Analysis

Here's What Comes Next After Trump's Conviction

By Phillip Bantz

Donald Trump's forthcoming appeal of his historic conviction Thursday in the New York hush money case could include challenges to the state's evidence and jury instructions, but it's unlikely the case will be resolved before Election Day.

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Donald Trump Convicted Of All 34 Counts In NY Trial

By Frank Runyeon, Rachel Scharf, Stewart Bishop and Elliot Weld

Former President Donald Trump was convicted by a Manhattan jury Thursday of 34 felonies over a plot to illegally sway the 2016 presidential election in his favor by concealing hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

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What The Trump Verdict Was Like From Inside The Courtroom

By Frank Runyeon, Rachel Scharf and Stewart Bishop

Law360 reporters were providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as a jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records. Here's a blow-by-blow of the historic verdict.

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Justices Revive NRA's Free Speech Claims Against NY Official

By Abraham Gross

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the National Rifle Association can proceed with certain claims in its lawsuit alleging that a former New York state official violated the gun rights group's free speech protections by pressuring financial institutions to cut ties with it.

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High Court Calls For 2nd Circ. Redo In BofA Preemption Fight

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a Second Circuit decision that freed Bank of America NA from class action litigation brought over a New York escrow interest law, ruling that the circuit court wasn't "nuanced" enough in finding the law preempted for national banks.

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Menendez's Wife Hires Coburn Greenbaum For Bribery Case

By Carla Baranauckas

Nadine Menendez, wife of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, has hired Coburn Greenbaum & Eisenstein PLLC partner Barry Coburn to defend her in the government's case accusing her and her husband of accepting bribes from three businessmen.

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NYU Law Review Beats Bias Claims Over Diversity Efforts

By Matt Perez

A New York federal court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from a self-described straight white male, first-year law student at New York University claiming the NYU Law Review is discriminatory.

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RFK Jr. Turns To FEC Over CNN Debate Shut Out

By Madeline Lyskawa

The campaign for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused CNN, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump of violating federal election law by holding a debate that excludes Kennedy, in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.

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NY Expects Crypto Cos. To Meet Customer Service Standards

By Aislinn Keely

The New York State Department of Financial Services on Thursday told the crypto firms under its purview that it expects them to resolve customer service issues promptly and fairly, according to newly issued guidance.

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NCAA To End Transfer Rules In Deal With DOJ

By David Steele

The NCAA agreed on Thursday to stop enforcing all rules governing athletes transferring from one institution to another, as part of a proposed consent decree filed by the U.S. Department of Justice to settle an antitrust suit against the organization by 10 states and the District of Columbia.

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Trump's Niece Can't Escape His Suit Over NYT Tax Story

By Henrik Nilsson

A New York appellate panel ruled Thursday that former President Donald Trump can pursue claims that his niece, Mary Trump, breached a confidentiality agreement by sharing his tax records with The New York Times, handing him a legal win the same day he was convicted of 34 felony counts.

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Brief

Terraform, SEC Reach 'Settlement In Principle' In Crypto Case

By Aislinn Keely

Crypto firm Terraform Labs and its creator Do Kwon appear to have reached an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle remedies after the firm and its founder were held liable for fraud by a Manhattan jury.

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Travelers Loses Dismissal Bid In BIPA Coverage Dispute

By Jennifer Mandato

A New York federal judge declined to trim a software company's lawsuit seeking coverage from a Travelers unit for underlying claims that the company violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act, finding the company's declaratory relief and bad faith claims were not duplicative of a breach of contract claim.

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Ex-BigLaw Atty Fights 10-Year Sentence In OneCoin Case

By Andrea Keckley

A former Locke Lord LLP partner urged the Second Circuit Wednesday to ax his 10-year prison sentence and conviction for laundering around $400 million in proceeds from the global OneCoin cryptocurrency scam, saying the case was contaminated by perjury and errors at the trial court level.

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Ex-Air Cargo Exec Who Took $6.7M In Kickbacks Gets 4 Years

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a German-born former air cargo executive to four years in prison Thursday for a decadelong course of corruption in which he personally took over $6.7 million in kickbacks, saying the wealthy defendant acted out of "pure greed."

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Morgan Stanley Helped Musk's Stealth Twitter Buys, Suit Says​​​​​​​

By Hailey Konnath

Elon Musk and his wealth manager tapped Morgan Stanley to help the Tesla CEO quietly acquire billions of dollars in Twitter securities without tipping off the market before he announced plans to take over the social media company, according to an amended complaint filed in New York federal court.

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Ex-Deutsche Bank Trader Gets 3½ Years For Crypto Scheme

By Emilie Ruscoe

A former Deutsche Bank associate has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison after pleading guilty in September to wire fraud and access device fraud in connection with a $1.5 million cryptocurrency investment scheme, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

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New 3-On-3 Women's Hoops League Eyes Historic Salaries

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

A new three-on-three basketball league co-founded by current WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier on Thursday unveiled its "groundbreaking" women's sports compensation and ownership model that will give players equity and vested interest in the league's success while also providing the "highest average salary" in women's professional sports history, according to its announcement.

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NY Truckers Sue To Block Congestion Pricing In Manhattan

By Linda Chiem

New York truckers have joined the fight to block congestion pricing from taking effect next month, alleging in a new Manhattan federal lawsuit Thursday that the first-of-its-kind fee for vehicles entering the Big Apple's busiest corridor unconstitutionally penalizes the trucking industry.

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Devotion To Energy Fuels New Eversheds Sutherland Partner

By Tracey Read

Eversheds Sutherland announced Thursday that it has hired a global energy group partner in Washington, D.C., and New York who previously worked at McDermott Will & Emery LLP.

