Boeing Beats Investment Fund's 737 Max Fraud Suit For Good

By Sydney Price

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday permanently dismissed an investment fund's suit accusing Boeing of misrepresenting the safety of its 737 Max 8 jets after two deadly crashes overseas, saying the investment fund has again failed to show it can pursue claims despite never purchasing Boeing shares.

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Toyota Must Face Minivan Defect Warranty Suit, Judge Says

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge has largely allowed Toyota minivan drivers to proceed with their proposed class action alleging Toyota didn't repair defective second-row seat rails for months, ruling they sufficiently pled the warranty's purpose failed since it didn't repair or replace the parts within a reasonable time frame. 

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Calif. Asks DC Judge To Void EPA's 'Unlawful' Waiver Moves

By Linda Chiem

California has asked a D.C. federal judge to void the Trump administration and congressional Republicans' "manifestly unlawful" use of the Congressional Review Act to make Clean Air Act waivers for the Golden State subject to rescission by lawmakers.

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Mayflower Can't Escape Punitives In Fatal Crash, Judge Says

By Kelcey Caulder

Moving and relocation company Mayflower Transit LLC may face punitive damages in a lawsuit over a 2022 highway crash that killed a woman and her child, a Georgia federal judge ruled, but any award will be capped at $250,000.

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11th Circ. Backs Allegiant Win Over Race Bias, Retaliation Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Eleventh Circuit refused to reopen a Black former Allegiant Airlines employee's suit alleging she was fired for complaining to the CEO that white colleagues were harassing her and making racist jokes, finding she only contacted the executive after she was caught lying about an altercation with a co-worker.

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Singer's Widow Says Disputed Cause Revives Crash Suit

By George Woolston

The wife of a country singer urged a New Jersey appellate panel Thursday to revive her suit over the helicopter crash that killed her husband, arguing that there is a genuine dispute over whether the manufacturer of the helicopter's engine is responsible for alleged defects in one of the engine components.

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Crowell Faces DQ Bid Over AI Tool At Heart Of Client's IP Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

DeviantArt urged a California federal judge Wednesday to disqualify Crowell & Moring LLP from representing Evox Productions in litigation alleging multiple AI companies used Evox's copyrighted car photos to train artificial-intelligence image generators, arguing the firm "unquestionably" represented DeviantArt and has "sued its own client on behalf of another client."

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4 Firms Guide $16.3B Penske Automotive Take-Private Deal

By Al Barbarino

Penske Automotive Group Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to be taken private by its controlling shareholder, Penske Corp., and Japan's Mitsui & Co. at an enterprise value of approximately $16.3 billion, with four law firms advising on the transaction. 

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Tesla Says Mass. Fiery Death Crash Suit Has Repetitive Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

Tesla is looking to trim a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court by a mother who claims her 20-year-old son burned alive while trapped inside a crashed 2021 Model Y, arguing that half of the claims are duplicative or can't stand independently.

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Brief

Ex-Railcar Co. CEO Admits $22M Client-Fund Embezzlement

By Celeste Bott

The former CEO of an Illinois railcar management company accused of embezzling $22 million from the business pled guilty to wire fraud in Illinois federal court on Wednesday.

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Norfolk Southern On The Hook For $1.6M In Age Bias Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

An Alabama federal judge entered final judgment Thursday in favor of a former longtime Norfolk Southern worker who claimed the Atlanta-based company and two subsidiaries violated federal age discrimination law by forcing him out of his job, cementing a jury's $1.6 million verdict for the worker.

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FedEx Can't Escape Mortality Data Fight 6th Circ. Revived

By Kellie Mejdrich

A Tennessee federal judge Thursday refused to toss a proposed class action alleging that FedEx pensioners' benefits were shortchanged due to outdated mortality assumptions used to convert their single life annuity benefits into joint-and-survivor form, holding claims were sufficiently backed up to reach discovery.

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Warehouse Workers Win $1.55M Settlement In Wage Suit

By MJ Koo

Thousands of California warehouse workers have reached a $1.55 million settlement with a staffing company over allegations that they were denied proper meal and rest breaks and were not fully paid for their work, according to a court filing.

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Tesla Says Gov't Brief Shows USPTO Wants 'Absolute Power'

By Elliot Weld

Electric carmaker Tesla told the U.S. Supreme Court that it should take a case over the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leadership's discretionary standards for granting or denying patent review, saying a recent government brief illustrates how the office wants "absolute power" when it comes to restricting such reviews.

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Gov't Urges Justices To Reject Google, Intel Fight Over Fintiv

By Adam Lidgett

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Intel Corp. and Google LLC's challenge to a precedent allowing Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions to be denied based on related litigation.

