A Meta whistleblower testified Wednesday in a California federal jury trial over states' claims Meta hid social media's harms that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ignored calls for Meta to prioritize kids' safety while publicly touting Meta's safety practices, saying "I feel that you just cannot trust Mark Zuckerberg with kids."
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

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Zuckerberg Can't Be Trusted On Kids' Safety Online, Jury Told

By Dorothy Atkins

A Meta whistleblower testified Wednesday in a California federal jury trial over states' claims Meta hid social media's harms that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ignored calls for Meta to prioritize kids' safety while publicly touting Meta's safety practices, saying "I feel that you just cannot trust Mark Zuckerberg with kids."

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Amazon Wants Full 9th Circ. To Rethink Block On Perplexity AI

By Hailey Konnath

Amazon is pressing the full Ninth Circuit to consider a lower court's injunction preventing Perplexity's "uniquely reckless" artificial intelligence tool from purchasing items for users on Amazon, arguing that a panel erred in lifting the block earlier this month.

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Outcome Health Execs Owe $270M And Counting For Fraud

By Lauraann Wood

Former Outcome Health executives who were convicted of a $1 billion fraud against investors, lenders and customers must repay $270.8 million to certain victims, though that amount will climb higher with additional calculation, an Illinois federal judge said Wednesday.

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OpenAI Opposes Early Discovery In Apple Trade Secret Suit

By Ivan Moreno

OpenAI and two of its employees have asked a California federal court to reject Apple's bid for expedited discovery in its trade secret lawsuit accusing OpenAI of using former Apple employees to obtain confidential information, arguing that discovery will begin soon enough.

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Spirit Flight Attendants Object To Google Data Sale

By Rick Archer

The union representing Spirit Aviation's flight attendants has asked a New York bankruptcy judge to reject the bankrupt airline's request to sell its internal data to Google for artificial intelligence training unless the privacy of its members is protected.

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XAI Sued Over Grok's Alleged Creation Of CSAM Deepfakes

By Craig Clough

Elon Musk's xAI failed to implement industry-standard safeguards on its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok and knowingly allowed it to be used to create deepfakes of real children depicted in child sexual abuse material, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court.

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Q&A

Nutter Leader Eyes Fla. Growth, AI-Driven Billing Shift

By Chris Villani

After overseeing Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP's expansion into New York City, California and Hawaii, co-managing partner Michael Scott is setting his sights on extending the firm's footprint into Florida within the next year and leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to lower clients' bills.

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POLICY & REGULATION

FCC Will Reconsider TCPA Petitions Over 'Online' Fax Ruling

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission will take another look at a trio of years-old petitions challenging the agency's finding that unsolicited advertisements sent to people using online fax services don't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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FTC Warns Secret Personalized Prices Likely To Draw Scrutiny

By Allison Grande

Retailers and other businesses that use consumers' personal data to set individualized prices are likely to face regulatory backlash if these practices aren't clearly disclosed, the Federal Trade Commission cautioned in a proposed policy statement issued Wednesday that vowed the agency would "aggressively" enforce such misconduct.

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CFTC Seeks Input On Derivatives To Hedge AI Costs

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is calling for expert feedback on a new type of derivative contract that could offer companies a way to hedge the cost of artificial intelligence development, with the agency's leader saying Wednesday that the market could help the country "win the AI race."

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Broadband Co. Asks FCC To Fix 'Ineffective' State Pole Regs

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Broadband provider GoNetSpeed has asked the Federal Communications Commission to open a rulemaking proceeding to tackle "ineffective" state regulation of utility pole attachments for broadband equipment.

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Brief

FCC Seeks Comments On Proposal To End E-Rate Program

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau is seeking public input on a proposal to amend, and possibly curtail, a broadband subsidy for schools and libraries.

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LITIGATION

9th Circ. Asked To Revive YouTube 'Choking Challenge' Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

Parents of children harmed by online "choking challenge" videos have urged the Ninth Circuit to revive their suit against Google's YouTube and TikTok, arguing their claims are not barred by a federal law which grants immunity to third-party internet content providers.

