Analysis

How Exxon Attys Beat A 10-Year-Old Securities Class Action

By Spencer Brewer

This month, Exxon Mobil's defense team helped deliver a clean sweep victory for the energy giant when a federal jury in Texas found the company did not lie to investors about the profitability of some operations.

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Justices Back IAM Pension Fund In Withdrawal Liability Battle

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that multiemployer pension plan actuaries can retroactively change assumptions underlying their withdrawal liability calculations, rejecting employers' argument for time restrictions on the methodology underpinning penalties for pulling out of a pension fund.

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9th Circ. Says Judge Overstepped In Fluoride Risk Case

By Tom Lotshaw

A Ninth Circuit panel scrapped a ruling that directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to address potentially unsafe levels of drinking water fluoridation, concluding a California federal judge improperly commandeered the case.

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Bush-Appointed Missouri Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge David Gregory Kays of the Western District of Missouri will take semi-retired status in May 2027, according to an update from the federal judiciary on Thursday.

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Justices Urged To Uphold Ethics Ruling On Ga. Candidates

By Emily Johnson

Georgia's judicial ethics watchdog urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to uphold an Eleventh Circuit ruling that allowed it to publicize accusations that a pair of unsuccessful Georgia Supreme Court candidates violated electoral rules.

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DOJ Says Trump Immunity Bars Jan. 6 Discovery For All

By Jared Foretek

A top Trump administration attorney told the D.C. federal judge overseeing a slate of consolidated Jan. 6 civil suits against President Donald Trump and others Thursday that the president's immunity from civil litigation should halt all discovery in the suits, even as it pertains to other defendants.

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Tenn. Pro Se Defendant's 'Botched' Execution Halted

By Marco Poggio

Tennessee on Thursday halted the execution of Tony Von Carruthers, a man convicted of a triple murder who was forced to represent himself at his capital trial, after officials failed to establish a suitable backup IV line for lethal injection drugs, according to statements from state officials and his attorneys.

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Exoneree Says New Haven, Conn., Had DNA Proof For Decades

By Elizabeth Daley

A Connecticut man who was exonerated of sex crimes is seeking compensation after at least one rape kit that the New Haven Police Department had long claimed was destroyed was located and tested, ruling him out as a suspect, nearly 38 years after he was locked up.

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Apple Wants Justices To Review Epic Games Contempt Order

By Hailey Konnath

Apple Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on exactly when and how civil contempt sanctions can be issued for violating a court order, arguing that the Ninth Circuit missed the mark by upholding such sanctions against Apple in its App Store battle with Epic Games.

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Mich. Judge Expedites Suits Over Candidate Affidavit Rules

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan claims court judge has consolidated three election-related lawsuits challenging Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's rules and guidance regulating candidate affidavits of identity, while ordering expedited briefing as ballot certification deadlines approach for the August primary election.

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OCC Says Fintech Partner Bank Fell Behind On AML Controls

By Jon Hill

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has ordered Community Federal Savings Bank to strengthen its anti-money laundering controls after finding that the New York-based bank failed to keep pace with the risks from its fast-growing payment-processing business.

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SEC's Peirce To Join Law School Faculty After Agency Exit

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Hester Peirce will join the faculty of Regent University School of Law this November after her time at the agency, the university announced, although the commissioner said her departure date has not yet been set.

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FERC Proposes Broader Fast Track For Gas Pipeline Work

By Keith Goldberg

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday proposed to overhaul regulations approving gas pipeline construction activities without case-specific authorizations, which the agency claims will speed up the permitting and construction of gas infrastructure projects.

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UK To Crack Down On Energy Giants' Offshore Tax Planning

By Josh White

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced plans Thursday to restrict offshore tax planning by energy multinationals as part of a series of fiscal measures, including cuts to fuel duty and value-added tax.

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North Dakota, US Look To Vacate $28M Pipeline Order

By Crystal Owens

The United States and North Dakota are seeking to vacate a judgment that awarded the state $28 million in damages over the federal government's failure to control Dakota Access Pipeline protesters after nearly a year of settlement negotiations.

