NC High Court Says Repose Is 'Immunity,' Substantial Right

By Mike Curley

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday allowed an airplane parts maker to appeal an order denying its motion for summary judgment in a suit over a 2015 plane crash, overturning precedent to find that the statute of repose under the General Aviation Revitalization Act is a type of immunity and therefore a "substantial right" impacted by the denial.

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Bed Skirt Biz Partner Owes $608K For Sabotage, Defamation

By Hayley Fowler

A minority owner of a commercial bed skirt company must pay over $608,000 for trying to sabotage the business and defaming the CEO, a North Carolina Business Court judge ruled following a bench trial, saying he must also fork over his interest in the company.

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Jury Finds Tech Co. Data Analyst Guilty Of Extortion Scheme

By Joyce Hanson

A data analyst contracted to work for a Washington, D.C.-based technology company was hit with a federal jury verdict finding him guilty of conducting a cyber extortion scheme that threatened to disclose employees and executives' personal information if they didn't pay him $2.5 million.

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NC High Court Keeps County Waste-Fee Classes Intact

By Abigail Harrison

A group of North Carolina property owners can proceed in their waste fee lawsuit as three certified classes, as the North Carolina Supreme Court found Friday that a "key issue" — the identity of class members who hired private waste collection services — could be determined.

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Builders Can Proceed As Class In Fee Suit, NC Justices Say

By Abigail Harrison

Homebuilders challenging the City of Raleigh's capital facilities fee ordinances can proceed within a certified class action after North Carolina's highest court ruled Friday that state statute requires unlawful fees be returned to the payor regardless of who ultimately shouldered the cost.

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The Quest For A 'Sound Basic Education' In North Carolina

By Abigail Harrison and Hayley Fowler

Robb Leandro was the original named plaintiff in one of the longest-running lawsuits in Tar Heel State history, centered on the state's constitutional obligation to provide children with a "sound basic education." Over three decades, a series of eponymous North Carolina Supreme Court opinions have steered the state toward what could be a multibillion-dollar remedy to improve public education. He's now waiting alongside millions of residents for the state's justices to release what could be a far-reaching opinion, more than two years after hearing oral argument.

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Man Says Marketing, Sales Put Chinese Co. In Court's Reach

By Mike Curley

A man suing a Chinese vape manufacturer is pushing back against its efforts to dismiss the suit from North Carolina federal court, arguing that its marketing and sale of vapes in the state put it within the court's jurisdiction.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: $3M Jury Verdict, GEO Appeal Denial

By Orlando Lorenzo

A Philadelphia federal judge rejected bids to disturb a $3 million jury award and impose sanctions on plaintiff's counsel arising from proceedings he described as "near-daily Festivus celebrations, where everyone got to air their grievances 'for the sake of the record'" and a Detroit man saw his murder conviction vacated after 27 years due to the case's reliance on a coerced confession and a lack of physical evidence, among other access to justice stories you may have missed.

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4th Circ. Dubious Of Undoing Execs' Payroll Tax Convictions

By Hayley Fowler

Two former software executives in North Carolina challenging their conviction for failing to pay employment taxes seemed unlikely to get a reversal in the Fourth Circuit on Friday, with at least one judge hearkening back to his days as a prosecutor as he opined that the pair had essentially been "stealing."

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White House Pushes Congress To Override State AI Laws

By Courtney Bublé

The White House directed Congress to preempt "burdensome" state laws on artificial intelligence in a legislative framework released Friday.

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Seyfarth Real Estate Team Adds Charlotte City Council Member

By Andrea Keckley

Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced Thursday that its real estate department has welcomed a former Nuveen Natural Capital attorney who last fall was elected to the Charlotte City Council.

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Analysis

Nexstar Won Over DC, But Faces Big Task In Local TV Markets

By Christopher Cole

Broadcast behemoth Nexstar had plenty to celebrate in Washington, D.C., on Thursday with twin regulatory approvals pivotal to its plan to take over rival Tegna, but even if the deal survives legal challenges, it will face scrutiny in local TV markets.

