Roundup

Defamation Litigation Roundup: Benny Johnson, Mariah Carey

By Theresa Schliep

In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 highlights separate lawsuits against two conservative political figures accused of sharing false and disparaging online content, one brought by a left-wing streamer and another by protesters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Illinois.

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Meta Settles With Mental Harm Plaintiff On Eve Of LA Trial

By Craig Clough

Meta Platforms Inc. has reached a settlement during jury selection in the second Los Angeles bellwether trial over claims its Instagram platform harms the mental health of children, leaving Snap Inc. as the lone defendant facing trial, an attorney for Meta told a California state judge Friday morning.

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9th Circ. Backs Meta In Publisher's Appeal Over Account Ban

By Hailey Konnath

The Ninth Circuit Friday affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a Canadian news site's claim that Meta breached their agreement when it canceled the site's Facebook account, finding that Meta was acting in its capacity as a publisher and is therefore shielded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

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9th Circ. Revives NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Verdict

By Matthew Perlman

The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that a lower court was wrong to scrap a $4.7 billion jury verdict against the National Football League in a class action over the price of its Sunday Ticket broadcast package, but ordered a new trial on the damages.

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'I Can't Get An Answer': Fair Use Fight Irks Anthropic Judge

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge overseeing music publishers' high-stakes copyright fight with Anthropic over song lyrics expressed frustration during a hearing Friday, calling Anthropic's fair use arguments "slippery" and citing an "overarching concern" that she can't get clear answers about the categories of AI outputs at issue.

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OpenAI, Microsoft Copyright Feud Spurs Wave Of Amici Briefs

By Ivan Moreno

A flurry of proposed friend-of-the-court briefs in the OpenAI copyright multidistrict litigation is urging a New York federal judge to treat model training, the acquisition of copyrighted material, and artificial intelligence-generated answers as distinct acts rather than trying to resolve them under a single fair-use ruling.

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3 Pro-Trump Ads Blocked Online At Taxpayer Group's Request

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge on Friday expanded her order blocking the Trump administration from displaying taxpayer-funded advertisements featuring the president, blocking three ads attacking Democrats that were posted online after the judge earlier banned a set of about a dozen ads from television.

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Law360 MVP Awards Go To Top Attorneys From 89 Firms

The lawyers chosen as Law360's 2026 MVPs stand out from their peers by notching significant achievements in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-setting transactions.

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Leonard Cohen Trustee Doesn't Need Court's OK To Sue Firm

By Andrea Keckley

A California appellate court has affirmed its decision to reject an argument by the law firm Leonard Cohen hired for estate planning that it cannot be sued over its representation of the singer-songwriter's personal manager without a judge's permission.

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AI Music Startup Wants Labels' Second IP Suit Paused

By Carolyn Muyskens

Suno Inc. asked a Massachusetts federal judge Friday to pause a second lawsuit from Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group over alleged use of artists' songs to train an artificial intelligence music generator, saying the parties should wait for key rulings in the labels' other suit.

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How They Won It

How A Cigar Box And An Expert On Lying Cost Meta $25B

By Cara Salvatore

Two lawyers who won $25 billion at a closely watched corporate deception trial against Meta said they followed three simple rules: Take extreme care with your jury questionnaire, devise your trial themes during discovery and don't be afraid of a lead witness who specializes in abstract theory.

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Google Search Judge 'Increasingly Concerned' By Fix Delays

By Bryan Koenig

Nearly a year after issuing his final mandates ordering Google to prop up search engine rivals with data and syndicated search results, a D.C. federal judge expressed concern during a hearing Friday that the process of readying the monopolization fixes won by the U.S. Department of Justice continues to drag on.

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Analysis

3 Ways Burgeoning AI Use Can Trip Up Benefits Providers

By Kellie Mejdrich

As the use of artificial intelligence in the employee benefits space grows, experts warn that companies need to be vigilant to guard against mishaps caused by the emerging technology. Here, Law360 looks at three areas where benefits attorneys say AI can cause legal headaches.

