Commercial Contracts

  • April 05, 2024

    WebMD Unit Drops Suit Against Ex-Execs Tied To $7M Dispute

    A subsidiary of WebMD Health Corp. has dropped a federal lawsuit accusing a former executive of hiring an ex-chief product and technology officer to work at his new company in order to gain an advantage in an arbitration proceeding with about $7 million on the line.

  • April 05, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Australian Steel Import Pricing

    A Federal Circuit panel has backed the U.S. Department of Commerce and a trade court's assessment of the prices an Australian steel company charged its U.S. customer, holding that the companies provided enough of a paper trail to explain their relationship.

  • April 05, 2024

    Pa. Supreme Court Snapshot: COVID Coverage Starts Spring

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's April lineup will prepare the justices to deliver highly anticipated guidance on whether business losses stemming COVID-19 pandemic orders should be covered by insurance and if Pittsburgh can compel rental-property owners to register and undergo training.

  • April 05, 2024

    GM Not Liable For Ditching Supplier, Mich. Panel Says

    General Motors did not break promises to a now-defunct supplier by signing a deal with a competitor while an exclusive supply contract was still in effect, a Michigan appellate panel has found.

  • April 05, 2024

    Off The Bench: ACC Drama, Football Firing Suits Intensify

    In this week's Off The Bench, Florida State University cannot escape an ACC lawsuit that may enforce a nine-figure penalty against the school if it should leave the conference, while both Northwestern University and the Arizona Cardinals face more legal headaches over their decisions to fire key personnel.

  • April 05, 2024

    NC High Court Snapshot: Law Firm Battles Defamation Suit

    The Supreme Court of North Carolina has a stacked calendar heading into spring arguments, from an appeal over Black-owned properties targeted for demolition to a law firm's attempt at dodging defamation claims over allegations of voter fraud.

  • April 05, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 04, 2024

    'No Madonna Fan' Expects Show At Ticket Time, Singer Says

    Madonna, Live Nation and the Barclays Center asked a New York federal judge to toss a lawsuit alleging fans were "lulled" into buying tickets for a show that started two hours late, saying no reasonable concertgoer — "and certainly no Madonna fan" — expects the headliner to begin at the ticketed time.

  • April 04, 2024

    Punishing Docs' Statements Chills Free Speech, 5th Circ. Told

    A right-leaning nonprofit sparred with a group of specialty medical boards and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in front of the Fifth Circuit during oral arguments Thursday, saying that revoking doctors' medical licenses in retaliation for public statements on issues like abortion chills free speech.

  • April 04, 2024

    Crypto Bank, Chair Blast FTX Investors' 'Gatling Gun' Claims

    A crypto bank and its chairman have urged a Florida federal judge to toss a second amended complaint from FTX investors alleging they helped Sam Bankman-Fried abscond with $8 billion in customer assets, saying the investors "employ a Gatling gun approach to pleading."

  • April 04, 2024

    Caterpillar 'Talking Out Both Sides,' Judge Says

    A Delaware federal judge chastised Caterpillar Inc. ahead of trial in a series of orders mostly siding with claims from a defunct construction equipment supplier accusing the company of pressuring an online auctioneer to break an important contract with the would-be competitor.

  • April 04, 2024

    Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Can't Duck Archegos Claims

    A New York appellate court on Thursday affirmed a decision refusing to dismiss ViacomCBS investors' claims against Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and a long list of banks over the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, finding that investors plausibly identified statements the banks made that could have been misleading.

  • April 04, 2024

    Kiss Sells Their Souls To PE Fund, Throws In Music Too

    Less than a year after playing their final show, members of '70s rock band Kiss said on Thursday that they're selling off their intellectual property to a private equity outfit owned by the guitarist of ABBA who is already promising investors that "plans for a biopic, an avatar show, and a Kiss-themed experience are already in the works."

  • April 04, 2024

    Crypto Co. Fined $700,000 For Duping Investors Into 'AI' Trading

    The owner of an unlicensed cryptocurrency investment firm wooed a cancer patient and other investors with promises of AI-driven trading, only to use their funds for rent payments and other personal expenses, Connecticut regulators said Wednesday in ordering a $700,000 fine.

  • April 04, 2024

    BAE Stuck $8.2B Retirement Plan With Hefty Fees, Court Told

    Aerospace and defense company BAE Systems breached federal benefits law by saddling its $8.2 billion retirement plan with excessive recordkeeping fees and causing participants' savings to plummet, a proposed class action filed in D.C. federal court said.

  • April 04, 2024

    2nd Circ. Vacates Logistics Co.'s $1.8M Damaged Cargo Win

    A New York federal court erred by rejecting a Chubb unit's reimbursement bid for an over $1.8 million damaged drug shipment, the Second Circuit ruled Thursday, finding a genuine factual dispute on whether the logistics company in charge was a "contracting carrier" under an international treaty governing air shipments.

  • April 04, 2024

    Litigating On The Front Lines Of Pac-12 Power Struggle

    The mass exodus from the Pac-12 sparked fierce litigation over the considerable money and power at stake for the conference, challenging attorneys to deal with a high-pressure dispute moving along at breakneck speed. One lawyer at the center of the fight recently spoke with Law360 about the unique challenges he and his team had to address.

  • April 04, 2024

    HK Lender Gets $8M Arbitral Awards Against Fla. Atty OK'd

    A Florida federal court has ruled to confirm and enforce international arbitral awards totaling more than $8 million against a Florida attorney and his longtime client, finding the pair should have opposed the awards favoring a Hong Kong-based lender no more than three months after the case wrapped up in 2019.