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States Want To Halt Nexstar-Tegna Integration For Challenge

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers asked a California federal court Friday to stop Nexstar Media Group Inc. from integrating with rival broadcast company Tegna Inc., after the companies closed their $6.2 billion merger despite a pair of lawsuits challenging the deal.

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5th Circ. Wipes Out FTC's TurboTax 'Deceptive' Ad Ruling

By Lauren Berg

The Fifth Circuit on Friday vacated the Federal Trade Commission's cease-and-desist order imposed on Intuit Inc. for its TurboTax advertising that regulators say duped customers into thinking they could file their tax returns for free, saying the agency's in-house decision is unconstitutional, and the dispute must go to federal court.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Rate Hold, Data Center Regs, Housing EOs

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including reactions to the latest interest rates news from the Fed, states tamping down on data center development and executive orders on the affordable housing front.

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5 Tips For Navigating Your Firm's All-Attorney Summit

Law firm retreats should be approached strategically, as they present valuable opportunities to advance both the firm's objectives and attorneys' professional development through meaningful participation, building and strengthening internal relationships, and proactive follow-up, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.

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DOJ Rebuked Over Lack Of Candor For 'Imperious Client'

By Jack Karp

A Florida federal judge has rebuked government attorneys for failing to be up-front about legal authority that contradicts their position in a habeas case, warning them not to let their "imperious client" get between them and their ethical obligations.

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The Hypnosis That Helped Send A Man To Death Row

By Marco Poggio

The capital murder conviction of Charles Don Flores, a man on Texas’ death row, hinged on a courtroom identification by a witness who had previously undergone hypnosis. His lawyers are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, after Texas’ top court shot down his claims that the hypnosis session contaminated the witness’s memory and tainted her identification.

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Ore. Atty Sanctioned $10K For Brief With Fabricated Citations

By Hailey Konnath

An Oregon appellate court has ordered an attorney to pay $10,000 for filing an opening brief containing fabricated case citations, quotations that "do not exist anywhere in Oregon case law" and other inaccuracies, according to an opinion.

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Where Calif. State Courts Landed On Generative AI Use Rules

By Emily Sawicki

The majority of California's 58 superior courts — together making up the country's largest trial court system — have decided to greenlight the use of generative artificial intelligence in their work this year, a Law360 investigation found.

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Legal Sector Bracing For Impact Of Del. Corp. Law Changes

By Rose Krebs

Now that the Delaware Supreme Court has signed off on controversial corporate law amendments, the legal industry is anxiously awaiting the real-world impacts of those changes, panelists at Tulane University Law School's Corporate Law Institute said on Friday.

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Bondi Keeps Ousted Wisconsin US Atty With New Title

By Lauren Berg

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi swapped Brad D. Schimel's title from interim U.S. attorney to first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in order to keep him in charge of the office after his tenure expired earlier this week.

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Beasley Allen Can't Halt DQ Ruling In J&J Talc Litigation

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state appeals court has refused to pause its decision disqualifying the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing plaintiffs in multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, according to a court order.

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Up Next At High Court: Late Ballots And 'Last-Mile' Drivers

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will kick off its March oral arguments session by reviewing disputes over the validity of state laws allowing late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted in federal elections and whether "last-mile" delivery drivers qualify for the transportation worker exemption to the Federal Arbitration Act. 

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Top SEC Enforcer Signals Continuity After Ryan Departure

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's acting enforcement chief said Friday that the agency will continue to "focus on quality over quantity" when it comes to the cases it brings, projecting continuity with his predecessor's approach after her abrupt departure from the agency earlier this week.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen an ex-professional footballer revive a dispute with Charles Russell Speechlys, Virgin Media face a group data protection claim after hundreds of thousands of customers' personal details were exposed online for months, and Mishcon de Reya sued by a real estate private equity firm founded by a former Morgan Stanley executive.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Major shareholder groups sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act. In the meantime, some attorneys think the sanctions that judges are issuing to lawyers over AI-generated errors won't be enough to stop the problem. 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

Baron & Budd PC, Walden Macht Haran & Williams LLP and Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit revived a major hospital chain's False Claims Act suit accusing large pharmaceutical companies of massive overcharges in a prominent drug discount program.

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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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