Hospital Can't Privately Contact Ex-Docs, Wash. Justices Rule

By Ben Adlin

Washington's Supreme Court split 6-3 Thursday in ruling that Virginia Mason Medical Center improperly engaged in private communications with a malpractice plaintiff's treating doctors by failing to go through formal discovery or establish the patient's knowledge or consent.

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Calif. Judge Vacates Trump's $100K H-1B Fee Policies

By Britain Eakin

A California federal judge has vacated the implementing policies underlying President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee, saying the federal agencies charged with implementing the fee ran afoul of rulemaking procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act.

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Judge Bars HHS Medicaid Cuts For Wash. Noncitizens On SSI

By Elaine Briseño

A federal judge has temporarily halted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' attempts to cancel Medicaid benefits to noncitizens in Washington state receiving supplemental security income, finding the loss of benefits could lead to permanent disability or death.

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DOJ Outlines New Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities

By Phillip Bantz

Federal prosecutors "must place great weight" on a new list of factors when considering potential charges in corporate fraud cases, including whether the matters involve government programs, threats to national security or immigration offenses, according to a memo released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Janssen Biotech Beats Kickback Suit Over Advice To Docs

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge has dismissed a False Claims Act case against Janssen Biotech Inc., saying a "large evidentiary hole" sunk a whistleblower's claims that the drug company provided kickbacks to doctors in the form of free consulting services.

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Calif. Gov. Pushes For More In Signing Bill Limiting CIPA Suits

By Allison Grande

California's governor approved legislation Wednesday to block private litigants from bringing lawsuits under one provision of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, while urging the Legislature to keep working on efforts to expand this ban to include additional website tracking claims under the decades-old wiretap statute.  

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Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

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Buchalter Data Breach Exposed Calif. Hospital Patient Data

By Adrian Cruz

California-based Buchalter PC suffered a data breach in August that exposed a limited amount of personal information belonging to patients at Los Angeles-area hospital Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, according to a letter Arrowhead sent Monday to affected individuals.

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Calif. Co. Will Pay $20M To Settle COVID Payment Claims

By Tom Lotshaw

Los Angeles-based medical lab Signal Diagnostics LLC agreed to pay $20.5 million to settle allegations that it unlawfully retained overpayments for COVID tests for people who had health insurance, according to federal prosecutors.

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NH Families Seek To Block Medicaid Ban On Youth Trans Care

By Gianna Ferrarin

Transgender adolescents and their parents urged a New Hampshire federal court Thursday to block the Trump administration's plan to cut off Medicaid funding for minors' gender-affirming care, arguing it's unconstitutional, motivated by discriminatory animus and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

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Patients' Texas Anesthesia Rollup Suit Trimmed

By Bryan Koenig

A Texas federal judge offered patients a mixed bag Wednesday in a proposed class action accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of anticompetitively buying up anesthesia practices in the state and fixing prices, dismissing claims based on ambulatory surgery center services while preserving allegations based on hospitals.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Galderma In Injection Training IP Case

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed an order clearing Galderma SA of a medical training startup's accusations that it misappropriated trade secrets related to an injection training system and derailed what could have been a lucrative deal with Allergan PLC.

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Wounded Cop Can't Sue Philly Hospital Over Shooting

By Y. Peter Kang

The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Thursday declined to reinstate a lawsuit seeking to hold Jefferson University Hospital liable for severe arm injuries a police officer suffered while confronting a hospital employee who fatally shot his co-worker, finding the hospital owed no duty of care to the officer.

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AbbVie Gets Humira Antitrust Suit Trimmed, But Not Tossed

By Rae Ann Varona

An Illinois federal judge tossed all but one claim in a sheet metal worker health plan's putative class action against AbbVie for allegedly causing artificially inflated prices for the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, saying the plan sufficiently alleged AbbVie unlawfully stifled competition in the adalimumab market.

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Ex-Actavis Exec Escapes Some Drug Price-Fixing Claims

By Carla Baranauckas

A Connecticut federal judge has dismissed a swath of claims against a former executive of Actavis and Taro in the generic drug price‑fixing litigation brought by state enforcers, holding that evidence was insufficient to prove he joined several alleged single‑drug conspiracies.

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Liquidia's Yutrepia Found To Infringe Lung Treatment Patent

By Elliot Weld

A Delaware federal judge has ruled that Liquidia was infringing two claims of a patent covering methods of treating pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease by seeking approval to market the drug Yutrepia.

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Home Health Co. Seeks Pause Of Colo. Agency's Backout

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado home personal care services company exclusively serving those insured by Medicaid urged a state judge Thursday to pause a Colorado regulatory agency's decision to terminate its provider agreement, contending any transition of clients to other providers should come after an administrative court hearing later this month.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Rethink Vacating Contractor's $12.7M Award

By Ganesh Setty

The Federal Circuit said Thursday it won't disturb a unanimous three-judge panel's decision vacating a roughly $12.7 million award a software developer won against the federal government over unauthorized software copies, denying a panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.

