Feature

'Bless Your Heart': The Art Of Taming A Chatty Witness

By Carla Baranauckas

When a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official took the stand as a prosecution witness in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Robert Menendez, he took great pains to be clear and complete in his answers — so much so that prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge repeatedly asked him to talk less.

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DOJ Declines To Prosecute AG Garland For Contempt

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice is declining to prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after the House voted earlier this week to hold him in contempt for not turning over audio recordings of the president and his ghostwriter speaking with special counsel Robert Hur for his investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.

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Ozy Trial Gets Heated, Exec Tells Of Lies, Google CEO Pops In

By Stewart Bishop

Courtroom tempers flared, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai dropped by and a former Ozy Media executive on Friday told the jury weighing fraud charges against the startup's charismatic founder Carlos Watson of how they nearly conned Buzzfeed into buying the company by faking its financials.

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Guo's Crypto Venture Raised 'Red Flags,' Investigator Says

By Rachel Scharf

A compliance investigator at cryptocurrency wallet provider BitGo testified in Manhattan federal court Friday that he identified multiple "financial crime red flags" in the digital asset exchange promoted by Chinese dissident Miles Guo.

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DOJ Can't Force Retroactive FARA Registration, DC Circ. Says

By Ali Sullivan

The U.S. Department of Justice can't force casino magnate Steve Wynn to retroactively register as a foreign agent because his alleged lobbying efforts on behalf of China ended years ago, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday.

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2nd Circ. Suspects Paralegal's Video Leaks Were Valid Threats

By Aaron Keller

The Second Circuit on Friday seemed skeptical of a former U.S. Department of Justice paralegal's attempt to trim a 33-month sentence for helping her gang-affiliated son expose two associates who cooperated with a law enforcement probe into a 2018 robbery, questioning why the recordings at issue couldn't be considered threats.

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Ripple Cites Terraform Fine In Call To Limit SEC Penalty

By Jessica Corso

Ripple Labs Inc. says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement with fellow crypto firm Terraform Labs, with the company agreeing to pay a $420 million civil penalty, is further proof of the "unreasonableness" of the agency's request that it be made to pay a much larger fine for activities that did not amount to fraud.

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SEC Says Bahamas Firm Was Set Up To Skirt Day Trading Rules

By Carolina Bolado

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened its case Friday against high-frequency trading expert — and former government informant — Guy Gentile, telling jurors in Florida federal court that he set up a broker-dealer in the Bahamas specifically to evade U.S. day trading regulations designed to protect American investors.

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NJ Officials Stiffed Transit Contractor Over Politics, AG Says

By George Woolston

Two board members of the South Jersey Transportation Authority have been charged for their role in allegedly blocking payments to a contractor as political retribution in a feud between a Democratic Party leader and a county commissioner, the New Jersey attorney general announced Friday.

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Fed Limits Bank's Fintech Dealings Over Risk Concerns

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Reserve filed a cease-and-desist order against an Arkansas bank Friday requiring it to obtain federal and state approval before partnering with any fintech companies going forward after the agency identified risk management deficiencies in recent safety and compliance exams.

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Feds Lob New Charges Over $430M Dark Web Market

By Elliot Weld

Two owners of an online marketplace known as Empire Market were hit Thursday with additional charges alleging that over a period of years they allowed users worldwide to buy and sell $430 million worth of illegal goods and services.

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Russian Businessman's Fight To Enforce $92M Award Ends

By Caroline Simson

A Russian businessman's decade-long fight to enforce a $92 million arbitral award — a dispute that spurred the U.S. Supreme Court to let him forge a new path to enforcing foreign arbitral awards — finally came to an end this week, as the parties inked a settlement on the eve of a racketeering trial.

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11th Circ. Shows Insurers Preference In D&O Coverage Row

By Jennifer Mandato

The Eleventh Circuit appeared poised to affirm a Florida district court's finding that the successor of an insurance services firm is not owed coverage for underlying shareholder-related litigation under 2017 claims-made policies because the claims are connected to ones made under a 2016 policy.

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Defense Atty Group Backs Law Firm In Guo Trustee Clawback

By Aaron Keller

The New York Council of Defense Lawyers has slammed a Chapter 11 trustee's attempt to claw back legal fees from an Empire State law firm that represented three nondebtor entities associated with bankrupt Chinese exile Miles Guo, saying it "burdens the Sixth Amendment" right to counsel.

