Exxon Can't Escape $816M Verdict In Benzene Exposure Suit

By Lauren Berg

Exxon Mobil Corp. cannot escape a nearly $816 million judgment awarded to a service station mechanic who says his exposure to benzene in the oil giant's products was responsible for his leukemia, a Pennsylvania appellate court ruled Thursday.

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Eight States Sue OpenAI Over ChatGPT Safety Risks

By Emily Field

A group of attorneys general of eight states, including Arkansas and Arizona, on Wednesday hit OpenAI with suits alleging that the company knowingly misled the public about the safety risks of its ChatGPT artificial intelligence bot.

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Insurer Seeks To Curb Coverage For Talc Co. Asbestos Suits

By Hope Patti

An insurer said it owes limited or no coverage to a mineral producer in lawsuits bringing claims of injuries caused by exposure to asbestos in talc that the company mined and distributed, telling a Vermont federal court it has already paid beyond its appropriate pro-rata share of defense and indemnity costs.

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Baby Food Cos. Get ADHD, Autism Claims Cut From MDL

By Jonathan Capriel

A California federal judge granted summary judgment on Wednesday to baby food manufacturers including Gerber and Walmart, ruling that children diagnosed with autism and ADHD had no admissible expert evidence showing that lead and arsenic in the products caused their conditions.

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OptumHealth Can't Get Out Of PBM Cases In Opioid MDL

By Gianna Ferrarin

The healthcare delivery arm of UnitedHealth Group's Optum division can't escape bellwether cases alleging pharmacy benefit managers contributed to the opioid epidemic, an Ohio federal judge ruled Thursday, finding a recent Sixth Circuit decision didn't alter the court's jurisdiction over related state-law claims.

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Pa. E-Cigarette Law Survives Vape Companies' Challenge

By Matthew Santoni

A Pennsylvania federal judge has upheld a state law limiting electronic cigarette sales to products that have received or are pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, finding the state law fell into an exception to the federal tobacco law's preemptions.

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Toyota Must Face Minivan Defect Warranty Suit, Judge Says

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge has largely allowed Toyota minivan drivers to proceed with their proposed class action alleging Toyota didn't repair defective second-row seat rails for months, ruling they sufficiently pled the warranty's purpose failed since it didn't repair or replace the parts within a reasonable time frame. 

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Tesla Says Mass. Fiery Death Crash Suit Has Repetitive Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

Tesla is looking to trim a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court by a mother who claims her 20-year-old son burned alive while trapped inside a crashed 2021 Model Y, arguing that half of the claims are duplicative or can't stand independently.

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GKN Says Insurers Owe Defense In Overheated Tank Suits

By Danielle Ferguson

GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems Inc. told a California federal court Thursday that its insurers are improperly refusing to honor their duty to defend the company in lawsuits and a civil investigation stemming from the overheating of a storage tank and subsequent evacuation of residents in Orange County.

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Boeing Beats Investment Fund's 737 Max Fraud Suit For Good

By Sydney Price

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday permanently dismissed an investment fund's suit accusing Boeing of misrepresenting the safety of its 737 Max 8 jets after two deadly crashes overseas, saying the investment fund has again failed to show it can pursue claims despite never purchasing Boeing shares.

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Singer's Widow Says Disputed Cause Revives Crash Suit

By George Woolston

The wife of a country singer urged a New Jersey appellate panel Thursday to revive her suit over the helicopter crash that killed her husband, arguing that there is a genuine dispute over whether the manufacturer of the helicopter's engine is responsible for alleged defects in one of the engine components.

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Calif. Pot Shop Escapes Suit Over Alleged Gummy Reaction

By Mike Curley

A California appeals court threw out a man's fraud and unfair competition claims against a cannabis dispensary that sold him a gummy he said induced a panic attack, saying his complaint fails to indicate the dispensary or its employee knowingly misled him.

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2nd Circ. Doubts NY's Power To Regulate Nuclear Discharge

By Gautama Mehta

A Second Circuit panel appeared skeptical of a New York law banning a decommissioned nuclear power plant's waste from being discharged into the Hudson River, asking pointed questions on Thursday on why those discharges are not part of the plant's operations.

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Louisiana Asks Justices To Undo Stay In Coastal Damage Suit

By Ganesh Setty

Louisiana urged the U.S. Supreme Court to erase a Fifth Circuit stay of a remand order preventing one of its parishes from litigating coastal damage claims against an oil and gas company in state court, arguing the "comity essential to our federalism" was disrupted.

