Overall
Key cases
Industries
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Corporate
Practice Areas
Top News
-
September 13, 2012
McGuireWoods Dodges Bankrupt Hospital's Malpractice Suit
An Indiana federal judge on Tuesday threw out bankrupt Heartland Memorial Hospital LLC's malpractice suit over McGuireWoods LLP's supposedly bad advice during a leveraged buyout, finding no evidence the law firm had agreed to take the hospital on as a client.
-
September 13, 2012
3 Telecom Giants Will Pay $12M To Settle Wildfire Claims
In a settlement that was approved Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission, AT&T Mobility LLC, Sprint Telephony PCS and Verizon Wireless will pay a total of $12 million to resolve allegations over their roles in the 2007 Malibu Canyon wildfire triggered by fallen utility poles.
-
September 13, 2012
Judge Temporarily Blocks STOCK Act Enforcement
A Maryland federal judge overseeing a legal challenge by federal employees to a new insider trading law on Thursday agreed to temporarily block enforcement of the purportedly intrusive bill requiring thousands of U.S. officials to publicly disclose information about their financial transactions.
-
September 13, 2012
4th Circ. Says Dollar Tree Sex Bias Claims Time-Barred
The Fourth Circuit on Thursday refused to revive a putative class action accusing Dollar Tree Stores Inc. of underpaying female managers, saying the statute of limitations for the plaintiffs' Title VII claims kept running after they tried to add them to a parallel Equal Pay Act suit.
-
September 13, 2012
House Passes Stopgap Bill To Fund Government For 6 Months
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday, keeping the government running for six more months while sidestepping a partisan divide that has blocked various appropriations bills from moving ahead in Congress.
-
September 13, 2012
Fed. Circ. Affirms Win For Cable Cos. In Data Patent MDL
The Federal Circuit on Thursday refused to reconstrue a data-over-cable patent to Rembrandt Technologies LLP's liking, upholding the dismissal of its infringement claims in a multidistrict litigation against Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and other cable companies.
-
September 13, 2012
Husch Blackwell Lures Environmental Pro From Patton Boggs
Husch Blackwell LLP has bolstered its environmental and natural resources practice group by adding a former Patton Boggs partner to its Washington, D.C., office, the firm said Tuesday.
-
September 13, 2012
DLA Piper Under Fire For ZTE Work Due To Trade Concerns
DLA Piper took flak Thursday from two Republican House members who asked the law firm to think twice about its work with ZTE Corp., saying the Chinese telecommunications equipment company's efforts to snag a larger chunk of the U.S. market pose a threat to cybersecurity.
-
September 13, 2012
Groups Back BofA In AIG's $10B RMBS Appeal In 2nd Circ.
Several banking groups accused American International Group Inc. on Wednesday of trying to rewrite the Edge Act, and urged the Second Circuit to reject the company's bid to return its $10 billion mortgage-backed-securities suit against Bank of America Corp. to state court.
-
September 13, 2012
House Panel Moves To Block HHS Welfare Waiver Rule
A House committee on Thursday advanced a measure to block the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from pursuing changes to the welfare program, a signal Republicans will use the administration's rulemaking procedures to fight federal agency actions they don't like.
-
September 13, 2012
Milbank Hires Ex-Chadbourne Latin American M&A Pro In NY
A longtime Chadbourne & Parke LLP mergers and acquisitions and capital markets partner with a career-long focus on Latin America has joined Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP as a partner in New York, Milbank said Wednesday.
-
September 13, 2012
Squire Sanders Adds Enviro Pro From Hunton & Williams
Global law firm Squire Sanders has bolstered its environmental practice with the addition of a former Hunton & Williams LLP partner experienced in product liability and the implementation of California's unique environmental regulations, it said Thursday.
-
September 13, 2012
$52M Jury Verdict Overturned In Gene Test Patent Row
A Wisconsin federal judge tossed a $52 million patent infringement verdict in favor of Promega Corp., ruling Wednesday that the biotechnology company hadn't shown that the allegedly infringing Life Technologies Corp. gene testing products or their components were made in or imported to the U.S.
-
September 13, 2012
'Pink Slime' Maker Slaps ABC With $1.2B Defamation Suit
A maker of the beef trimmings referred to by critics as "pink slime" launched a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit in South Dakota on Thursday against American Broadcasting Cos. Inc. and journalist Diane Sawyer, claiming their news reports about the product imperiled its business.
-
September 13, 2012
Ex-Stanford Exec Gets 3 Years For Obstructing Ponzi Probe
A Texas federal judge on Thursday sentenced the former chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group to three years in prison for obstructing a government investigation of the firm's $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
-
September 13, 2012
Ex-Jenkens Atty Admits Role In $100M Tax Shelter Fraud
A lawyer formerly with defunct Dallas firm Jenkens & Gilchrist PC pled guilty Thursday in New York federal court to helping wealthy clients evade taxes in a wide-ranging scheme that defrauded the government of more than $100 million.
