FCC Subsidy Reforms Could Be Drafted On Capitol Hill Soon

By Christopher Cole

A working group on Capitol Hill studying a potential overhaul of the Federal Communications Commission's subsidy regime could produce draft reforms soon, but a big stumbling block will be how to expand contributions to the fund, telecom experts say.

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Gov't Broadband Rules Must Not Deter Providers, NTIA Told

By Christopher Cole

Small to medium-size internet providers could shy away from the federal government's massive broadband expansion program if rules requiring low-cost internet service end up being too heavy-handed, industry groups told the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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FCC Lifts Freeze On TV Stations Changing Channels

By Nadia Dreid

Class A and low-power television stations will now be able to change the channel with the Federal Communications Commission's blessing, something the agency has announced it is willing to give under the right circumstances for the first time in 14 years.

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KKR's $24B NetCo Buy Gets EU Regulatory Approval

By Al Barbarino

The European Commission said Thursday it has approved KKR & Co.'s planned $23.7 billion acquisition of NetCo from Italian telecommunications provider TIM Group, paving the way for the close of one of the largest deals announced last year. 

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Apple Gets PTAB To Ax Patent Claims On Waking Up Phone

By Adam Lidgett

Apple has successfully challenged an inventor's patent covering a way for a mobile phone to show information by a user just looking at it, with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding several claims were invalid as obvious.

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Albright Urged To Up Flypsi's $12M Trial Win Against Google

By Hannah Albarazi

 A Texas jury verdict requiring Google to pay $12 million in damages to software developer Flypsi Inc. for patent infringement is insufficient, Flypsi has told U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, asking the court to order a damages retrial or award it ongoing royalties and require Google to pay attorney fees.

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Voice Software Co. Gets Bank Customer Privacy Suit Trimmed

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge has trimmed a consolidated action against Nuance Communications over its voice-detection software that was used by JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, saying that the class members failed to show how Nuance supposedly used the software to assess the truth or falsity of a person's statements by analyzing their vocal characteristics. 

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VR Fitness App Ends $353M Antitrust Row With Meta, For Now

By Gina Kim

An app developer that sued Meta, Mark Zuckerberg and others seeking $353 million for alleged antitrust violations after the social media platform reneged on a deal to launch the plaintiff's virtual reality fitness app voluntarily dropped his case, for now, according to a notice filed Wednesday in California federal court.

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Netflix Fails To Show Inventor, Funder Violated Injunction

By Dani Kass

A California federal judge has said Netflix couldn't prove a Finnish inventor violated an injunction tied to his concealment of certain legal funds, or that a litigation fund manager the inventor worked with needs to face claims tied to that concealment.

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Only One Landlord Allowed To Duck DC RealPage Suit

By Nadia Dreid

One of several landlords that stands accused by the District of Columbia of using property management platform RealPage to fix the price of rentals has managed to convince a D.C. Superior Court judge to kibosh the claims against the real estate investment trust permanently.

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Alston & Bird Adds IP Litigator From BakerHostetler In LA

By James Mills

Alston & Bird LLP is boosting its intellectual property team, bringing in a BakerHostetler IP litigator as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

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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

Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide

By Katie Buehler

As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.

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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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