Rising Star: Akin's Joshua La Vigne

By Linda Chiem

Joshua La Vigne of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP negotiated Cando Rail & Terminals' pivotal acquisition of Savage Enterprises' rail assets, earning him a spot among the transportation attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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Southwest's Religious Bias Memo To End Contempt Flap

By Vin Gurrieri

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday ordered Southwest Airlines to send flight attendants a statement saying the company isn't allowed to discriminate based on religion, in order to dissolve a contempt finding in a case from a flight attendant who successfully claimed her views on abortion got her fired.

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Quill & Arrow Says Ford Can't Rehash Lemon Law Fee Fights

By Linda Chiem

Quill & Arrow LLP has asked a California federal judge to dump a "retaliatory" lawsuit alleging the personal injury firm saddled Ford Motor Co. with high-priced legal bills for work purportedly handled by virtual assistants overseas or nonlawyers, saying the automaker is trying to chill product liability litigation.

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Brief

Alaska Airlines Gets Initial OK For $500K Military Leave Deal

By Benjamin Morse

Alaska Airlines Inc. has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a class action accusing it of denying vacation accrual to pilots during qualifying military leaves, according to a Washington federal judge's preliminary approval order.

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Prudential Beats Accidental Death Benefits Exception Suit

By Patrick Hoff

Prudential Insurance and an aviation company defeated a lawsuit alleging they unlawfully denied death benefits to the wives of two pilots who died in a 2024 plane crash, with a federal judge rejecting the widows' argument that the insurance policy's aviation exception was unenforceable.

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Uber Eats To Pay $4.4M To End Seattle Wage Theft Claims

By Ben Adlin

Uber Eats will again fork out millions of dollars to settle allegations from Seattle officials that the food delivery giant failed to pay its couriers what they're owed under municipal app-based worker laws, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards announced Tuesday.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Revive PTAB Challenge Of Westport Patents

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board was right when it declined to eliminate claims in a pair of fuel injection patents owned by Westport Fuel Systems Canada Inc., saying that Mercedes-Benz and an engineering and technology company didn't prove the invention's obviousness.

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Belle Tire Wins Arbitration Of Technician's Overtime Claims

By Melanie Dorsey

A former Belle Tire alignment technician must individually arbitrate claims that the automotive service company failed to pay overtime and improperly reduced workers' pay rates, a Michigan federal judge ruled, finding the employee agreed to arbitration through onboarding paperwork in 2023. 

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Ga. Justices Won't Revisit MARTA Rider's Injury Case

By Kelcey Caulder

Georgia's justices said they will not take up the case of a woman who alleged she was injured when a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority bus driver started driving while she was still paying her fare, allowing a summary judgment ruling in favor of MARTA and the driver to stand.

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Tricolor Execs Accused Of Securities Fraud By SEC

By Ben Zigterman

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday sued the founder of bankrupt subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings and two of its executives, accusing them of double pledging collateral and misrepresenting the debt pools they were offering to lenders.

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Charlotte Transit Lost Millions To Fare Evasion, Auditor Says

By Hayley Fowler

The public transit system in Charlotte, North Carolina, lost millions of dollars on riders who don't pay for tickets and left $1.7 million in unspent safety dollars on the table, according to a state watchdog report penned in response to the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman on the city's light rail system last year.

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​​​​​​​Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving multibillion-dollar mergers, corporate oversight, founder control, SPAC litigation, commercial contracts and attorney fees.

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Barge Owner's Insurance Agent Sued Over Crash Coverage

By Hope Patti

The insurance agency that procured coverage for a barge operator whose vessel crashed into a youth sailing camp boat, killing three girls and injuring three more, failed to obtain sufficient insurance coverage for the vessel, parents of two of the injured children told a Florida state court.

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CEO Says Ex-NJ AG Not Entitled To Immunity From Claims

By George Woolston

A CEO of a development company said his lawsuit over a dismissed criminal racketeering case against him and New Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III should survive former state Attorney General Matt Platkin's dismissal bid, arguing that Platkin, once the state's chief prosecutor, is not entitled to any immunity.

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Alaska Judge Voids 500-Acre Land Swap For Refuge Road

By Crystal Owens

A district court judge vacated an Interior Department decision to exchange 500 acres to allow road construction on Izembek National Wildlife Refuge lands for failing to comply with the provision of a federal Alaskan land law, saying in a Tuesday order that the transaction has no "force or effect."

