NC Judge Says Ex-Trump Media Exec Must Sit For Deposition

By Abigail Harrison

An ex-executive of Truth Social's parent company must sit for a full six hours of deposition, after a North Carolina federal judge ruled that he failed to show why Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.'s six-hour time request is unduly burdensome or duplicative.

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Court Software Co. Dumped Docs At Last Minute, Class Says

By Andrea Keckley

A class of North Carolinians who say the state's new digital court system subjected them to wrongful arrests and extended jail time have told a federal judge that the defense produced "virtually nothing" over five months of discovery, only to bury them in hundreds of thousands of documents at the eleventh hour.

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Ex-FTC Staff Urge Full 9th Circ. Review Of Apple Injunction

By Gina Kim

A group of former antitrust enforcement officials threw their support behind Apple's request for the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its decision blocking the company from charging developers "prohibitive" commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems, arguing the decision tries to "micromanage Apple's dealings."

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HPE Judge Has Enough Info Without Testimony, DOJ Says

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing a California federal judge against live witness testimony as it defends the controversial settlement permitting Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, arguing that the three live witnesses eyed by challenging Democratic state attorneys general have nothing to add.

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Q&A

NC Judge Brings Military Roots, Not Politics, To Biz Bench

By Abigail Harrison

The North Carolina Business Court added decade-long Superior Court Judge Graham Shirley to its bench this month. In an interview, Judge Shirley told Law360 how time as an attorney in the U.S. military helped make him a thorough and punctual jurist, and expanded on his interest in keeping partisan politics out of the judiciary. 

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4th Circ. Brings Back Allergan Medicaid Overcharging Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

A split Fourth Circuit panel on Friday revived a whistleblower suit accusing an Allergan Sales LLC predecessor of overcharging Medicaid by more than $680 million, saying the whistleblower plausibly alleged the company knowingly improperly aggregated discounts into "best prices" for drugs.

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W.Va.'s Privacy Law Flouts 1st Amendment, 4th Circ. Told

By Jared Foretek

News organizations and free speech advocates are backing major data brokers in their challenge to a West Virginia law prohibiting the publication of home addresses and phone numbers for judicial and law enforcement officers, telling the Fourth Circuit the law should be subject to — and fail under — strict scrutiny review.

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Analysis

4th Circ. Genworth Ruling Raises Bar For ERISA Class Actions

By Kellie Mejdrich

A recent Fourth Circuit decision in a suit challenging Genworth Financial Inc.'s inclusion of target-date fund investments as employee retirement plan options will make it tougher to certify similar class actions and could have a ripple effect in a broader range of cases, experts told Law360.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Iran, Investor Optimism, Construction Debt

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including implications for the real estate sector from the war in Iran, what investors are saying about the market and specific asset classes, and a look at where construction debt is ballooning.

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Tort Report: Uber Won't OK Bigger Jury At 2nd Bellwether

By Y. Peter Kang

Trial strategy by Uber ahead of a second bellwether trial in sexual assault multidistrict litigation and a $4 million injury verdict against Publix in Florida lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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States To Head Live Nation Antitrust Trial After Feds Settle

By Stewart Bishop

Over two dozen states and the District of Columbia are forging ahead with monopolization claims against Live Nation in Manhattan federal court after the federal government unexpectedly agreed to settle with the live entertainment giant after a week of trial.

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States Seek To Block Trump's Latest 10% Tariff Order

By Kat Lucero

President Donald Trump's order imposing 10% tariffs on countries worldwide is unlawful because it conflicts with the international payments authority he immediately invoked to justify it, two dozen states argued Friday while asking the U.S. Court of International Trade to strike down or block the regime.

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Brief

H-2A Workers Reach $305K Deal In Wage Dispute With Farm

By Irene Spezzamonte

Lee and Sons Farms told a North Carolina federal court it has agreed to pay $305,000 to settle claims from migrant H-2A workers who accused it of underpaying them and forcing them to buy inadequate meals.

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Conservative Groups Back DOJ As Amici In Law Firm EO Suits

By Emily Sawicki

Conservative groups are backing the Trump administration's attempts to revive executive orders targeting BigLaw firms, arguing in an amicus brief to the D.C. Circuit that Perkins Coie LLP had "unclean hands" for its part in what they called the "Russiagate hoax."

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Winston & Strawn Sanctioned For Trying To 'Make Up Facts'

By Dani Kass

A California federal judge sanctioned Winston & Strawn LLP on Monday for making up facts and otherwise misrepresenting the record in contract litigation over its client's app being removed from Apple's platform, then separately dismissed the case on the merits.

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Don't 'Grimace, Nod, Laugh': Judge Breyer Slams Musk's Attys

By Bonnie Eslinger

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer scolded Elon Musk's Quinn Emanuel counsel during a hearing Monday ahead of closing arguments in California litigation alleging that Musk tanked Twitter's stock to get out of his $44 billion acquisition deal, saying he wouldn't "sit here and watch lawyers grimace, nod, laugh in court."

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SEC Enforcement Head Resigns After 7 Months

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that its enforcement director, Margaret "Meg" Ryan, has resigned from the agency after nearly seven months on the job.

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Analysis

Excitement, Tinged With Skepticism, Over AAA's AI Arbitrator

By Caroline Simson

The American Arbitration Association caused a stir last fall when it introduced its AI Arbitrator for documents-only construction cases, and even though lawyers say they're excited about the tool's possibilities — and that of artificial intelligence in arbitration in general — so far, many have been reluctant to be the first to take that plunge.

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Boris Epshteyn Targeted Over Trump Bid To 'Coerce' BigLaw

By Lauren Berg

Lawyers, law professors and retired judges led by two nonprofits urged the New York state courts' ethics committee on Monday to investigate Boris Epshteyn's involvement in President Donald Trump's efforts to "intimidate and coerce" BigLaw firms into pro bono agreements with the administration.

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Trump To Get 5th North Carolina Federal Court Vacancy

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump will get another judicial vacancy to fill in North Carolina with U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen Jr. of the Middle District of North Carolina recently announcing he will take senior status.

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Paralegal Calls Full Lewis Brisbois Arbitration Unenforceable

By Adrian Cruz

A former Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP paralegal has told a Florida state judge that the firm shouldn't be able to force her into arbitrating her claims against it because a number of the alleged actions took place after she was terminated from her job.

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Democrats Push DOJ To Investigate Noem For Perjury

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats have referred the departing U.S. secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation following her recent congressional testimony.

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Mass. Justices Won't Boost Pay For Court-Appointed Attys

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts' highest court on Monday declined a request to let state judges offer higher hourly rates to induce attorneys to accept court-appointed cases, a proposal meant to alleviate a shortage of appointed counsel in two of the state's busiest counties.

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Ga. Panel Says Minister Can't Rep His Church In Tax Case

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia Court of Appeals said Monday that nonattorneys can't be allowed to represent unincorporated associations in court, backing a trial court's dismissal of a minister's bid to represent his church in a property tax dispute with his home county.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court's docket last week featured disputes including an $83.75 million settlement tied to a renewable energy merger, fraud claims in a fertilizer company acquisition and a developer's fight for control of a major Philadelphia redevelopment project.

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