Morgan & Morgan Wins Bid To Arbitrate Ga. Malpractice Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Georgia appellate panel on Tuesday sent to arbitration a legal malpractice case accusing Morgan & Morgan of inducing a former auto collision client to accept a $750,000 settlement when the case was purportedly worth more, saying a broad arbitration clause in the representation agreement was valid and enforceable.

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Drivers Seek OK Of Deal To End VW Fuel Leak Defect Suit

By Mike Curley

A proposed class of drivers is asking a New Jersey federal court to grant preliminary approval to a settlement to end two years of litigation alleging Volkswagen Group of America Inc. sold vehicles with faulty suction jet pumps that led to fuel leaks and fire risks.

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Uber, FedEx Slam Pa. Law Firm Counterclaims In RICO Suit

By James Boyle

Philadelphia-based personal injury firm Simon & Simon PC and its founder have failed to support a counterclaim in Pennsylvania federal court saying Uber Technologies Inc. and FedEx Corp. filed a sham litigation and abused the legal process with their ongoing RICO complaint against the firm, the companies argued Monday.

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Geico, Drivers Seek Final OK Of Deal Over Injury Coverage

By Eli Flesch

Geico and a class of hundreds of drivers asked a Washington federal court Tuesday to approve a settlement in a dispute over whether the insurer improperly withheld drivers' personal injury protection coverage by asserting they reached "maximum medical improvement."

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Judge Rejects Uber's Bid To Strike Location Tracking Patents

By Theresa Schliep

A California federal court has declined to invalidate a pair of location tracking technology patents asserted against Uber Technologies Inc., disagreeing with the company's claims that the patents are abstract and finding instead that each covers a "technical solution to a technical problem."

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Coca-Cola Bottler Off The Hook In Cop Crash Suit

By Jonathan Capriel

The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United-East LLC has beaten a personal injury lawsuit stemming from a three-car pileup with a police car, after a Georgia state appeals court ruled on Tuesday that there is no evidence to suggest that the driver of the company's tractor-trailer did anything wrong.

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EEOC Says Auto Dealer Fired Worker Over Sabbath Request

By Benjamin Morse

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an auto dealership chain in Georgia federal court Tuesday, alleging it fired a sales employee after refusing to excuse him from Saturday work because of his religious beliefs.

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Rail Group Says DC Train Car 'Border Fee' Rule Preempted

By Jared Foretek

The nation's largest railroad trade group told a federal judge on Monday that Washington, D.C.'s 60-cent fee for every railcar entering the district violates the dormant commerce clause, federal law and the city's own Administrative Procedure Act.

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Broker Dropped From Fatal Fla. Turnpike U-Turn Crash Suit

By Linda Chiem

The estate of one of three people killed in a Florida Turnpike collision last year has dropped C.H. Robinson from its negligence lawsuit after the freight broker said it didn't even arrange the shipment and wasn't connected to the trucking company or driver involved in the accident.

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Freight Logistics Co. Misled Investors About Costs, Suit Says

By Sydney Price

Transportation logistics company Hub Group Inc. was hit with an investor's proposed class action in Illinois federal court alleging that the company artificially inflated its share prices by concealing deficient internal controls that caused the company to restate its most significant operating expenses.

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Mitsubishi Chemical Settles Ex-Workers' 401(k) Fund Suit

By Kellie Mejdrich

A New York federal judge agreed Tuesday to stay deadlines in a proposed class action from Mitsubishi Chemical America ex-workers who alleged their 401(k) savings were dragged down by lackluster fund offerings, after the parties told the court Monday that they had settled their dispute.

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Eletson Ex-Owners Ordered To Pay $296K In Fraud-Tainted Feud

By Emlyn Cameron

A New York federal judge has told the former majority owners of Eletson Gas to pay nearly $300,000 in sanctions after he vacated an underlying $102 million arbitration award over alleged fraud.

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Analysis

FERC Future Fuzzy After High Court's Agency Firings Ruling

By Keith Goldberg

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission faces an uncertain future following the U.S. Supreme Court's blockbuster ruling that presidents have unlimited authority to fire members of independent agencies, which creates new risks for an energy industry that's used to regulatory continuity at FERC.

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DOJ Says Mich. Climate Antitrust Claims Are Barred

By Melanie Dorsey

The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's antitrust lawsuit against some of the world's largest oil companies, arguing much of the state's case is legally barred because Michigan is improperly attempting to regulate climate change through state antitrust law. 

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ConocoPhillips Again Seeks To Exit Wash. Tribal Climate Torts

By Rachel Riley

ConocoPhillips is urging a Washington state judge to free it from a pair of Native American tribes' lawsuits accusing major oil companies of a decades-long campaign to downplay the climate risks of fossil fuels, contending Monday that the tribes have still failed to satisfy jurisdictional requirements in their revised complaints.

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Gordon Rees Adds 8 Partners In Northern California

By Tracey Read

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP has expanded its offices in Northern California with eight new partners who have expertise in multiple practice areas, a firm spokesperson told Law360 Pulse on Tuesday.

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Series

Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

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Brief

Texas Federal Judge Requires Confirmation Of AI Checks

By Emily Sawicki

Attorneys and self-represented parties appearing before U.S. District Judge Ernest Gonzalez of the Western District of Texas are now required to certify that they have independently verified the contents of any filings created or edited using artificial intelligence.

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Hogan Lovells Cadwalader Sees 'Opportunity' In Boston

By Chris Villani

With the official launch of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Boston attorneys at Hogan Lovells are expecting the firm to be able to leverage Cadwalader's strengths and some of the Hub's unique traits in what they call a truly "additive" merger.

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5 NYC Legal Service Provider Union Contracts Have Expired

By Andrea Keckley

The collective bargaining agreements for five New York City-based indigent defense and civil legal aid providers expired at the end of the day Tuesday as multiple unions reported outstanding points of contention in their negotiations.

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Withers Promotes 12 Partners In US, UK, Singapore

By Christine DeRosa

International law firm Withers has appointed a dozen new partners across three countries, nearly half of whom are based in the United States.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of June

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at Bayer, Harley-Davidson and PBS. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from June.

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Littler Adds Ex-Morgan Lewis Labor Litigator In California

By Matt Perez

Littler Mendelson PC, which primarily deals in employment and labor law practice representing management, announced on Tuesday the hiring of a former Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP attorney as a shareholder in its Walnut Creek, California, office.

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PCAOB Names Ex-Venable Partner As GC

By Jessica Corso

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has named a former Venable LLP partner as its new general counsel, where he will be tasked with providing legal advice to an agency that is currently undergoing leadership changes.

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Wash. Atty Loses Bid For Jury In Dispute Over Bar Sanctions

By Emily Sawicki

A Washington lawyer sanctioned and disciplined for bringing a "frivolous" election suit in 2021 against then-Gov. Jay Inslee has lost her bid to have her ethics charges heard by a jury, with a state appeals panel finding no error in a trial court's ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to take on the disciplinary matter.

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Judiciary Dems Seek DOJ Replies Before Blanche Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

Ahead of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing for the permanent position, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding he provide answers to their outstanding oversight inquiries.

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Watchdog Says DOL Needs Better Info Sharing Controls

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor's lack of controls over information sharing between subagencies and nongovernmental entities, including law firms and legal advocacy organizations, may have unfairly advantaged those parties with privileged investigative information, an agency watchdog reported, though use of the practice has dropped off. 

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U Of Ky. Appoints Controversial Dean Pick For Law School

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky will retire from the bench later this month to become dean of the University of Kentucky's J. David Rosenberg College of Law, a move that sparked controversy in the state.

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