4th Circ. Curbs Gov't Access To Journos' Comms Via LinkedIn

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Fourth Circuit has limited the scope of an order directing LinkedIn to give up journalists' communications with alleged sources on the professional networking website in response to a federal leak probe, noting that the government's ability to investigate potential violations of the law is tempered by the First Amendment.

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Quinn Emanuel, Atty Get Reduced Fee Awards In Buzbee Suits

By Lynn LaRowe

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and a Mississippi lawyer can get a small fraction of the roughly $1.72 million in combined attorney fees they sought from prominent Houston plaintiffs attorney Tony Buzbee after defeating claims that they conspired with rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter to retaliate against Buzbee and two of his former clients, a Texas state judge has ruled.

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Proskauer Won't Rep Perplexity In Reddit Data-Scraping Suit

By Matthew Perlman

Perplexity AI Inc. has abandoned its effort to have Proskauer Rose LLP defend against a data-scraping lawsuit from Reddit Inc. after Reddit raised concerns about the law firm's past representation of the social media company.

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Patagonia Cites Market Confusion In IP Row With Pattie Gonia

By Craig Clough

Clothing brand Patagonia asked a California federal judge Wednesday to rule that drag queen and environmental activist Pattie Gonia infringed its trademarks, arguing that consumer surveys show confusion over whether Patagonia was behind the branded merchandise and that the claimed parody still leaves the merchandise subject to trademark law.

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Ex-Cravath Staffer Charged With Insider Trading

By Stewart Bishop

A former employee at Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP on Thursday was arrested and charged with insider trading for allegedly exploiting nonpublic information about major deals involving the firm's clients, including Paramount Skydance Corp.'s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

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Ky. Federal Judicial Nominee Faces Misconduct Proceedings

By Courtney Bublé

A nominee for a Kentucky federal judgeship is facing misconduct proceedings for his reprimanding of an attorney who made a TikTok video in his courtroom.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Fox Aims To Raise $8B For Roku Buy, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Media giant Fox is looking to raise around $8 billion to help fund its Roku acquisition, iHeartMedia has dispelled rumors it was considering selling its podcasting unit, and British oil giant BP is in talks to sell a portion of its Brazilian oil block assets.

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Squires Grants Another 5 PTAB Petitions, Denies 2

By Dani Kass

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has instituted five new patent challenges, largely in the pharmaceutical industry, in one of his final mass orders.

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NYC Becomes 2nd City To Ban Data-Driven Pricing

By Lauren Berg

The New York City Council on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a measure to ban companies from using personal data to offer different prices to different customers for the same goods and services, becoming the second city to prohibit the increasingly prevalent practice known as surveillance pricing.

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TikTok Backs School District In MDL Trial Witness Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

School district plaintiffs on Wednesday opposed a bid by YouTube, Snap and Meta to exclude late-disclosed witnesses from an upcoming bellwether trial in social media addiction multidistrict litigation, noting that defendant TikTok agreed the school district witnesses can be added if TikTok USDS Joint Venture's new CEO can testify as well.

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EU High Court Adviser Backs Bulk Of €1.5B Google Fine

By Bryan Koenig

A European Court of Justice advocate general said Thursday that the European Union's top court should upend a lower court decision scrapping a €1.49 billion fine imposed over Google's past restrictions against rival search engines on third-party websites using its advertising tools.

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Cruz Sets Up Confirmation Vote For 3rd FCC Republican

By Christopher Cole

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will push ahead with a committee vote on Nov. 18 to confirm Danielle Thumann Severs to the Federal Communications Commission.

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FCC To Allow Router Changes For AT&T Supplier

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission's staff has granted an AT&T gateway supplier a one-year exemption from a security restriction so that it can make hardware upgrades.

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CPA Group Seeks IRS Guidance On Gambling Reporting Regs

By Zak Kostro

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants asked the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS to clarify proposed regulations to increase the threshold for gambling businesses to report payouts to the government, saying they fail to address key issues for reporting wagering gains and losses.

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Getty Investors Say Ch. 11 Loan Locks In Insider Takeover

By Jarek Rutz

An ad hoc group of Getty stockholders has urged a Delaware bankruptcy judge to not grant final approval of the company's $143 million bankruptcy financing package, arguing the deal is designed to hand control of the business to the Getty and Koch families while leaving minority investors with nothing.

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Opinion

Large Meta Penalties Shouldn't Shape State AG Playbook

Meta Platforms' $17.1 billion settlement in California federal court and two New Mexico verdicts against the company resulting in large penalties are drawing renewed attention to the question of how state attorneys general should calculate civil penalties, but regulators and companies should treat the decisions as outliers, not a template, say attorneys at Troutman.

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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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Crowell & Moring Finance Litigation Head Joins Norton Rose

By Andrea Keckley

Norton Rose Fulbright has welcomed the New York-based head of financial services litigation at Crowell & Moring LLP as a partner, saying his hire will bolster its services to corporations, financial institutions and private capital clients.

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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 Olympic gold medalist Daley Thompson target gym chain Hybrid Fitness for an alleged breach of contract, investor claims continue to mount against building materials giant Kingspan, and real estate magnate Mike Kohan be sued by property lender Decama Finance.

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Longtime DC Steptoe Partner Joins Potomac Law Group

By Jack Rodgers

An attorney who spent more than 28 years as of counsel for Steptoe LLP's complex commercial litigation team has moved to Potomac Law Group's office in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Friday.

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Memories Of Weil: From Childbirth To The Lehman Bankruptcy

By Aebra Coe

Those who worked within the walls of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP over its 95-year history have built up countless personal and professional memories. Here, six former attorneys and staff share some of their top memories.

