Insurer Sanctioned For 'Willful' Discovery Defiance

By Hope Patti

A Washington federal court on Friday said it would hold an auto insurer liable for bad faith, negligent claim handling, and violations of the state's Consumer Protection Act and Insurance Fair Conduct Act after the carrier willfully violated prior production orders in a dispute over underinsured motorist benefits.

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Hartford Unit Owed Contractor Coverage In Data Center Row

By Mark Payne

A Hartford insurance specialty unit had a duty to defend a building contractor against an underlying suit over a data center's construction even after defamation claims were dropped, a California federal judge ruled, finding that existing claims could have exposed the contractor to additional defamation allegations.

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NYDFS Fines Delta Dental $2.25M Over MOVEit Data Breach

By Allison Grande

Delta Dental has agreed to pay $2.25 million to resolve the New York financial regulator's claims that the insurer maintained inadequate cybersecurity and breach response measures that enabled hackers to obtain access to files sent through the MOVEit transfer tool containing its customers' personal information. 

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Analysis

5 Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In May

By Kellie Mejdrich

HP, Siemens and Honeywell will defend victories in 401(k) forfeiture suits at the Ninth and Third circuits, while union pensioners will battle over life insurance and early retirement benefits at the Tenth and Seventh circuits. Here, Law360 looks at five coming oral argument sessions that benefits attorneys may want to keep an eye on.

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Supplier Says Travelers Must Cover Nestle Defect Claims

By Hope Patti

An industrial equipment supplier accused of providing defective compressed air piping materials for the construction of a facility owned by Nestle told a North Carolina federal court that two Travelers units must defend and indemnify it in connection with the underlying claim.

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Med Groups Say HHS Stalling Challenge To Vax Changes

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday rejected the government's request to pause discovery in a challenge by medical groups to the Trump administration's new childhood vaccination schedule while it appeals his March order blocking the changes.

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Texas Plastics Co. Seeks To Nix Full Captive Rules In 5th Circ.

By Kat Lucero

A plastics company is appealing a Texas district court's decision to partially vacate IRS regulations that listed captive insurance as potentially abusive tax avoidance schemes and will ask the Fifth Circuit to strike down the entire set of regulations, according to a notice.

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Steel Firm Workers Get OK For $1.8M ESOP Deal, $600K Fee

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge has approved a $1.8 million class settlement resolving claims that trustees of a steel company employee stock ownership plan overpaid for company stock, finding the deal "fair, reasonable and adequate" and in the best interest of plan participants. 

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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 a Swiss energy trader bring a Financial List claim against shipping benchmarking company Baltic Exchange, law firm Slater and Gordon sued by a former client, Slack and Salesforce hit Microsoft with an antitrust claim, and Stephen Fry bring a personal injury claim after he broke bones falling off a stage. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Q&A

How Paul Clement Does It All

By Katie Buehler

For most lawyers, getting to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court is a once-in-a-lifetime event, but for a select few, it's a common occurrence. Clement & Murphy PLLC name partner Paul Clement is one of those lawyers. 

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Don't 'Throw' Young Attys Under Bus, Judge Warns Musk Atty

By Dorothy Atkins

The California federal judge presiding over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion criticized Musk's attorney Marc Toberoff on Friday for eliciting "waste of time" trial testimony into Musk's $97.4 billion acquisition bid, warning Toberoff he "shouldn't throw young lawyers under the bus" by not quickly acknowledging his role.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury cleared Armistice Capital and two of its executives of class action claims that it pumped and dumped $250 million in Vaxart stock during the COVID-19 pandemic and violated federal securities law with insider trading.

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Whistleblower Says DOJ Rushed SPLC Indictment

By Courtney Bublé

A whistleblower has come forward to say a top U.S. Department of Justice official ordered prosecutors in Alabama to "rush" the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center despite concerns about the viability of the case, according to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.

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California High Court Rejects Dunn's Bid To Nix Suspension

By Adrian Cruz

The California Supreme Court has declined to review a California State Bar decision to impose a one-year stayed suspension on former State Bar executive Joseph Dunn.

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FTC, DOJ Say ABA Reliance Limits Law School Competition

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division told the Tennessee Supreme Court the American Bar Association's monopoly over law school accreditations is driving up the cost of legal education.

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Analysis

SEC's Corp. Governance Shift Puts Onus On States, Cos.

By Sarah Jarvis

Lawyers who work with clients on corporate governance matters had a warm response to a recent pledge from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins to let states handle such issues, saying the shift marks a return to the agency's historical approach and may spur increased activity among state regulators.

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Ex-Bondi Adviser Tapped As Fraud Task Force's Chief Lawyer

By Phillip Bantz

Ousted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's former adviser is taking on a new role as general counsel for the White House's fraud task force.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

A pair of proxy advisory firms have sued two state attorneys general over laws they say impose burdensome requirements for issuing recommendations that go against corporate managers' wishes. Meanwhile, KPMG reports that legal is evolving into a key driver of business performance, and AI is a core component of the department. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of April

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at Intel, Colgate and Tripadvisor. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from April.

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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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