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NC Justices Told AG Powerless To Bring DuPont Pollution Suit

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina attorney general does not have the authority to sue two DuPont spinoffs over contamination from forever chemicals because the same claims were already resolved by an order with state environmental regulators, the spinoffs told the Tar Heel state's high court.

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FTC's Gender Care Policy Might Not Sink Probe, Judge Says

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge wondered Thursday whether it would set a bad precedent for future commissions to label the Federal Trade Commission's investigative demand to the American Academy of Pediatrics as "retaliatory" just because agency officials have issued a policy statement attacking gender-affirming care for minors.

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Vape Sellers Say Pa. E-Cig Law Usurps FDA Authority

By Jonathan Capriel

Vape companies are looking to stop a Pennsylvania law that would effectively ban most e-cigarettes, claiming in a federal lawsuit that the statute is unconstitutional, would destroy roughly $2 million of their inventory and targets products that federal regulators say helps smokers quit.

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Feature

5 Podcasts To Keep IP Attys Entertained And Informed

By Theresa Schliep

Whether intellectual property attorneys are hitting the road for a family trip or kicking their feet up at home, podcasts about legal news can offer an easy way for them to stay in the know while (hopefully) not working this Memorial Day weekend.

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Meta Expert Says $27M Is Better Number For Abatement

By Cara Salvatore

An economics expert for Meta testified Thursday against New Mexico's desired $3.7 billion plan to abate social media's harm to mental health, calling it more "a spending plan" than one for abatement and claiming $27 million will do the job.

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Texas AG Accuses Meta Of Lying About WhatsApp Encryption

By Bonnie Eslinger

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Meta and the social media giant's messaging platform WhatsApp in Texas state court on Thursday, claiming the companies lied in promising that WhatsApp messages are private and "not even WhatsApp can see them."

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Consumers Want Prelim Block On Paramount-Warner Bros.

By Bryan Koenig

Consumers challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s pending $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery asked a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily block the transaction while the case proceeds, arguing the threat of higher streaming costs and reduced news competition is too great, and it will be too hard to unscramble the egg after trial.

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Iowa Caps Property Tax Revenue For Localities

By Jaqueline McCool

The amount of property tax revenue that can be raised by an Iowa city or county will be limited beginning in 2026 under a bill signed by the governor. 

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Instacart Can't Halt NYC Tip, Wage Laws On 2nd Circ. Appeal

By Benjamin Morse

A Second Circuit panel refused to pause New York City laws setting minimum pay and other protections for grocery delivery workers while Instacart appeals a lower court order that allowed the rules to take effect.

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Audit Flags Connecticut Agency's Wage Complaint Backlog

By Brian Steele

The backlog of complaints about potential labor law violations received by Connecticut's Department of Labor grew from 843 to 980 between May 2023 and July 2024, said a report released Thursday from state government auditors that also flagged a lack of supporting documentation and approvals for some civil penalties.

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Newsom Order Eyes Labor Protections Amid AI Growth

By Lauren Berg

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued what his office called a "first-in-the-nation" executive order aiming to shore up state labor policies in an effort to prepare workers and businesses in the event of mass workforce disruption caused by artificial intelligence.

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PBM Swaps Cravath For WilmerHale In Price-Fixing Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics LLC has replaced counsel Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP with WilmerHale and another firm in an antitrust case in Michigan federal court brought by the state's attorney general.

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Trump Cites US AI Lead In Shelving Cybersecurity Directive

By Allison Grande

President Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly delayed the planned signing of an executive order to tackle cybersecurity concerns surrounding emerging artificial intelligence models, saying he was worried the proposal to encourage developers to voluntarily share their systems with the government for pre-release testing would impede innovation. 

