Ex-Joe Gibbs Racing Director Hit With $8M Trade Secrets Suit

By Hayley Fowler

One of NASCAR's biggest race teams is suing its former competition director for $8 million after he allegedly plundered trade secrets on his way out the door, saying he took everything from performance analytics to employee pay records while readying to join a competitor.

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Chemours, Koura Beat Rivals' Refrigerant Antitrust Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A North Carolina federal judge has tossed an antitrust lawsuit against DuPont spinoff the Chemours Co. FC LLC and a fellow refrigerant distributor, saying two of their rivals failed to plausibly allege an antitrust injury or conspiracy, among other requirements needed to keep the suit alive.

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Fintech Mortgage Co. Hit With Class Action Over Data Breach

By Sydney Price

Blockchain home loan company Figure Lending LLC was hit with a proposed class action in North Carolina federal court accusing it of failing to safeguard customers' data from cybercriminals during a breach of its computer systems earlier this month.

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Lack Of Standing Dooms GardaWorld Health Fees Suit

By Mike Curley

A North Carolina federal judge on Friday threw out a suit alleging that GardaWorld Cash Service violated federal employment law with surcharges on its employee health plan for those who use tobacco or refused COVID-19 vaccination after finding that the two named plaintiffs did not participate in the health plan.

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NC Panel Won't Review DuPont PFAS Nuisance Appeal

By Ganesh Setty

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has declined to examine a trial court's finding that DuPont spinoff entities created a public nuisance by contaminating groundwater with so-called forever chemicals, rejecting their interlocutory appeal.

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Merck Wants Out Of Ex-Workers' Wage, ADA Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Merck urged a North Carolina federal court on Friday to dismiss a former manufacturing facility employee's proposed class and collective action, arguing federal wage law bars his state overtime claim and that he failed to link his firing to sleep apnea.

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Dollar Tree Sued Over Receipts With Partial Account Numbers

By Abigail Harrison

A Dollar Tree Inc. shopper accused it of shirking federal consumer protection law by printing more than the last five digits of customers' credit and debit card numbers on receipts, according to a putative class action designated to the North Carolina Business Court Friday.

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4th Circ. Backs $1.1M Roof Verdict Against Church Insurer

By Gianna Ferrarin

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a North Carolina federal jury's $1.1 million award to a church for a roof damage claim, rejecting arguments from the church's insurer that the court adopted the wrong causation standard to an all-risk insurance policy in its jury instructions.

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Va. City Fights Fire Chiefs' OT Suit Rehearing Bid At 4th Circ.

By Benjamin Morse

The city of Alexandria, Virginia, urged the Fourth Circuit to reject a rehearing bid from fire department battalion chiefs in an overtime dispute, arguing a unanimous panel correctly applied U.S. Supreme Court precedent in finding the chiefs exempt because they are paid on a salary basis.

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PVC Pipe Buyers Want To Get Price-Fixing Discovery Moving

By Elizabeth Daley

Parties involved in price-fixing litigation over polyvinyl chloride pipe costs have offered differing solutions to an Illinois federal court, with defendants in the consolidated action pushing for dismissal as plaintiffs urged the court to start permitted discovery.

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Analysis

Valve's Anti-Troll Law Win Could Open New Doors

By Dani Kass

The first jury verdict in the U.S. finding a patent owner violated state law meant to curb bad faith patent suits had unique circumstances that will be hard to repeat, but attorneys say Tuesday's decision still has them considering the little-used laws more closely.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: REITs, FinCEN, Transfer-Based Cleanup

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney views into shareholder activism among public real estate investment trusts, FinCEN's new anti-money laundering rule, and the second-to-last U.S. state to shed certain pollution inspections for commercial and industrial property transfers.

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Emerging Themes In Post-Groff Accommodation Decisions

Nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court's seminal decision in Groff v. DeJoy reshaped the legal framework for religious accommodations, lower court decisions and agency guidance have begun to reveal how this heightened standard operates in practice, and the pitfalls for unwary employers, says Helen Jay at Phelps Dunbar.

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Calif.'s Civility Push Shows Why Professionalism Is Vital

The California Bar’s campaign against discourteous behavior by attorneys, including a newly required annual civility oath, reflects a growing concern among states that professionalism in law needs shoring up — and recognizes that maintaining composure even when stressed is key to both succeeding professionally and maintaining faith in the legal system, says Lucy Wang at Hinshaw.

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McGlinchey Stafford Files Ch. 7 With Over $10M In Liabilities

By Lauren Berg

New Orleans-based firm McGlinchey Stafford PLLC, which announced last month that it's winding down operations after more than half a century, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with more than $10 million in liabilities owed to former staff and attorneys, workplace vendors, financial institutions and other creditors.

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Judge Nixes DOJ Fine In ICE Case, But Blasts 'Radio Silence'

By Hailey Konnath

A Minnesota federal judge said Friday that a U.S. Department of Justice attorney won't be fined after an immigrant's identification documents were finally returned to him, yet she tore into the DOJ's excuses and said she will "not tolerate what happened here: disobedience and radio silence from the government."

