FDA Nom Says Vaccines Safe, Won't Call IUDs Birth Control

By Nadia Dreid

President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration faced a Senate committee Thursday morning, where she affirmed the safety of vaccines when pressed but refused to directly contradict the president's false claim that the measles vaccine could be "quite lethal," and declined to affirm that IUDs are birth control and not abortifacients.

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Full 5th Circ. Tough On Aetna's Bid To Arbitrate Aramark Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Fifth Circuit seemed skeptical Thursday of Aetna's bid to force a health plan benefits dispute from food services giant Aramark into arbitration, with judges picking the insurer's arguments apart during an en banc rehearing.

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9th Circ. Reinstates Vax Objector's Religious Bias Case

By Patrick Hoff

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday reopened a nurse's lawsuit alleging an Oregon hospital unlawfully put her on unpaid leave rather than accommodate her religious objection to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, faulting the trial court for overlooking a letter in which she explained why she wanted an exemption.

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Analysis

Calif. Bill Deals Blow, But Not Knockout, To Tracking Suits

By Allison Grande

A California bill awaiting the governor's signature is poised to reduce the swell of litigation under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, but the narrow scope of the pending lawsuit ban leaves open other avenues for plaintiffs to target the widespread use of website tracking technologies.

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Fla. Surgeon Found Guilty Of Killing Atty Who Went Missing

By David Minsky

A Florida state court judge convicted a plastic surgeon for the murder of an attorney who disappeared after walking into the restroom at his law offices and was then killed, although a body was never recovered. 

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Labcorp Inks $2.3M Deal To Resolve Multistate Data Breach

By Carla Baranauckas

Labcorp will pay nearly $2.3 million and adopt data security changes under a multistate settlement resolving investigations into a 2019 breach at its former debt collection vendor, a group of state attorneys general announced Thursday.

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Medical School Application Fee Antitrust Claim Moves Ahead

By Matthew Perlman

A D.C. federal court issued an order on Thursday trimming several claims from a class action accusing the Association of American Medical Colleges of inflating medical school application fees, but allowed one of the antitrust claims to move ahead.

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SC Judge Wants Clarity On Opioid 'Bodily Injury' Coverage

By Danielle Ferguson

A South Carolina federal judge said Thursday she is likely to ask the state supreme court to weigh in on whether certain language in a pharmaceutical company's insurance policies applies only to identified individuals in underlying opioid epidemic-related lawsuits.

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Thriving Rivals Disprove Hillrom Antitrust Suit, 3rd Circ. Told

By Matthew Santoni

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. told the Third Circuit on Thursday a Pennsylvania hospital had no evidence the equipment supplier illegally sidelined competitors from the hospital bed market, noting its deals tying discounts to exclusivity hadn't put multiple rivals out of business.

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Colo. Seeks Toss Of ICE Contractor's Inspection Law Suit

By Ganesh Setty

The Colorado attorney general and state health officials are defending a new state health inspection law governing an immigration detention center in Aurora, urging a Colorado federal court to toss much of The GEO Group Inc.'s lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality.

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Novartis Beats Patent Listing Suit Over Entresto

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge gave Novartis permanent relief from a proposed class action alleging it monopolistically delayed generic competition for its blockbuster heart failure drug Entresto, concluding that the drugmaker properly used a patent to ensure exclusivity.

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Autism Therapy Provider Fights $1M MassHealth Demand

By Carolyn Muyskens

Massachusetts' Medicaid program conducted a flawed audit of autism therapy providers last year and then demanded recoupment of paid claims without a meaningful way to challenge the audit's findings, a national therapy provider said in a lawsuit. 

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Roundup

ITC Takes On Patents, Trade Secrets In Large Decision Drop

By Dani Kass

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a flood of decisions this week on investigations in which imports are being evaluated to see if they infringe patents or misappropriate secrets, including three cases where it will reconsider holdings from administrative law judges.

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Parents Say Hospital Forced Them To Drive Home Dead Infant

By Rachel Riley

A Washington couple claims staff at Salem Hospital in Oregon left them with no choice but to drive their 8-month-old son's body back home to Seattle after he suddenly died during a medical emergency, according to a $10 million negligence lawsuit the family filed in Oregon state court.

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EPA Cuts Deal To Partially Settle U. Of Calif. Grant Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

University of California researchers urged a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily sign off on their proposed deal to resolve claims against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in broader litigation challenging the Trump administration's termination of thousands of UC grants.

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4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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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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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Reed Smith LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit overturned a $140 million class verdict against CenturyLink, holding that the company had a reasonable interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

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Arkansas Firm 5th To Seal PE Deal With Uplift Investors

By Tracey Read

Arkansas' largest personal injury law firm is the latest legal entity to ink a deal to take private equity investment using Uplift Investors' associated management services organization.

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AI Mishap Has Judge Questioning 'Our Collective Character'

By Julie Manganis

A California attorney was barred from representing the plaintiffs in a Massachusetts insurance coverage dispute and ordered to pay legal costs of up to $10,000 to opposing counsel, after a federal judge found he relied on "inaccurate and fictitious" case cites and holdings in three filings.

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Tarter Krinsky Faces Suit After Disclosing Data Breach

By Andrea Keckley

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP maintained "intentional opacity" about a recently disclosed cybersecurity attack last year that may have compromised protected health information, a proposed class action alleged in New York federal court.

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A2J At The High Court: Gun Bans, Voting And Civil Remedies

By Marco Poggio

From the right to own semiautomatic rifles to the rules governing voter registration, the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term will see the justices tackle a broad swath of constitutional and access to justice issues.

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Domino Foods Fights Paul Weiss DQ Bid In Price-Fixing MDL

By Madison Arnold

Domino Foods is pushing back on an attempt to disqualify its counsel from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in a sugar price-fixing multidistrict litigation, arguing Hershey, J.M. Smucker and other food makers filed the motion as a "strategic attempt to gain tactical advantage" at a critical point in the dispute.

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Duane Morris To Settle Employee's Tax Withholding Claim

By Asha Glover

Duane Morris LLP has agreed to private mediation to settle a proposed class action by an employee who alleged that the firm failed to withhold taxes for workers who were misclassified as partners, according to a notice.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen Glencore Energy sue a refinery for allegedly defrauding it out of more than $236 million worth of crude oil, the former CEO of ankle-tag maker Big Technologies file a defamation claim against the company, and property investment group Hunter Jones hit by a claim from the Financial Conduct Authority. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Wilson Sonsini topped a list of law firms that have alumni attorneys working at six of the country's most prominent tech companies. And general counsel at most large companies expect to increase their litigation budgets next year.

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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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