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Analysis

OpenAI Ouster About Governance, Not Bad Counsel, Pros Say

By Dorothy Atkins

Witness testimony offered during a recent high-profile jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit restructuring accused the artificial intelligence company's nonprofit board of following bad legal advice when it fired CEO Sam Altman in 2023, although experts say the incident was more likely the product of poor governance rather than lousy legal counsel.

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NY Cautions Banks About Cyber Risks From Advanced AI

By Sarah Jarvis

New York's financial services regulator issued new guidance Thursday on the risks associated with cutting-edge artificial intelligence, urging firms to make sure their cybersecurity programs can promptly flag weaknesses that so-called frontier AI models can exploit, among other things.

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U-M Student Says Pro-Palestinian Views Triggered Retaliation

By Susan Smiley

A University of Michigan student alleged in federal court Thursday he was harassed and stalked by school officials as retaliation for participating in pro-Palestinian protests and calling for the university to sever ties with Israel.

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Feds Want Funding Details To Fight Academic Group's Fee Bid

By Julie Manganis

The U.S. Department of Energy asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let it look at the finances of an academic organization that successfully challenged a cap on indirect research costs, questioning the source of funding for legal fees in that case and three others.

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Feds Accuse Contractors Of DOD Bribery Scheme In Hawaii

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused two Florida residents of conspiring to bribe a U.S. Army employee and defraud the federal government in connection with the development of a U.S. Department of Defense innovation lab in Hawaii.

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2nd Circ. Agrees Amazon Not Liable In Fur Import Evasion

By Jack McLoone

A U.S. fur company couldn't show that Amazon willfully ignored a 15-year scheme carried out by foreign fur sellers to avoid certain tariffs and import fees, a Second Circuit panel found, affirming the dismissal of a False Claims Act suit against the company.

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Trade Court Won't Pause Tariff Ruling During US Appeal

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. Court of International Trade won't stay its ruling blocking the collection of temporary global duties for two businesses and the state of Washington while the federal government appeals the judgment to the Federal Circuit, according to an opinion.

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Russian Palladium Facing 110% Countervailing Duty

By Jack McLoone

Imported Russian unwrought palladium is facing a nearly 110% countervailing duty rate following a final determination issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday.

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Portugal Must Reclaim Illegal State Aid, EU Court Says

By Jack McLoone

The European Union's top court said Thursday that Portugal can't suspend tax enforcement proceedings against a company that benefited from unlawful state aid granted by the Madeira Free Zone.

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UK To Block Foreign Co. Losses From Lowering Domestic Tax

By Kevin Pinner

The U.K. will require companies to exempt profits and losses attributed to a foreign permanent establishment from domestic taxation beginning next year, HM Revenue & Customs said Thursday.

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DC Judge Says Gov't Must Tell Afghans About Visa Relief Limits

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. federal judge ordered the Trump administration to inform a certified class of Afghan nationals seeking special immigrant visas for aiding the U.S. government overseas about a proclamation that suspended visas for people from Afghanistan and dozens of other countries.

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9th Circ. Revives Guatemalan Father-Daughter Duo BIA Cases

By Rachel Riley

A divided Ninth Circuit panel has revived a Guatemalan father and daughter's bids for protection from removal from the United States, finding on Thursday that the father faced extreme persecution in the Central American country when a family member repeatedly shot at their home in a drunken rage in an attempt to force them out.

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Immigration Judges' 'Anxiety' Dialed Up Amid Mass Exodus

By Emma Cueto

Current and former immigration judges spoke on a web panel Thursday about threats to the independence of immigration judges and the strains on the immigration system, such as a massive backlog of cases at a time when many judges have been pushed out or fired.

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Feds Tell 4th Circ. Maryland Judges Went Too Far On Removals

By Britain Eakin

The Trump administration told the Fourth Circuit that a district court wrongly deemed its suit challenging a standing order temporarily barring the immediate removal or transfer of detained noncitizens out of the District of Maryland a "branch-on-branch" dispute.