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Records Ordered In Doctor's Suit Against WWE Accuser's Atty

By Tom Lotshaw

A Connecticut federal judge has resolved a discovery dispute in a defamation case between a doctor and a lawyer for a woman who accused a former World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. CEO of sex abuse and trafficking.

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Key Witness May Be Out In MLB Prop Betting Trial

By Stewart Bishop

A Brooklyn federal judge Friday heard that prosecutors may not call a key witness at the center of a fight over exculpatory evidence disclosure to testify against two Cleveland Guardians players accused of a pitch-fixing conspiracy to profit from rigged proposition bets, and refused a government bid to use a purported $500,000 tax debt against one of the pitchers.

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Feds Want 5 Years For John Bolton In Classified Info Case

By Hailey Konnath

Federal prosecutors say former National Security Adviser John Bolton should be sentenced to five years in prison after he pled guilty to charges he illegally retained classified national defense information, while Bolton says he should only be sentenced to probation, according to dueling memos filed Friday in Maryland federal court.

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Cruz Counsel Returns To FCC As Space Bureau Chief

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission has named a former employee with experience in both the public and private sectors to head the agency's Space Bureau, after a stint as chief telecommunications counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee.

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FCC Mulls Order Overriding Calif. Carrier Rules

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission is thinking about preempting California's carrier of last resort regulations to allow AT&T to continue with its copper landline retirement in the Golden State, something California regulators have refused to sign off on.

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FCC To Look At Clearing Airwaves For Moving Earth Stations

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will in November consider an order that would make it easier under agency rules to deploy earth stations in motion that are mounted on ships, planes, vehicles and drones.

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Brief

Hong Kong Telecom Ends US Services In FCC Deal

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission said Friday it has reached a consent decree resolving its investigation of Hong Kong telecom company HKT over its ties to Chinese Communist Party.

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Racing Mogul's Estate Asks Tax Court To Ax $58M Tax Bill

By Kevin Pinner

An automobile racing mogul's estate asked the Tax Court to spike a $58.3 million estate tax deficiency, alleging that the IRS erred in revaluing its equity holdings.

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Theme Park Can't Short-Circuit Patron's Trip-And-Fall Case

By David Aaro

A split appellate panel refused to shut down a premises liability suit against a Georgia amusement park on Friday, unswayed by the company's claim that the walkway where the plaintiff tripped and fell amounted to an obvious hazard.

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Hospital In 'Maya' Case Acted In Good Faith, Fla. Court Told

By David Minsky

Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Inc. asked a Florida state court judge Friday to narrow claims brought by Maya Kowalski, whose child welfare case was documented by Netflix Inc., arguing immunity should be granted because it acted in good faith after reporting suspected child abuse from her parents. 

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Reggaeton Dispute Tests Boundaries Of Musical Rhythm IP

Browne v. Donalds, a music copyright dispute currently pending in California federal court, may set significant precedent for whether a foundational musical rhythm or style can be owned and exclusively controlled through copyright law, says Jameel Diaz at Omnus Law.

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Washington Email Law Still Puts Marketers At Litigation Risk

Despite legislative efforts to curtail abusive litigation after the 2025 Brown v. Old Navy decision extending Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act to misleading email subject lines, CEMA can still trigger class actions with statutory damages, even for national campaigns run by companies with no physical presence in Washington, say attorneys at Wilson Elser.

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Tracking Texas: When Counterclaims Start The Removal Clock

The Texas Business Court's recent decision in Bakery v. Naterra International clarifies that, when the original claims do not meet the court's amount-in-controversy threshold, a presuit threat to bring high-value counterclaims does not itself make those unfiled claims part of the action, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

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How AI Could Help Judges Spot Their Own Biases

In close cases where there’s room for discretion, artificial intelligence could challenge judges’ implicit biases by running counterfactual tests at scale — but any judicial use of such tools would need guardrails, say Arnold Peter at Peter Law and Nancy Rapoport at University of Nevada.

