Mayer Brown's $21M Fee Bid In RI Truck Tolls Suit Rebuffed

By Linda Chiem

A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday rebuffed Mayer Brown LLP's bid for $21 million in attorney fees for representing the commercial trucking industry's lead trade group in long-running litigation over the state's truck tolling program, saying the American Trucking Associations ultimately was not the "prevailing party."

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Honda System Not 'Perfect,' But Also Not Defective, Jury Told

By Rae Ann Varona

Honda's collision avoidance system, while not "perfect," should not be considered defective under industry standards, an attorney for the automaker's U.S. arm told a California federal court jury Friday during closing arguments in a class action over claims by 100,000-plus drivers that the system caused dangerously abrupt stops.

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State Farm Inks $15.6M Deal In Totaled Car Payout Class Action

By Gina Kim

State Farm policyholders scored preliminary approval of a $15.6 million settlement in Arkansas federal court Friday, resolving claims the insurer systematically undervalued totaled vehicles, almost a year after a civil jury found State Farm violated its contract to pay "actual cash value" of the cars by applying typical negotiation adjustments.

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Ga. Justices Revive Uber Fight Over Pre-Wayfair Sales Tax

By Maria Koklanaris

A Georgia appellate court must reconsider its opinion that Uber was required to collect and remit millions in sales taxes on behalf of drivers and customers who used its app before the Wayfair decision, the state's highest court said.

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Uber Crash Liability Case Review Denied By Texas High Court

By José Luis Martínez

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined to review a case brought by passengers injured in a car crash during a trip arranged through Uber Technologies Inc.'s app, leaving intact a lower court ruling rejecting their liability claims and finding that the company's drivers are independent contractors under state law.

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Audi Door Lock Defect Trapped Infant In Back Seat, Suit Says

By Zak Kostro

Electronic door-locking systems in dozens of Audi models intermittently fail to lock or unlock, according to a proposed class action in California federal court, in which a driver alleged the defect once left his infant son trapped in the back seat of his car.

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BMW Facing ITC Trade Secrets Probe Of Infotainment Screens

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission has opened an investigation into BMW's imports of what are known as infotainment screens, acting on a California technology company's allegations that the German vehicle manufacturer misappropriated its trade secrets to develop a cheaper option.

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Uber Again Says It's A Tech Co., Not A Transportation Provider

By Jonathan Capriel

Uber is once again fighting efforts to frame it as a transportation provider that owes a duty of safety to passengers, telling the California federal court overseeing multidistrict litigation over sexual assault liability that it only operates a technology platform.

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'Total Inaction' On Discovery Dooms Texas Dram Shop Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has affirmed the dismissal of a Dram Shop Act suit accusing an Arlington bar of overserving alcohol to a woman who later drove drunk and got into a fatal crash, citing the plaintiffs' "total inaction" regarding discovery over a two-year period.

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Colo. County Says DOI Skirted Review For Utah Oil Project

By Keith Goldberg

A Colorado county has accused the U.S. Department of the Interior of unlawfully fast-tracking the approval of a Utah oil-by-rail transportation expansion project by misusing its emergency authority to bypass meaningful environmental review and public feedback.

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Brief

FCC Bars Another Chinese Test Lab Over Security Risk

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday pulled the accreditation of another Chinese communications device testing lab due to concerns about Chinese state government control.

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Norwegian Cruise Line, Elliott Cut Deal To Revamp Board

By Al Barbarino

Norwegian Cruise Line said Friday it has reached an agreement with Elliott Investment Management LP for a board shake-up, after the activist investor revealed a more than 10% stake in the cruise operator last month.

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Chemical Co. PQ Countersues Tacoma Port In Pollution Case

By Ben Adlin

The Port of Tacoma's suit wrongfully seeks millions in remediation costs for contamination not associated with chemical company PQ LLC's operations on a Tacoma Tideflats property, the company has said in counterclaims brought against the port.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Apple hit back at a tech company's wireless charging patent claim, a flurry of businesses bring COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims as a key deadline draws closer and Ipulse Partners LLP file a claim against a luxury yacht company it represented in a trademark dispute. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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House Rebukes Senate With Clean DHS Funding Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The House voted 213-203 on Friday night on a clean extension of funding for all operations of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, rebuking the Senate, which passed by voice vote in the early hours of Friday morning a bill to fund most of the department except the immigration components. 