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Firms Cut From $101M Anthropic Atty Fees Appeal To 9th Circ.

By Lauren Berg

Two law firms involved in securing artificial intelligence company Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement with a class of authors and publishers are appealing to the Ninth Circuit an order excluding them from attorney fees awarded to court-appointed class counsel.

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AI Co.'s 'Scattershot' Bid Protest Loses In Claims Court

By Elaine Briseño

A Court of Federal Claims judge has rejected the protest of an artificial intelligence firm over a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contract, criticizing the company's "kitchen sink" approach to litigating the matter.

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Scribd To Pay $3M To End Wash. Wage Scale Class Action

By Ben Adlin

Document hosting service Scribd Inc. will pay $3 million to resolve a class action accusing the tech company of violating Washington state law by failing to include pay information on job postings, according to a settlement agreement given preliminary approval by a King County Superior Court judge.

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Google Beats Class Suit Over Free Workspace Promises

By Gina Kim

Google has defeated a class action alleging it reneged on its promise to offer free access to its business-productivity tools, formerly known as Google Apps, with a California federal judge saying the contracts with users affirmatively authorized the company to stop offering a free version of the service. 

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Paramount Viewers Stuck With Bringing Amended Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A California federal judge refused Tuesday to reconsider dismissing a consumer complaint challenging Paramount's completed merger with Skydance and its planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, holding that the filing of an amended complaint mooted the motion.

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Deloitte Can't Shake Leave Bias Suit From Ex-Manager

By MJ Koo

A California federal court has refused to dismiss a proposed class action accusing Deloitte Consulting LLP of penalizing employees through a performance evaluation system that shortchanges the compensation of workers who take parental or pregnancy leave.

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Medtronic, Former Exec Settle Whistleblower Retaliation Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado state judge tossed a whistleblower lawsuit against Medtronic Inc., granting a dismissal bid from the company and a former executive after they reached an undisclosed settlement.

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Digital Equity Suit On Ice As Gov't Preps Program Relaunch

By Nadia Dreid

The D.C. federal judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's shutdown of the Digital Equity Act's Competitive Grant Program has put the case on hold until the government relaunches the program without provisions that consider the applicants' race, as it has agreed to do.

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Social Media Use Has Addiction Hallmarks, Meta Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A psychologist told a Tennessee jury considering claims against Meta on Wednesday that it's well accepted in his field that social media use can cause behavior that looks like addiction, and social media is a challenging presence in the lives of 15% to 20% of his patients.

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Prison Phone Co. Says Techs Aren't Owed Public Works Pay

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A prison phone service provider told a New York federal judge that three field service technicians who installed and maintained telecommunications systems in hospitals and prisons did not agree to a "public works" contract and aren't guaranteed higher pay under state labor laws.

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Asurion Fired Manager Over Bias Report, Anxiety, Suit Says

By Kia Fatahi

A technology insurance company fired a Black manager whom it had recognized as "one of the strongest salespeople in the country" after she took medical leave to deal with anxiety exacerbated by alleged retaliation she received for raising concerns about a manager's sexually and racially offensive behavior, according to a complaint filed in Tennessee federal court Wednesday.

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DEALS

Google Gets $12.2B Option To Buy Stake In Chipmaker Marvell

By Al Barbarino

Marvell Technology has issued Google a warrant to buy up to 58.97 million shares of its common stock, worth about $12.2 billion at the warrant's exercise price, according to a Marvell securities filing Wednesday.

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3 Firms Steer $7.5B Stripe, OpenRouter AI Gateway Deal

By Al Barbarino

Financial services company Stripe said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence routing platform OpenRouter, as three law firms take lead roles in steering the roughly $7.5 billion transaction.

