9th Circ. Asks Idaho To Define 'Recruit' In Abortion Travel Ban

By Theresa Schliep

A Ninth Circuit panel grappled Tuesday with an Idaho law that makes it a criminal offense to help minors travel out of state to receive abortions without parental permission, with one judge struggling to understand what it means to "recruit" a pregnant teen to get an abortion under the law.

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Novant CEO Vows To Improve Hospitals Facing FTC Scrutiny

By Hayley Fowler

Novant Health kicked off its defense Tuesday in the Federal Trade Commission's $320 million merger challenge with testimony from its longtime CEO, who vocalized the health system's promise to reinvest in the two struggling hospitals at the center of the case.

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NBA's Dominique Wilkins Sues Amerihealth Partners Over NIL

By Elaine Briseño

NBA slam-dunk legend Dominique Wilkins and his management team are suing AmeriHealth Partners LLC in Atlanta federal court for allegedly using his name, image and likeness without his permission to market pharmaceutical products nationwide in 74,000 drug stores.

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NY Officials Tout Crackdown On Illicit Cannabis Market

By Sam Reisman

New York state cannabis regulators on Tuesday touted new legislative changes empowering them to more swiftly crack down on unregulated marijuana sales, the same day that New York City officials announced a program to step up enforcement against unlicensed retailers.

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GOP Reps. Want IP Enforcers To Get Tougher On Infringers

By Andrew Karpan

Republican lawmakers complained at a Tuesday congressional hearing about the Biden administration's move to end the controversial Trump-era "China Initiative" aimed at curbing suspected economic espionage and questioned administration officials over how diligently they have pursued intellectual property cases on behalf of U.S. manufacturers, retailers, movie studios and vape companies.

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US News' Suit Over SF Ranking Probe Premature, Judge Says

By Henrik Nilsson

A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed without prejudice U.S. News & World Report's lawsuit challenging the San Francisco City Attorney's subpoenas seeking information about its methodology for ranking hospitals, saying the suit jumps the gun because U.S. News is not bringing a valid pre-enforcement claim.

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Yale Can View Deposition In Fraudulent Insemination Suit

By Brian Steele

Entities tied to Yale University can see a transcript of a deposition taken from a retired fertility doctor accused in two court actions of secretly using his own sperm for inseminations in the 1980s, as the school tries to shield itself from possible litigation, a Connecticut judge ruled Tuesday.

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Magic Johnson's Name Used As Bait For Investors, Jury Hears

By Craig Clough

A California man falsely told investors as the COVID-19 pandemic raged in March 2020 that he had a cure and that NBA legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson was on his company's board, a federal prosecutor told a Los Angeles federal jury Tuesday during opening statements in the man's wire fraud trial.

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Hospital Says Appellate Court Flubbed $1.9M Payout Review

By Ryan Harroff

A Connecticut hospital has asked the state's appellate court to hold a full court rehearing on its refusal to pause a $1.9 million prejudgment remedy the hospital was ordered to pay to a group of anesthesiologists pursuing billing claims against it, arguing the decision causes irreparable harm.

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$55M Hospital Merger Suit Deal OK'd, UHC Objection Rejected

By Bryan Koenig

An Illinois federal judge has given final approval to a $55 million class settlement, with $23.5 million in legal costs and attorney fees, resolving patient antitrust claims over a NorthShore University HealthSystem merger, all while finding that United Healthcare Services had no standing to object to the deal.

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Gov't Seeks Early Win In Ga. Medicaid Expansion Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

The Biden administration is urging a federal judge to take its side in a lawsuit in which Georgia is attempting to keep its Medicaid program for low-income residents running until 2028, arguing that the state never properly asked for a program extension and that the court lacks jurisdiction to extend its end date.

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Birth Control Cos. Can't Dodge Conn. Injury Suit, Court Told

By Ryan Harroff

An Illinois woman who sued after her Filshie Clip birth control device migrated inside of her and "wreaked havoc on her body" has urged a state court not to let the manufacturers of the device and the seller's parent companies dodge her claims.

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Fla. Schools And Hospitals Fight To Save Opioid Claims

By Carolina Bolado

Five public hospital districts and two school districts told a Florida appeals court Tuesday that their claims for damages from the opioid crisis should not be eclipsed by the attorney general's settlements with opioid makers and distributors, arguing that she did not have the authority to bring claims on their behalf.

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MultiPlan, Insurance Cos. Accused Of Algorithmic Collusion

By Matthew Perlman

A medical provider has lodged a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing MultiPlan and major insurance companies, including UnitedHealth, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente and Cigna, of using pricing tools to systematically underpay out-of-network providers.

