subcontractor that engaged in a kickback scheme will shell out about $596,000 to the 31 workers it cheated out of wages and fringe benefits and will face debarment, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

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Insuring Equality: 3 Tips To Preserve Coverage For DEI Claims

Directors and officers and employment practices liability are key coverages for policyholders to review as potentially responsive to the emerging liability threat of Trump's executive orders targeting corporate diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.

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Opinion

Supreme Court Term Limits Would Carry Hidden Risk

While proposals for limiting the terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices are popular, a steady stream of relatively young, highly marketable ex-justices with unique knowledge and influence entering the marketplace of law and politics could create new problems, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

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Bonus Spotlight

Axinn Veltrop's Bonuses Reach Up To $240K

By Andrea Keckley

Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP is giving out bonuses of up to $240,000 for its associates, according to an in-house memo seen by Law360 Pulse.

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Watchdog Sues White House For Records On Law Firm Deals

By Emily Sawicki

A Washington-based nonprofit watchdog has sued the Trump administration, seeking records related to deals BigLaw firms struck to provide an estimated nearly $1 billion worth of pro bono legal services to further the administration's priorities, following the president's executive orders to withhold security clearances and investigate the firms.

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Analysis

2025 Sees State Courts Diverge From Federal Criminal Norms

By Brandon Lowrey

Some of this year's most notable criminal appellate rulings homed in on differences between state and federal constitutional protections against the most serious punishments, with movement in Michigan, bucking the trend in Wyoming, and an ambiguous but potentially earthshaking decision out of Texas.

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US Atty Nominee For Wyo. Was Outside Capitol On Jan. 6

By Courtney Bublé

One of President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney nominees, who was on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, and recently told senators he still thinks "there were imperfections" in the 2020 election process, has been advanced toward Senate confirmation.

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Del. US Atty Resigns Citing 'Politics,' Successor Appointed

By Rose Krebs

The acting U.S. Attorney for Delaware said Friday that she is resigning, citing "a highly politicized, flawed blue-slip tradition" for nominees and saying she "fully" supports her first assistant, who has been appointed by a federal judge to succeed her.

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Dems Demand Release Of 2nd Jack Smith Report

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday demanding she release the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith's report on President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents after he left office the first time.

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Alex Jones Atty's Pared-Down Suspension Upheld On Appeal

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut appeals court on Friday upheld the two-week suspension of former Alex Jones lawyer Norm Pattis, agreeing that a trial court judge was within her discretion to bench the attorney over his law firm's handling of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims' medical records.

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DOJ Shake-Up Keeps Criminal Tax Meetings, Ex-Official Says

By Kat Lucero

The U.S. Department of Justice — despite recently eliminating its Tax Division as part of a broad restructuring — continues to meet with practitioners representing clients who may face federal criminal tax charges, the former division chief said Friday.

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Wash. Justices Retroactively Lower Bar Exam's Passing Score

By Ben Adlin

As Washington state is preparing to transition to a new bar exam, its Supreme Court has ordered a retroactive adjustment to the current exam's minimum passing score, making an estimated hundred-plus law school graduates who narrowly failed in recent years newly eligible for admission to practice law.

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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 Shell hit with a climate change claim from 100 survivors of a typhoon in the Philippines, London Stock Exchange-listed Oxford Nanopore bring legal action against its co-founder, and the editors of Pink News sue the BBC for defamation following its investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the news site.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

President Donald Trump issued an executive order to review the influence that proxy adviser firms have, and law firms saw a 9.8% increase in compensation expenses along with a similar increase in billable rates. ​These are among 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

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit handed Epic Games Inc. a partial win by mostly affirming an injunction blocking Apple Inc. from charging developers "prohibitive" commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems.

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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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