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Analysis

How AI Became The 'Backseat Driver' In Settlement Talks

By Chris Villani

Attorneys say the ubiquitous use of artificial intelligence by clients has put up barriers to resolving cases by giving litigants unrealistic expectations about their claims, introducing inaccurate or irrelevant case law, and making them second-guess their hired legal counsel more often.

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Hall Booth Beats Appeal Over Failed DQ Bid In Med Mal Suit

By George Woolston

A New Jersey appellate panel rejected a bid to disqualify Hall Booth Smith PC from representing a hospital and healthcare company in a medical malpractice suit, finding that the firm's prior representation of another defendant in the case is not materially adverse to the interests of its current clients.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

DLA Piper and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Massachusetts federal judge said she would reduce an $88 million verdict awarded to an Alabama couple in the first bellwether hernia mesh trial against Medtronic subsidiary Covidien LP.

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Kasowitz Denies Columbia Students' Deal Overcharge Claims

By Adrian Cruz

Kasowitz LLP asked a New York state judge Friday to dismiss a suit by a group of Columbia University students accusing it of wrongfully taking more than $6 million from a 2025 settlement in a suit over alleged antisemitism on campus, calling the complaint a "publicity stunt" that fails to prove the firm engaged in malpractice.

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Beltway Moves: Weil, Dechert, WilmerHale

By Alison Knezevich

Washington, D.C., attorneys from Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP continued to land new roles in some of the most recent legal industry hiring developments in the nation's capital.

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Judge Says Email, Not Bias, Cost Public Defender His Job

By Kelcey Caulder

A federal magistrate judge recommended that the Georgia Public Defender Council be freed from an attorney's suit alleging he was fired for complaining about racial bias and then hit with a retaliatory bar complaint, finding that an email he sent to his colleagues was what actually led to his termination.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

The top story of the week – the spy and romance thriller at AI chipmaker Nvidia – continues to unfold in layers, as the company hired Wachtell Lipton to probe its involvement in possible national security violations, saw its CEO resign in disgrace, tried to defend its general counsel's intervening in a related China inquiry, was pulled into congressional investigations, and faced an investor's lawsuit over the mess.

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Western Va.'s Top Federal Prosecutor Latest To Face DQ Bid

By Jack Karp

The lawyer leading the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia is the latest top federal prosecutor to have the legality of their appointment challenged in court, as a defendant in a gun case claims the office's leader was placed through a series of "machinations," "games" and "cynical measures."

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ABA Council Backs Law School Course, Faculty Rule Changes

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association council that handles law school accreditation voted Friday to relax standards related to online course credits and courses taught by full-time faculty, requirements that critics have claimed contributed to higher tuition rates.

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Fox Rothschild Fights Revival Of Malicious Prosecution Suit

By Rose Krebs

Fox Rothschild LLP is urging a New Jersey state court to deny an adult daycare company's bid to undo the toss of its malicious prosecution suit against the firm and one of its attorneys, saying the court didn't err in dismissing the complaint.

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Mich. State Police Chief Can't Shake Ex-Aide's Distress Claim

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan State Police director must face an emotional distress claim brought by his former executive assistant, a state Court of Claims judge has determined, finding that she sufficiently alleged Col. James Grady threatened her with a baseless internal investigation unless she accepted a demotion reducing her hourly pay by $8.

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How Nonprofits Are Adjusting To A New Pro Bono Landscape

By Alison Knezevich

Legal advocacy groups face a changed pro bono landscape during Trump's second administration. With some large firms avoiding cases against the federal government, nonprofit leaders say they are developing volunteer networks, relying on smaller shops and solo practitioners, and leaning more on their own staff attorneys to carry the pro bono load. 

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AI Played Key Role In Miami Boat Crash Acquittal, Atty Says

By Carolina Bolado

Artificial intelligence tools played a key role from jury selection to closing statements in a recent high-profile criminal trial over a boat crash that killed one teenager and left another permanently disabled, the defense attorney who secured a not guilty verdict said Friday during a panel discussion in Miami on AI in litigation.

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Mich. Tribal, State Courts Both Aim To Tackle Legal Deserts

By Susan Smiley

The newly named co-chairs of the Michigan Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum, Judge Carol Montavon Bealor and Judge Hannah Bobee, agree their respective court systems share one crisis: a lack of attorneys in rural areas.

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Balancing The Scales: Trans Prisoner Care, Immunity In Mich.

By Orlando Lorenzo

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed gender transition medical services to continue to be offered in federal prisons, and the Sixth Circuit ruled that prison officials in Michigan can't claim immunity from allegations that they knew of mold contamination that led to seizures and respiratory issues among incarcerated women.

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Arizona Law Clinic Takes Legal Aid For Veterans On The Road

By Marco Poggio

Law students and their supervising attorneys drive hours from Tucson to bring free legal help to veterans in rural Arizona. On the Hopi Reservation, the University of Arizona's Veterans' Advocacy Law Clinic works with tribal partners to help veterans file disability claims and seek discharge upgrades that could open the door to benefits.

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Raskin Seeks Judiciary Gavel, High Court Ethics Curbs

By Courtney Bublé

In making his bid to be elected House Judiciary chair, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on Friday said ethics reforms for the U.S. Supreme Court are among his top priorities.

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Goodwin Taps Simpson Thacher For Insider Trading Fight

By Chris Villani

Goodwin Procter LLP has hired Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to represent it as an alleged victim of an insider trading scheme that Massachusetts federal prosecutors say was orchestrated by a former Goodwin associate, according to a Friday filing seeking to oppose the attorney's request for records in redacted filings.

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