MDL Attys Want Special Master To Vet Meta Privilege Claims

By Dorothy Atkins

Personal injury plaintiffs' counsel asked a California federal judge Wednesday to appoint a special master to review Meta's attorney-client privilege designations in social media addiction multidistrict litigation, arguing that Meta can't be trusted to review them in light of the judge's recent rulings that certain Meta trial-exhibit redactions were "entirely inappropriate."

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CVS Escapes Customer's Generic Mucinex Benzene Suit

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge threw out a CVS customer's lawsuit claiming the pharmacy retailer sells an "economically worthless" generic Mucinex drug containing a known carcinogen, finding Thursday that his claims are preempted.

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Philly Firm Says Recent Discovery Dooms Uber's RICO Suit

By James Boyle

Philadelphia personal injury firm Simon & Simon PC has asked a Pennsylvania federal judge to dismiss Uber's complaint accusing it of orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to inflate settlements, claiming it learned through discovery that the company has not been damaged by the payouts.

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More Suits Filed Blaming ChatGPT In Canada School Shooting

By Emily Field

OpenAI Inc. on Wednesday was hit with another wave of 30 lawsuits in California federal court over the February school shooting in Canada brought by surviving teachers, staff members and students who say that ChatGPT assisted and encouraged the shooter in planning the attack.

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Baltimore Says Kratom Sellers Hid Addictive Qualities

By Mike Curley

The city of Baltimore is suing three kratom product distributors, alleging they violate city law by advertising kratom as having therapeutic qualities it doesn't possess, while downplaying or hiding its addictive nature.

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Williams-Sonoma Urges 9th Circ. To Snip Thread-Count Class

By Dorothy Atkins

Williams-Sonoma told the Ninth Circuit on Thursday that a district judge overseeing a certified false advertising class action over bedsheet thread-count labels should have excluded certain class members who purportedly agreed to arbitrate, arguing that the court wrongly couched the arbitration decision in a ruling on the class' definition.

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Wash. Justices To Hear Gordon Rees Malpractice Transfer Suit

By Ben Adlin

Washington's Supreme Court will consider whether a Great American insurance unit can inherit an equipment manufacturer's legal malpractice claims against two law firms in what the insurance company has called an issue of first impression, according to a high court order published Wednesday.

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Alaska's Izembek Road Work OK'd Despite Axed Land Swap

By Joyce Hanson

A federal judge has slapped down an environmental group's bid to preliminarily stop the state of Alaska and a Native village corporation from beginning construction on 2.8 miles of road adjacent to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

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Boeing Investors Say 4th Circ. Ruling Imperils Class Actions

By Katryna Perera

Boeing investors have asked the full Fourth Circuit to rehear a panel's "extreme" decision overturning class certification in a suit against the aerospace company over its alleged concealment of safety issues with its 737 Max fleet, arguing that the panel decision will create a "vague and unworkable standard" in the circuit if left intact.

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Oil Cos. Seek Quick Appeal To Nix Suit Over Heat Wave Death

By Gina Kim

Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other oil giants say they plan to seek appellate review of a Washington judge's order refusing to dismiss a civil suit over a woman's 2021 death that alleged the defendants knew their products were intensifying extreme weather patterns but downplayed risks to maximize profit.  

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Series

Ballet Makes Me A Better Lawyer

A lifetime of learning and performing ballet taught me that success — whether in dance or practicing law — comes only through hours of thorough preparation, boundless energy and relentless effort, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Legal Sector Hiring Grows For 5th Month, But At Slower Pace

By Rachel Rippetoe

The legal sector saw 600 more jobs in August, growing for the fifth consecutive month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

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3rd Circ. Revives Malpractice Claim Against Kirkland Atty

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey divorcee may once again pursue a legal malpractice claim against a Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney who she said lost her millions by mishandling estate documents, after the Third Circuit found it could be possible to link her alleged damages to the lawyer's work.

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Quinn Emanuel DQ'd In Defamation Case Over Stock Reports

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas federal court on Friday booted Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP from representing a Hong Kong manufacturing company in its defamation lawsuit against investment research service Muddy Waters LLC after finding that the law firm had received relevant confidential information when it represented Muddy Waters in a related government probe.

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DC Panel's Rare Rebuke Over AI Errors Flags Rules Gap

By Andrea Keckley

A D.C. appellate court panel issued a rare sua sponte sanctions order on Thursday after finding nonexistent case citations in a brief filed by a McCabe Weisberg & Conway LLC attorney representing Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. in a foreclosure action, noting an apparent gap in the rules governing the court's sanctions authority.

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Motley Rice Founder Remembered As Titan Of Mass Tort Bar

By Adrian Cruz

Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joseph F. Rice, who died Thursday, was remembered by former colleagues and friends as a "transformational" attorney and "giant in the civil litigation bar" who spent decades working on some of the most high-profile mass torts and obtaining landmark asbestos, opioid and tobacco settlements.

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Sinema Can't Duck Suit Over Affair With Ex-Security Guard

By Y. Peter Kang

A North Carolina federal judge Friday denied former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's bid to escape the suit brought by the ex-wife of a former member of her security detail with whom she allegedly had an affair, saying the district court indeed has the authority to adjudicate the case.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Meta's Social Media Addiction Deal

By Y. Peter Kang

A $17.1 billion social media addiction settlement between Meta and 29 states and Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion ovarian cancer deal over its talc products lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Morgan Verkamp LLC and Sparacino PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Eleventh Circuit held that the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions do not violate the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Attorneys and academics differ over whether the moves by Meta's in-house lawyers ahead of its $17 billion settlement over claims its content harmed children were legal missteps or defensible efforts to manage litigation risk. And the co-founders of a partner-only law firm told Law360 Pulse how their technology reduces intake, billing and other nonbillable tasks that attorneys would normally perform. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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