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Minnesota Tribal Land Trust Order Was Biased, 8th Circ. Told

By Crystal Owens

Morrison County, Minnesota, and two townships are seeking to vacate a decision to take about 3,238 acres into trust for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, arguing it was based on a biased process in which the tribe pays Bureau of Indian Affairs' salaries to process trust requests.

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AT&T Sues Calif. To End Copper Wire Service Requirements

By Lauren Berg

AT&T asked a California federal court to preempt state regulations that require it to continue offering "plain old telephone service" to new customers, saying it needs to retire the "outdated" system to move forward with plans to devote $19 billion on modern telecom tech in the Golden State.

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11th Circ. Axes T-Mobile's Win In Ga. Tower Permit Dispute

By Chart Riggall

The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday vacated T-Mobile's win in a long-running fight with a Georgia city over a proposed cell tower, rejecting a widely used test over the infrastructure's need that the court called "irreconcilable" with the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

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Legislative Update: Cannabis And Psychedelics Bill Roundup

By Sam Reisman

Virginia's governor vetoed legislation to establish adult-use marijuana sales, keeping the state in cannabis legal limbo; Illinois lawmakers introduced legislation to rein in hemp products, aligning state policy with an upcoming shift in federal law; and Louisiana lawmakers sent a bill to the governor that would allow terminally ill patients to access medical marijuana in healthcare facilities. Here are the major moves in cannabis and psychedelics legislation from the past week.

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Immunity Bid Can't Stop Discovery In THC Abuse Registry Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

There's little chance that the Idaho state health director can ditch litigation by mothers challenging the automatic placement of women on the child abuse registry for prenatal THC use, a federal judge said after taking a "preliminary peek" at the state's pending motion to dismiss.

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5 Rules In 10 Weeks: Inside Genius Act's Implementation Blitz

Regulators have proposed five Genius Act rules in a striking span of 10 weeks, building a stablecoin framework that, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at its operational center, will shape oversight and force issuers, banks and fintechs to take action as deadlines approach, say attorneys at Cahill.

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SEC Enforcement Has Continued Its Asset Management Focus

While the total number of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions is down, certain novel theories of liability have been abandoned, and the SEC has embraced a back-to-basics posture, most of the regulatory risks for asset managers that existed in the prior commission have not gone away, say attorneys at Weil.

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Cuba Sanctions Shift Puts Foreign Cos. In OFAC's Crosshairs

A recent executive order marks an extreme shift for foreign companies whose Cuban dealings have no relation to the U.S. and are entirely lawful under the laws of their home jurisdictions, such that their existing ring-fence protocols no longer offer protection from the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s secondary sanctions, says Jeremy Paner at Hughes Hubbard.

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5 Risks For US Cos. From New EU Product Liability Directive

When the European Union's revised Product Liability Directive takes effect this year, it will fundamentally reshape product liability litigation across all EU member states — so U.S.-based companies operating in Europe should prepare now for broader discovery rules, narrower attorney-client privilege and heightened forum-shopping risks, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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Series

NY Times Word Puzzles Make Me A Better Lawyer

Every morning I let The New York Times humble me with word games, which offer a chance to recalibrate my brain before the day's chaos arrives and remind me that a solution — whether to a puzzle or employment law issue — almost always exists once I find the right angle, says Amy Epstein Gluck at Pierson Ferdinand.

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Analysis

BigLaw Deals Scandal Puts Boston Back On White Collar Map

By Chris Villani

A sweeping insider trading case involving information stolen from BigLaw firms shows a return to bread-and-butter white collar enforcement for Boston federal prosecutors and provides a morale lift in an office that has seen shifting priorities and staff turnover since the signature "Varsity Blues" takedown in 2019, veteran prosecutors told Law360.

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Goldstein Taps Ex-SG Prelogar Before Sentence, Likely Appeal

By Jeff Overley

One of the nation's most accomplished oral advocates, Tom Goldstein, revealed Thursday he has retained another of the nation's most accomplished oral advocates, Elizabeth Prelogar, ahead of his sentencing and likely appeal in a criminal tax case that has captivated the appellate bar.

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