Analysis

Nexstar Won Over DC, But Faces Big Task In Local TV Markets

By Christopher Cole

Broadcast behemoth Nexstar had plenty to celebrate in Washington, D.C., on Thursday with twin regulatory approvals pivotal to its plan to take over rival Tegna, but even if the deal survives legal challenges, it will face scrutiny in local TV markets.

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States Want To Halt Nexstar-Tegna Integration For Challenge

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers asked a California federal court Friday to stop Nexstar Media Group Inc. from integrating with rival broadcast company Tegna Inc., after the companies closed their $6.2 billion merger despite a pair of lawsuits challenging the deal.

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Authors' Attys Cut Fee Bid To $187M In $1.5B Anthropic IP Deal

By Dorothy Atkins

Authors who allege Anthropic pirated their work to train its Claude chatbot urged a California federal judge to grant final approval to Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement, along with an attorney fee request revised down from $300 million to $187.5 million, arguing the deal is fair despite multiple objections.

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Jury Says Musk Defrauded Twitter Investors In $44B Buyout

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal jury found on Friday that Elon Musk committed securities fraud in a civil trial over claims the tech billionaire made false or misleading statements about Twitter's fake "bot" accounts problem in a bid to ditch or renegotiate his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform.

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Pentagon Restrictions On Press Vacated As Unconstitutional

By Rae Ann Varona

A D.C. federal judge on Friday vacated provisions of a Pentagon policy that allows officials to take press passes away from journalists who report on matters not authorized by the government, saying the current policy was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, "full stop."

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Publishers Can't Get Performance Docs From Perplexity

By Elliot Weld

A Manhattan federal judge on Friday denied a request from the publishers of The Wall Street Journal and New York Post to obtain documents from Perplexity AI on how the company measures its product's performance and optimizes it, saying letting the parties continue to confer on search terms was unlikely to produce results.

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Chance The Rapper Beats Ex-Manager's Pay Claim

By Lauraann Wood

Illinois jurors sided with Chance the Rapper on Friday over his ex-manager's claim that the rapper improperly abandoned a handshake deal to pay the manager certain commissions during and for three years after their relationship, awarding the rapper $35 and recommending the return of a website he had long used to promote and market his music. 

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Social Media Jury Signals Potential Trouble For Meta, Google

By Craig Clough

After six full days deliberating in a California bellwether trial over allegations that Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC harm children's mental health through their social media platforms, the jury submitted a question to the judge potentially indicating it may be leaning in favor of finding one or both defendants liable.

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White House Pushes Congress To Override State AI Laws

By Courtney Bublé

The White House directed Congress to preempt "burdensome" state laws on artificial intelligence in a legislative framework released Friday.

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X Wants Fed. Circ. To Override $175M Loss Over 'Worthless' IP

By Dani Kass

Elon Musk's X Corp. is asking the Federal Circuit to free it from a $105 million infringement verdict out of Texas and more than $70 million in interest, saying the patents are "worthless" and the claim it was found to infringe is invalid.

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Post Beats Omission Claims In Rachael Ray Pet Food Suit

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge trimmed claims from a proposed class action alleging Post touts its Rachael Ray Nutrish pet foods contain "no artificial preservatives" while omitting that they contain citric acid, after the plaintiff acknowledged he isn't saying Post failed to disclose material facts but rather, made affirmative misrepresentations.

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Meta Exec Grilled On Messaging Policy Before Defense Rests

By Cara Salvatore

A New Mexico jury saw Meta's head of child safety policy questioned Friday regarding where the line is drawn on adult-to-minor messaging before the company rested its case at the end of a six-week bellwether trial.

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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 an ex-professional footballer revive a dispute with Charles Russell Speechlys, Virgin Media face a group data protection claim after hundreds of thousands of customers' personal details were exposed online for months, and Mishcon de Reya sued by a real estate private equity firm founded by a former Morgan Stanley executive.

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Ad Tech Class Can't Make Outside Plaintiffs Set Aside Funds

By Bryan Koenig

Individual website publishers suing Google won't have to set aside 10% of any winnings in the sprawling advertising placement technology antitrust multidistrict litigation after a New York federal judge said that the certified class of publishers was embellishing its contributions in seeking the set-aside.

