FTC Deputy Director Rao On Healthcare Antitrust Agenda

By Yeji Jesse Lee

The reason behind the Federal Trade Commission's changed attitude toward antitrust in healthcare in recent years isn't simple, according to Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition.

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3rd Circ. Shuns Teva's 'Novel' Appeal On Israeli Investor Class

By Jessica Corso

The Third Circuit on Thursday turned away an appeal brought by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., saying the class certification stage was not the right time to hear arguments over the "novel" question of the applicability of U.S. securities laws to Israeli-listed shares.

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Houston Hospital Must Face Patient's Improper Care Claims

By Spencer Brewer

A split Texas appellate court gave a patient a second shot at his lawsuit accusing Houston Methodist Hospital of botching his post-surgery care, finding Thursday that an expert report supporting the patient's allegations was adequate to survive a dismissal bid.

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Democrats Prod Justice Thomas on RV Loan, Tax Treatment

By Anna Scott Farrell

Two Senate Democrats have asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' attorney to respond to what they called a failure to answer their questions about the justice's $267,000 loan from a healthcare industry executive to finance a luxury recreational vehicle, saying the loan treatment could have violated federal tax laws.

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Biden Admin Proposes To Loosen Restrictions On Marijuana

By Sam Reisman

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that his administration has formally recommended relaxing restrictions on marijuana, marking the most significant federal policy shift on cannabis since the drug was criminalized more than 50 years ago.

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Conn. Medicaid Fraudster Gets 27 Months Over $1.6M Scheme

By Ryan Harroff

A Connecticut psychologist who pled guilty to filing $1.6 million in false claims to his state's Medicaid system has been sentenced to 27 months in prison, after the government sought 37 months and the fraudster himself had argued for no prison time at all.

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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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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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NJ Judge Scrutinizes J&J Unit's Libel Claim Over Talc Study

By George Woolston

A bankrupt Johnson & Johnson unit's libel claims over a scientific article linking talcum powder to mesothelioma intrigued a New Jersey federal judge during an oral argument on Thursday, prompting her to muse that the author's consideration of other exposures seemed to bolster the study at issue.

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NY High Court Blocks Doctor's Hospital Shooting Injury Suit

By Mike Curley

New York's highest court on Thursday reversed a finding allowing a doctor to sue Bronx-Lebanon Hospital over his injuries from a 2017 shooting, finding that a lower appeals court was wrong to decide that a lack of evidence of the shooter's motivation rebuts the assumption that the injuries arose from his employment and fall under the state Workers' Compensation Board.

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Gilead, Teva Want 17 HIV Drug Antitrust Appeals Consolidated

By Matthew Perlman

Gilead Sciences Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals are asking the Ninth Circuit to consolidate 17 appeals contesting their win in a case alleging they delayed generic versions of HIV medications, saying the three groups of buyers are raising largely the same issues but refuse to commit to combining their briefs.

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IQVIA To Pay $3.5M To Resolve Ex-Workers' 401(k) Suit

By Emmy Freedman

Healthcare technology company IQVIA agreed to pay $3.5 million to end a 9,000-member class action accusing it of choosing investments that consistently underperformed and had excessive risk and expense for its $1.13 billion 401(k) plan, a filing in North Carolina federal court said.

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Q&A

Top Linklaters Attys See PE Rebound In Run-Up To Elections

By Al Barbarino

After a subtle uptick in private equity deal values in the first quarter, the global chair of Linklaters LLP's corporate department in New York, George Casey, and one of its top PE dealmakers in London, Alex Woodward, believe the pace of transactions is picking up and the market is primed for a comeback.

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Deals Rumor Mill: Shein IPO, Kraft Heinz, Cinven-Jaggaer

By Tom Zanki

Online fashion giant Shein is shifting IPO plans from the U.S. to London amid resistance from U.S. lawmakers and Chinese regulators, Kraft Heinz wants to sell its Oscar Mayer business, and private equity firm Cinven hopes to divest software firm Jaggaer for $3 billion. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

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FTC Noncompete Rule's Impact On Healthcare Nonprofits

Healthcare entities that are nonprofit or tax-exempt and thus outside of the pending Federal Trade Commission noncompete rule's reach should evaluate a number of potential risk factors and impacts, starting by assessing their own status, say Ben Shook and Tania Archer at Moore & Van Allen.

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Examining Illinois Genetic Privacy Law Amid Deluge Of Claims

After a federal court certified an Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act class action in August, claims under the law have skyrocketed, so employers, insurers and others that collect health and genetic information should ensure compliance with the act to limit litigation risk, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

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Lessons On Challenging Class Plaintiffs' Expert Testimony

In class actions seeking damages, plaintiffs are increasingly using expert opinions to establish predominance, but several recent rulings from California federal courts shed light on how defendants can respond, say Jennifer Romano and Raija Horstman at Crowell & Moring.

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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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