Goldstein Cites Addiction To Avoid Time, DOJ Seeks 8 Years

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors recommended a 97-month prison sentence for convicted SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein, telling a Maryland federal court he has bilked the government out of more than $9.5 million in unpaid taxes. Goldstein, meanwhile, asked for a suspended sentence and supervised release, citing a "severe and longstanding gambling addiction."

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Netflix Again Beats NJ Atty's IP Suit Over Boy Scouts Films

By Jake Maher

Netflix Inc. fought off an amended complaint in New Jersey federal court Tuesday from an attorney claiming that it infringed on his copyright for a documentary about sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America, when the judge ruled the suit relied on uncopyrightable facts.

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WWE Post-Merger Evidence In Play For Chancery Trial

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday declined to exclude two disputed categories of evidence ahead of next week's trial over World Wrestling Entertainment's $21.4 billion merger with UFC parent Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., allowing both sides to present arguments that could play an important role in the closely watched case.

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Hegseth Strips Military Paper's Independence, Suit Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

The U.S. Department of Defense is exerting "unprecedented control" of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes and stripped it of its editorial independence, claims a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Washington, D.C., federal court by two Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalists who serve on the publication's advisory board.

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SDNY's Clayton Warns Of Foreign Social Media Sway

By Sarah Jarvis

Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, warned an audience at an anti-money laundering conference Wednesday of the risk of foreign governments spending money on social media campaigns in the U.S. to "foment distrust," adding that regulators need to improve their handle on the global flow of illicit profits outside the core financial system.

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Lin Wood Pushes To Erase $11M Trial Win For Ex-Partners

By Emily Sawicki

Former prominent conservative litigator L. Lin Wood is urging the Georgia Court of Appeals to overturn a roughly $11 million award that an Atlanta jury determined he owes his ex-law partners relating to the 2020 breakup of their firm.

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Squires Institutes 3 Patent Reviews, Denies 3 Others

By Ryan Davis

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires on Tuesday granted three requests for review of patents under the America Invents Act, while turning down three other petitions.

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Samsung Can't Appeal Conflicting Alice Ruling In $78.5M Case

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge has refused to let Samsung appeal a decision upholding two patents that resulted in a $78.5 million jury verdict against the South Korean tech giant after a different court found one of the patents invalid.

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Patent Suit Puts Drum Carrier Function Over Form, Court Told

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Counsel for a Japanese musical instrument manufacturer asked a Pennsylvania federal judge Wednesday to toss a patent infringement case it's facing from drum-maker Pearl Musical Instrument Co. Ltd. over marching band drum carriers, arguing that Pearl wrongly focused on the functionality of its competitor's carrier rather than its looks.

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House Panel Spars Over Who Benefits From Draft Privacy Bill

By Allison Grande

The backers of a Republican-led proposal to establish a long-elusive federal data privacy standard lauded the effort during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing Wednesday for being a commonsense extension of the nearly two dozen state laws already in place, while its opponents argued that the measure would establish a weak framework that favored companies over consumers.

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FTC Looks For Input On X Petition To Set Aside Privacy Order

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Trade Commission is asking for the public's input on a petition from X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, to set aside or modify its 2022 $150 million settlement stemming from charges it misled users about how their data was used.

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Tech Industry Groups Back Apple High Court Bid In Epic Case

By Matthew Perlman

Several technology industry groups threw their support behind Apple Inc. on Wednesday, telling the U.S. Supreme Court an injunction issued in a case brought by Epic Games Inc. tries to alter the service Apple provides to millions of developers based on complaints from a single company.

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Musk's SpaceX, Tesla Emails Fair Game For Apple, OpenAI

By Bryan Koenig

A Texas federal judge said X Corp. must produce Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla emails as part of its lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. and OpenAI of anticompetitively edging out rival artificial intelligence chatbots through a deal integrating ChatGPT into iPhones.

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Meta Partly Beats EU Gatekeeper Designations

By Ronan Barnard

An EU court annulled Meta's statutory designation as a "gatekeeper" for its Facebook Marketplace commerce platform on Wednesday, but upheld the designation for the Facebook owner's Messenger communication platform.

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UK Requiring Google To Let Publishers Opt Out Of AI

By Matthew Perlman

Google is giving publishers tools to prevent their content from being used to power the artificial intelligence features shown in search results, after Britain's competition enforcer imposed new requirements Wednesday.

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NextNav GPS Backup Called 'Destructive' To Public Safety

By Nadia Dreid

A U.S. House subcommittee is set to hear proposals Thursday to deploy new Earth-based systems to back up GPS, but one public advocacy group is sounding the alarm ahead of time about the dangers of a spectrum-based alternative proffered by NextNav.

