Ointment Scheme Conned Gov't Out Of Millions, Fla. Suit Says

By David Minsky

Two Florida brothers and one of their former employees are accused of running a years-long fraudulent scheme billing government healthcare programs and receiving millions of dollars after paying kickbacks to generate prescriptions for ointments that were not needed, according to a False Claims Act lawsuit.

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US Must Produce Emails Between IRS Managers, Docs Leaker

By Anna Scott Farrell

The government must produce emails between Internal Revenue Service managers and a former contractor who leaked thousands of wealthy people's tax returns, a Florida federal judge has ordered, saying the materials are relevant to a billionaire's case accusing the agency of responsibility for the leak.

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Fla. Seeks To Halt Biden's ACA Trans Discrimination Rule

By Emmy Freedman

Florida urged a federal court to stop recently finalized regulations clarifying gender identity-based discrimination under the Affordable Care Act from taking effect, saying the new rules would force the state to abandon its health and safety laws or lose funding from the federal government.

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11th Circ. Tries To Untangle Aftermath Of Judge's Early Exit

By Ivan Moreno

An Eleventh Circuit panel on Thursday quizzed attorneys for rival breeders of disease-resistant shrimp about whether a $10 million trade-secrets jury verdict should be overturned after a federal magistrate judge presided over the trial's ending because a federal district judge had to catch a flight, with one of the panel judges saying the parties had been put "in a very difficult position."

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11th Circ. Denies Ayahuasca Church's Bid For Rehearing

By Jonathan Capriel

The Eleventh Circuit has refused to grant an en banc rehearing to a Florida church that wanted to use ayahuasca as a sacrament, leaving in place an appellate ruling that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration properly denied a religious exemption from federal law against the psychedelic substance.

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$5.5M Apotex Generic Drug Price-Fixing Deal Gets Initial OK

By Jared Foretek

A Pennsylvania federal judge gave preliminary approval to yet another settlement in the sweeping generic drug price-fixing multidistrict litigation, this time signing off on pharmaceutical company Apotex's $5.5 million settlement with clinics, hospitals and independent pharmacies.

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FCC To Pull Phone Co.'s Authorization To Operate In US

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it plans to revoke a telecom company's authorization to operate in the U.S. after the business failed to comply with an agreement with federal agencies stemming from a security review.

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Disney Strikes Deal To Exit Hispanic Worker's Bias Suit

By Emmy Freedman

A Disney subsidiary reached an agreement Thursday with a former Walt Disney World worker to end her lawsuit alleging the company unlawfully fired her after a co-worker overheard her tell a story about disciplining her son for using the N-word, a filing in Florida federal court said.

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Roche Freedman Gets Split Ruling On Witnesses In Atty's Suit

By Andrea Keckley

A New York federal judge has issued a split decision on witness testimony in a dispute over the litigation boutique formerly called Roche Freedman.

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Ex-Ga. Coach Says Earlier Race Suit Doesn't Bar Title VII Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

A former Georgia high school football coach, who alleged his contract was terminated because of his race, urged the Eleventh Circuit to revive his suit against the Valdosta City School District on Thursday, arguing the dismissal of an earlier suit against school board members does not bar this suit.

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'Miami Mentor' Joins Goldberg Segalla As Partner

By James Mills

Goldberg Segalla LLP is expanding its Miami team, bringing in a Clarke Silverglate PA commercial litigation defense attorney known as the "Miami Mentor" as a partner.

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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance

A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.

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Analysis

Alito Flag Report Fuels Ethics Debate, But Likely No Recusal

By Katie Buehler

Responses to a report that an upside-down American flag flew outside U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home following the 2020 presidential election broke along partisan lines Friday, with conservatives decrying it as a smear campaign and liberals calling for his recusal from pending election-related cases and for general court ethics reform.

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Analysis

Trump's Potential Witness Could Be Defense 'Dynamite'

By Phillip Bantz

As Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan nears its end, experts say criminal defense attorney Robert Costello, who once advised the former president's ex-fixer and key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, has surfaced as a potentially bombshell witness for the defense.

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Menendez Bribery Trial: 5 Things To Know About Week 1

By Carla Baranauckas

Explosive opening statements, closed-door jury questioning and an FBI agent's recount of the moment he found a treasure trove of gold bars and cash highlighted the first week of trial in the government's second corruption case against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

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Ga. Judge In 2020 Election Cases To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, who has presided over high-profile cases involving the 2020 election, voting rights and abortion, will take senior status on Jan. 1, 2025, according to an update Friday.

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AG Garland Held In Contempt By House Committees

By Courtney Bublé

Two House committees voted late Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland 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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Ex-Baltimore State's Atty Says 20-Month Sentence Too Harsh

By Emily Sawicki

Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has asked a federal judge to cut down prosecutors' requested 20-month prison sentence after she was convicted of abusing a COVID-19-era program to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, arguing the proposal "stray[s] from the reality of this case."

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'We Feel It': NJ Ranks 2nd In Ch. 11 Cases, Chief Judge Says

By George Woolston

New Jersey federal courts saw the second most Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the nation over the last year, Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb of the District of New Jersey said on Friday.

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NJ Courts Chief Warns Plan To Pick Appeals Bench A 'Mistake'

By George Woolston

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner of the New Jersey Supreme Court on Friday defended how the state judiciary assigns appeals court judges, criticizing a proposal to move the power to appoint appellate judges from the chief justice to the state Senate and the governor's office.

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1st Circ. Rejects Ex-Immigration Judges' Bid For Asylum Redo

By Elliot Weld

The First Circuit's full bench refused to reopen a Salvadoran woman's case seeking asylum, despite former immigration judges weighing in to say that the judge who denied her asylum didn't follow a legal requirement to ensure her record was complete.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Haynes and Boone LLP and Lubin & Enoch PC lead this week's edition of Law360's Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously determined that federal courts do not have discretion to toss a case once it's decided that the claims belong in arbitration.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The SEC adopted cybersecurity rules to require investment advisers and broker-dealers to put procedures in place for detecting data breaches and for notifying customers when their personal information may have been compromised, and lawyers said SPACs won't get sought-after relief from a new 1% tax on stock buybacks under a recent Treasury Department proposal. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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