Feds' Bid To Spring False Biden Accuser Shot Down By Judge

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge rejected a request Monday by prosecutors to release a former FBI informant imprisoned for lying to federal agents that former President Joe Biden accepted bribes, saying he does not agree the court made a mistake at sentencing that should result in his release pending appeal.

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Ed Martin Turns In 100-Plus Pages Of Responses To Sens.

By Courtney Bublé

Ed Martin, nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has turned in his response to hundreds of questions from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and he largely sidestepped inquiries about currently serving in the role in an interim capacity.

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DOJ's Slater Outlines 'America First Antitrust' Priorities

By Matthew Perlman

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said Monday that robust antitrust enforcement meshes with conservative principles, and the agency's priorities will be on pocketbook issues and protecting individual liberty online.

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Chinese Cos. Lose Immunity Fight In 9th Circ. IP Case

By Adam Lidgett

The Ninth Circuit on Monday shot down arguments from related Chinese steel companies that they shouldn't have to face espionage charges that they stole DuPont trade secrets for creating titanium dioxide, saying they aren't protected by foreign sovereign immunity.

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Feds Urged To Drop Crypto Mixer Charges After DOJ Memo

By Aislinn Keely

Federal prosecutors are weighing whether to continue pursuing a criminal case against two executives of crypto mixing service Samourai Wallet in light of a recent U.S. Department of Justice memo limiting certain digital asset prosecutions.

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Analysis

Whitmer's Top Court Pick Helps Secure Her Judicial Legacy

By Carolyn Muyskens

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made her second appointment to the state's highest court last week, and experts say the Democrat's latest pick locks in a liberal supermajority that is likely to be sympathetic to criminal defendants' rights.

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Ex-Celsius VP Gets 13 Months In Prison For Insider Trading

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge sentenced Celsius Holdings Inc.'s former vice president and controller to more than a year in prison on Monday after the former executive of the energy drink company admitted to insider trading and using confidential financial information to acquire stocks and options, then sold them a month later for a profit.

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Brief

Ex-Prison Director, Former Nikki Haley Aide Named SC US Atty

By Elliot Weld

The former director of South Carolina's prison system and onetime chief of staff for ex-Gov. Nikki Haley was sworn in Monday as the state's top federal prosecutor.

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Ex-Disney Worker Gets 3 Years For Profanity-Laced Menus

By Lauren Berg

A former Walt Disney World employee was sentenced to three years behind bars after he pled guilty in Florida federal court to hacking into a program used to create menus for the theme park's restaurants, adding profanities, changing prices and altering allergen information that could have put patrons at risk.

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2nd Circ. Backs Guilty Verdict In NYC Murder-For-Hire Case

By Elliot Weld

The Second Circuit on Monday affirmed the convictions and life sentences of a New York City developer and another man for plotting the murder of a former employee who they claimed had poached workers and clients to launch his own real estate business.

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NC Dentist Acquitted Of $3M Fraud, Tax Evasion Charges

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina dentist was acquitted of wire fraud and tax evasion charges on the fourth day of a federal jury trial in which prosecutors had alleged the dentist submitted false loan applications to the Small Business Administration and failed to pay income taxes.

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Ohio Man Gets 17½ Years For $7M Stock Fraud Conspiracy

By Ryan Harroff

An Ohio federal judge sentenced the majority owner and chief executive officer of a commercial lighting and automotive company to 17½ years in prison for conspiring with others to artificially inflate his company's stock price by using aliases to operate as unlicensed stockbrokers.

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Feds No Longer Want Convicted Ex-Ill. Speaker To Forfeit $3M

By Celeste Bott

The federal government has reversed course on a bid for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to forfeit more than $3 million in the wake of his partial conviction on public corruption, saying it stands by its legal arguments but was backing off as "a matter of discretion."

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Nadine Menendez Seeks Acquittal And Sentencing Delay

By Carla Baranauckas

Nadine Menendez, the wife of former Sen. Robert Menendez who was convicted on corruption charges, will ask to have her guilty verdict thrown out and is seeking to delay her sentencing, according to a filing from her attorney in Manhattan federal court on Monday.

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2nd Circ. Upholds Clinic Manager's Repeat Charges For Fraud

By Anna Scott Farrell

A decision that allowed the federal government to reindict a health clinic manager for a Medicare and tax fraud scheme can stand, a Second Circuit panel found Monday, agreeing with the lower court that his offenses were serious enough to permit it.

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Kramer Levin Hires Former SDNY Prosecutor, Corporate Atty

By Rose Krebs

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP announced Monday that it has added to its attorney roster a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a corporate lawyer from Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.