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Hospital Can't Force Nurse's Retaliation Suit Into Arbitration

By Grace Elletson

A Texas appellate court said Tuesday that a former nurse does not have to arbitrate claims that she was fired after reporting that a patient slapped her buttock, stating that a recently enacted federal law barring sexual assault-related claims from out-of-court resolutions applies to her case.

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Pharma Co. Falsely Touted Obesity Drug Results, Suit Claims

By Sydney Price

Biopharmaceutical company Altimmune Inc. and three of its executives were hit with a proposed class action alleging they overstated the clinical trial results and prospects of its obesity drug and its ability to compete with other weight loss medications like Ozempic.

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Steward Health Gets Ch. 11 Loan, Says It Plans Hospital Sales

By Rick Archer

A Texas bankruptcy judge Tuesday allowed Steward Health Care to take out $75 million in Chapter 11 financing to meet its next-day payroll after being told the hospital chain plans to sell facilities to pay down its $9 billion in debt.

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Mid-2024 FCA Enforcement And Litigation Trends To Watch

Reviewing notable False Claims Act trends and enforcement efforts in the last year and a half reveals that healthcare is a key enforcement priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, and the road ahead may bring clarification on Anti-Kickback Statute causation and willfulness standards, along with increased focus on private equity, cybersecurity and self-disclosure, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

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What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

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A Recipe For Growth Equity Investing In A Slow M&A Market

Carl Marcellino at Ropes & Gray discusses the factors bolstering appetite for growth equity fundraising in a depressed M&A market, and walks through the deal terms and other ingredients that set growth equity transactions apart from bread-and-butter venture capital investing.

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Analysis

In Story Of Sex And Lies, Can Cohen Write Final Chapter?

By Phillip Bantz

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has told a story of scandal and scheming to the jury in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, setting the stage for the prosecution's star witness to take the stand and wrap up the narrative.

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Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO Cops To $1.5M Theft From Firm

By George Woolston

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP's former chief financial officer admitted Wednesday to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the firm and failing to pay income tax, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced.

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Lewis Brisbois Atty Fatally Shot In McDonald's Altercation

By Ryan Boysen

A Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP attorney was fatally shot at a McDonald's in Houston after reportedly stepping in as a good Samaritan and attempting to calm down an irate customer who'd been arguing with staff at the fast food restaurant.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Lieff Cabraser's Kelly Dermody

By Irene Spezzamonte

A semester off from Harvard University in the late 1980s meant for reflection instead turned into a pivotal moment in Kelly Dermody's life, settling the roots for her successful career during which she has become a lighthouse for employment and discrimination cases.

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ABA Will Study Rape Questions' Necessity For Bar Applicants

By Cara Bayles

An American Bar Association commission will issue a report and recommendations by August on the practice of requiring would-be lawyers to disclose and discuss their experiences of sexual violence during the attorney licensure process.

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ABA Directs Attys To Avoid Sharing Client Info On Listservs

By Emily Sawicki

It is in the best interest of clients for their legal counsel to avoid sharing information related to representation while seeking advice in an online listserv forum, if the comments or questions could be connected to a client's identity, according to American Bar Association guidance published Wednesday.

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Ga. Appeals Court Will Review Trump DQ Bid In Election Case

By Kelcey Caulder

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to review a judge's ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.

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Fani Willis Is Outraising Primary Challenger More Than 5 To 1

By Chart Riggall

Less than two weeks from the first hurdle in her bid for reelection, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is boasting a​​ campaign war chest more than five times heftier than her Democratic challenger's, according to campaign finance disclosures filed this week.

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Biden Picks US Magistrate Judge In Fla. For 11th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday his intent to nominate U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry J. Kidd to the Eleventh Circuit.

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Robins Kaplan File Flub Bad Look For Both Sides, Panel Says

By Rachel Scharf

A Manhattan appeals panel expressed concern Wednesday that Robins Kaplan LLP had poked through an opposing party's Dropbox database that was accidentally shared in investor litigation, while also criticizing the other side for failing to catch the error.

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NJ Justices Approve Measures For Helping Atty Well-Being

By Emily Johnson

The New Jersey Supreme Court has accepted several recommendations from its committee focused on attorney well-being, paving the way for the committee to examine how attorneys can briefly postpone court dates or possibly receive an extension to meet deadlines so they can handle pressing wellness needs.

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Legal Access Program Being Set Up For Separated Families

By Alyssa Aquino

The Biden administration tapped the Acacia Center for Justice to manage a court-ordered legal access program to help migrant families stay in the U.S. after they were separated under a Trump-era policy to prosecute anybody caught entering the country unlawfully.

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Colo. Judges Urge Attys To Take On More Pro Se Cases

By Thy Vo

A group of Colorado federal judges tried Wednesday to recruit more lawyers to help pro se litigants, who file about a third of the district's cases each year, with the judges recounting tactical mistakes and case delays that attorneys could have prevented.

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Series

Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

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