Nebraska High Court Rejects Bid To Void Medical Cannabis

By Sam Reisman

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday rejected an effort by state officials to void medical marijuana legalization measures that were approved by supermajorities of state voters, saying the lower court was right to dismiss the challenge.

Decision attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Vertex Fertility Aid Violates Kickback Law, DC Circ. Says

By Danielle Ferguson

A D.C. Circuit panel said Friday that a Vertex Pharmaceutical program offering gene therapy patients financial support for fertility services violates the Anti-Kickback Statute, finding the initiative is an unlawful inducement to purchase a certain medical treatment.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NY Judge Won't Block HHS Sharing Of Aid Recipients' Info

By Tom Lotshaw

A New York federal judge refused to block a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plan to share aid recipients' information with other agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ruling that nonprofits challenging it failed to show recipients faced irreparable harm.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

9th Circ. Restores Idaho Abortion Ban Enforcement, For Now

By Gianna Ferrarin

The Ninth Circuit will allow Idaho to fully enforce its abortion ban while the state briefs its request for emergency relief from an order that blocked the ban's application in certain health-related circumstances and declared a fundamental right to some abortions under the U.S. Constitution.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Recall Recap: Boston Scientific Pacemakers, Baby Formula

By Emily Field

While the iceberg lettuce cyclospora outbreak and subsequent litigation targeting supplier Taylor Farms Inc. and Taco Bell was the chief news this summer in product recalls, Law360 takes a look back at some of the other suits filed in recent months over recalls that may have slipped under readers' radars.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-Budget Official Asks To Avoid Prison In Conn. Bribery Case

By Brian Steele

Former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis asked a federal judge Friday to spare him from a potential decade-plus prison sentence after his conviction for demanding and accepting bribes, citing factors including his advanced age and loss of his law license.

Memorandum attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Judge Asks Atty To Explain Absences In Nurses' Wage Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado federal magistrate judge ordered Friday that an attorney for nearly 40 nurses in a wage lawsuit against Colorado-based U.S. Nursing Corp. explain why he has not appeared in the case for months and why the court should not therefore toss the suit.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

McKesson Owns Antitrust Claims, Not Rite Aid, Judge Finds

By Yun Park

A New Jersey bankruptcy judge has ruled that antitrust claims against pharmaceutical companies belong to drug distributor McKesson Corp., not the trustee overseeing Rite Aid's Chapter 11 distributions.

Memorandum attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Justices Again Refuse NY Health Workers' Fight Over Vax Rule

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Friday to reconsider its decision to pass on a legal challenge by religious healthcare workers to a pandemic-era New York state vaccination policy, despite three conservative justices' previously stated interest in the case.

Order List attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Hospital Group Wants To Weigh In On $32M Yale Death Verdict

By Gianna Ferrarin

The Connecticut Hospital Association urged a state appeals court to let it weigh in on a challenge to a nearly $32 million judgment entered against a Yale University-affiliated hospital over a premature baby's death, arguing the case presents important issues surrounding wrongful death damages.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

ERISA Recap: 5 Appellate Rulings To Know From August

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Seventh Circuit kept an Arkansas pharmacy benefit manager rule in place as not preempted by federal benefits law, the Fourth Circuit revived an Altria ex-worker's dispute over benefit plan documents, and the Eleventh Circuit reversed a pretrial win for Royal Caribbean in cruise workers' suit challenging 401(k) funds. Here, Law360 looks at those and two other major appellate decisions from August involving ERISA that benefits attorneys may want to know.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Humana Says $7.3B Roundup Deal Sidelines Health Insurers

By George Woolston

Humana Inc. alleged in New Jersey federal court that Monsanto Co. is attempting to skirt its obligation to reimburse health insurers for medical expenses stemming from exposure to its Roundup product.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Elevance Health Settles Ex-Worker's Late Pay Class Claims

By Brian Steele

Elevance Health Inc. has agreed to a settlement in principle that would end a proposed class action claiming it failed to give discharged workers their final paychecks in a timely fashion under Connecticut and Massachusetts law, according to a filing in Connecticut state court.

Notice attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Meta's Social Media Addiction Deal

By Y. Peter Kang

A $17.1 billion social media addiction settlement between Meta and 29 states and Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion ovarian cancer deal over its talc products lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Ill. Panel Affirms BIPA Exemption For Home Care Provider

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois appellate court has refused to revive a biometric privacy lawsuit against home-care provider Help at Home, finding the company was exempt from a state privacy law's reach as a government contractor when it collected employees' fingerprints for a required background check.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Latham, Simpson Thacher Steer Oura's Expected $2.5B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Fitness-tracking ring maker Oura has filed plans with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering that could raise around $2.5 billion.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Teva MDL Loss Shows DPAs Can Return To Haunt Civil Suits

Teva’s recent partial summary judgment loss in antitrust multidistrict litigation reinforces the importance of carefully scrutinizing any statement of facts a company admits to in a deferred prosecution agreement, and illustrates the potential costs of resolving a criminal investigation this way, say attorneys at Sheppard.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Justices' Hikma Reasoning May Extend Well Beyond Pharma

The active steps framework announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Hikma v. Amarin decision, finding that Amarin failed to plausibly allege inducement of infringement, has the potential to reshape how courts evaluate inducement claims across patent, copyright and other doctrines, say attorneys at BCLP.

Decision attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Legal Sector Hiring Grows For 5th Month, But At Slower Pace

By Rachel Rippetoe

The legal sector saw 600 more jobs in August, growing for the fifth consecutive month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

3rd Circ. Revives Malpractice Claim Against Kirkland Atty

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey divorcee may once again pursue a legal malpractice claim against a Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney who she said lost her millions by mishandling estate documents, after the Third Circuit found it could be possible to link her alleged damages to the lawyer's work.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Quinn Emanuel DQ'd In Defamation Case Over Stock Reports

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas federal court on Friday booted Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP from representing a Hong Kong manufacturing company in its defamation lawsuit against investment research service Muddy Waters LLC after finding that the law firm had received relevant confidential information when it represented Muddy Waters in a related government probe.

3 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DC Panel's Rare Rebuke Over AI Errors Flags Rules Gap

By Andrea Keckley

A D.C. appellate court panel issued a rare sua sponte sanctions order on Thursday after finding nonexistent case citations in a brief filed by a McCabe Weisberg & Conway LLC attorney representing Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. in a foreclosure action, noting an apparent gap in the rules governing the court's sanctions authority.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Motley Rice Founder Remembered As Titan Of Mass Tort Bar

By Adrian Cruz

Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joseph F. Rice, who died Thursday, was remembered by former colleagues and friends as a "transformational" attorney and "giant in the civil litigation bar" who spent decades working on some of the most high-profile mass torts and obtaining landmark asbestos, opioid and tobacco settlements.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Sinema Can't Duck Suit Over Affair With Ex-Security Guard

By Y. Peter Kang

A North Carolina federal judge Friday denied former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's bid to escape the suit brought by the ex-wife of a former member of her security detail with whom she allegedly had an affair, saying the district court indeed has the authority to adjudicate the case.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Morgan Verkamp LLC and Sparacino PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eleventh Circuit held that the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions do not violate the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Attorneys and academics differ over whether the moves by Meta's in-house lawyers ahead of its $17 billion settlement over claims its content harmed children were legal missteps or defensible efforts to manage litigation risk. And the co-founders of a partner-only law firm told Law360 Pulse how their technology reduces intake, billing and other nonbillable tasks that attorneys would normally perform. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

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.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »