Indiana Justices Probe Timing Of Religious Abortion Suit

By Dan McKay

Indiana justices sharply questioned both sides Thursday as they wrestled with whether the state's religious freedom law can be used to protect the abortion rights of Jewish women, repeatedly asking whether the case had developed enough to warrant a ruling.

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Judge Finds No Standing To Block Ill. Aid-In-Dying Law

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday refused to block a new law from taking effect that allows patients with terminal illnesses to seek a doctor's assistance in ending their lives, ruling that a challenge brought by disability rights advocates relied on speculative fears rather than imminent legal harm.

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Colo. Judge Asked To Sanction Hospital In Gender Care Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

Transgender adolescent patients of Children's Hospital Colorado urged a state judge on Thursday to sanction the hospital for refusing to resume providing gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth patients, arguing that the hospital can't avoid its obligation to provide the care by blaming its providers.

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6th Circ. Says Fatal Child Hold Excluded From Coverage

By Danielle Ferguson

Insurers do not have to indemnify a management services company for a child welfare agency in a lawsuit over the death of a 7-year-old who died after being restrained by workers, the Sixth Circuit said, finding the hold on the child, while improperly used, was considered an excluded professional service.

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Biosimilars Boast Big Savings But Face IP Risks, Report Says

By Theresa Schliep

There are no biosimilar drugs in development for 90% of biologic products set to lose their patent exclusivity by 2034, according to a report released Thursday by the Association for Accessible Medicines, which warned that current patent policy threatens generic-drug development. 

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DHS Aims To End 60-Day Grace Period For Certain Work Visas

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security floated a new rule Thursday that would eliminate a 60-day grace period for holders of H-1B and certain other employment-based visas to remain in the U.S. if they lose their jobs, citing "administrative burden."

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$270M Medi-Cal False Claims Scheme Nets 30-Year Sentence

By Gina Kim

An Orange County man with multiple prior fraud convictions has been sentenced in California federal court to 30 years in prison for his role in a $270 million Medi-Cal prescription drug scam, which he orchestrated while awaiting sentencing in a separate tax evasion case, prosecutors said. 

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Dompé To Pay $32M Over Foundation Co-Pay Kickback Claims

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. arm of Italian pharmaceutical company Dompé Farmaceutici SpA has agreed to pay $32 million to resolve allegations that it contributed funds to patient assistance foundations to induce purchases of its prescription eye drops Oxervate, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

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Hospital Says Saul Ewing Atty's 'Revenge' Drove FCA Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A Saul Ewing LLP attorney who quit a Pittsburgh-area hospital's board turned his representation of two whistleblower nurses into an act of "revenge," but failed to make the clients' accusations against their co-workers into a viable False Claims Act suit, the hospital said.

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Greenberg Traurig Sued Over Ex-Pharma CEO's Indictment

By George Woolston

Greenberg Traurig LLP devised the very business practices that got a former pharmaceutical CEO indicted for fraud and then billed the executive $1.4 million for defending the criminal case, according to a legal malpractice suit accusing the firm of an inherent conflict of interest.

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Drone Co., Ex-VP Reach Deal Resolving Pay, Sabotage Claims

By Hayley Fowler

A company that makes emergency response drones and its former vice president of sales have settled a dispute in which the executive alleged he was stiffed on pay and the company accused him of trying to sabotage its business, court records show.

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11th Circ. Urged To Undo Trial Loss For Hospital Ratings Org

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Florida federal court order requiring hospital ratings nonprofit Leapfrog to revoke poor safety grades it issued to five hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp. violated the First Amendment, Leapfrog told the Eleventh Circuit in a Thursday opening brief challenging its bench trial loss.

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Catholic Charity Fights Bid To Toss Funding Cut Suit

By Susan Smiley

A Catholic charity said its opposition to abortion and contraception led Michigan to unconstitutionally terminate its decade-long role as a state-designated service provider for women suffering from substance abuse, and it urged a federal judge to reject the state's request to dismiss a civil rights suit filed by the organization.

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Hospitals Say Mich. BCBS Unit Owes For Out-Of-State Care

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield unit owes a group of hospitals more than $800,000 in reimbursement for health services they provided to patients covered under out-of-state BCBS plans, the hospitals allege in a complaint in Michigan federal court.

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Insurer Wants Quick 8th Circ. 401(k) Forfeiture Suit Appeal

By Kellie Mejdrich

UnitedHealth Group asked a Minnesota federal court to allow a quick appeal of the court's June decision refusing to completely toss allegations that the company misallocated forfeitures from an employee 401(k) plan, arguing differing opinions on the validity of the claims nationwide justified early Eighth Circuit review.

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Frazier Life Sciences Adds $1.1B To Its Public Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Healthcare-focused investment firm Frazier Life Sciences, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Thursday revealed that it has closed on more than $1.1 billion of new capital commitments for its Public Fund.

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Deals Rumor Mill

TPG, Blue Owl, CVC Exploring Deals, And More Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Private equity firm TPG may be looking to sell Lyric, which could value the healthcare software company at $5 billion; asset manager Blue Owl Capital is exploring the launch of a real estate investment trust; and CVC Capital Partners could sell personal care company Arthea at a $2 billion valuation. 