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FERC Makes Further Moves To Speed Up Gas Project Reviews

By Keith Goldberg

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday issued a pair of proposals aimed at speeding up its approval of gas infrastructure projects by narrowing the scope of the agency's environmental reviews.

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Importer Risk Rises As AI Enters Trade Fraud Enforcement

The Trump administration's new data-driven and artificial intelligence-enabled push against tariff evasion raises the stakes for companies with global supply chains, making it crucial that they consider strengthening response protocols, documentation and internal reporting mechanisms, say attorneys at Cooley.

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Womble Bond Reports Data Breach Exposing Personal Info

By Jake Maher

Womble Bond Dickinson was hit with a data breach in August that revealed personal information to an unauthorized third party, the firm said in a notice with the Massachusetts state government this week.

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Suing The Trump Admin Can Have Massive Impact, Attys Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

Lawyers representing clients against the federal government spoke Friday about the challenges and rewards of such litigation in the Trump era, with plaintiff-side powerhouse Elizabeth Cabraser pointing to the potential for massive impact, including one case in which she successfully got more than a billion dollars in grant funding reinstated.

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Dems Press Kirkland Again For Details Of $125M Trump Deal

By Courtney Bublé

A trio of congressional Democrats once again accused Kirkland & Ellis LLP of subverting their oversight requests into the $125 million deal the firm cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Brief

Cooley Reportedly Matches Milbank Pay Scale Starting In '27

By Matt Perez

Cooley LLP will reportedly increase U.S. associate base compensation in line with the pay scale set by Milbank LLP in June beginning on Jan. 1.

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Google Class Attys Get $22.7M Despite Hourly Rate Rebuke

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has approved Google's $68 million class action settlement to resolve a long-running privacy suit, including class counsel's requested $22.67 million fee award, commending the parties' hard work while also criticizing a plaintiffs attorney's "patently unreasonable" proposed $3,000 hourly rate.

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Google Users' $85M Fee Ask Stalls Over 'Utterly Lacking' Bill

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge on Thursday rejected an $85 million attorney fee request following a $700 million settlement in a consumer-led case against Google, ruling that counsel's submitted billing records are "utterly lacking in information demonstrating what work was done and for what purpose," while granting leave to amend the request.

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Analysis

Expect These Post-Midterm Probes If The Hill Changes Hands

By Phillip Bantz

The top investigative priorities of a potentially Democratic-controlled Congress are coming into sharper focus with the midterms weeks away and could impact an array of companies and individuals in technology, finance and energy, experts say.

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Fla. High Court Says 'COVID Brain' Can't Excuse Atty Blunder

By David Minsky

The Florida Supreme Court found an attorney guilty of misconduct over his lack of candor when questioned about an interaction with his own witness in a paternity trial, saying there's no way "COVID brain" caused him to violate a sequestration rule and lie to a judge. 

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Attys Can Still Protect Voting Rights During The Midterms

By Cara Bayles

With the midterm elections approaching, a coalition of local and national nonprofits are seeking volunteers, especially lawyers, to safeguard the vote during an election with more states in play as battlegrounds and growing anxiety about federal interference in local elections.

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Survey Of Ill. Attys Reveals Mental Health Struggles, Stigma

By Celeste Bott

A survey of nearly 7,000 Illinois lawyers found roughly 20% rated their mental health as fair or poor, according to an Illinois Supreme Court commission report documenting the toll of workplace stress on the state's attorneys and judges, their alcohol and drug use, and barriers to getting them care.

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Analysis

Could A Criminal Sentencing Case Upend Loper Bright?

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is concerned that a ruling instructing trial courts to defer to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines could blow a "pretty big hole" in the court's recent rejection of deference doctrines. His colleagues, however, don't appear as perturbed.

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Balancing The Scales: Criminal Appeals, Sentencing Rules

By Orlando Lorenzo

The Second Circuit has been ordered to take another look at a murder-for-hire conviction in light of the high court's new miscarriage-of-justice exception for criminal appeal waivers, and the top courts in Pennsylvania and Michigan will look at the retroactivity of new sentencing rules. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the full Eleventh Circuit overturned decades-old precedent that took a strict view of when federal benefits law claims could be brought in court.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The top investigative priorities of a potentially Democratic-controlled Congress are coming into sharper focus with the midterms just weeks away and could impact companies in various sectors. In the meantime, one BigLaw firm formed a board to oversee the use of artificial intelligence and evaluate proposals from its practice groups and sectors. These are some of 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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