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Aya Health Tells 9th Circ. It Needn't Seek Suits Against Itself

By Dorothy Atkins

Aya Healthcare urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to undo an order pausing its wage-and-hour arbitration bid, arguing that requiring the travel nursing agency to first notify 400,000 workers of the collective action before deciding whether arbitration is appropriate violates the Federal Arbitration Act and essentially forces Aya to solicit lawsuits against itself.

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Fla. Doc Says He Opposed Cruise Co.'s Billing, Got Fired

By David Minsky

A doctor has brought a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings Ltd. in Florida federal court, alleging he lost his job after speaking out against what he believed were fraudulent practices to overcharge passengers for medical services that weren't necessary. 

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Deals Rumor Mill

Walgreens Closes In On $9B Boots Sale, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Walgreens is nearing a $9 billion sale of its British pharmacy chain Boots, private equity shop TPG closed a $10 billion climate-focused fund, and Saudi Arabia-owned oil and gas company Aramco has retained an investment bank to lead it on a restructuring plan.

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Texas Medicaid Fraud Decision Leaves 2 Open Questions

The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Texas and NPT Associates, holding that the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act's omissions provision requires proof of materiality, creates ambiguity about the materiality requirement and about how Texas courts will treat federal precedent going forward, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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Justice Alito Says He's Weighing The Best Time To Retire

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has confirmed that he considered retiring at the end of the high court's latest term, and that he will continue to weigh that decision "every term." 

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Munger Tolles Announces Clerkship Bonus Increases

By Matt Perez

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP announced Thursday that it is increasing its clerkship bonuses to $180,000 for one qualifying clerkship and $200,000 for two or more qualifying clerkships.

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Roberts Wants Less Talk. Supreme Court Attorneys Disagree.

By Katie Buehler

Near the end of last term, Chief Justice John Roberts voiced his frustration with the U.S. Supreme Court's lengthening oral argument sessions and suggested the justices might tweak their format over the summer. But as the new term begins Monday, the court has yet to announce any changes, and advocates see little need for improvement.

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5 Supreme Court Cases To Watch This Fall

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will convene Monday to begin its 2026 October term, which includes several cases that could determine the future of climate change tort litigation, expand religious freedoms and parental rights, and grant states authority to require proof of citizenship when individuals register for presidential elections using state forms. 

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Analysis

DOJ Envisions 'Full-Fledged Law Firm' To Combat Gov't Fraud

By Phillip Bantz

The National Fraud Enforcement Division was created less than six months ago, but it is rapidly reshaping the U.S. Department of Justice and spurring an uptick in internal corporate investigations, white collar experts say.

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Legal Sector Adds 2K Jobs, For 6th Straight Month Of Growth

By Tracey Read

While the overall U.S. economy's unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% last month, the legal industry was in the midst of a six-month hot streak.

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Judge Clevenger Retires After 36 Years On Fed. Circ.

By Dani Kass

U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond C. Clevenger III has retired from the Federal Circuit, 20 years after taking senior status, the court said Friday.

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Jackson Walker May Face New Sanctions Over Old Romance

By Rick Archer

A Texas bankruptcy judge Friday threatened Jackson Walker LLP with sanctions over yet another bankruptcy case where the firm's retention was approved by a judge in a relationship with a former attorney at the firm.

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Keesal Young Owes Duty To Safeguard 316K People's Data

By Matt Perez

A California federal judge has kept negligence and consumer privacy claims intact against law firm Keesal Young & Logan over a 2024 data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 316,000 people, finding the plaintiffs have standing because their data apparently landed on the dark web.

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Trump Asks 9th Circ. To Pause Seattle US Atty Reinstatement

By Rachel Riley

The Trump administration called on the Ninth Circuit Friday to suspend a federal judge's Thursday order reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, seeking to keep Charles Neil Floyd as acting head of the Seattle office pending the government's appeal.

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Thomson Reuters Hit With Antitrust Case Over 'Killer' AI Deal

By Matthew Perlman

A California law firm has accused Thomson Reuters of violating antitrust law when it purchased artificial intelligence research tool Casetext for $650 million and then shuttered the platform to extinguish a rising competitor to its Westlaw service.

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Amazon Seeks Records Around Lawyer's USPTO Suspension

By Ben Adlin

An attorney Amazon has accused of furthering a scheme to fraudulently register thousands of trademarks and use them to report infringement by rival Amazon merchants must hand over documents related to her discipline in California and Washington, the retail giant argued in a Washington federal court filing Thursday.

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Tenn. High Court Keeps ABA As Law School Accreditor

By Emma Cueto

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Friday declined to follow other conservative states in dropping the American Bar Association as the state's law school accreditor, though it indicated it is open to approving other accreditors in addition to or instead of the ABA in the future.

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Analysis

3rd Circ. AI Ruling May Reach Beyond Westlaw Content Fight

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit went out of its way to say its ruling against a defunct legal research startup was not a generative artificial intelligence case, but copyright lawyers expect the reach of its reasoning to be tested almost immediately in pending AI litigation.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The Department of Justice has unveiled new corporate fraud enforcement priorities, and a report found that more than four out of five legal departments have adopted artificial intelligence. 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

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions after a California federal jury said Apple owes $5.7 billion to headphone-maker Taction for infringing two vibration technology patents, issuing the largest patent verdict in U.S. history.

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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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