States Suspect ICE Obtained Medicaid Data Despite Order

By Julie Manganis

A coalition of states told a federal judge that the Trump administration appears to have ignored an order limiting the types of Medicaid data that can be shared with immigration officials, potentially handing over reams of "off limits" data on citizens and green card holders.

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Elizabeth Holmes Gets 11-Year Prison Sentence Cut By A Year

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has shaved off a year from convicted ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes' 11-year-and-three-month prison sentence for securities fraud due to recent sentencing guideline amendments, reducing her time behind bars by one year, instead of the two years she requested, amid objections by prosecutors.

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Eli Lilly Keeps Most Of Weight Loss Drug Copy Suit Alive

By Adam Lidgett

A California federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit accusing a pair of telehealth companies of making copies of Eli Lilly's obesity and type 2 diabetes drugs but agreed to trim the case.

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Mississippi Gov. Vetoes Medical Marijuana Expansion Bill

By Sam Reisman

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has vetoed a bill to expand the state's medical cannabis program to include severely ill patients, while approving another bill to fund a clinical trial into the psychedelic ibogaine.

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Sens. Push Bill To Equip VA For Psychedelic Therapies

By Sam Reisman

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced legislation to broaden veterans' access to emerging therapies, including psychedelic-assisted treatments, that may be effective in addressing post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues.

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Insurer Rips Sanctions Bid In Opioid Coverage Dispute

By Hope Patti

An insurer asked an Illinois federal court to reject a drug wholesaler's bid for sanctions in a dispute over coverage for underlying opioid litigation, saying the accusations that it intentionally destroyed pertinent evidence are, "at best, based on half-truths and misstatements of fact."

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5th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Health IT Co. Worker's Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Fifth Circuit upheld a healthcare information technology provider's win over a Black former manager's lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining that a white male colleague was treated better, saying she couldn't overcome the company's rationale for letting her go.

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Hospital System Beats Most Of REIT's $50M Floodwall Suit

By Isaac Monterose

A New York federal judge on Friday mostly tossed a real estate investment trust's $50 million suit against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. and the NYC Economic Development Corp. over the design of a proposed floodwall for a downtown Manhattan life sciences campus project.

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Hospital Escapes Ex-Workers' 401(k) Forfeiture, Fund Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

A New York federal judge on Friday tossed a proposed class action against a healthcare company alleging mismanagement of an employee 401(k) plan, concluding that ex-workers who sued lacked standing to bring some claims while the remaining allegations weren't sufficiently backed up to state a claim for violating federal benefits law.

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Colo. Nurses Snag Class Cert. In Holiday Pay Case

By Benjamin Morse

A group of nurses can proceed as a class in a suit accusing a healthcare company of excluding holiday premiums from their pay when they worked overtime, a Colorado federal judge has ruled.

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Eye Clinic's Hurricane Damage Suit Sent To Territorial Court

By Joyce Hanson

A federal judge in the U.S. Virgin Islands has sent back to territorial court an ophthalmology clinic's lawsuit seeking punitive damages from its insurers that allegedly underpaid claims resulting from Hurricane Maria, which swept through the Caribbean in 2017 and caused about $1 million of lost income and damage to its property.

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Biopharma's Brass Hid Anxiety Drug Trial Risks, Investor Says

By Gina Kim

Vistagen Therapeutics' current and former top brass have been hit with a derivative shareholder suit in California federal court alleging they overstated its clinical trial for a novel, anti-anxiety drug while hiding unpredictable placebo responses and other known risks, before the phase ultimately failed, causing a stock price collapse. 

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Biogen Beats Investor Suit Over Dozens Of Drug Claims

By Chris Villani

Biogen Inc. and four of its executives escaped a stock drop suit Friday after a Massachusetts federal judge ruled that none of the nearly five dozen statements challenged by investors suggested that the company intentionally misled people buying its stock.

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Skincare Co. Says ITC Ruling Backs Ending PTAB Challenge

By Elliot Weld

Skin products company Hydrafacial has argued U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires should turn down a rehearing request from rival Sinclair Pharma over Squires' order de-instituting a challenge to Hydrafacial's patent, saying a U.S. International Trade Commission decision upholding the same patent supports the director's move.

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Brief

Pa. Health Network's $1.15M 401(k) Suit Deal Gets Final OK

By George Woolston

A Pennsylvania federal judge gave the green light to a $1.15 million deal resolving a proposed class action alleging a healthcare system misused workers' forfeited employee retirement plan funds and failed to rein in administrative fees.

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Kirkland-Led Transcend Bought By Otsuka In $1.2B Deal

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Clinical-stage biotechnology company Transcend Therapeutics Inc., led by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, on Friday announced that it has agreed to be bought by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in a deal worth up to $1.225 billion.