  • April 03, 2024

    2nd Circ. Told FIFA Bribery Convictions Rightly Nixed

    A former 21st Century Fox television executive and an Argentine sports marketing company told the Second Circuit that a lower court was right to toss their convictions related to the FIFA corruption scandal, contending that U.S. law does not reach foreign commercial bribery.

  • April 03, 2024

    Hawaii Bio Power Co. Can't Add Merger-Based Antitrust Claims

    A Hawaii federal magistrate judge has refused to permit the addition of new allegations, based on a 2017 fossil fuel plant acquisition, to a recently restarted lawsuit accusing the state's largest power company of anticompetitively canceling a contract for a new biomass energy plant.

  • April 03, 2024

    US Soccer Urges High Court To Hear Antitrust Fight

    The U.S. Soccer Federation on Wednesday once again asked the U.S. Surpeme Court to review the Second Circuit's decision reviving an antitrust lawsuit against it and FIFA, arguing that the government's opposition to the federation's petition failed to defend an "extreme membership liability" imposed by the circuit court ruling.

  • April 03, 2024

    Mortgage Co. Targeted In News Report Hit With RICO Suit

    United Wholesale Mortgage LLC, its parent company and its CEO were hit with a proposed class action Tuesday in Michigan federal court accusing them of scheming with mortgage brokers to steer borrowers into more expensive loans the same day that Hunterbrook Media, a new journalism and hedge fund outfit, published its first investigative piece focused on the company.

  • April 03, 2024

    Google's Win In Ad Tech Antitrust MDL To Get 2nd Circ. Look

    A group of Massachusetts-based gym and spa businesses informed a New York federal judge Wednesday they will be taking to the Second Circuit their challenge of the judge's order dismissing their antitrust claims in multidistrict litigation over Google's alleged monopoly in digital advertising.

  • April 03, 2024

    Healthcare Company Hid Rising Costs Before IPO, Suit Says

    Elder-focused healthcare company Agilon Health was hit with an investor's proposed class action in New York federal court alleging that the company failed to acknowledge ahead of its initial public offering that it had been affected by rising medical costs for providers.

  • April 03, 2024

    NC AG Greenlights New Monitor For HCA Hospital Amid Probe

    A new organization has taken up the baton to monitor whether HCA Healthcare is in compliance with the agreement that cemented its $1.5 billion acquisition of a North Carolina health system, a pact that is the focus of ongoing litigation between HCA and the state's attorney general.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Harvard's Broker Fight Shows Active Risk Management Is Key

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    Harvard University’s recently filed suit against its insurance broker for alleged malpractice in handling the Students for Fair Admissions claim illustrates that risk management requires the concerted effort of policyholders, brokers and insurers to protect against disastrous losses, say William McMichael and David Klein at Pillsbury.

  • Transparency And Explainability Are Critical To AI Compliance

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    Although there is not yet a comprehensive law governing artificial intelligence, regulators have tools to hold businesses accountable, and companies need to focus on ensuring that consumers and key stakeholders understand how their AI systems operate and make decisions, say Chanley Howell and Lauren Hudon at Foley & Lardner.

  • What Texas Business Court Could Mean For Oil, Gas Cases

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    While the new business court in Texas might seem an ideal venue for the numerous oil and gas disputes litigated in that state, many of these cases may remain outside its reach under the rules governing the court's jurisdiction — at least for now, say Conrad Hester and Emily Fitzgerald at Alston & Bird.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • SEC Fines Mean Cos. Should Review Anti-Whistleblower Docs

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    The Securities and Exchange Commission’s expanding focus on violations of whistleblower protection laws — as seen in recent settlements where company contracts forbade workers from reporting securities misconduct — means companies should review their employment and separation agreements for language that may discourage reporting, says Caroline Henry at Maynard Nexsen.

  • Sellers Seeking Best Deal Should Focus On Terms And Price

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    Rising interest rates and a decline in the automotive mergers and acquisitions market mean that a failed deal carries greater stakes, and sellers therefore should pursue not only the optimum price but also the optimum terms to safeguard their agreement, says Joseph Aboyoun at Fox Rothschild.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Del. Dispatch: Refining M&A Terms After Twitter Investor Suit

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    The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in Crispo v. Musk — invalidating a merger agreement provision that has been commonly used to disincentivize buyers from wrongful merger termination — should cause target companies to consider new approaches to ensure the payment of lost premium damages, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • Key Shifts In EU, UK Emissions Credits: Challenges For Cos.

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    An upcoming deadline to apply for free carbon dioxide emissions allowances in the European Union, and a reduction in the supply of similar allowances in the U.K., are likely to increase competition for allowances, and cause production, supply chain and contract issues for companies, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Earnout Contract Considerations After NC Good Faith Ruling

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    The North Carolina Supreme Court's recent Value Health Solutions v. Pharmaceutical Research decision, holding the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing did not apply in an earnout dispute related to an asset sale, demonstrates the need for practitioners to pay careful attention to milestone concepts in M&A transactions, says Benjamin Hicks at Wagner Hicks.

  • Takeaways From Iran Missile Procurement Advisory

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    Companies should familiarize themselves with the entities and practices highlighted in the recent multiagency Iran Ballistic Missile Procurement Advisory, to avoid falling prey to deceptive practices that help bad actors evade sanctions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • 7 NIL Considerations For Brand Deals With Student-Athletes

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    While the constantly changing laws, rules and regulations for name, image and likeness in collegiate athletics are difficult to navigate, the benefits of a brand's successful NIL marketing campaign can outweigh the challenge of traversing this complex framework, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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