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Ex-CEO Sues Former NJ AG Over Tossed RICO Case

By George Woolston

The former CEO of The Michaels Organization, who was indicted in New Jersey's now-dismissed criminal racketeering case against South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III, has accused former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and other members of his office of commencing the prosecution knowing there was no probable cause.

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Texas Justices Order New Trial In Crane Breakage Suit

By Mike Curley

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ordered a new trial in a suit alleging a contractor failed to properly repair a crane, saying the trial court abused its discretion by denying the contractor's bid to substitute an expert when its original choice left the state and refused to testify shortly before trial.

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8 Tariff Refund Questions For Restructuring Professionals

For restructuring and turnaround professionals, seeking refunds following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision invalidating tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act raises several questions about how to capture legitimate recoveries while protecting an enterprise from the consequences of its own history, says Jonny Frank and Laura Greenman at StoneTurn, and Andrew Popescu at Province.

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Series

Watching Hallmark Movies Makes Me A Better Lawyer

I realize you may be judging me for watching, and actually enjoying, Hallmark Channel movies, but the escapism and storylines actually demonstrate qualities and actions that lead to an efficient, productive and positive legal practice, says Karen Ross at Tucker Ellis.

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Firms Targeted By Trump Urge DC Circ. To Uphold EO Rulings

By Alison Knezevich

Four law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to affirm lower court rulings that struck down executive orders restricting their ability to practice law, saying the directives blatantly violate the Constitution.

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Ex-Williams & Connolly Clerk Accused Of Posting Client Info

By Hailey Konnath

A former Williams & Connolly LLP clerk has been posting confidential firm information — including client information and work email exchanges — and he's threatening to "keep leaking" the materials, which he called "a fun read," according to a suit filed in District of Columbia Superior Court.

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BigLaw Races To Capture Expanding Fund Finance Market

By Kevin Penton

Debt financing work at the fund level has long been dominated on the lender side by attorneys from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Haynes Boone and Mayer Brown LLP, but other firms are increasingly crafting formal practices and poaching fund finance stars from the more established players.

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NJ Federal Judge DQs Beasley Allen In J&J Talc MDL

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has disqualified the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing hundreds of plaintiffs in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, holding that the firm violated ethics rules by collaborating with former outside counsel for J&J, a ruling the law firm has vowed to appeal.

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Apollo, BlackRock Deny Asking Kirkland To Abandon Optimum

By Tracey Read

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other major financial companies have denied Optimum Communications' claims accusing them of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as the telecommunications company's transaction counsel to get revenge for a collusion lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

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Atty Sanctioned For AI Hallucinations In Workers' Comp Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 in sanctions for failing to rectify AI-hallucinated case citations pointed out to him in an appeal concerning reimbursement sought by a workers' compensation carrier.

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Brief

Amazon Swaps MoFo In, Perkins Coie Out In Cooker Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon.com LLP switched counsel Friday in a customer's product defect suit accusing the retail giant of selling a faulty pressure cooker that allegedly malfunctioned and caused her severe burns, substituting two Morrison Foerster LLP attorneys in place of an outgoing Perkins Coie LLP lawyer.

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Judiciary Nixes Amicus Disclosure Reform Over Potential Chill

By Emily Sawicki

The federal judiciary has been asked not to move forward with a plan to add to amicus brief disclosure requirements designed to curb "dark money" groups from bankrolling amicus briefs, after rules committee chairs pulled the recommendation over concerns of a possible chilling effect.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from dropping AI giant Anthropic from the government's supply chain, and Latham & Watkins ranked first in a survey of in-house legal leaders on which law firms are most helpful in developing business, followed by King & Spalding, Jones Day and Ropes & Gray.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Lanier Law Firm, Kiesel Law LLP, Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP and Beasley Allen Law Firm lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California state jury in a bellwether trial found Meta and Google liable for harming the mental health of a woman who says she became addicted to their social media platforms as a child.

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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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Mich. Judge Signals No Stay If Attys Exit Retaliation Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge said Friday she is not inclined to pause a long-running sexual harassment suit again if counsel for an attorney who is suing her ex-mentor and former firm are allowed to withdraw, telling the parties, "We've been here. We've done this," as she heard arguments over a motion to exit the case.

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