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FCC To Consider New Children's Safety Policies For E-Rate

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission is set to consider policy changes to a school and library subsidy to reduce screen time and protect children from harmful online content.

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FCC Eyes Broadband Permit Reform, Cybersecurity Efforts

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission is putting permit reform front and center again this month, with a proposal to shed rules that it views as unnecessarily burdensome for broadband deployment.

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Broadband Group Wants Same FCC Router Waiver As AT&T

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission should grant NCTA — The Internet & Television Association members a waiver allowing them to make changes to foreign-made routers since getting replacements has become difficult due to supply chain shortages and the agency has banned routers made outside the country.

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Revisiting TransUnion's Underused Standing Rule, 5 Years On

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' recent use of the U.S. Supreme Court’s now five-year-old TransUnion v. Ramirez rule specifying that the "mere risk of future harm" isn't concrete enough to support a damages claim presents an opportunity to revisit this underutilized standing rule, say attorneys at Horvitz & Levy.

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5 Things Associates Must Ask About Their Firm's Merger Plan

The associates who navigate law firm mergers best ask the right questions early, such as inquiring about partners' plans, to assess how the merger could affect their workflow and career path, says Jackie Bokser-LeFebvre at Major Lindsey.

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BigLaw Insider Trading Defendants Have Big-Name Legal Help

By Chris Villani

An insider trading case involving nonpublic information prosecutors say was stolen from some of the largest law firms in the U.S. has ensnared more than two dozen defendants, many of whom have turned to lawyers with notable clients including Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Luigi Mangione.

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Hueston Hennigan Follows Milbank's Lead In Associate Pay

By Tracey Read

The race to match Milbank LLP's attorney pay hikes is officially on, with trial firm Hueston Hennigan the latest to announce it will increase associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually.

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Analysis

The Plaintiffs Atty Now 5-0 At High Court With No Dissents

By Jeff Overley

It's true that Jennifer Bennett is undefeated at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's also an understatement. Bennett's five wins, including two recent ones, were all unanimous decisions. They showed that the plaintiffs bar can still persuade a conservative supermajority. And they turned the tide after a spree of decisions keeping workers and consumers out of court.

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Rocade Capital Buys LFG To Create Combined $2B Lit Funder

By Ryan Boysen

Rocade Capital LLC has acquired fellow litigation funder Law Finance Group LLC, creating a combined platform that has deployed more than $2.3 billion and specializes in $10 million to $50 million deals, including post-judgment financing, portfolio deals and lending to plaintiff's firms.

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Court Reporter Shortage A 'Crisis,' Calif. Supreme Court Told

By Bonnie Eslinger

Two legal nonprofits urged the California Supreme Court to issue an order entitling low-income civil litigants to electronic recording if a live court reporter is not available, saying at a hearing Wednesday that a court reporter shortage in the Golden State has created a "crisis."

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9th Circ. Suspends 2 Attys For 6 Months Over AI Hallucinations

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday temporarily suspended two California immigration attorneys from practicing before the appellate court for filing briefs in a deportation relief case containing artificial intelligence-generated hallucinations, finding no excuse for their "extraordinary confession" of not vetting citations used by unlicensed brief writers.

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Tenn. Firm Sanctioned For AI Misuse In Baker Donelson Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Tennessee federal judge has sanctioned a Memphis, Tennessee, law firm over its misuse of artificial intelligence amid a malpractice suit against Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, ordering the regional firm to reimburse costs associated with the matter and report the misconduct to the state's disciplinary counsel.

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Feature

'Read The Cases': Conn. Judge Offers AI Advice To Attys

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge told a gathering of attorneys Tuesday that his law clerks are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence for any purpose involving legal research, his interns are barred from using it at all, and lawyers must be careful when relying on the material that the tools produce.

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Atty Can't Shake $120M Verdict In RICO, Defamation Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

An Alabama federal judge refused to disturb a $120 million verdict against a former Conrad & Scherer LLP managing partner, ruling there was enough evidence at trial for a jury to find the attorney liable on Drummond Co.'s racketeering and defamation claims.

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Graham Pushes Federal Tort Path After DOJ Drops $1.8B Fund

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice seemed, at least briefly, to support a Republican senator's alternative solution to the "anti-weaponization" $1.8 billion fund that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the department is abandoning.

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DOJ Sets New Healthcare Fraud Convictions Record

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that its Health Care Fraud Unit secured six jury trial convictions across the country in less than three weeks, with the cases involving more than $1.1 billion in fraud losses.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Dardarian Ho's Linda Dardarian

By Lynn LaRowe

Despite being on the other side of a disability rights case that will cost his municipality at least $150 million, Kevin McLaughlin, city attorney for Oakland, California, believes that if more lawyers were like Linda Dardarian, there would be far less lamenting about civility in the legal profession.

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