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Calif. PFAS Pesticide Reporting Law Raises Cos.' Legal Risks

A new California law requiring public reporting of how registered pesticides containing intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are used across the state could increase regulatory scrutiny — and provide a road map for litigation involving growers, applicators, distributors, pesticide manufacturers and upstream chemical suppliers, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

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Mayer Brown Lands 2 Sheppard FDA Partners

By Tracey Read

Mayer Brown LLP has bolstered its life sciences capabilities with two former Sheppard partners, including that firm's former U.S. Food and Drug Administration practice leader.

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Greenberg Traurig Hires Sidley Private Funds Atty In Chicago

By Jack Rodgers

Greenberg Traurig LLP has hired a former Sidley Austin LLP counsel, who spent nearly a decade before her last law firm position working with Balyasny Asset Management in a range of related legal roles, the firm recently announced.

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Analysis

Expect These Post-Midterm Probes If The Hill Changes Hands

By Phillip Bantz

The top investigative priorities of a potentially Democratic-controlled Congress are coming into sharper focus with the midterms weeks away and could impact an array of companies and individuals in technology, finance and energy, experts say.

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White & Case Taps 47 Partners In Largest US Class Since 2022

By Ashish Sareen

White & Case LLP has elevated 47 lawyers to its partnership, its largest promotion round since a record 59 lawyers became partners at the start of 2022.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the full Eleventh Circuit overturned decades-old precedent that took a strict view of when federal benefits law claims could be brought in court.

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Dems Press Kirkland Again For Details Of $125M Trump Deal

By Courtney Bublé

A trio of congressional Democrats once again accused Kirkland & Ellis LLP of subverting their oversight requests into the $125 million deal the firm cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Ex-Legal Tech Co. Exec Says Pregnancy Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

A legal technology company abruptly fired its director of partnerships after it learned she was pregnant, and has since withheld a nearly $40,000 bonus, according to a lawsuit lodged in New Jersey state court.

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Google Users' $85M Fee Ask Stalls Over 'Utterly Lacking' Bill

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge on Thursday rejected an $85 million attorney fee request following a $700 million settlement in a consumer-led case against Google, ruling that counsel's submitted billing records are "utterly lacking in information demonstrating what work was done and for what purpose," while granting leave to amend the request.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The top investigative priorities of a potentially Democratic-controlled Congress are coming into sharper focus with the midterms just weeks away and could impact companies in various sectors. In the meantime, one BigLaw firm formed a board to oversee the use of artificial intelligence and evaluate proposals from its practice groups and sectors. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Monopoly Allegations Test ABA's Role In Legal Education

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association is facing mounting claims that the council responsible for law school accreditation acts as a monopoly, an accusation levied amid a broader, politicized battle over the future of legal education.

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Brief

Cooley Reportedly Matches Milbank Pay Scale Starting In '27

By Matt Perez

Cooley LLP will reportedly increase U.S. associate base compensation in line with the pay scale set by Milbank LLP in June beginning on Jan. 1.

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Analysis

Could A Criminal Sentencing Case Upend Loper Bright?

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is concerned that a ruling instructing trial courts to defer to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines could blow a "pretty big hole" in the court's recent rejection of deference doctrines. His colleagues, however, don't appear as perturbed.

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Google Class Attys Get $22.7M Despite Hourly Rate Rebuke

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has approved Google's $68 million class action settlement to resolve a long-running privacy suit, including class counsel's requested $22.67 million fee award, commending the parties' hard work while also criticizing a plaintiffs attorney's "patently unreasonable" proposed $3,000 hourly rate.

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Survey Of Ill. Attys Reveals Mental Health Struggles, Stigma

By Celeste Bott

A survey of nearly 7,000 Illinois lawyers found roughly 20% rated their mental health as fair or poor, according to an Illinois Supreme Court commission report documenting the toll of workplace stress on the state's attorneys and judges, their alcohol and drug use, and barriers to getting them care.

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San Benito Foods Deal Gets Early OK, With Notice Concerns

By Jonathan Capriel

A California federal judge has given her initial blessing to a nearly $1 million deal that would end a Monterey Bay-area township's lawsuit against a tomato cannery that claimed the cannery's noxious odors diminished residents' property values.

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Balancing The Scales: Criminal Appeals, Sentencing Rules

By Orlando Lorenzo

The Second Circuit has been ordered to take another look at a murder-for-hire conviction in light of the high court's new miscarriage-of-justice exception for criminal appeal waivers, and the top courts in Pennsylvania and Michigan will look at the retroactivity of new sentencing rules. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

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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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