9th Circ. Mulls Whether Politics Tainted DOJ Trans Care Probe

By Hannah Albarazi

A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday grappled with where to draw the line between a legitimate law enforcement investigation and a politically motivated crusade, as the U.S. Department of Justice sought to revive a subpoena against a telehealth provider of gender-affirming medical care.

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FDA Vaccine Chief Prasad To Exit Agency For 2nd Time

By Mark Payne

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine regulator, will leave the agency in the coming weeks, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said Friday.

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Express Scripts Ducks RICO Suit Over Acthar Price Hike

By Matthew Santoni

Express Scripts Inc. and its affiliates may have worked with drugmaker Mallinckrodt to hike the price of seizure medication Acthar from $40 to $40,000, but a proposed class action by third-party payors failed to allege the high prices were a result of fraud, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled.

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DC Circuit To Hear Appeal On Idaho Abortion Law Subpoena

By Mark Payne

The anti-abortion group National Right to Life Committee Inc. must turn over communications the group had with Idaho legislators over a state law that criminalizes adults who help minors travel out of state for abortions, a group of abortion rights advocates told the D.C. Circuit this week. 

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Mass. Judge Told Vax Committee Must Be Fairly Balanced

By Gianna Ferrarin

A key federal vaccine committee remains subject to statutory requirements that its membership be fairly balanced, a Massachusetts federal judge heard from both U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and medical organizations challenging his overhaul of the group.

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ExThera Exec Hid Patient Deaths To Keep $10M Deal, DOJ Says

By Jonathan Capriel

Medical device company ExThera concealed the deaths of two U.S. patients treated with its unapproved blood filtration device at a clinic in Antigua, according to federal prosecutors, with the company agreeing to forfeit nearly $5.7 million and one executive facing up to three years in prison.

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Health Groups Back Bid To Bar Noncitizen Benefit Restrictions

By Gianna Ferrarin

A group of public health organizations and scholars Friday urged a Rhode Island federal court to make permanent its order blocking the Trump administration from enacting a policy change basing access to a host of federally funded services on immigration status.

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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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Pa. High Court Snapshot: AG Powers, Gun Parts, CEO Bonus

By Matthew Santoni

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court this month will revisit a ruling on the state attorney general's power over civil suits brought by county-level district attorneys in a case stemming from the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh district attorneys' objections to a $26 billion opioid settlement.

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Dentist Says She Was Fired For Exposing Medicaid Fraud

By Melanie Dorsey

A dentist filed suit against several West Michigan dental practices and a dental management company, claiming she was fired after reporting that the clinics billed Medicaid for dental procedures that were never performed.

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Boston Scientific Investor Sues Over Growth Projections

By Katryna Perera

A Boston Scientific Corp. investor has filed a proposed class action against the medical device manufacturer and its top brass, claiming they misled shareholders about the sustainability and growth trajectory of the company's electrophysiology segment while failing to disclose competitive pressures and regulatory headwinds.

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Atty Should've Checked Docket, Says Philips CPAP Judge

By Jonathan Capriel

An attorney and his client have no one but themselves to blame for the permanent end to a product liability lawsuit over a recalled Philips sleep breathing machine, a Pennsylvania federal judge said on Friday, saying it was on them to monitor the docket.

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Constantine Cannon Defends Handling Of Sutter $75M Fee

By Dorothy Atkins

Constantine Cannon LLP pushed back 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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TriZetto, Cognizant Hit With Class Claims Over Data Breach

By George Woolston

A Cognizant Technology Solutions-owned healthcare tech company was hit with a proposed class action in New Jersey federal court on Friday over its alleged failure to protect the sensitive personal and health information of thousands.

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Care Co. Automatically Deducted Meal Breaks, Suit Says

By Benjamin Morse

A multistate senior care provider automatically deducted 30 minutes per shift for meal breaks even when employees worked through them, resulting in unpaid overtime, according to a proposed class and collective action complaint filed in Kentucky federal court.

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Brief

Nurses' Holiday Pay Suit Against Health System Trimmed

By Benjamin Morse

A Colorado healthcare company will not face nurses' claims under state minimum-wage law alleging it miscalculated overtime wages, as a federal judge adopted a report concluding the statute does not cover "'pure overtime'" disputes when employees were paid at least the required minimum, court records show.

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Baker McKenzie Guides Servier On $2.5B Oncology Deal

By Al Barbarino

French pharmaceutical group Servier said Friday that it has agreed to acquire Day One for about $2.5 billion in cash, with legal guidance from Baker McKenzie.

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Cleary, Davis Polk Lead Diabetes Biz MiniMed's $560M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Medtronic's diabetes-focused spin-off MiniMed Group began trading publicly Friday after pricing a $560 million initial public offering, well below the expected target of $742 million.

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Sanofi Selling Medley Unit To Brazilian Drug Co. For $500M

By Al Barbarino

French drugmaker Sanofi will sell 100% of Medley, one of Brazil's leading generic drug brands, to Brazilian pharmaceutical conglomerate Grupo EMS, the companies announced Friday. 

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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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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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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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