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Ex-KPMG Manager Joins Davis+Gilbert As Tax Partner

By Anna Scott Farrell

A former managing director at KPMG has joined New York law firm Davis+Gilbert LLP as a tax partner in its corporate and transactions practice, Davis+Gilbert announced.

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DLA Piper Adds K&L Gates Real Estate Trio In NY, DC

By Andrea Keckley

DLA Piper announced on Wednesday three new additions to its real estate team on the East Coast, touting the former K&L Gates LLP's attorneys' experience with deals both at nationally and internationally.

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McGuireWoods Hires Ex-Norton Rose Litigator In NY

By Matt Perez

McGuireWoods LLP announced Thursday the hiring of a former Norton Rose Fulbright partner as the latest addition to its litigation practice out of New York City.

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King & Spalding Adds Litigation Co-Lead From V&E

By Jack Rodgers

King & Spalding LLP has hired Vinson & Elkins LLP's former commercial litigation group co-lead to join the firm in New York as a partner, the firm announced Thursday.

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Polsinelli Keeps Up Miami Growth With Boutique Litigator

By Madison Arnold

A commercial and real estate litigator from boutique law firm Mark Migdal & Hayden has jumped to Polsinelli PC to become Polsinelli's fourth shareholder addition in its Miami office this year alone.

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Perspectives

Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

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Orrick Leads List Of Top Law Firms For Women, Diversity

By Aebra Coe

Talent strategies firm Seramount released its latest list of the 45 best law firms for women and diversity this week, with the 2024 cohort of winners showing strides over previous years in representation, advancement and benefits for lawyers who are women or from other underrepresented groups.

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Houston Judge's Vast Display Reflects 25 Years On Bench

By Catherine Marfin

Along the hallways leading to U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison's Houston courtroom hang hundreds of notes, photos, thank-you cards and other correspondence, serving as a kind of interactive scrapbook of Judge Ellison's 25 years on the bench.

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Analysis

In Rarity, 1 Party's Judges Gain 100% Control Of Circuit Bench

By Jeff Overley

At the First Circuit, the judges' robes are all black, but the judges are all blue. It's a new and unusual instance of one political party's judicial picks controlling each active seat on a federal appeals court, and the Democratic dominance could prove magnetic for ideologically charged litigation.

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Orrick's $8M Deal To End Data Breach Claims Nears Prelim OK

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Friday that she'll preliminarily approve Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's $8 million deal to end putative class claims over a 2023 data breach that purportedly exposed personal information for 638,000 individuals, but said the "very broad" scope of the settlement's release "raised my eyebrows."

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Smith Gambrell Faces Slimmed Data Breach Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A California federal judge has trimmed the claims a proposed class of data breach victims brought against international law firm Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP, leaving the firm to face claims of negligence, invasion of privacy and violation of the California Unfair Competition Law.

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Analysis

Del. Chancellor Questions 'Rush' To Amend Corporation Law

By Jeff Montgomery

Weeks before the Delaware State Bar Association sent state lawmakers a draft bill explicitly allowing corporations to broadly cede some governance rights to chosen stockholders, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of Delaware Chancery Court made an unprecedented, direct appeal to think twice.

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Trump Condemns NY Trial As Verdict Echoes In DC

By Rachel Scharf

A day after his conviction on 34 felony counts, former president Donald Trump on Friday attacked the Manhattan jury's verdict in a lengthy speech that mischaracterized multiple elements of the case as the decision reverberated through Washington, D.C.

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Trump's New York Prosecutors Called To House Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, demanded on Friday that Manhattan prosecutors appear for a hearing on June 13 on the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, who was convicted on Thursday of 34 felonies.

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Disbarring Giuliani Would 'Protect The Public,' DC Panel Says

By Alison Knezevich

A Washington, D.C., attorney ethics panel agreed Friday that Rudy Giuliani's role in former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn Pennsylvania's presidential election in 2020 amounted to misconduct "of the utmost seriousness," and that disbarring him would "protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession."

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Texas Judge Opts Not To Recuse And Tosses Chamber Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Texas federal judge has thrown out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's suit seeking to block the Federal Trade Commission from implementing a ban on noncompete clauses because a different plaintiff was first to file, adding he declined to recuse himself because no companies in his stock portfolio were parties in the case.

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Illinois Strengthens Atty Ethics Rules For Harassment, Bias

By Celeste Bott

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced that the state's professional conduct rules for attorneys have been amended to deem the act of engaging in harassment or discrimination as professional misconduct, and not just in the event a court or administrative agency finds that a lawyer violated a law prohibiting such actions.

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DOJ Looks To End A Legacy Of Bias In Sex Assault Cases

By Hannah Albarazi

The U.S. Department of Justice says that legal fallacies and misogynistic stereotypes often lead prosecutors to decline to charge alleged perpetrators of sexual violence, but new guidance from the department is pushing prosecutors to give more credence to victims and see that their claims are more thoroughly investigated.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and attorneys Eugene Volokh and Alan Morrison lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Rifle Association can proceed with certain claims in the gun rights group's lawsuit against a former New York state official.

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The Top In-House Hires Of May

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the last full month of spring included high-profile appointments at Southwest, Hormel and UnitedHealth. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from May.

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Off The Bench: NCAA Transfers Freed, Atty Plays Cards Right

By David Steele

In this week's Off the Bench, the NCAA agrees to more historic rule changes while experts examine its post-House settlement future, and a patent lawyer looks back at his transformation into a poker champion.

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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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