Ill. Couple Can't Get Extra Coverage For Crash, 7th Circ. Says

By Hope Patti

An Illinois couple cannot receive additional payments for medical expenses and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage beyond the $1.1 million they already received for a car crash, the Seventh Circuit ruled, saying their auto and umbrella policies contain unambiguous anti-stacking language.

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UnitedHealthcare Defrauded Mass. Of $100M, AG Says

By Julie Manganis

UnitedHealthcare's "growth at all costs strategy" led the insurer's Massachusetts subsidiary to overcharge the state by more than $100 million by exaggerating the medical conditions and needs of seniors, the state's attorney general said in a Friday lawsuit.

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Weil Hit By Cyberattack Impacting Client Files

By Sarah Martinson

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP was recently hacked and had a "limited number" of client documents uploaded to an external cloud storage site, Law360 Pulse confirmed Friday.

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Samsung Must Face Insurer's $653K Electric Range Fire Suit

By Hope Patti

Samsung Electronics can't escape a Nationwide unit's suit seeking to recoup the more than $653,000 it said it paid after its policyholders' home was damaged in a fire caused by a defective electric range, a North Carolina federal court ruled.

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Club Can't Get Coverage For Patron Death Suit, Insurer Says

By Hope Patti

An insurer said it has no duty to defend or indemnify a gentleman's club against a suit claiming it contributed to the intoxication of a man whose drunken driving killed another patron, telling a Tennessee federal court Friday that coverage is barred by a liquor liability exclusion.

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Texas Justices To Weigh Attys' $126K Sanction In Horse Row

By José Luis Martínez

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear a petition from two law firms and a veterinary center in which they dispute a roughly $126,000 sanction imposed on counsel after alleged violations of a limine agreement, leading to a mistrial.

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Analysis

Cuts To Benefits Come With Risks For Employers, Attys Say

By Kellie Mejdrich

Some employers have been reducing employee benefits, attorneys say, a move that brings both legal and reputational risks. Here's a look at three areas where practitioners are seeing cutbacks and the pitfalls they present. 

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Colo. Church Says Hailstorm Claim Payment Falls Short

By Rachel Konieczny

A Vermont insurer has not paid the full amount a Denver church says it is owed under the parish's policy for a May 2024 hailstorm and shortchanged the property's damage estimate by more than $650,000, the church claimed in Colorado state court.

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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 the billionaire who donated £5 million ($6.7 million) to Nigel Farage sue Ben Habib, the leader of far-right party Advance UK, for defamation; Mashreqbank bring claims against three subsidiaries of dissolved private equity giant Abraaj Group for commercial fraud; and the property and investment vehicle of the State of Kuwait be targeted by four real estate figures who filed a miscellaneous claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Recent Actions Signal Increased NYDFS Health Cyber Focus

The New York Department of Financial Services' recent $2.25 million settlement with Delta Dental indicates that it views cybersecurity enforcement in the healthcare and insurance sectors as an ongoing priority, and serves as a road map for the compliance gaps regulators are most likely to target, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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'Operation Hard Money' Marks New Phase In Synthetic ID Fraud

A recent California mortgage fraud case dubbed "Operation Hard Money" shows synthetic identities are increasingly key to mortgage and money laundering schemes, so lenders would be wise to integrate verification and behavioral monitoring as fraud powered by artificial intelligence creates larger losses and recovery challenges, says Neal Levin at Rimon.

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Your Next Litigation Hold Should Cover AI Chat Logs

The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in Fortis Advisors v. Krafton to treat a CEO’s artificial intelligence chats as substantive evidence is being read as a discovery warning to litigators, but there is a second duty-to-preserve lesson that is especially pertinent to in-house counsel, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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Double Shooting Renews Courthouse Safety Fears In NC

By Hayley Fowler

The shooting of two Fox Rothschild LLP attorneys outside a courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of Memorial Day weekend has renewed calls to protect the safety of judges and lawyers in an increasingly volatile justice system.

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Baker McKenzie Asks Judge Not To Toss Suit Against Ex-Atty

By Alison Knezevich

A lawyer for Baker McKenzie on Friday urged a Washington, D.C., judge not to dismiss the BigLaw firm's defamation suit against a former tax associate who accused a firm office leader of sexual assault, telling the court the accusations were false and made with "malice."

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Bonus Spotlight

Selendy Gay Doles Out Spring Associate Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

New York litigation boutique Selendy Gay PLLC paid its associates spring bonuses of as much as $25,000 this week, according to the firm.

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Akin Gump Owes Fees For Winebow's 'Self-Indulgent' Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered an importer's Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to pay a European winemaker fees for having to defend against the importer's "spurious objections" to the winemaker's valid arbitral award, ruling that the importer's "self-indulgent" appeal warrants sanctions in the form of fees.

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Calif. Panel Reverses Order For Citing Atty's Bogus Case Law

By Dorothy Atkins

A California appellate panel on Thursday reversed a judgment in favor of a man accused of abusing his son, finding that "without doubt" the trial judge abused her discretion by incorporating the man's bogus legal citations into her ruling, despite being alerted to the mistakes in advance.

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NY Judge Doubts Nussbaum-Linked Firms Belong In Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

A New York bankruptcy judge on Friday questioned whether his court was the proper venue to wind down two commercial real estate law firms headed by Mark J. Nussbaum as the debtors sought to ditch an assignment for the benefit of creditors process in New York state court.

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Dems Say DOJ Blocked Bondi On Trump Questions

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats were incensed on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys who accompanied former Attorney General Pam Bondi to her committee interview stopped her from answering questions about President Donald Trump.

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Civil Rights Icon Clarence B. Jones Dies At 95

By Andrea Keckley

Civil rights icon Clarence B. Jones, a speechwriter and personal attorney to Martin Luther King Jr., died May 22 at an assisted living facility in the Santa Clara County city of Cupertino, California, his family confirmed earlier this week. He was 95.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Kirkland & Ellis says it's investing a half billion dollars into developing its own artificial intelligence platform to better serve clients. And Law360 looks at the general counsel who is guiding BP through its latest leadership crisis after the company abruptly dismissed its board chair.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Hogan Lovells and Watkins & Eager PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Black Mississippi death row prisoner who argued racial discrimination tainted his jury selection is entitled to habeas corpus relief.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Boies Schiller's Matthew Schwartz

By Sarah Jarvis

Matthew L. Schwartz oscillated among many career aspirations as a kid, from astronaut to mayor of New York. When it was time to head off to college, the man who would go on to handle the prosecution of employees tied to Bernie Madoff and become chair of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP set his sights on science, earning an undergraduate degree in physics.

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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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