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State AI Safety Laws Raise New Liabilities For Healthcare Cos.

Healthcare and life science companies using third-party artificial intelligence tools should pay particular attention to the changing state-level legal landscape, where the rollout of multiple AI safety laws is introducing both new compliance obligations and potential consumer protection liabilities, say attorneys at McDermott.

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5 Practice Tips After DOJ's Healthcare Fraud Declination

In light of the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to not prosecute Campus Eye Management under the agency's new corporate enforcement and voluntary self-disclosure policy, healthcare companies should keep several considerations in mind when weighing their risk and self-disclosure strategy, including the distinctions between reporting to the DOJ versus other government agencies, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

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Cannabis, Psychedelics Boom Raises IP Hurdles

Recent data regarding patent filing activity and litigation in the cannabis and psychedelics markets indicates that as commercial interest accelerates, the scope of publicly accessible prior art is also expanding, setting a higher bar for novelty and nonobviousness in patent applications, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

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Bid Protest Spotlight: GAO Lessons For Small Biz Contractors

In this month's bid protest roundup, Alissandra McCann at MoFo offers small business takeaways from three recent U.S. Government Accountability Office decisions about rule-of-two challenges, joint ventures maintaining service-disabled, veteran-owned small business certifications, and joint venture and teaming arrangement eligibility distinctions.

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Series

Juggling And Unicycling Make Me A Better Lawyer

Because I juggle (sometimes with fire) and ride the unicycle, friends and family used to joke that I should join the circus, but I pursued the practice of law instead and learned that my hobbies benefit my profession in several important ways, says Morgan Eddy at Smith Currie.

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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.

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Engineering Co. Calls Atty-Ouster Bid Retaliatory In Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

An engineering company urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to reject a bid to remove its lawyer from a wage case, arguing the worker is retaliating because the company tried to disqualify one of his attorneys from a separate case.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Elias Law Group LLP and Stinson LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms.

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In-House Atty Org. Says Rival Ripped Off Data For AI Tool

By Andrea Keckley

The Association of Corporate Counsel alleges in Delaware federal court that its competitor used the nonprofit's proprietary materials to train its artificial intelligence tool Lloyd and "brazenly promoted its Lloyd product by showing the public that ACC materials could be accessed via Lloyd."

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Greenberg Traurig, Eckert Seamans Hit By Data Breaches

By Ryan Boysen

Greenberg Traurig LLP and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC have publicly revealed that they've been hit by data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents U.S. law firms have suffered this year.

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Legal Ops Duo Sees AI Driving Department Redesign

By Anna Scott Farrell

Connie Brenton and Jeff Franke consider themselves, and others in the field of legal operations, to be, fundamentally, entrepreneurs. Here, the pair sat down with Law360 Pulse to talk about the state of their field, why legal ops is still misunderstood, and their annual conference, Running Legal Like a Business, which took place this week in Las Vegas.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

AI is driving a significant gap between in-house legal departments' budgets and the cost of their workloads, according to a new study. Speaking of gaps, a new Law360 Pulse report on women in law found that men still make up 71% of law firm equity partners and 63% of nonequity partners. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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Analysis

Midterm Wins Could Help Dems Probe Trump's BigLaw Deals

By Courtney Bublé

If the Democrats take back one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, a big item on their oversight agenda will be to step up ongoing investigations of the deals that nine major law firms cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Personal Injury Firm Beats Atty's Bid For 'Birth Justice' TM

By Adam Lidgett

A former associate at a personal injury and medical malpractice law firm can't register in her own name a trademark for birth-injury legal services that she helped develop before and during her employment with the firm, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

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Trial Errors 'Crippled Goldstein's Defense,' 4th Circ. Hears

By Jeff Overley

Appellate luminary Tom Goldstein unveiled a sweeping and forceful critique aimed at erasing his felony fraud convictions, telling the Fourth Circuit that prosecutors were hell-bent on convicting him "no matter the facts or law," disregarded a star witness's "incompetence" and benefited from a trial judge's "inexplicable" rulings.

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Interview

ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost

By Allison Grande

With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.

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Afghan Woman Deported in 1st 'Alien Terrorist' Case

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Trump administration deported an Afghan woman accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting in the first case before the previously dormant Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

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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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Attys Must Arbitrate $8 Oil To Fight $625K Sanction: 9th Circ.

By Jeff Overley

Class action lawyers slapped with six-figure sanctions for suing Walmart Inc. based on erroneous purchase information can't yet challenge the discipline, the Ninth Circuit ruled, suggesting they may first need to arbitrate grievances over an $8 bottle of avocado oil.

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Ex-Wash. Bench Officer Censured Over Explicit Texts, Emails

By Ben Adlin

The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct censured a former Okanogan County Superior Court commissioner Friday, finding that Robert Colbert violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by engaging in what a stipulated agreement describes as "unprofessional, inappropriate communications" with a court employee that involved "sexually explicit language."

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Brief

Colo. Governor Appoints Atty To Denver Court

By Rachel Konieczny

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Friday an attorney to the Denver District Court, filling the vacancy that will be created by a retirement on the bench.

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