Whole Foods Battles Dismissal Bids In $1M Asbestos Suit

By Abigail Harrison

Grocery giant Whole Foods aimed to fend off dismissal bids Wednesday from a shopping plaza owner and landlord, telling the North Carolina Business Court that it sufficiently alleged contract breaches that led to asbestos entering one of its stores.

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Holster Maker Absolved In Sig Sauer Pistol Defect Suit

By Hayley Fowler

Holster maker Wintrode Enterprises Inc. isn't to blame for a pistol discharging without warning into a man's leg while he was sitting on his motorcycle, a North Carolina federal judge said Wednesday in granting it summary judgment.

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Labcorp Wins ERISA Trial As Judge Cites Stronger Witnesses

By Cara Salvatore

Medical testing chain Labcorp did not breach its duty of prudence to its multibillion-dollar employee retirement investment fund, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Tuesday after a trial, saying two plaintiffs' experts earned little credibility.

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NC Businessman Nabs Early Exit From Investment Fraud Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A businessman accused of helping launder money for a lab owner in an investment fraud scheme had no duty to disclose his dealings with the allegedly sham operation, a North Carolina Business Court judge has ruled in dismissing investors' claims against him.

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High Court May Take Up Ban On Under-21 Handgun Purchases

By Nadia Dreid

The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether Congress is violating the Constitution by banning the sale of handguns to people under 21 years old, and it has given the government extra time to give its thoughts on what the justices should do.

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Bank Of America Can't Escape 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

A North Carolina federal judge refused to toss a proposed class action against Bank of America alleging the bank misspent 401(k) plan forfeitures, finding allegations that the bank's decision to reduce obligations to other employees' accounts instead of defraying plan expenses had stated a claim for violating federal benefits law.

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Analysis

Cannabis' Social Equity Efforts In Doubt After 2nd Circ. Ruling

By Sam Reisman

A Second Circuit decision Tuesday, finding that the Constitution's dormant commerce clause applies to the federally illegal marijuana industry, further constricts states' ability to implement programs intended to award so-called social equity licenses favoring those harmed by past cannabis prohibition, experts told Law360.

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4 Firms Advise On Gildan's $4.4B Acquisition Of HanesBrands

By Al Barbarino

Canada's Gildan Activewear Inc. has agreed to acquire HanesBrands for about $2.2 billion, or $4.4 billion including debt, the companies said Wednesday, with four law firms guiding on the cross-border apparel industry deal. 

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Smith Anderson Adds 5 Business Litigation, Data Privacy Pros

By Grace Dixon

Smith Anderson announced that the firm has brought on five new attorneys who will bolster the Raleigh, North Carolina-based firm's business litigation, data privacy and security, healthcare, real estate and development, and private client practice groups.

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Water Law & Real Estate: A Special Report

By Real Estate Authority Staff

What's more summery than a trip to the shore? That's where Law360 Real Estate Authority has headed — not for a break, but for a special section looking at waterfront real estate, from coastal development challenges to big projects and the lawyers keeping them on course.

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4th, 11th Circs. Shoot Down Local Gov't Cell Tower Denials

By Nadia Dreid

Both the Fourth and the Eleventh Circuits issued decisions Wednesday allowing cell tower companies to move forward with projects over the objections of local governments that denied them permission.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Negotiation Skills

I took one negotiation course in law school, but most of the techniques I rely on today I learned in practice, where I've discovered that the process is less about tricks or tactics, and more about clarity, preparation and communication, says Grant Schrantz at Haug Barron.

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Should Judges Explain En Banc Votes? 6th Circ. Can't Agree

By Carolyn Muyskens

Two Sixth Circuit judges clashed Tuesday over appellate judges writing opinions to explain their votes on en banc petitions, as one longtime judge called the practice "offensive to our system of panel adjudication."

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Kelley Drye Hit With Class Action Over Client Data Leak

By James Boyle

Poor security measures and inadequately trained employees at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP contributed to a data breach that exposed the personal information of clients earlier this year, according to a complaint filed in New York state court seeking to form a class action.

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NJ US Atty Defends Status, Says She Is 'Validly Serving'

By Ryan Boysen

Acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba has hit back against criminal defendants who claim her contentious appointment violates the U.S. Constitution, saying everything is above board and a "lengthy period of acting service is not unusual."

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Analysis

Decision In $50B Yukos Case Raises Interesting Question

By Caroline Simson

The D.C. Circuit's decision last week reviving Russia's bid to escape litigation to enforce $50 billion in arbitral awards has raised what experts say remains a "very open" question — are U.S. courts obligated to defer to foreign courts that affirm an arbitral award issued under their law?

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GSA Strikes Anthropic Deal For Access To Generative AI

By Sarah Martinson

The U.S. General Services Administration has made a deal with artificial intelligence developer Anthropic for the company to offer its generative AI tool Claude to all three branches of the federal government, including courts, at the cost of $1 for a year.

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How They Won It

How A Flowchart Won $14.5M In Fla. Woman's Fraud Suit

By David Minsky

In Mireya Cambero's lawsuit against her ex-husband Jose Fernando De Matos, her attorneys at Miami-based Diaz Reus LLP had to prove fraudulent transfers but avoid confusing a jury with voluminous, uninteresting business filings. The best way to do it, they decided, was to organize their evidence in an easily digestible flowchart.

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NY Civil Rights Advocates Want ICE Holding Space Shut Down

By Marco Poggio

New York City immigrant rights advocates are calling for the closure of what appears to be an unofficial detention center for noncitizens hosted in a federal building in Lower Manhattan following a federal court injunction Tuesday that ordered U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement to "meet baseline conditions" inside the facility.

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Fla. Detention Center Still Blocks Atty Access, Groups Say

By David Minsky

Civil rights groups Wednesday urged a Florida federal court to grant attorneys access to detainees located at an Everglades-based immigrant detention center in a proposed class action complaint, saying people confined at the facility aren't able to petition for their release.

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Trump Taps Democratic Commissioner As Acting FERC Chair

By Keith Goldberg

President Donald Trump on Wednesday named Democratic Commissioner David Rosner as acting chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, citing his support for expanding the electric grid to better serve data centers and artificial intelligence, which is an administration priority.

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