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Willkie, Latham Guide Defense Tech Firm Lyntris' $298M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity-backed defense technology company Lyntris Inc. hit the public markets Wednesday after raising $298 million in its initial public offering steered by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP.

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Electric Vehicle Biz ALSO Secures $150M Series D

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Goodwin Procter LLP-led small electric vehicle manufacturer ALSO, which was originally incubated within Rivian, on Wednesday announced that it raised $150 million in its latest financing round.

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ENFORCEMENT

DOJ Touts 'Targeted' Probes In Sales Software Merger OK

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday it had closed an in-depth review into a sales tracking software merger, mollified by the likelihood of artificial intelligence-enabled competition, in an announcement touting the use of "targeted" scrutiny to end the probe quickly.

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TaxAct Settles Conn. Claims Of Info Sharing Via Site Trackers

By Gina Kim

The Connecticut attorney general announced Wednesday that TaxAct will pay $275,000 to resolve allegations it shared sensitive taxpayer information with Meta and Google via tracking technologies, and will also implement new policies and procedures to track and manage such technologies on its platform. 

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Apple Makes App Store Policy Changes In Europe

By Matthew Perlman

Apple has made several changes to its policies for app distribution in Europe, after enforcers found restrictions and fees were blocking competition from App Store alternatives and outside payments methods.

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Brief

Video Tech Co. Founder Gets 6 Years For Stock Fraud

By Lauraann Wood

The founder of a Silicon Valley video streaming service was sentenced to six years in federal prison Wednesday for orchestrating a pump-and-dump stock fraud scheme that stole money from at least 100 investors.

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LEGAL TECH

Brief

Harvey Sticks With Seat-Based Pricing Amid Usage Debate

By Steven Lerner

As legal artificial intelligence companies debate whether customers should pay for AI by the seat or by usage, Harvey is sticking with traditional software-style pricing following a major product overhaul that was introduced Tuesday.

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PEOPLE

Bradley Arant Adds SCP Health In-House Vet In Atlanta

By Emily Johnson

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has added the senior vice president and associate general counsel of healthcare company SCP Health to its Atlanta office, strengthening the firm's healthcare practice.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Rethinking Corporate Travel Rules After Device Search Cases

A recent New York federal court decision approving a warrantless seizure and search of company laptops and a pending Georgia federal court criminal case over a phone's data deletion underscore how little protection corporate personnel have at the border, necessitating a review of corporate travel programs, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

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6 Key Takeaways From CFIUS Annual Report

Attorneys at Simpson Thacher review highlights from the annual report of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., released to Congress this month, including the launch of the American First Investment Policy and the Known Investor Pilot Program, and the agency's continued focus on enforcement despite its resource constraints.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Surviving A Long Trial

Most of law school trial advocacy is geared toward the sprint of trying a short case, but beyond managing a cross-examination or closing argument, effectively handling the marathon of a lengthy trial requires the ability to maintain composure, organization and credibility with the jury, says Mihir Elchuri at Hirschler.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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Trump Taps DOJ Official, ND Solicitor General For Judgeships

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he's tapping Jesus Osete, a top U.S. Department of Justice official, to serve on the Western District of Missouri and Philip Axt, solicitor general of North Dakota, for the District of North Dakota.

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McGuireWoods Hires Womble Bond Commercial Attys In DC

By Jack Rodgers

McGuireWoods LLP has hired two attorneys from Womble Bond Dickinson who focus their practice on postacquisition disputes, construction litigation and government contract matters, the firm announced Thursday.

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Eastman Among 16 Calif. Attys Disbarred In Q2 2026

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of California removed the licenses of 16 attorneys between April and June of this year over a broad spectrum of ethical breaches ranging from the high-profile case of John Eastman attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, to a lawyer found to be in possession of child sex abuse images.

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Mich. Panel Rejects $2.5M Malpractice Suit Over Bank Debt

By Melanie Dorsey

An attorney failed to show a law firm and two lawyers derailed his efforts to settle a PNC Bank debt and caused him to ultimately pay more than $2.5 million, a Michigan appellate court has ruled, upholding the dismissal of his malpractice suit. 

