LA Bellwether Jury To Decide If J&J Hid Talc Risk For Decades

By Craig Clough

An attorney for one of two women who claim Johnson & Johnson's talcum products caused their ovarian cancer told a California jury Thursday in a bellwether trial's closing arguments that the company hid the health risks of talc for decades, while the company's attorney insisted the science is on their side.

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State AGs Call For AI Chatbot Safeguards

By Emily Field

More than 40 attorneys general have pushed Big Tech companies like Meta and Microsoft to adopt safety measures on AI chatbots, writing a letter that pointed to recent news of children and vulnerable people whose chatbot conversations ended in violence.

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Trump Executive Order Targets 'Excessive' State AI Laws

By Hailey Konnath

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a controversial executive order establishing a "minimally burdensome national standard" for regulating artificial intelligence, deeming the order necessary for the United States to remain a leader in AI amid "excessive" state regulation.

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OpenAI, Microsoft Sued Over Mother's Murder By Son

By Y. Peter Kang

A wrongful death suit accusing OpenAI's artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT of causing the murder-suicide of a mother and son was filed Thursday in California state court, with additional allegations that equity stakeholder Microsoft approved an unsafe, updated version of the chatbot.

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House Panel Advances Nearly 20 Bills To Protect Kids Online

By Allison Grande

A package of 18 bills that propose using methods such age verification mandates, government-run studies and educational campaigns to enhance online safeguards for children passed through a House subcommittee Thursday, despite concerns from Democrats that the measures wouldn't be enough to counter recent moves to reduce the roles of states and the Federal Trade Commission in this space. 

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NC County Sues DuPont, 3M, Tyco Over PFAS Contamination

By Mike Curley

A county in southeastern North Carolina is suing 3M Co., DuPont de Nemours Inc., the Chemours Co., Tyco Fire Products LP and other companies, alleging that they knowingly sold products containing PFAS, or "forever chemicals," that have contaminated county land.

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Player Going For 'Fifth Bite' At Concussion Claim, NFL Says

By David Steele

The denial of a former NFL player's claim for benefits through the $1 billion concussion settlement was not erroneous or unjust, contrary to the player's latest argument, the league has told the Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing the settlement.

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Pharmacies Battle For Coverage Of Opioid Lawsuit Claims

By Carolina Bolado

Publix Super Markets and a Georgia-based generic-drug wholesaler urged the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday to force their insurers to defend them in numerous lawsuits accusing the pharmacies of improperly distributing opioids, arguing their policies' coverage for "bodily injury" should include the suits.

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Brief

Kratom, Kava Sellers Drop Suit Over Utah Product Ban

By Jonathan Capriel

A company that marketed psychoactive products derived from the kratom leaf and kava root has permanently dropped its federal lawsuit against Utah regulators challenging the constitutionality of rules blocking the sale of their wares in the state.

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Brief

Fla. Lawmaker Proposes Medical Marijuana Home Cultivation

By Jonathan Capriel

Florida is considering a bill that would allow qualified medical marijuana patients to grow up to six flowering cannabis plants at home for personal use and purchase seeds from licensed centers.

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Series

Knitting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Stretching my skills as a knitter makes me a better antitrust attorney by challenging me to recalibrate after wrong turns, not rush outcomes, and trust that I can teach myself the skills to tackle new and difficult projects — even when I don’t have a pattern to work from, says Kara Kuritz at V&E.

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Wash. Justices Retroactively Lower Bar Exam's Passing Score

By Ben Adlin

As Washington state is preparing to transition to a new bar exam, its Supreme Court has ordered a retroactive adjustment to the current exam's minimum passing score, making an estimated hundred-plus law school graduates who narrowly failed in recent years newly eligible for admission to practice law.

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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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Dems Demand Release Of 2nd Jack Smith Report

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday demanding she release the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith's report on President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents after he left office the first time.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Shell hit with a climate change claim from 100 survivors of a typhoon in the Philippines, London Stock Exchange-listed Oxford Nanopore bring legal action against its co-founder, and the editors of Pink News sue the BBC for defamation following its investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the news site.

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Higgs Fletcher Forms White Collar, Regs Enforcement Team

By Andrea Keckley

San Diego-based law firm Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP has launched a white collar crime and regulatory enforcement defense practice group, citing heightened regulatory scrutiny in the financial and healthcare sectors and rising enforcement risks for licensed professionals and institutions.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

President Donald Trump issued an executive order to review the influence that proxy adviser firms have, and law firms saw a 9.8% increase in compensation expenses along with a similar increase in billable rates. ​These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Watchdog Sues White House For Records On Law Firm Deals

By Emily Sawicki

A Washington-based nonprofit watchdog has sued the Trump administration, seeking records related to deals BigLaw firms struck to provide an estimated nearly $1 billion worth of pro bono legal services to further the administration's priorities, following the president's executive orders to withhold security clearances and investigate the firms.

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Ex-NJ Municipal Court Admin Says COVID Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

The former municipal court administrator for West Windsor Township, New Jersey, has alleged that the town failed to accommodate her disability when it fired her instead of giving her a short medical leave of absence after she contracted COVID-19.

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US Atty Nominee For Wyo. Was Outside Capitol On Jan. 6

By Courtney Bublé

One of President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney nominees, who was on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, and recently told senators he still thinks "there were imperfections" in the 2020 election process, has been advanced toward Senate confirmation.

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Del. US Atty Resigns Citing 'Politics,' Successor Appointed

By Rose Krebs

The acting U.S. Attorney for Delaware said Friday that she is resigning, citing "a highly politicized, flawed blue-slip tradition" for nominees and saying she "fully" supports her first assistant, who has been appointed by a federal judge to succeed her.

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Bonus Spotlight

Axinn Veltrop's Bonuses Reach Up To $240K

By Andrea Keckley

Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP is giving out bonuses of up to $240,000 for its associates, according to an in-house memo seen by Law360 Pulse.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit handed Epic Games Inc. a partial win by mostly affirming an injunction blocking Apple Inc. from charging developers "prohibitive" commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems.

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