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Analysis

Deportation Policy Pushes Texas Federal Bench To The Brink

By Courtney Bublé

Texas has suffered through a shortage of judges for its federal courts for a while now, but the recent influx of immigration cases is pushing the system to the brink.

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Michigan Federal Judge Faces State's 'Super Drunk' Charge

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Michigan federal judge facing trial on drunken driving charges crashed his car on the night he was arrested, registered a 0.27% blood alcohol level and told a state trooper who asked him to recite the alphabet, "A, B, C, D, F, U," according to a police report recently made public.

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Boies Schiller Partner Faces Possible Sanctions For AI Errors

By Emily Sawicki

A Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner must explain why he should not face monetary sanctions for filing a brief containing artificial intelligence-generated citation errors amid his representation of women who allege the Church of Scientology harassed them for reporting convicted actor Danny Masterson's sexual assaults.

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Epstein's Advisers Ink $35M Deal With Sex Trafficking Victims

By Katryna Perera

A class of victims of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scheme has asked a New York federal judge to grant the first OK in a settlement reached with Epstein's lawyer and accountant, who allegedly aided him in the scheme.

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Va. Judges Name New US Atty, But Blanche Says 'You're Fired'

By Lauren Berg

The federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday unanimously appointed veteran litigator James W. Hundley to serve as interim U.S. attorney, a decision immediately met with derision from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who purported to fire Hundley in a social media post.

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Class Attys Allege Lead Counsel Is Hoarding $75M Sutter Fees

By Dorothy Atkins

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP has urged a California federal magistrate judge to enforce the $75.4 million fee award in Sutter Health's $228.5 million deal resolving a decade-long antitrust fight, arguing lead counsel Constantine Cannon LLP "unilaterally" and "arbitrarily" cut SWCK's fees by nearly $800,000 while boosting its own.

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Beasley Allen Can't Pause NJ Talc DQ Order, Judge Rules

By George Woolston

The Beasley Allen Law Firm can't delay an order disqualifying it from representing hundreds of women who claim their ovarian cancer was caused by Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder while it seeks review from the New Jersey Supreme Court, a state judge ruled on Friday.

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Fake Attys, Judges, Hearings: DOJ Alleges Immigration Scam

By Hailey Konnath

A group of Colombian immigrants scammed clients out of $100,000 by pretending to be immigration lawyers at a fake firm and orchestrating phony hearings in which they pretended to be judges and federal agents, complete with fake judicial robes and uniforms, federal prosecutors in New York said Friday.

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6th Circ. Chief Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

Chief Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton announced on Friday that he will take senior status on Oct. 1 after more than 20 years on the bench.

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Judiciary Preps Training On National Injunction Limits

By Courtney Bublé

Seven months after the budget reconciliation bill was enacted, the federal judiciary is making progress on the provisions to rein in what Republicans deem abuse of nationwide injunctions targeting the Trump administration's initiatives.

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Florida AG Defends $100K Teaching Side Gig Amid Scrutiny

By Jake Maher

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has been on defense amid scrutiny over a reported $100,000-per-year teaching gig at the University of Florida law school, just as he sought to roll out a new anti-corruption unit.

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Attys Regret Unnoticed ChatGPT Errors In Conn. Court Filings

By Tracey Read

Attorneys ordered to explain errors in two January Connecticut Supreme Court briefs said ChatGPT altered legal arguments that counsel did not notice when they asked the artificial intelligence software to help limit duplicate passages, meet word count rules and format the filings.

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Brief

2nd NJ Defendant Joins Bid To Disqualify US Atty Leadership

By Carla Baranauckas

A second defendant in a New Jersey federal criminal case on Friday joined a pending bid to disqualify the three assistant U.S. attorneys overseeing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, escalating a constitutional challenge to the office's leadership structure.

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Beltway Moves: Baker McKenzie, Armstrong & Bradylyons

By Alison Knezevich

The deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division returned to Baker McKenzie, while two former DOJ fraud prosecutors launched a new white collar boutique, in some of the latest legal industry happenings in Washington, D.C.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

The last week in London saw the founders of Getir sue investment fund Mubadala for more than $700 million tied to alleged breaches during the company's restructuring, the Welsh Rugby Union face a claim by Swansea Council over a proposed takeover of Cardiff Rugby, and Euro Car Parks target the Competition and Markets Authority after it was fined by the watchdog. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Several pension funds in New York City sued AT&T, alleging the illegal exclusion of their shareholder proposal requesting a corporate diversity report from the telecom giant's corporate ballot. In the meantime, the DOJ said the Trump administration is investigating federal contractors and grant recipients for potentially engaging in discrimination, rather than for their DEI programs. These are among 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

Wigdor LLP and Elefterakis Elefterakis & Panek lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a New York federal judge denied the NFL's bid to force a class of National Football League coaches into arbitration.

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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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