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Baker Donelson Picks Up Longtime HHS OIG Atty In Maryland

By Gina Kim

Amanda Copsey, a longtime U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General attorney, has joined Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC as a shareholder in its Baltimore office, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare laws and regulations.

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DOJ Memo Maps Out A Lighter Touch For Digital Assets

A recent memo issued by the Justice Department signals a less aggressive approach toward the digital asset industry, with notable directives including disbandment of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, a higher evidentiary bar for unlicensed money transmitting, and prosecutions of individuals rather than platforms, say attorneys at Cleary.

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Understanding How Jurors Arrive At Punitive Damage Awards

Much of the rising trend of so-called thermonuclear verdicts can be tied to punitive damages amounts that astonish the imagination, so attorneys must understand the psychological underpinnings that drive jurors’ decision-making calculus on damages, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

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The 2025 Lawyer Satisfaction Survey

Law firms and the legal profession are facing new uncertainties, shifting the stress levels, economic pressures, and overall contentment of lawyers in private practice, according to the 2025 Law360 Pulse Lawyer Satisfaction Survey.

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'The Court Is Not A Cartoon': Judge Rips Dragon Watermark

By Hailey Konnath

A Michigan federal magistrate judge Monday ordered an East Lansing, Michigan, firm called Dragon Lawyers PC to stop plastering its pleadings with a large, suit-clad purple cartoon dragon watermark on each page, saying it's not only "distracting, it's juvenile and impertinent."

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Analysis

Feds Have Strong Hand On Judge Charged With Blocking ICE

By Danielle Ferguson and Carolyn Muyskens

A Wisconsin state judge faces an uphill battle in defending against federal criminal allegations that she helped a man evade immigration officials at a Wisconsin courthouse, but she may be able to stake out a defense in arguing the government can't prove intent, experts told Law360. 

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California Judge Loses Pay After Conviction For Murdering Wife

By Gina Kim

The California Commission on Judicial Performance formally suspended a California judge without pay after a state jury found him guilty of second-degree murder last week for shooting his wife to death in their Anaheim Hills home on Aug. 3, 2023, following a heated argument. 

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Q&A

Sullivan M&A Chief Sees Opportunities Amid Tariff Turmoil

By Al Barbarino

After a rocky start to 2025, the mergers and acquisitions landscape is grappling with economic volatility, shifting trade policies and a complex regulatory environment. But even in a "choppy" market, there are always deals to be made, says Melissa Sawyer, global head of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's M&A group and co-head of its corporate governance practice.

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NJ Judge Apologizes Through Waylon Jennings Lyrics

By George Woolston

Clark Township, New Jersey, Municipal Judge Antonio Inacio said Tuesday that he isn't proud of all the things that led him to appear before a Garden State judiciary disciplinary committee, but he can say that he never intentionally hurt anyone by his conduct.

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$10M Brown Rudnick Deal With Guo Trustee Gets Judge's OK

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved a $10 million deal between Miles Guo's Chapter 11 trustee and the Chinese exile's onetime attorneys at Brown Rudnick LLP, and greenlighted 10 lesser settlements with other firms and luxury retailer Versace.

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Analysis

GOP Plan To Shutter Audit Watchdog Could Strain SEC

By Jessica Corso

Congressional Republicans are renewing the push to get rid of a financial regulator that conservatives have complained is costly and lacks proper oversight, but some former staffers at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board wonder whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has the manpower or expertise to take over the board's duties.

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Federal Defenders Of NY Staff Announce Union Drive

By Andrea Keckley

Staff members at the Federal Defenders of New York have announced their plans to join their attorney colleagues as members of the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys.

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Justices Scoff At Feds' Defenses In Mistaken FBI Raid Case

By Chart Riggall

Supreme Court justices Tuesday appeared flummoxed by the government's "ridiculous" arguments it should be immune to a Georgia resident's lawsuit over a mistaken FBI raid on her house, but seemed unlikely to issue a blanket ruling on when an officer's discretion trumps their liability for injuries caused by their actions.

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Alex Jones Wants High Court Look At $1.3B Sandy Hook Case

By Brian Steele

Bankrupt Infowars host Alex Jones will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate a mammoth libel judgment that families of Sandy Hook shooting victims secured against him and his company over his conspiratorial broadcasts calling the massacre a hoax, he told a Connecticut appellate court in seeking to extend a pause on the payout.

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Breyer To Talk Pragmatism At NJ Bar Association Convention

By Carla Baranauckas

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will bring his pragmatic legal philosophy to center stage when he appears at the New Jersey State Bar Association Convention on May 16 in Atlantic City.

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