Feds Ignored Order With South Sudan Removals, Judge Told

By Brian Dowling

Lawyers for immigrants at risk of being deported to countries where they have no prior ties and may face harm told a Boston federal judge Tuesday that the government removed at least two class members to South Sudan in violation of a court order.

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19-Year-Old Mass. Student Admits To PowerSchool Hacking

By Hailey Konnath

A 19-year-old student at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts, has pled guilty to hacking into the networks of two companies, including education software and cloud storage company PowerSchool Group LLC, and extorting them for ransoms, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

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Mass. Atty Admits Stealing From Relatives With Special Needs

By Hailey Konnath

A Massachusetts attorney Monday pled guilty to embezzling more than $3 million from several companies for which he was working as a bookkeeper as well as from two family members with special needs and dementia, according to a plea agreement filed in Bay State federal court.

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1st Circ. Tosses Puerto Rican Players' MLB Antitrust Appeal

By Brian Dowling

The First Circuit has dismissed an appeal in a wage-fixing antitrust action filed by minor league players against the MLB and its teams, finding the players committed a critical error by not objecting to a federal magistrate judge's recommendation to dismiss the underlying case.

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Doctor's Disability Bias Claim Too Late, Mass. Court Says

By Julie Manganis

A former Brigham and Women's Hospital anesthesiologist and Harvard Medical School faculty member is time-barred from pursuing disability bias claims for actions by the hospital that he was aware of as early as 2006, an intermediate Massachusetts appellate court has concluded.

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State AGs Say No To Nixing Wireless Site NHPA Reviews

By Nadia Dreid

Eight states are calling on the Federal Communications Commission not to listen to a major wireless trade group's petition encouraging it to cut "burdensome ... red tape," which the states say are actually mandates of the National Historic Preservation Act.

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Brief

Sales Exec Admits Role In $70M Brain Scan Kickback Scheme

By Julie Manganis

A former operations and regional sales manager for a mobile medical diagnostic company has agreed to plead guilty to taking part in a $70.6 million conspiracy to pay kickbacks to doctors who ordered unnecessary brain scans, Massachusetts federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

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Trump Admin Rationale For HHS Firings Challenged By Judge

By Hannah Albarazi

A Rhode Island federal judge expressed skepticism Tuesday about the Trump administration's assertion that mass firings at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were lawful and intended to improve national health, saying during a preliminary injunction hearing that nothing in the record demonstrates "thoughtful work" behind these decisions.

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MLBPA, Underdog Sports End Suit Over Using Player Images

By David Steele

The Major League Baseball Players Association and sports betting platform Underdog Sports have agreed to end the union's suit alleging unauthorized use of players' names, images and likenesses to promote its services, a complaint that originally also accused FanDuel of the same usage.

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The Status Of Biden-Era Immigration Suits: A Roundup

By Britain Eakin

Following the presidential transition, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss suits brought by the Biden administration challenging state immigration enforcement measures in Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma, leaving the status of those cases up in the air.

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Judge Warns Attys Using AI To 'Advocate — Not Hallucinate'

By Lauren Berg

A Florida federal judge on Tuesday sanctioned two attorneys in a shipping contract dispute for filing a brief that included a nonexistent case citation added by artificial intelligence, warning lawyers that they must "carefully evaluate, elucidate and advocate — not hallucinate" in their legal briefs.

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$1.8M From Legal Industry Fuels NYC Mayor's Race

By Anna Sanders

The legal industry poured at least $1.79 million into this year’s election for New York City mayor, the majority going to incumbent Eric Adams, attorney Jim Walden and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Law360 Pulse found.

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Democrats Wary of Nominees' Pledge To Honor Court Orders

By Courtney Bublé

Nominees for top roles at the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security fended off questions from Democrats on Wednesday about the Trump administration's willingness to defy court orders and pledged that the White House would at least follow rulings of the Supreme Court.

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Ford Hits Calif. Firms With RICO Suit Over Lemon Law Billing

By Emily Sawicki

The Ford Motor Co. sued several California-based law firms and lawyers in Los Angeles federal court Wednesday, accusing them of conspiring to overcharge clients and defraud major automotive manufacturers by more than $100 million by submitting falsely inflated time sheets in thousands of consumer protection cases.

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Girardi's Son-In-Law Was No 'Babe In The Woods,' Feds Say

By Lauraann Wood

The Chicago federal judge presiding over a summer client theft trial against Girardi Keese founder Tom Girardi's son-in-law should not limit the government's case based on positions it took during Girardi's California trial because its positions are consistent, and the cases are charged differently, prosecutors argued Wednesday.

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SF Law Firms' Ex-CFO Gets 3 Years For Embezzling $1.3M

By Bonnie Eslinger

A former chief financial officer of two San Francisco law firms was sentenced to just over three years in prison Wednesday for stealing more than $1.3 million from the firms and others, after one firm's founder said the defendant appeared to enjoy "stabbing us all in the back."

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Apologetic NJ Atty Gets 21 Months For $350K COVID Fraud

By George Woolston

A New Jersey attorney sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Wednesday for claiming he was a business in order to receive nearly $350,000 earmarked for small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic apologized to the court for the "embarrassment" he caused to the legal profession.

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Immigrant Groups Appeal Denied Bid To Halt IRS-ICE Deal

By Natalie Olivo

Immigrant advocacy groups on Wednesday appealed a D.C. federal judge's order denying their bid to block the IRS from sharing taxpayer data with immigration enforcement agencies, with their counsel warning "it will be too late" once the information is shared.

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