Cravath, Latham Guide Paramount's Hostile $108B Bid For WB

By Dorothy Atkins

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP guided Paramount Skydance Corp.'s hostile $108.4 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, challenging Netflix's $82.7 billion play for the studio and streaming business, which has quickly drawn bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, Hollywood and even the president.

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Del. Chancellor Finds Prince Estate Battle Will Play On

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's chancellor on Monday tossed some but not all amended counterclaims in a long-running battle among some relatives of the musician known as Prince and managing members of his estate, while saying a neutral party could help resolve the case.

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Justices Skip 'WallStreetBets' TM Ownership Case

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from the creator of Reddit's WallStreetBets, who sought review of a Ninth Circuit decision that the social media company owned the trademark rights to the popular investing forum's name.

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Justices Turn Down Machine Learning Patent Eligibility Case

By Ryan Davis and Elliot Weld

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact a decision that Recentive Analytics Inc. machine learning patents are invalid for claiming only abstract ideas, turning aside the company's argument in a dispute with Fox Corp. that the ruling effectively bars many artificial intelligence patents.

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High Court Rejects Bids To Clarify Video Privacy Law's Reach

By Allison Grande

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a pair of disputes over the scope of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 law that has sparked a flood of litigation over the viewing data disclosure practices of website operators ranging from the NBA to streaming provider Flipps Media. 

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AT&T Joins SG's High Court Review Bid Despite 5th Circ. Win

By Christopher Cole

After winning a Fifth Circuit case involving fines from the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T has nonetheless agreed with the U.S. solicitor general that the U.S. Supreme Court should review the need for jury trials when the agency seeks certain penalties.

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8th Circ. Says Video Privacy Law Doesn't Bind Movie Theaters

By Allison Grande

The Eighth Circuit on Monday became the latest court to conclude that movie theaters don't qualify as businesses that are covered by the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, in affirming the rejection of a proposed class action accusing the regional movie chain Cinema Entertainment of illegally sharing website visitors' video viewing activities with Meta. 

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Ga. Judge Rejects Judicial Bias Claims In Katt Williams Suit

By Lynn LaRowe

A Georgia federal judge has declined to reconsider his ruling tossing a suit by four women against comedian Katt Williams, rejecting claims that judicial bias infected the ruling and defending his decision to refer their attorney to the state bar for filing a brief with numerous fake case citations generated by artificial intelligence.

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Paul Weiss Guides IBM On $11B Buy Of Cooley-Led Confluent

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Tech company IBM, advised by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, on Monday unveiled plans to acquire data streaming company Confluent, led by Cooley LLP, in an $11 billion deal.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Express Mobile's Patents Or $40M Win

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board rightfully invalidated claims of three Express Mobile web-design patents, and a Delaware federal judge properly found Shopify didn't infringe additional, related patents, the Federal Circuit held Monday.

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2nd Circ. Doubts Ex-Basketball Players' NIL Claims Are Timely

By David Steele

A Second Circuit panel on Monday persistently pushed the attorney for former college basketball players to explain why the players waited so long to claim the unpaid use of their images by the NCAA, years after their careers had ended.

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Ex-Archetype Capital Exec Hit With Trade Secret Injunction

By Theresa Schliep

A Nevada federal court on Friday temporarily blocked the former executive of a litigation finance business from using its trade secrets, finding the evidence indicates that his new law firm employer leveraged its proprietary mass tort review system. 

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X Claims Engineer Stole 6M Lines Of Code To Launch New Co.

By Ivan Moreno

X Corp. is accusing a fired software engineer of stealing trade secrets to start her own company, alleging in a federal lawsuit that she exploited upheaval following Elon Musk's April 2022 purchase of the Twitter social media platform to download 6 million lines of proprietary source code. 

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Colo. Supreme Court Sets New Anti-SLAPP Test

By Zach Dupont

Colorado's high court issued an opinion Monday creating a two-step analysis for judges to conduct when evaluating anti-SLAPP motions to dismiss in defamation cases after issuing a ruling against a Colorado Springs-based veterinary clinic suing two women who published negative reviews about it on social media.

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App Maker Says 1st Amendment Bars AG's Removal Demand

By Ganesh Setty

The developer of an application allowing users to report sightings of immigration enforcement authorities accused U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday in D.C. federal court of violating his free speech rights by getting Apple to remove it.

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Cox-Verizon Retrans Spat Shows Reform Needed, Org. Says

By Nadia Dreid

Congress needs to step in and do something about big broadcasters holding television stations "for ransom" every year in order to extract insanely high retransmission consent fees from cable and satellite companies, says a group dedicated to bringing those fees down.

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Epic Drops App Store Trade Libel Claims Against Google

By Carla Baranauckas

Video game and software developer Epic Games Inc. is dropping its trade libel case accusing Google LLC of making claims about its apps and store on Android devices, following a settlement between the tech giants.

