Philly 'Whiz Honor' Judge Suspended In Ethics Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Philadelphia judge under investigation amid accusations that he sought to influence the sentencing of a friend of rapper Meek Mill was suspended without pay on Thursday, according to a court order. 

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Pa. High Court Revives Death Row Inmate's Jury Bias Claim

By Elizabeth Daley

A man on death row for stabbing a woman and decapitating a child in front of police may argue he was denied a fair trial, after allegedly discovering that a juror in his case hid an attempted infanticide in his family, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in a reversal.

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Samourai Wallet Exec Gets 5 Years In Crypto Laundering Case

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge sentenced the CEO of crypto mixer Samourai Wallet to five years in prison Thursday after he admitted that his business facilitated big-dollar transfers derived from criminal activity including narcotics trafficking and extortion.

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FEMA Says States 'Mistaken' On Disaster Mitigation Program

By Julie Manganis

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to throw out a lawsuit by 22 states and the District of Columbia over the future of a program that funds infrastructure-hardening projects to mitigate the effects of natural disasters.

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Roundup

Pa. Statehouse Catchup: Cannabis Quality, 'Deepfake' Fines

By Matthew Santoni

Even as the Pennsylvania General Assembly has struggled to agree to a state budget since the summer deadline passed, legislators have introduced and advanced bills dealing with perennial topics like cannabis legalization or responding to newer concerns like AI-fueled fraud.

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Analysis

New Govs. Will Keep Heat On Grid Operator Over Power Costs

By Keith Goldberg

The nation's largest regional grid operator, which has come under fire for limiting state involvement in its policymaking, will continue to face pressure following the election victories of New Jersey and Virginia governors who campaigned on lowering utility bills.

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3rd Circ. Won't Revive Investors' Suit Over Viatris Sale

By Jessica Corso

The Third Circuit on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a proposed shareholder class action against pharmaceutical company Viatris, saying that investors hadn't plausibly alleged that they were misled about the future of the company's sold-off biosimilars business.

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3rd Circ. Rules Carjacker's Autism Didn't Affect Rights Waiver

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit Thursday ruled that a convicted carjacker's autism and learning disabilities did not affect his waiver of Miranda rights when talking to police, despite police falsely telling him that an alleged coconspirator confessed and implicated him in the crime.

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Series

Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.

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Strategic Use Of Motions In Limine In Employment Cases

Because motions in limine can shape the course of employment litigation and ensure that juries decide cases on admissible, relevant evidence, understanding their strategic use is essential to effective advocacy and case management at trial, says Sara Lewenstein at Nilan Johnson.

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Delaware Fee Inflation Worries Overblown, Study Says

By Jeff Montgomery

A newly published report by two Stanford University researchers asserts that high-dollar attorney fee awards in Delaware courts make up "a very small minority of cases" and are "no basis for concern," throwing cold water on growing worries about so-called fee inflation in the First State.

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'It's A War, Man': Trump's Deputy AG Unloads On Judges, Bars

By Jeff Overley

The U.S. Department of Justice is in "a war" with federal judges who are "not following the law," and it is separately formulating plans to block "activist, obnoxious" bar associations from assessing ethics complaints against government lawyers, a top DOJ official said Friday.

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Jeffer Mangels Hit With Pregnancy Bias Suit By Ex-Associate

By Hailey Konnath

A former Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP associate has accused the firm of discriminating against women, especially pregnant women, claiming that she was harassed throughout her pregnancy and eventually fired after she advocated for herself and pointed out the disparate treatment.

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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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Ex-Calif. Judge Seeks To Toss Sex Assault, Coverup Charges

By Craig Clough

A former California state judge on Friday moved to toss federal criminal charges alleging that he sexually assaulted a court employee and lied to investigators, saying the employee was not under his direct supervision so he could not have been acting under the "color of law" when the alleged assault occurred.

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Ex-Polsinelli Atty Agrees To Dismiss Sexual Harassment Case

By Hailey Konnath

A former Polsinelli PC equity shareholder agreed to drop her suit alleging two former partners sexually harassed her, and she was fired after reporting it, according to a notice filed Friday in Washington, D.C., federal court.

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Mass. Federal Judge Mark Wolf Retires After 40 Years

By Chris Villani

Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf on Friday announced that he is retiring after more than 40 years on the federal bench, having presided over some of the most notable cases in Massachusetts federal court over the past four decades.

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Hearing Officer Clears Mass. Judge Of Aiding ICE Escape

By Julie Manganis

A hearing officer has concluded that Massachusetts state court Justice Shelley Richmond Joseph was not aware of a plan to allow a defendant to evade an ICE agent waiting at a suburban Boston court in 2018, but is recommending a public reprimand for other actions the judge took that day.

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Roundup

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Big Technologies file fresh claims against its ousted chief executive, West Ham United FC sue Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance for breach of duty, and RSM UK face a new claim over a company's administration. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K. 

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Del. Federal Court Won't Keep Trump's Interim US Atty In Role

By Jack Karp

Delaware's federal court will not appoint the district's current interim U.S. attorney and President Donald Trump's choice for that position to remain in the role, according to a notice from the district's chief judge.

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DOJ Backs Trump In NY False-Records Conviction Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its support behind President Donald Trump's effort to overturn his New York criminal conviction for falsifying business records, filing a proposed amicus brief on Friday citing the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2024 decision "defining the contours of a president's federal constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution."

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Brief

Pension Corp. Installs EEOC Ex-Chair Dhillon As Director

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. swore in former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair and commissioner Janet Dhillon as the 17th director of the federal agency, which runs two insurance programs backstopping the nation's single and multiemployer defined-benefit pension plans.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

The federal judge overseeing Epic Games' antitrust suit against Google Inc. has doubts about their settlement deal and is asking for more evidence. And a Black McDonald's executive, who claimed he was fired for confronting his CEO over a racial comment, has lost his bias suit. 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

Latham & Watkins LLP and Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eighth Circuit vacated a National Labor Relations Board ruling that Home Depot illegally forced out a worker who showed support for Black Lives Matter.

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Shutdown, Funding Crisis Leave Federal Defenders Unpaid

By Courtney Bublé

The record-long government shutdown has hindered an already dire funding situation for the federal defense community, but now the judiciary is working on requests to Congress to alleviate that.

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Analysis

How One Law Firm Got Two Big White-Collar Wins In 48 Hours

By Phillip Bantz

The white-collar team at Dykema Gossett PLLC secured back-to-back dismissals of two criminal cases in as many days last month by challenging the government's experts, flagging discovery issues and hammering on other perceived weaknesses in the prosecutions.

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