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Man Accused Of Threatening Judge In Mass Shooting Case

By Jack Karp

A Texas man is accused of threatening the state judge and district attorney in a Georgia school shooting case, as well as a federal judge in Alabama, according to an announcement from federal prosecutors.

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CREXi Drops 9th Circ. Challenge To Quinn Emanuel DQ

By Isaac Monterose

Property listing company Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. has moved to dismiss its own Ninth Circuit mandamus petition, which challenged a lower court's disqualification of CREXi's counsel, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, from a legal battle against rival CoStar.

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Harris Beach Adds Environmental Atty From Nixon Peabody

By Isaac Monterose

Harris Beach Murtha Cullina PLLC has hired former Nixon Peabody LLP attorney Aaron B. Goldman as a senior counsel on its commercial real estate and environmental teams in New York.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc.

Alphabet Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations

American Psychiatric Association

Anthropic PBC

Apple Inc.

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA

Asurion LLC

BlackRock Inc.

CME Group Inc.

Cablevision Systems Corporation

CoStar Group Inc.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.

DoorDash Inc.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Epic Games Inc.

Expedia Group Inc.

Fort Point Capital

Galaxy Entertainment Group

Google LLC

H&R Block Inc.

Harvard University

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Instagram Inc.

International Business Machines Corp.

Invesco Ltd.

Investcorp Bank BSC

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JetBlue Airways Corp.

LinkedIn Corp.

LoopNet Inc.

MJX Asset Management LLC

MVP Ventures

Main Street Capital Corporation

Marvell Technology Inc.

Medtronic PLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Mozilla Corp.

NVIDIA Corp.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

National Grid PLC

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Outcome Health

SCP Health

Scale AI Inc.

Scribd Inc.

Securus Technologies Inc.

Simpluris Inc.

Skydance Media LLC

State Bar of California

Tennenbaum Capital Partners

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

The University of Alabama System

Thomson Reuters Corp.

TikTok Inc.

Trive Capital

Twitter Inc.

Uber Technologies Inc.

Walmart Inc.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Writers Guild of America East

Yahoo Inc.

YouTube Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alioto Law Firm

Altshuler Berzon

Anderson & Wanca

Arnold & Porter

Beasley Allen

Bradley Arant

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Cleary Gottlieb

Clifford Chance

Cooley LLP

Cotsirilos Poulos

Covington & Burling

Cowan DeBaets

Crowell & Moring

Davis Polk

Davis Wright Tremaine

Desmarais LLP

Edelson PC

Eisenberg & Baum

Emery Reddy

Fenwick & West

Foreman & Brasso

Foster Graham

Fried Frank

Gibson Dunn

Girardi & Keese

Goodwin Procter

Hancock Daniel Johnson & Nagle

Harris Beach Murtha

Herrera Law Group

Hirschler

Hueston Hennigan

Kellogg Hansen

King & Spalding

Kwun Bhansali

Latham & Watkins

Lex Lumina

Lieff Cabraser

Littler Mendelson

McGuireWoods

Menken Simpson

Meritz Reddy

Miles & Stockbridge

Miller Waxler

Morrison & Foerster

Nixon Peabody

Nutter McClennen

O'Melveny & Myers

Oppenheim & Zebrak

Orrick Herrington

Parkins & Rubio

Paul Byrd Law Firm

Plunkett Cooney

Polsinelli PC

Quinn Emanuel

Rudy Exelrod

Salahi PC

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Squire Patton

Susman Godfrey

Wagstaff & Cartmell

Weil Gotshal

Wilkinson Stekloff

Willkie Farr

Winston Taylor

Womble Bond

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Department of Justice

California Supreme Court

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

European Commission

European Union

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

North Dakota Attorney General's Office

State of Tennessee

Supreme Court of Missouri

Tennessee Attorney General's Office

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the District of North Dakota