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Are You Happy With Your In-House Role? Take Our Survey

Is your company giving you everything you need to succeed? What are some misconceptions about working in-house? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Satisfaction Survey.

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Ramona Nee, Tapped To Lead Weil, Now In Talks With Kirkland

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Ramona Nee, the co-leader of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's U.S. private equity practice who had been poised to become its leader, is engaged in talks to join Kirkland & Ellis LLP, a source with knowledge of the situation told Law360 Pulse on Friday.

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K&L Gates DQ'd In Trust's Mortgage Loan Agreement Dispute

By Isaac Monterose

A Washington federal judge disqualified K&L Gates LLP from a trust's dispute over a residential mortgage loan sale agreement, ruling that the law firm must leave the suit because it drafted the form agreement used in the transaction.

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Jackson Walker Inks $500K Deal In EXCO's Ch. 11 Fee Fight

By Clara Geoghegan

Jackson Walker has agreed to pay EXCO Resources Inc. $500,000 to end litigation over fees paid to the firm while one of its partners was in an undisclosed relationship with the former bankruptcy judge who mediated in the reorganized oil and gas driller's Texas Chapter 11.

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Fed. Judge A No-Show Amid Inquiry Into Her Mental Health

By Craig Clough

U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas failed to appear Friday before a judicial investigative committee examining allegations that she abandoned her post and concerns that a mental condition may be interfering with her ability to perform her duties.

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Judge Opens Ethics Inquiry Into DOJ's Golf Course Candor

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge opened an inquiry Friday into whether Trump administration attorneys and officials violated their ethical obligations to the court when they repeatedly told her that there were no plans to close East Potomac Golf Course for an overhaul at President Donald Trump's behest.

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Kalshi Taps Clement For High Court Sports Contracts Fight

By Elaine Briseño

Kalshi has hired appellate heavyweight Paul D. Clement of Clement & Murphy PLLC to represent the company in its potential U.S. Supreme Court battle over whether the prediction markets platform's sports wagering is subject to state or federal oversight.

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Cyberattack Class Action Against Fox Rothschild Dropped

By Madison Arnold

Three data breach victims have dismissed their proposed class action against Fox Rothschild LLP after ransomware group Silent Ransom Group targeted the firm.

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DOJ Backs Ex-Wisconsin Judge's ICE Obstruction Conviction

By Andrea Keckley

The U.S. Department of Justice told the Seventh Circuit that the high-profile conviction of a former Wisconsin state court judge for interfering with an ICE arrest was not compromised by her position on the bench or by jury instructions.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Meta reached a settlement during jury selection in the second Los Angeles bellwether trial over claims its Instagram platform harms the mental health of children, leaving Snap as the lone defendant facing trial. In the meantime, current and former in-house lawyers for Google and Meta said that the ability of AI to write patent applications is rapidly improving, and that in blind tests, experienced attorneys often deem AI-drafted patents to be superior to those from humans. 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

Consovoy McCarthy PLLC and Smith Porsborg Schweigert Armstrong Moldenhauer & Smith lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eighth Circuit struck down the Federal Reserve's regulatory cap on the swipe fees that larger banks may collect on debit card transactions.

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Up Next At High Court: Religious Liberty & Unpled Defenses

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will begin its November sitting by hearing oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of Colorado's universal preschool program and a dispute asking the justices to settle a circuit split over whether defendants in civil lawsuits can seek summary judgment based on unpled affirmative defenses.

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Roundup

Hub Hires: WilmerHale, Womble Bond, Kirkland

By Chris Villani

Falling temperatures didn't bring a cooldown in the Boston legal lateral market as WilmerHale and Robinson & Cole LLP both welcomed former assistant attorneys general, Honigman LLP established its first office in the market, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP snagged a partner from Ropes & Gray LLP.

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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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