Texas Judge Warns BNSF, Unions Against Tactical Litigation

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge had stern words for both BNSF Railway Co. and two unions that are tangled in a labor dispute with the company, saying in a Thursday hearing that federal district courts do not exist to "provide leverage" in union negotiations.

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Feature

In Uber Assault Trial, A Courtroom Tests Truth Face-To-Face

By Hayley Fowler

This is the first in a two-part series about the Virginia Revival Model courtroom in the Charles R. Jonas federal courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here, judges and attorneys recall how a sexual assault trial against Uber unfolded in a space designed to place focus on the witnesses.

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Albright Declines To Ship Tesla Dispute To California

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge on Thursday refused to grant Tesla's request to transfer a patent infringement suit against the electric-car maker to California, finding that all the factors weighed neutrally, and that Tesla had therefore not shown a good reason to move the case.

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Aviation Co.'s Coverage Argument Is 'Foolish,' Fund Says

By Benjamin Morse

A union health fund told a New York federal judge that two affiliated aviation services entities cannot avoid required benefit contributions for eight full-time workers by failing to enroll them and then arguing that the resulting lack of coverage excused payment, according to a court filing.

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SAE Says Standards Fight Must Be Arbitrated In Belgium

By Caroline Simson

A standards-development association for the automotive and aerospace industries urged a D.C. federal court Wednesday to send a copyright feud over publishing rights for certain critical aerospace quality-management standards to arbitration in Belgium, accusing a global aerospace quality consortium of "gamesmanship."

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Freshfields, Wachtell Guide Uber's $14.8B Delivery Hero Deal

By Najiyya Budaly

Uber will buy Germany's Delivery Hero for $14.8 billion, the companies said on Thursday, after the U.S. ride-hailing and food delivery giant began building its stake in its European competitor this year.

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Parents Lose Most Claims In Child Car Seat Safety Suit

By Mike Curley

A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday threw out the bulk of a proposed class action alleging that Dorel Juvenile Group Inc. sold unsafe child car seats, saying most of the claims fail because the parents leading the suit didn't show Dorel was aware of the defect prior to their purchase.

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Zohar Trust Wins $2.4M In Lengthy Row With Lynn Tilton Firm

By Alex Wittenberg

Distressed debt investor Lynn Tilton's Patriarch Partners must pay roughly $2.4 million to the litigation trust for a trio of collateralized loan funds she founded in the 2000s, a New York federal judge has ruled, finding that Tilton's private equity firm breached a credit contract.

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Brief

Geico Gets Final OK On $2.6M Injury Coverage Deal In Wash.

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Washington federal judge signed off on a $2.6 million settlement between Geico and a class of hundreds of drivers resolving a dispute over whether the insurer improperly withheld drivers' personal injury protection coverage by asserting they reached "maximum medical improvement."

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NJ Panel Says Insurer, Not Driver, Owed Auto Damage Proof

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate panel held Thursday that the burden of proof was on an insurer, not a driver, in a coverage dispute stemming from a blown head gasket that rendered her vehicle inoperable, vacating the insurer's win and remanding for a new trial.

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Mich. Renews Enbridge Line 5 Permit, Tribes Vow Fight

By Melanie Dorsey

Michigan environmental regulators reissued key state permits for Enbridge Energy's proposed Great Lakes Tunnel project, allowing the company to continue pursuing approvals needed to replace the aging Line 5 pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac, while tribal leaders and environmental groups vowed to challenge the decision.

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Reviving Prize Law Would Reshape Maritime Seizure Risks

Recent U.S. maritime interdictions of sanctioned tankers and shadow fleet vessels raise urgent questions about whether civil forfeiture or prize law — a framework that has not been meaningfully tested since the Spanish-American War — governs and the potential impacts on vessel owners, charterers and insurers, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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Lessons On Contingency Planning From OFAC's Iran Reversal

The Office of Foreign Assets Control‘s abrupt revocation of a recent license easing sanctions on Iranian oil products shows commercial dealings relying on OFAC licenses or with higher sanctions risks should expressly address what happens if a policy change makes performance prohibited, says Michelle Roberts at Berliner Corcoran.

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Series

Being A Magician Makes Me A Better Lawyer

The skills I've developed as a lifelong magician have translated directly into tangible benefits in the courtroom because performing magic and trying cases both live at the intersection of psychology, storytelling, timing and disciplined rehearsal, says Mark Dombroff at Fox Rothschild.

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New Pipeline Repair Rules Shift Burden To Engineer Judgment

A proposal from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to allow operators more flexibility to make analysis-informed repair choices, rather than hew to long-standing prescriptive criteria, could make documenting the engineer’s decision-making process as important to compliance as the ultimate repair performed, says Ahuva Battams at Beatty & Wozniak.

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How Does Your Compensation Stack Up? Take Our Survey

Is your compensation keeping pace with the rate of inflation? Do you know what your colleagues made last year? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's Law Firm Compensation Survey.

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Feature

As Law Firms Race To Adopt AI, Cost Concerns Grow

By Phillip Bantz

Pressure is mounting on law firm leaders to dive into the AI waters or watch competitors swim away, but figuring out responsible, cost-effective methods to use high-priced legal tech remains tricky, experts say.

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Richards Layton Apologizes For AI Errors In Chancery Case

By Rose Krebs

Richards Layton & Finger PA and one of its attorneys have apologized to the Delaware Chancery Court for submitting a filing with errors generated by artificial intelligence, asking that sanctions not be imposed.

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McDermott Atty Denies Pressuring Friend To Alter Testimony

By Rose Krebs

A McDermott Will & Schulte LLP attorney has told a Delaware vice chancellor that he is in "complete shock" and "hurt" by a longtime friend's contention that he pressured him to change his testimony in a Chancery Court case, saying the accusation "is false and without any merit."

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Simpson Thacher 'Never' Explained Ill-Fated Deal, Exec Says

By Cara Salvatore

A founder seeking over $100 million from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett over a transaction he says destroyed his insurance services company testified Thursday the law firm provided him no education on various words he wasn't familiar with in the deal.

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Blue-Slip-Backed Trump Judge Selections Advance

By Courtney Bublé

The first two judicial nominations of the second Trump administration to receive supportive blue slips from Democratic senators advanced to the Senate floor Thursday.

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Goulston Docked Ex-Partners' Pay For Joining Rival, Suit Says

By Julie Manganis

Two Goulston & Storrs PC directors who jumped to Troutman Pepper Locke LLP were stiffed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation in retaliation for leaving, according to a suit filed Thursday in New York federal court.

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Tillis Might Back Blanche, As AG Pick Met Epstein Survivors

By Courtney Bublé

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday afternoon met with a group of survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said his condition for supporting Blanche's appointment to the permanent position was for the nominee to speak to them face-to-face.

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