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Judge Prods Doctor To Disclose Records In WWE Abuse Fight

By Alex Lawson

A Connecticut judge bristled at a celebrity doctor's failure to overturn key records that may bolster a former WWE staffer's abuse claims against the company, saying on Monday that his prior order to unearth the documents "is not being taken seriously."

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Trump SPAC's Ex-CEO Seeks $50K Daily Sanctions In Fee Row

By Katryna Perera

A former CEO of Donald Trump-tied blank check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. has urged the Delaware Chancery Court to impose a $50,000-per-day sanction against the company for allegedly "throwing a tantrum" and refusing to pay roughly $2 million of a $2.9 million and growing legal fee advancement order in connection with litigation in Florida.

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Pentagon Spectrum Veto Left Out Of Defense Bill

By Christopher Cole

Military leaders will not have the option of blocking the transfer of certain spectrum blocks to the private sector under the latest version of a massive defense authorization for fiscal year 2026.

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Carlton Fields Steps Aside In 'Irreconcilable' Miss America Case

By Emily Johnson

A Florida federal judge allowed Carlton Fields and its attorneys on Monday to withdraw from representing the plaintiffs in a dispute over the ownership of the Miss America pageant, after the firm said "irreconcilable differences" drew it to ask to step down.

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Grounding Netflix's 'Death By Lightning' In Patent History

In Netflix’s "Death by Lightning," U.S. President James Garfield's assassin declares that patent lawyers lack original ideas, but real-life 19th-century patent attorney-inventors were key to technological progress and the success of the American patent system, say Tasha Gerasimow at Kirkland & Ellis and David Gerasimow at Gerasimow Law.

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Opinion

Horizontal Stare Decisis Should Not Be Casually Discarded

Eliminating the so-called law of the circuit doctrine — as recently proposed by a Fifth Circuit judge, echoing Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurrence in Loper Bright — would undermine public confidence in the judiciary’s independence and create costly uncertainty for litigants, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns.

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Series

The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Getting The Message Across

Communications and brand strategy during a law firm merger represent a crucial thread that runs through every stage of a combination and should include clear messaging, leverage modern marketing tools and embrace the chance to evolve, says Ashley Horne at Womble Bond.

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US Lawyer Numbers Surge With Hefty 2024 Graduating Class

By Tracey Read

The number of U.S. lawyers showed marked growth for the first time since 2020, due to a 2024 graduating class that was nearly 12% larger than any other class since 2012, a study from the American Bar Association released Monday showed.

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Habba Resigns As Acting US Atty After DQ Ruling At 3rd Circ.

By Jake Maher

Alina Habba stepped down Monday as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey following a Third Circuit ruling that she was unlawfully appointed to the position, with the U.S. Department of Justice unveiling that a trio of officials will take on her responsibilities.

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Conservative Justices Probe 'Husk' Of FTC Firing Protections

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority pushed back Monday against the 90-year-old precedent permitting the removal only for cause of Federal Trade Commission members, and perhaps those serving other independent agencies, calling those safeguards a "dried husk" and wondering where to draw the line for protected agencies.

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Ex-Josh Cellars President Fights Gibson Dunn Withdrawal Bid

By Elliot Weld

The former president of the company behind the Josh Cellars wine brand disputed Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP's version of events around his allegedly unpaid legal bills, saying he has questions about the reasonableness of the firm's charges, which must be arbitrated per his contract with the firm.

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Jury Expert Sues Atty For 'Pirating' Her Jan. 6 Venue Report

By Matt Perez

A New Hampshire defense attorney representing a defendant charged for crimes related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sued in D.C. federal court for allegedly stealing a copyrighted study analyzing attitudes in the jury pool of the District of Columbia.

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Litigation Funder Says Attys Hid Deal To Evade $1.5M Payout

By Christine DeRosa

A Florida-based litigation funder has sued two California attorneys and a law firm, alleging they secretly settled a client's civil dispute and steered the money so they wouldn't have to repay over $1.5 million.

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Analysis

What To Do When Jurors Don't 'Trust The Science'

By Chris Villani

The pandemic and initiatives from the second administration of President Donald Trump challenging decades of established scientific norms have made science more politicized, and attorneys say picking a jury and presenting scientific evidence is increasingly challenging.

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Brief

Senators Kelly, Slotkin Set Up Legal Defense Funds

By Courtney Bublé

After appearing in a video encouraging members of the military and intelligence community to not follow illegal orders, Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have established legal defense funds.

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Defense Bill Includes Protections For Retired Justices

By Courtney Bublé

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 released Sunday night extends U.S. Supreme Court police protection for retired and former justices and their immediate family members.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court delivered a busy first week of December, featuring commercial disputes, post-closing merger and acquisition battles and renewed scrutiny of fiduciary conduct ranging from oil and gas investments to healthcare acquisitions. 

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