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NC Biz Court Bulletin: Judge Exits, Duke Ducks Climate Suit

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina Business Court saw an unexpected shakeup with one judge's retirement, rendered a pivotal decision in a first-of-its-kind climate change case against Duke Energy and oversaw a trial between the feuding owners of a commercial bed skirt company.

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DOJ Actions Suggest Expansion Of Healthcare Enforcement

Recent actions by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggest that federal healthcare enforcement efforts are moving away from traditional program-based fraud and toward cases centered on product integrity, regulatory transparency and telehealth marketing, effectively widening the government's enforcement playbook, say attorneys at MoFo.

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Series

Watching Hallmark Movies Makes Me A Better Lawyer

I realize you may be judging me for watching, and actually enjoying, Hallmark Channel movies, but the escapism and storylines actually demonstrate qualities and actions that lead to an efficient, productive and positive legal practice, says Karen Ross at Tucker Ellis.

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Firms Targeted By Trump Urge DC Circ. To Uphold EO Rulings

By Alison Knezevich

Four law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to affirm lower court rulings that struck down executive orders restricting their ability to practice law, saying the directives blatantly violate the Constitution.

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Ex-Williams & Connolly Clerk Accused Of Posting Client Info

By Hailey Konnath

A former Williams & Connolly LLP clerk has been posting confidential firm information — including client information and work email exchanges — and he's threatening to "keep leaking" the materials, which he called "a fun read," according to a suit filed in District of Columbia Superior Court.

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BigLaw Races To Capture Expanding Fund Finance Market

By Kevin Penton

Debt financing work at the fund level has long been dominated on the lender side by attorneys from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Haynes Boone and Mayer Brown LLP, but other firms are increasingly crafting formal practices and poaching fund finance stars from the more established players.

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NJ Federal Judge DQs Beasley Allen In J&J Talc MDL

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has disqualified the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing hundreds of plaintiffs in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, holding that the firm violated ethics rules by collaborating with former outside counsel for J&J, a ruling the law firm has vowed to appeal.

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Apollo, BlackRock Deny Asking Kirkland To Abandon Optimum

By Tracey Read

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other major financial companies have denied Optimum Communications' claims accusing them of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as the telecommunications company's transaction counsel to get revenge for a collusion lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

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Atty Sanctioned For AI Hallucinations In Workers' Comp Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 in sanctions for failing to rectify AI-hallucinated case citations pointed out to him in an appeal concerning reimbursement sought by a workers' compensation carrier.

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Brief

Amazon Swaps MoFo In, Perkins Coie Out In Cooker Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon.com LLP switched counsel Friday in a customer's product defect suit accusing the retail giant of selling a faulty pressure cooker that allegedly malfunctioned and caused her severe burns, substituting two Morrison Foerster LLP attorneys in place of an outgoing Perkins Coie LLP lawyer.

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Judiciary Nixes Amicus Disclosure Reform Over Potential Chill

By Emily Sawicki

The federal judiciary has been asked not to move forward with a plan to add to amicus brief disclosure requirements designed to curb "dark money" groups from bankrolling amicus briefs, after rules committee chairs pulled the recommendation over concerns of a possible chilling effect.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Apple hit back at a tech company's wireless charging patent claim, a flurry of businesses bring COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims as a key deadline draws closer and Ipulse Partners LLP file a claim against a luxury yacht company it represented in a trademark dispute. 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

A federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from dropping AI giant Anthropic from the government's supply chain, and Latham & Watkins ranked first in a survey of in-house legal leaders on which law firms are most helpful in developing business, followed by King & Spalding, Jones Day and Ropes & Gray.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Lanier Law Firm, Kiesel Law LLP, Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP and Beasley Allen Law Firm lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California state jury in a bellwether trial found Meta and Google liable for harming the mental health of a woman who says she became addicted to their social media platforms as a child.

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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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Mich. Judge Signals No Stay If Attys Exit Retaliation Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge said Friday she is not inclined to pause a long-running sexual harassment suit again if counsel for an attorney who is suing her ex-mentor and former firm are allowed to withdraw, telling the parties, "We've been here. We've done this," as she heard arguments over a motion to exit the case.

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Mayer Brown's $21M Fee Bid In RI Truck Tolls Suit Rebuffed

By Linda Chiem

A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday rebuffed Mayer Brown LLP's bid for $21 million in attorney fees for representing the commercial trucking industry's lead trade group in long-running litigation over the state's truck tolling program, saying the American Trucking Associations ultimately was not the "prevailing party."

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