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Conn. Panel Backs Geico Win In Towing Defamation Case

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Connecticut appeals court on Friday affirmed a win for Geico in a defamation case brought by several tow truck operators, agreeing with a lower court that the insurer's fee complaints to the state Department of Motor Vehicles were protected by litigation privilege.

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What's At Stake In High Court's Venue Dispute Case

The U.S. Supreme Court’s eventual ruling in Abouammo v. U.S. could fundamentally reshape venue rules for federal criminal prosecutions, highlighting why defense counsel should ensure preservation of colorable venue challenges, particularly where the government's chosen forum lacks a direct connection to the defendant's physical acts, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

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5 Tips For Navigating Your Firm's All-Attorney Summit

Law firm retreats should be approached strategically, as they present valuable opportunities to advance both the firm's objectives and attorneys' professional development through meaningful participation, building and strengthening internal relationships, and proactive follow-up, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.

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DOJ Rebuked Over Lack Of Candor For 'Imperious Client'

By Jack Karp

A Florida federal judge has rebuked government attorneys for failing to be up-front about legal authority that contradicts their position in a habeas case, warning them not to let their "imperious client" get between them and their ethical obligations.

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The Hypnosis That Helped Send A Man To Death Row

By Marco Poggio

The capital murder conviction of Charles Don Flores, a man on Texas’ death row, hinged on a courtroom identification by a witness who had previously undergone hypnosis. His lawyers are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, after Texas’ top court shot down his claims that the hypnosis session contaminated the witness’s memory and tainted her identification.

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Ore. Atty Sanctioned $10K For Brief With Fabricated Citations

By Hailey Konnath

An Oregon appellate court has ordered an attorney to pay $10,000 for filing an opening brief containing fabricated case citations, quotations that "do not exist anywhere in Oregon case law" and other inaccuracies, according to an opinion.

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Where Calif. State Courts Landed On Generative AI Use Rules

By Emily Sawicki

The majority of California's 58 superior courts — together making up the country's largest trial court system — have decided to greenlight the use of generative artificial intelligence in their work this year, a Law360 investigation found.

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Legal Sector Bracing For Impact Of Del. Corp. Law Changes

By Rose Krebs

Now that the Delaware Supreme Court has signed off on controversial corporate law amendments, the legal industry is anxiously awaiting the real-world impacts of those changes, panelists at Tulane University Law School's Corporate Law Institute said on Friday.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: $3M Jury Verdict, GEO Appeal Denial

By Orlando Lorenzo

A Philadelphia federal judge rejected bids to disturb a $3 million jury award and impose sanctions on plaintiff's counsel arising from proceedings he described as "near-daily Festivus celebrations, where everyone got to air their grievances 'for the sake of the record'" and a Detroit man saw his murder conviction vacated after 27 years due to the case's reliance on a coerced confession and a lack of physical evidence, among other access to justice stories you may have missed.

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Bondi Keeps Ousted Wisconsin US Atty With New Title

By Lauren Berg

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi swapped Brad D. Schimel's title from interim U.S. attorney to first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in order to keep him in charge of the office after his tenure expired earlier this week.

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Beasley Allen Can't Halt DQ Ruling In J&J Talc Litigation

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state appeals court has refused to pause its decision disqualifying the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing plaintiffs in multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, according to a court order.

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Up Next At High Court: Late Ballots And 'Last-Mile' Drivers

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will kick off its March oral arguments session by reviewing disputes over the validity of state laws allowing late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted in federal elections and whether "last-mile" delivery drivers qualify for the transportation worker exemption to the Federal Arbitration Act. 

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Top SEC Enforcer Signals Continuity After Ryan Departure

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's acting enforcement chief said Friday that the agency will continue to "focus on quality over quantity" when it comes to the cases it brings, projecting continuity with his predecessor's approach after her abrupt departure from the agency earlier this week.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Major shareholder groups sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act. In the meantime, some attorneys think the sanctions that judges are issuing to lawyers over AI-generated errors won't be enough to stop the problem. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Baron & Budd PC, Walden Macht Haran & Williams LLP and Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit revived a major hospital chain's False Claims Act suit accusing large pharmaceutical companies of massive overcharges in a prominent drug discount program.

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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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