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Ga. CPA Admits To Role In $1.3B Tax Fraud Scheme

By Chart Riggall

After a federal jury convicted two of his co-conspirators in a landmark conservation easement tax shelter trial last year, a Georgia accountant who'd previously denied culpability elected to change course Friday and plead guilty to two felony charges.

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Deciphering SEC Disgorgement 4 Years After Liu

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Liu v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to preserve SEC disgorgement with limits, courts have continued to rule largely in the agency’s favor, but a recent circuit split over the National Defense Authorization Act's import may create hurdles for the SEC, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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Takeaways From Nat'l Security Division's Historic Declination

The Justice Department National Security Division's recent decision not to prosecute a biochemical company for an employee's export control violation marks its first declination under a new corporate enforcement policy, sending a clear message to companies that self-disclosure of misconduct may confer material benefits, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

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All The World's A Stage For Tony-Nominated Dechert Co-Chair

By Tracey Read

Mark Thierfelder is not only a Dechert LLP co-chair and partner; he’s also a Tony-nominated Broadway producer up for an award this June 16. Here, Law360 Pulse talks to Thierfelder on how he balances his legal work with his creative pursuits.

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Littler Aims To End Theft Suit After $1M Deal With Ex-Firm Atty

By Lynn LaRowe

Littler Mendelson PC this week moved to drop a lawsuit accusing a former associate of stealing confidential documents following a settlement in which the firm agreed to pay her nearly $1 million, though a separate, newer case in which the lawyer accuses Littler of violating that deal remains open.

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McDermott Says Financial Firm Owes $800K In Atty Fees

By Madison Arnold

McDermott Will & Emery LLP says it is owed more than $800,000 in legal fees for representing a financial firm's employee in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a lawsuit by his former employer.

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Real Estate Broker Claims Lewis Brisbois Breached Deal

By Madison Arnold

A real estate broker who had exclusive rights to represent Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has slammed the firm with a breach of contract suit in California state court, alleging its abrupt termination of their deal will cost him millions in commissions.

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Goetz Fitzpatrick To Merge With Platzer Swergold Next Year

By Tracey Read

Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP and Platzer Swergold Goldberg Katz & Jaslow LLP will combine forces next year to create a single New York City firm.

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Update On Ex-George Mason Prof's Suits Over Sex Allegations

By Aebra Coe

After two women came forward last August accusing former BigLaw partner, FTC commissioner and George Mason University law professor Joshua D. Wright of sexual improprieties with students and direct reports, a number of additional accusations and lawsuits followed. Here are updates on the litigation and everything else surrounding the allegations.

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Analysis

Blistering Dissents Belie Justices' Penchant For Consensus

By Katie Buehler

Thirteen days into June, the U.S. Supreme Court had recorded one of the highest rates of unanimous decisions in the past four decades. But the era of historic consensus was tarnished a bit Friday when the court issued three split decisions and two scathing dissents highlighting how much the nine justices differ.

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Senate Passes Bill For State, Local Judge Security

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill unanimously to better protect state and local judges from threats amid "unacceptable attacks" on the judiciary.

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Hunter Biden Axes Data Privacy Suit Against Giuliani, For Now

By Emily Sawicki

Hunter Biden has tentatively agreed to drop a federal computer fraud and digital privacy suit against Rudy Giuliani and various other defendants relating to alleged data theft from his infamous laptop, after the case was partially stalled due to Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings Giuliani commenced in December.

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Mistrial Declared In Florida Student Debtor Lawsuit

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge on Friday declared a mistrial in the lawsuit against a Boca Raton-based law firm accused of falsely promising to eliminate student loan debts in exchange for a fee following testimony from a former client.

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Burford Bound To Sysco And Pilgrim's Unsigned Chicken Deal

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge on Friday rejected a Burford subsidiary's bid to block a global protein price-fixing settlement that Pilgrim's Pride and Sysco memorialized through email but never signed on paper, saying it's clear the parties reached a material agreement.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Williams & Connolly LLP and Littler Mendelson PC lead this week's edition of Law360's Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court made it tougher for the National Labor Relations Board to win injunctions against employers.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The governor of Vermont vetoed a legislative proposal that would have given consumers not only new data privacy rights but also the rare opportunity to sue large businesses for certain violations, and a multipart Delaware General Corporation Law amendment that would let boards cede some governance rights to big stockholders sailed through the state's Senate without debate or an opposing vote. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen toy company Jellycat hit supermarket Aldi with an intellectual property claim, AIG start proceedings against firefighting foam company Angus International Safety Group, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority file a legal claim against the Post Office amid the ongoing Horizon IT scandal. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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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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