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Mich. Panel Revives $900K Hyperbaric Chamber Coverage Suit

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan appellate court panel on Monday revived Corewell Health's suit seeking recovery of nearly $900,000 from State Farm Insurance for hyperbaric oxygen therapy that was provided to a child who suffered a traumatic brain injury after he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bike.

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Ambulance Co. Says Insurers Failed To Settle Crash Claims

By Danielle Ferguson

A Pennsylvania ambulance service alleged in state court that its insurers refused to consider a settlement offer within its policy limits to resolve claims stemming from a fatal crash, exposing the company to a higher judgment after the crash victim's estate added punitive damages to the underlying case.

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Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

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DLA Piper Taps Weil Partner As New York PE Co-Lead

By Andrea Keckley

DLA Piper has announced it hired a Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP partner to co-lead its private equity practice in New York.

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A Deepening Patent-Trademark Divide Over Irreparable Harm

Recent Federal Circuit decisions, along with legislation being considered in Congress, may exacerbate the differences that patent owners and trademark owners face when seeking to stop infringement before irreparable harm is caused, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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Ex-Loeb & Loeb RE Pro Joins Greenberg Traurig In NYC

By Isaac Monterose

Greenberg Traurig LLP has hired former Loeb & Loeb LLP real estate partner Brian L. Helweil as a shareholder for its global real estate practice team in New York City, the firm has announced.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein Seeks Release During Appeal

By Rachel Rippetoe

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein on Tuesday asked to be released from federal custody while he appeals his 12 tax and mortgage fraud convictions and a six-year prison sentence, saying he is not a flight risk and it would be a "grave injustice" for him to begin a sentence he believes will eventually get axed.

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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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Atty, Ex-Mentor Settle After Harassment, Bias Suit Dismissed

By Melanie Dorsey

An attorney whose sexual harassment and employment discrimination suit against her former mentor was thrown out last month for repeated discovery violations has reached a settlement resolving the remaining claims and counterclaims in the case.

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Atty, Son Charged In Probe Of Alleged Penn State Drug Ring

By Rose Krebs

An equity partner based in Meyer Darragh Buckler Bebenek & Eck PLLC's Pittsburgh office has been charged with tampering with evidence and obstructing an investigation in connection with an alleged cocaine ring at Penn State University that allegedly involved his son, according to news reports.

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Fed. Circ. Rejects Patent Marking Immunity For NPEs

By Dani Kass

Nonpracticing entities hoping for presuit damages can't get out of Patent Act requirements to mark products with patent information just because licensees don't believe their products infringe, the Federal Circuit held Wednesday.

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Jackson Walker Says US Trustee Can't Claw Back Legal Fees

By Clara Geoghegan

Jackson Walker said this week that the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog is beyond the bounds of its authority in a yearslong effort to force the firm to return millions of dollars in legal fees over an undisclosed relationship between a former partner and a Texas bankruptcy judge.

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Ex-US Attys Protest Trump's Swift Firing Of Rogoff In Seattle

By Rachel Riley

Thirty former U.S. attorneys backed Roger Rogoff's bid for reinstatement as Seattle's top federal prosecutor after President Donald Trump fired him on the heels of his court-ordered appointment, arguing Tuesday that Trump is trying to "sidestep the Senate's advice-and-consent role and sideline the judiciary" by letting unappointed individuals play such roles.

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Sinema Says Brief Signal Chat Can't Anchor NC Affair Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A single exchange on the encrypted messaging app Signal became the focal point of former Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's testimony on Wednesday as she sought to convince a North Carolina federal judge that she cannot be hauled into court in the Tar Heel state over an affair — which she declined to characterize as a "passionate" romance — she had with her married security guard.

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Polsinelli Can't Rep Doctor In 'Bad Faith' IP Suits, Cos. Say

By Lauren Berg

Two medical device companies suing Polsinelli PC and its longtime client, a patent-holding doctor, for allegedly pursuing "bad faith" infringement claims asked federal courts in Tennessee and Mississippi to disqualify the firm from defending the doctor in the lawsuits, citing their "diverging interests and liabilities."

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USPTO Says Patent Atty's Suit Shouldn't Stop Discipline Case

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has said an Ohio federal court shouldn't pause professional discipline proceedings against an attorney while he sues the agency, saying he's likely to fail with his suit challenging the fact that a judge from another agency is overseeing his discipline case.

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