-
September 12, 2012
Kirkland & Ellis Snags Ex-Goldman Sachs Counsel
Kirkland & Ellis LLP bolstered its litigation practice in New York with the hire of a complex securities and antitrust expert who previously served as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s associate general counsel, in a coup for the Chicago-based law firm that announced the hire Wednesday.
-
September 12, 2012
5th Circ. Holds Chesapeake To $20M Judgment Over Failed Deal
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday denied a bid by Chesapeake Energy Corp. to overturn a $19.8 million judgment against it for backing out of a deal to acquire oil and gas leases from Peak Energy Corp. in 2008.
-
September 12, 2012
Appraisal Awards Support Bad Faith Claims, Fla. Court Says
A Florida appeals court has dealt a major blow to insurers arguing that policyholders must win a breach of contract claim before they can bring bad faith actions, ruling last week that insureds that score a favorable appraisal award in a property damage dispute can pursue bad faith litigation.
-
September 12, 2012
Obama May Veto GOP Bill Aiming To Stop Defense Cuts
The Obama administration said Wednesday that the president will likely veto a bill aimed at blocking $55 billion in defense budget cuts as part of a $1.2 trillion sequester, saying it contains no compromises and favors wealthy Americans.
Expert Analysis
-
To Pin Or Not To Pin … That Is The Question
While recent updates to Pinterest's terms of use and other policies may help limit the social media site's liability under the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, they may not provide enough protection for individual or business users who post content on the site, says Linda Goldstein of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP.
-
Takeaways From Caraco V. Novo Nordisk
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. v. Novo Nordisk A/S, it seems likely that counterclaims alleging overbroad use codes will be raised in Paragraph IV litigations where the use code does not precisely reflect the claimed method of use, say attorneys with Fenwick & West LLP.
-
Addressing Breach Of Method-Of-Use Patents By Generics
In Bayer Schering Pharma AG v. Sandoz Inc., the Federal Circuit has affirmed a district court's holding that generic drug makers could not infringe patent claims where a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug had not been approved for the other claimed uses. In this case, it was not enough that the FDA had approved marketing materials promoting the use of the contraceptive Yasmin for noncontraceptive effects, say attorneys with Duane Morris LLP.
-
Settling The Matter Of Meal, Rest Breaks In Calif.
In light of the California Supreme Court's Brinker decision, employers should take steps to ensure that their meal and rest break policies are compliant — though, absent proof of a specific employer policy or classwide practice that makes timely, off-duty meal periods unavailable, plaintiffs should have difficulty obtaining class certification of meal-period claims in the future, say Leslie Abbott, Jeffrey Wohl and Holly Lake of Paul Hastings LLP.
-
Inside The CFPB Proposed Rules For Mortgage Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently proposed rules to increase accountability and transparency in the mortgage servicing industry draw heavily on the National Servicing Standards and, given the broad enforcement powers of the CFPB, have significant implications for mortgage servicers, say Jeffrey Spigel and Peter Todaro of King & Spalding LLP.
-
9th Circ. Firsts: Equitable Mootness And Arbitration
2012 is shaping up as a year of bankruptcy first impressions for the Ninth Circuit. The court has sailed into uncharted bankruptcy waters twice already this year in the same Chapter 11 case — In re Thorpe Insulation Co., say attorneys with Jones Day.
-
Case Study: US V. Aleynikov
As the Second Circuit's decision in United States v. Aleynikov makes clear, federal criminal liability under the National Stolen Property Act, the Economic Espionage Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act will turn on specific — and somewhat surprising — factual questions, says Daniel Marx of Foley Hoag LLP.
-
Dodd Frank Update: Clarifying Volcker
While the Volcker Rule is one of the signature elements of Dodd-Frank, the initial phases of rulemaking to implement it have generated substantial comment and criticism from a wide cross-section of the financial services sector in the U.S. and globally. The Federal Reserve's recent clarification that covered banking entities have until July 21, 2014, to come into compliance is viewed by many as a positive development with benefits for both banking entities and the regulators, say attorneys with SNR Denton.
-
Case Study: Kappos V. Hyatt
As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Kappos v. Hyatt, patent applicants disappointed by rulings of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences may consider filing a civil action under §145 with the opportunity to supplement the administrative record, rather than appeal directly to the Federal Circuit, say Paul Devinsky and Charles Hawkins of McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
-
EPA's New Source Performance Standards For CO2
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its long-awaited proposal establishing carbon dioxide emissions limits from fossil-fuel-fired electric utility generating units. While the proposed CO2 standard does not apply to existing, unmodified units, once this regulation is finalized, the EPA may be forced to develop standards for such sources, say Don Frost and Henry Eisenberg of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.