Insurer Won't Have To Defend Firm In $2M Fraud Case

By Mark Payne

National Liability & Fire Insurance doesn't have to insure a Texas law firm for claims it fraudulently disbursed nearly $2 million of a safety equipment company's money for COVID-19 tests, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled, finding the insurer has shown that policy exclusions exempt it from coverage.

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Insurer Says Atty's Shoddy Defense Resulted In $92M Verdict

By Hope Patti

A Munich Re unit said an Oklahoma-based law firm is to blame for a $92 million judgment entered against it in a coverage dispute over an apartment fire, telling a federal court Thursday that its attorney failed to object to opposing counsel's inappropriate conduct or preserve evidence for appellate review.

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5th Circ. Revives Reinsurance Broker Row Over Credit Mishap

By Abraham Gross

The Fifth Circuit revived a suit by an insurer's owner alleging that its broker failed to administer its reinsurance program properly, leading to over $100 million in losses when it discovered the program lacked a valid line of credit.

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Cigna 401(k) Suit Won't Wait For Intel Supreme Court Decision

By Kellie Mejdrich

A Pennsylvania federal court turned down Cigna's bid to stay a proposed class action alleging the insurance company misspent forfeitures from its employee 401(k) plan and offered an underperforming investment fund while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a 401(k) suit against Intel, finding the request unjustified.

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Ex-Assurant Workers Look To Toss RICO, Trade Secrets Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

A group of former Assurant salesmen called the auto warranty underwriter's eighth attempt at bringing Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations and trade secrets claims a shotgun pleading, arguing in Georgia federal court that competition and criminal enterprise are not the same.

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Nonprofit Insurer Wants To Seek AstraZeneca Claims Revival

By Bryan Koenig

EmblemHealth asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let it seek First Circuit intervention against a decision that cut in half its proposed class action accusing AstraZeneca unit Alexion of using sham patents to protect blood disorder treatment Soliris from biosimilar rivals.

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Brief

Elevance Nurses' Federal OT Suit Sent From NC To Va.

By MJ Koo

A class and collective action accusing insurer Elevance Health of misclassifying its nurses as overtime-exempt has been transferred from North Carolina to Virginia federal court, where the company faces related claims.

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Appellate Strategy Lessons From Pa. Excess Coverage Ruling

In FedEx v. National Union Fire Insurance, a Pennsylvania state court recently set forth a clear holding that policyholders may recover postjudgment interest under excess liability insurance policies only when the policy language expressly allows, offering important takeaways for planning appeals, say attorneys at Hunton.

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Opinion

Time To Fix The Accountability Gap In Freight Logistics

In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport, the U.S. Supreme Court must resolve an urgent question: whether freight broker selection in trucking accidents is categorically protected — meaning unreasonable safety decisions are insulated from liability — or subject to accountability under traditional negligence principles, says Amanda Demanda at Amanda Demanda Injury Lawyers.

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Series

Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

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DLA Piper Partner Rejects Pregnant Atty's Account Of Firing

By Pete Brush

The DLA Piper partner who fired a pregnant associate said she did so lawfully, telling a Manhattan federal jury her former employee was "in over her head" and disputing that the associate raised pregnancy bias concerns on a termination call.

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6th Circ. Won't Revisit EFAA Ruling Against Adams & Reese

By Patrick Hoff

The Sixth Circuit said it won't reconsider its ruling that a law barring mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment cases kept a former Adams & Reese LLP paralegal's sex harassment and disability bias suit in court, concluding that the firm's objections were already considered.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen the owner of an oil tanker stuck in the Strait of Hormuz sued by an energy company and an insurer, law firm Boodle Hatfield LLP and two Serle Court barristers sued by a group of Winston Churchill's great-grandchildren, and Welsh Water hit with a fresh class action over polluted rivers.

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Calif. Atty Avoids Sanctions For Filing Bogus Citations With AI

By Matt Perez

A California attorney has avoided sanctions over his use of artificial intelligence for a filing in a civil rights case, which resulted in false citations.

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Another Gov't Atty From Vt. Joins Stris & Maher's Team

By Jack Rodgers

A former civil chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont has joined Stris & Maher LLP's practice as a partner, the firm announced Friday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Other states might follow the lead of California and break with President Donald Trump's policies in implementing guardrails for state agencies to contract with AI companies. And after three individual indictments last month for selling banned tech to China, Supermicro has hired Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to conduct an independent investigation, assigned its general counsel to lead an internal compliance review, and shaken up its compliance leadership.

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NJ Justices Won't Review Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Cases

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court's order booting the Beasley Allen Law Firm from multicounty litigation in the Garden State over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder, according to an order made public Friday.

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Conn. Justices Block Agency's Bias Probe Into Atty Licensing

By Brian Steele

Because citizens blocked the legislature from reviewing court decisions when ratifying the state's 1818 constitution, a Connecticut human rights agency has no power to investigate alleged bias in attorney licensing decisions, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday in a unanimous opinion.

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Airline Worker Asks To Expand Sanctions Row In Bias Case

By Emily Brill

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who was fired after sending her union's president pictures of aborted fetuses is pushing for additional remedies in a sanctions dispute stemming from her long-running religious discrimination lawsuit against the airline, from which she received $800,000 after winning a jury trial in 2022.

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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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Trump Taps Personal Atty For 2nd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening he's tapping Matthew Schwartz, his attorney in the New York hush money case, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

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