Greystar Cuts $7M Deal With 9 AGs In Rent Price-Fixing Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

Greystar Management Services LLC has agreed to pay North Carolina, California and seven other states $7 million to resolve allegations against it in a sprawling antitrust lawsuit alleging major landlords used software company RealPage to fix rent prices, according to documents filed in North Carolina federal court Tuesday.

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Whole Foods' $1M Asbestos Suit Survives Dismissal Bid

By Abigail Harrison

Whole Foods can proceed with its $1 million lawsuit over construction work that freed asbestos and forced a store to close temporarily, after a North Carolina Business Court judge ruled the grocer alleged enough to support contract breach claims against a plaza owner and sublessor.

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Food-Ingredients Sellers Say Buyer Sabotaged $72M Earnout

By Jarek Rutz

A holding company and two members of the family that built its subsidiary food business have accused the company's buyer in the Delaware Chancery Court of deliberately stripping them of promised operational autonomy and sabotaging its performance to avoid paying an earnout of up to $72 million.

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First Financial Says Medical Device Maker Owes $13.6M

By Abigail Harrison

Ohio-based First Financial Bank asked a Connecticut federal court for a judgment saying it is owed at least $13.6 million after a medical and aerospace device manufacturer breached multiple loan agreements before telling the bank it was insolvent.

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Pool Co. Directors Hit With Derivative Suit In Del.

By Jeff Montgomery

Three stockholders of pool equipment company Hayward Holdings Inc. sued the company's directors and officers in Delaware's Court of Chancery late Tuesday, seeking derivative damages based on claims that — after thriving during the pandemic — the company failed to report ballooning customer inventories as insiders traded on bogus, upbeat news.

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4th Circ. Says Immigration Board Ignored Key Evidence

By Tom Lotshaw

A split Fourth Circuit panel has said immigration courts ignored evidence of the threats a Honduran man faced from MS-13 gang members if he was sent back to that country, while a dissenting judge faulted him for not reporting to police alleged harms.

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Bonus Spotlight

BigLaw Begins To Fall In Line With Cravath Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, McDermott Will & Schulte LLP and Dechert LLP are among the law firms following the lead of Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP on year-end associate bonuses this week, with at least five large firms matching the market leader within a day of Cravath's Tuesday announcement.

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Troutman Owes $3.7M In Atty Fees After $1M Malpractice Loss

By Jake Maher

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP must pay $3.7 million in attorney fees to a healthcare tech company that won on malpractice claims against the firm in 2024 after six years of litigation and an eight-day bench trial, a New Jersey state judge has ordered.

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Dissent Accuses Redistrict Ruling Of 'Judicial Misbehavior'

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit judge denounced the judge who penned a federal court order blocking Texas' newly redrawn congressional map, saying in a Wednesday opinion the order blocking the redistricting amounts to the "most blatant exercise of judicial activism" he had ever seen.

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Halligan Says Grand Jury Never Saw Final Comey Indictment

By Jared Foretek

U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan acknowledged Wednesday that the full grand jury in the James Comey case never saw or voted on the final version of the indictment that was handed up to the court in the case. An attorney for Comey said the clarification was grounds for dismissal.

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Alaska Senator Pushes For Better Vetting After Judge Scandal

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said on Wednesday that after a federal judge in his state resigned in disgrace last year, he decided he had to revamp his selection process for judicial nominees.

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Pillsbury Asks 2nd Circ. To Guard $4M Client Fee From SEC

By Aaron Keller

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on Wednesday urged the Second Circuit to allow it to keep a $4 million advance payment retainer from the since-convicted former CEO of a bankrupt cybersecurity company, but the law firm conceded it should have clarified its rights after the government sought an asset freeze.

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Latham DQ'd From Sleep Apnea Device Co.'s Patent Fight

By Madison Arnold

A Delaware federal court has disqualified Latham & Watkins LLP from representing the creator of a sleep apnea implant in its patent dispute after the firm served as counsel to the rival's underwriters, saying the "appearance of impropriety is glaring."

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The House's Plan B For Repealing Provision On DOJ Lawsuits

By Courtney Bublé

If the Senate does not take up a bill to repeal a provision in the government funding package allowing senators investigated by former special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages, a Republican House member is already making contingency plans.

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Justices Told Presidential Firing Limits Is An 'Originalist' Idea

By Katie Buehler

A bipartisan collection of current and former government officials has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a 90-year-old ruling that empowers Congress to prohibit the president from firing certain agency officials at will, claiming the precedent has roots that date back to the country's founding and reflects key separation of powers principles.

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